Twenty youth coordinators attend week long seminar

Faith

THEMED “Call to Holiness”, the National Youth Animators Seminar was hosted by the Youth Commission of the Catholic Bishops Conference (CBC) on June 3-7.
The seminar had sessions on the post-synodal apostolic exhortation of Pope Francis entitled “Christus Vivit” (Christ is Alive).
The week-long programme was attended by 20 youth coordinators from the Catholic archdiocese of Port Moresby, Madang, Mt Hagen, Rabaul and the dioceses of Alotau, Daru-Kiunga, Mendi, Kavieng, Aitape, Wewak, Kerema, Bereina, Vanimo and Lae.
Bishops of the Kerema and Alotau dioceses Fr Peter Baquero and Fr Rolando Santos were the programme’s facilitators, together with CBC secretary of the social communication and youth secretary Fr Ambrose Pereira, Sr Rebecca Fernandez and Fr Pablo Ramirez.
Addressing the youth coordinators, Fr Baquero stressed on listening.
“Young people want a Church that listens more than simply condemning the world,” he said.
“The Pope highlighted this is a challenge for youth animators and coordinators to listen to our young people.”
A novel aspect of the training was viewing the film The Least of These at the Paradise Cinema in Vision City last Thursday.
“The sharing during the sessions, watching the film and prayer and reflection were very inspirational for me during the training,” Fr Santos said.
He made a commitment to share what he learned and echo ‘Christus Vivit’ in the Alotau Diocese.
Fernandez said: “The gathering, interaction of youth animators, the presence of the two Bishops and the enriching sharing of Christus Vivit has been very inspiring”.
The training was aimed at helping the youth animators and coordinators in their ministry and journey with the young people.