For almost three decades, working with young people has been part of my ministry as a parish catechist in my home country of the Philippines and now as a Columban Lay Missionary in Ireland. For this I owe, and I give credit to, a dear Colum-ban priest who was also my first ever ‘boss,’ Fr. Donal Bennett.
I write this as a tribute to his great passion and love for young people.
Fr. Donal Bennett had an amazing gift of empowering the young people in the parishes where he was assigned. I for one was a wit-ness to this wonderful ministry.
After graduating from college as a religious and values education teacher I was employed by Fr. Donal as a full-time parish catechist. My role was to take up the position of an assistant youth coordinator. The first thing Fr. Donal asked me to do was to attend a Youth Encounter Seminar for a week in Virac Catanduanes in Bi-col.
As a 21-year-old fresh graduate, it was my first time to travel by plane to attend a national seminar with young people from all over the Philippines. That was my baptism of fire in my journey as a youth minister. Through this Youth Encounter I was led to understand the role of young people in the Church and my own role as a youth minister.
After attending the Youth Encounter, we worked towards gathering our young people in the parish. This gave birth to the SAYA Group – St. Anthony’s Youth Association.
As a group we began taking part in ‘Youth 2000’, which was a group of young people focusing on the new millennium. It has since become a big organisation, even in Ireland, which creates space and a platform for young people to express their faith and to feel they belong and are important in the life of Jesus’ Church. We travelled to different parishes in our Diocese and the neighbouring diocese for this Youth 2000.
When I joined the Columban Lay Missionaries my involvement in Youth 2000 was one of the things I had to give up when I resigned and left the parish for cross-cultural mission. Little did I know that working with young people would become a big part of my life as a Columban lay missionary. The love for young people did not end but rather was intensified when I came to Ireland.
“Dear friends, there is a happiness that Jesus has prepared for you, for each of you: It does not come from accumulating things but from putting your life on the line.”
Four World Youth Days, Three Popes
Pope John Paul II, now St. John Paul II, was known for his love and confidence in young people. Just like Fr. Donal, he worked for the youth in his parish during his younger years as a priest in Poland. And with his great love for the youth, he initiated the World Youth Day (WYD). This concept has been influenced by the Light-Life Movement that has existed in Poland since the 1960s, where, during 13 days long summer camps, young Catholic adults celebrate a “day of community”.
As the biggest gathering of young people, the World Youth Day is a celebration of faith and prayer that no other gathering in the world has ever surpassed.
I was privileged to have attended this youth festival of faith. The first was in 1995, before I joined the Columban Lay Missionaries. It was held in Manila. This particular World Youth Day holds the rec-ord for having the highest number of participants ever with over 4 million attending. Of course, this was by far the biggest youth gathering I ever attended.
During my first year on mission in Ireland I was given the gift of representing my parish of Ballymun on the Dublin Diocesan trip to the World Youth Day in Rome in 2000. For the second time, fol-lowing Manila, I was able to see Pope John Paul II.
Then in 2005, while working with the Redemptorist’s youth minis-try team I was asked to be one of the leaders in bringing over twenty young people to Cologne, Germany. There we met Pope Benedict XVI.
Eighteen years after World Youth Day in Cologne, I had the opportunity to attend this special event once again when I was asked to be one of the leaders in bringing 15 young people to WYD 2023 in Lisbon with the Spiritans. There we met Pope Francis.
In my lifetime I never knew what God had in store for me. Working for young people continues to be, and will always be, my passion just as it was for Fr. Donal Bennett. This year he left this world and went home to God. Hopefully all those young people he cared for and supported will continue his legacy and pass on this minis-try to the next generation. This is what I continue to do.
Certainly, to journey with young people in prayer and in the celebration of faith at these World Youth Day events has been a great gift in my life. It is also my hope that at the next World Youth Day in 2027, I will see some Columbans accompanying young people to Seoul. It would be a gift in which they will experience a celebration of faith with millions of other young people.
