Diocesan Resources
Sons and Daughters of the Light: A Pastoral Plan for Ministry with Young Adults (1996)
Sons and Daughters of the Light: A Pastoral Plan for Ministry with Young Adults, by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, November 12, 1996
We dedicate this vision and pastoral plan to Catholic young adults--men and women in their late teens, twenties and thirties. We do so because we realize the tremendous gifts which they bring to church life. As single people or married couples, with or without children, their presence enriches our society and our Church. We hope this plan will be an effective tool to connect young adults with Jesus Christ and his challenge to bring the Gospel -- with its message of hope -- to society.
As we began to write this pastoral plan we chose first to meet with some of you. These meetings, where you shared the joys and struggles of your daily life, have been a time of grace and understanding for us. We applaud your desire to belong to a community that shares similar convictions and to learn more about sacred Scripture, tradition and the teachings of the Church. We acknowledge the pain many of you speak of in feeling unwelcome and alone—strangers in the house of God. For any failure to extend hospitality, we apologize and promise greater efforts to welcome you into church life. We hope that anyone who enters a catholic church for mass, or at any other time, will feel comfortable and welcome. We also acknowledge that some of you recently have joined the Church. We welcome you. Others of you may be tempted to leave. We regret this. What you have told us presents the Church with both a challenge and an opportunity for our ministry.
We know that your talents, and those of other young adults, can enrich the Church and can be a sign of God's presence in society. We invite you to share them with us and to become part of a welcoming community for other young adults as well. Not too long ago our Holy Father spoke of your importance to the life of the Church: "The Church needs your energies, your enthusiasm, your ideals, in order to make the Gospel of life penetrate the fabric of society, transforming people's hearts and the structures of society in order to create a civilization of true justice and love."