Youth Ministers in solidarity in serving young people

Nov 02, 2019

By Julian Christian Sim
Helen Keller said, “Alone, we can do so little; together, we can do so much.” In the same spirit, youth ministers of the Malaysian Catholic Youth Ministers Committee (MCYMC) from all the Catholic Arch/Dioceses in Malaysia convened for their annual meeting and retreat recently.

The committee is responsible for the faith formation and pastoral care of young Catholics studying in higher educational institutions in Malaysia and, by extension, all Catholic youth in Malaysia. The annual gathering, Sept 23-28,  sought to strengthen solidarity and collaboration between the dioceses, while evaluating past programmes and addressing the needs of our young people today.

Throughout the meeting, each diocese had an opportunity to share programmes, conducted in the past year, which included faith and leadership formation camps, youth forums and outreach programmes, as well as mission trips to communities in need.

One significant programme discussed was the Third Malaysian Catholic Campus Student’s Day (MCCSD3), June 3-8, 2019 hosted by the Archdiocese of Kota Kinabalu. Approximately 700 young Catholic students from higher education institutions all over the country participated in the conference, which highlighted the issue of mental illness. The committee is now looking into and planning for the Fourth Malaysian Catholic Student’s Day, slotted  to take place in 2021.

Also discussed was the possibility of organising a Malaysian Youth Day (MYD) for all young people from all the dioceses in Malaysia, as a preparatory conference for an envisioned national Pan Malaysian Pastoral Convention scheduled to happen sometime in 2026.

Archbishop Simon Poh of the Archdiocese of Kuching and acting Bishop for Youth, urged members of MCYMC to spread the message of the Christus Vivit, the Pope’s Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation to all young people in Malaysia – “That the young people be alive, as Christ is always alive!”