Ministry with Young Adults

What is "Ministry with Young Adults"?

In the model of Christ, the Good Shepherd, this is the Church's pastoral care and accompaniment of men and women in their late teens, twenties, and thirties through community, evangelization and catechesis, prayer and spirituality, leadership development, and engagement in the social mission of the Gospel. 

Through intentional pastoral ministry with young adults, "The Church can offer young adults a vision of life based on faith that calls each of them to holiness, community, and service" (Sons and Daughters of the Light). "In this way, by learning from one another, we can better reflect that wonderful multifaceted reality that Christ's Church is meant to be." (Christus Vivit). 

USCCB National Pastoral Framework for Ministries with Youth and Young Adults

The Catholic bishops of the United States are currently developing a National Pastoral Framework for Ministries with Youth and Young Adults, which will serve as the U.S. response to Pope Francis' apostolic exhortation, "Christus Vivit," and to cast a renewed vision for the local implementation in parishes, campuses, dioceses, eparchies, movements, and new communities. More details will be forthcoming.

About Our Office

In service to the bishops of the United States, the Secretariat for Laity, Marriage, Family Life and Youth aims to provide support and guidance for the pastoral work towards youth and young adults in light of the New Evangelization. By connecting with dioceses and Catholic youth, young adult and Pastoral Juvenil ministry organizations across the United States, the USCCB offers a network of resources and information that can foster growth in the Church's outreach and ministry with our young people throughout the country.

Who Are Young Adults?

Young adults are persons in their late teens, twenties, and thirties who represent diverse cultural, racial, ethnic, educational, vocational, social, political, and spiritual backgrounds. They are college students, workers, and professionals; they are persons in military service; they are single, married, divorced, or widowed; they are with or without children; they are newcomers in search of a better life.

Sons and Daughters of the Light: A Pastoral Plan for Ministry with Young Adults

The national pastoral plan, Sons and Daughters of the Light, promulgated by the bishops of the United States in 1996, is a foundational document for the Church's engagement with young adults ages 18 to 39. 

Noting that outreach to young adults has been largely neglected in the past, and that young adults provide a valuable and unique perspective to and for ministry that must be seriously considered, the U.S. bishops aimed to create a strategic plan to integrate young adults into the life of the Church in the United States by taking into careful consideration the various stages of life and circumstances in which young adults find themselves.

More about Sons and Daughters of the Light

Christus Vivit: Pope Francis on Young Adults

Through his landmark apostolic exhortation, Christus Vivit, Pope Francis has given the Church a foundational text that now illuminates the Church's ongoing ministry with young adults. Christus Vivit (Latin for "Chris is alive!") was the Holy Father's pastoral response and contribution to a global Synod process that took place from 2016 through 2019.

This Synod, under the theme of "Young People, the Faith, and Vocational Discernment," sought to provide a Catholic response to the realities of youth and young adults in connection to Jesus Christ, the community of the Church, and each person's vocational calling. The synodal journey included a worldwide consultation on the topic, continuing to a Pre-Synod Meeting of young adults in March 2018 in Rome and the Synod of Bishops in Rome in October 2018, and onto and beyond the release of Christus Vivit, written “to young people and to the entire people of God,” in March 2019.

We recommend visiting our online guide for Christus Vivit, and our Upcoming Opportunities page for more resources related to discussing and implementing this foundational document.

Pope Francis walks with World Youth Day pilgrims as he arrives for a July 30 prayer vigil at the Field of Mercy in Krakow, Poland. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)
Bishop Mario Dorsonville Speaking

CNS photo/Tyler Orsburn

: A family—mother, father, and little girl—plays together whlie unpacking boxes in their home

Getty Image

Ministering to Young Adults

"There are many opportunities to touch the lives of young adults, and these should be seen as moments for evangelizing outreach. Some of these may require a change in the way we approach evangelization so our outreach is more dynamic, taking the Church into the community where young adults gather rather than waiting for these men and women to come to us." -Sons and Daughters of the Light

In ministry and catechesis with young adults, several important themes need to be emphasized: the formation of conscience, education for love, vocational discernment, Christian involvement in society, missionary responsibility in the world, the relationship between faith and reason, the existence and meaning of God, the problem of evil, the Church, the objective moral order in relation to personal subjectivity, the relationship between man and woman, and the social doctrine of the Church.

Goals

  • To connect young adults with Jesus Christ through spiritual formation/direction, religious education/formation, and vocational discernment.To connect young adults to the Church through evangelizing outreach, formation of the faith community, and pastoral care.
  • To connect young adults with the mission of the Church in the world through forming a Christian conscience, educating and developing leaders for the present and future.
  • To connect young adults with a peer community through developing peer leadership and identifying a young adult team for the purpose of forming faith communities of peers.

Challenges

  • Young adults have been captivated by the consumerism and materialism of the society in which they grew up and have became apathetic and cynical. 
  • Young adulthood is sometimes a world of boredom, disillusionment, and indifference to the Church. 
  • Young adults need a non-threatening place where they can freely express their questions, doubts, and even disagreements with the Church and where the teachings of the Church can be clearly articulated and related to their experience.
  • Young adults make some of the most important decisions in their lives about their Christian vocation, their career, and their choice of spouse.

For more details, read the complete entry on "Catechesis of Young Adults" from the National Directory for Catechesis; USCCB, 2005.

U.S. Bishops' Prayer for Young Adults

Gracious and Loving God,
Help these young men and women to be a light for all the world to see,
in all the places they live and work. Let their light shine for all peoples:
for their families,
for their church communities,
for their cultures and societies,
for the economic and political systems,
for the whole world.
Coming into the room where the disciples were gathered after the resurrection,
"Jesus, your son, said: Peace be with you!" (Jn 20:21).
Make these men and women bearers of Christ's peace.

"Blessed are the peacemakers,
Teach them the meaning of what was said on the mountain:
for they shall be called sons and daughters of God" (cf. Mt 5:9).
Send them, Father, as you sent your son:
to free their brothers and sisters from fear and sin.
We ask this of you, in Christ's name. Amen.

Adapted from the Papal Homily for WYD 1995, Manila