The territorial youth ministers, together with the Regnum Christi life and mission team of the General Government, met in Rome from February 22 to 28. The purpose of this meeting was to bring to the table various topics that touch the mission of Regnum Christi with and for young people today.
Each one expressed the vision of the reality facing their territory in the area of youth ministry and addressed the five elements proper to the life of the young person of Regnum Christi: spiritual life, accompaniment, formation, team life and apostolate.
Five challenges were identified:
- The shortage of human and financial resources
- The complexity of structures that become unsustainable
- Lack of clarity on how to carry out the mission so as not to be distracted from the essentials
- Individualism and isolation
- Generate a cultural change in the way of accompanying, training and launching young people.
The diversity of contexts and common challenges lead us to discern what is essential and specific to the gift that God has wanted to give to young people through Regnum Christi and how to make it shine in today's reality. To this end, starting from what is lived in the localities and territories, we have sought to conceptualize the essentials of pastoral work in the following areas “to be communities of apostles who form communities of apostles”.
Gabriel Abascal, LC, shared that «working with young people in Regnum Christi involves many challenges, but at the same time, it is very important for us to be able to work with young people. we visualize with great hope. The greatest challenge, in my opinion, is that we are facing a world diametrically opposed to the one we lived in when we were young. The adaptation and the place where young people find themselves is in a continuous movement that demands from us a lot of preparation and accompaniment, if we want to form in them the apostles we need to re-evangelize societies. The specific challenge in Regnum Christi is that, after the renewal we are experiencing due to our history and institutional wounds, now it is our turn to renew the structures with which we have functioned for many years in order to be able to accompany, form and launch young people into the apostolate. The Church is going through a serious vocation crisis and Regnum Christi is also suffering from it. It is up to us to rethink the forms and structures, without losing the essence of our charism., to be able to do the work that God asks of us in youth ministry.
A document has been prepared (which can be viewed here) and which includes all the conclusions of these meetings, With this, a resource is offered to inspire the living of the essential in the sections of Regnum Christi and in those who coordinate them.
