Youth Ministry Welcome

Catholic Diocese of Wichita
Office of Youth & Young Adult Ministries

Catholic Youth Ministry

Welcome to our website for youth ministry in the Diocese of Wichita. Save it to your Favorites so you will always be just one click away! And be sure to check back often for updates!

MISSION

It is the mission of Catholic Youth Ministry to respond to the needs of Catholic youth and empower them to share their gifts with the entire community.

In order to live out this mission, a parish-based, comprehensive youth ministry that attempts to respond to the needs of our young people is strongly encouraged. Such a ministry includes the following dimensions:

TO YOUTH:	The Catholic community exercising its pastoral role in meeting young people’s needs.
WITH YOUTH:	Young people sharing with adults a common responsibility to carry out the Church’s mission.
BY YOUTH:	Young people exercising their own ministry to others by virtue of their gifts.
FOR YOUTH:	Adult youth ministers attempting to interpret and advocate for the needs and concerns of youth.

GOALS

In their 1997 document, Renewing the Vision: A Framework for Catholic Youth Ministry, the bishops of the United States identified the following goals for all Catholic Youth Ministry efforts:

To foster the total personal and spiritual growth of each young person.
To invite and welcome young people to responsible participation in the life, mission, and work of the Catholic faith community.
To empower young people to live as disciples of Jesus Christ in our world today.

These three interdependent and equally important goals are best met through an integrated Total Youth Ministry, or comprehensive, approach. The comprehensive approach is not a single program or recipe for ministry. Rather, it provides a way for integrating ministry with adolescents and their families into the total life and mission of the Church, recognizing that the whole community is responsible for this ministry. The comprehensive approach uses all our resources as a faith community—people, ministries, programs—in a common effort to promote the three goals of the Church’s ministry with adolescents.” (Renewing The Vision: A Framework for Catholic Youth Ministry, USCC, 1997)