By Matters India Reporter
New Delhi: The Conference of Catholic Bishops of India (CCBI) Youth Commission will hold its first national youth conference in Delhi in October.
More than 500 participants from 132 Latin Catholic dioceses of India will attend the 19-25 October events in Gurgaon, near New Delhi, Percival Holt, national president at Indian Catholic Youth Movement (ICYM), told Matters India.
The ICYM is a branch of CCBI Youth Commission.
“It is going to be annual because we thought it would give more youth the opportunity to attend a national formation program of such nature under the aegis of CCBI,” said Holt.
Explaining the importance of the event, he said, the national Catholic youth convention of may continue to happen once in every three years under the banner of Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI) Office for Youth for all three Catholic rites—Syro-Malabar, Syro-Malankara, and Latin dioceses.
“The October event will not be like the previous national conventions. It won’t be that grand. We are trying to reduce the cost and make it more effective for youth leaders. And do it annually,” Hold said.
Rather than doing a mega event once in three years where only five to ten Catholic youth from every diocese in India get to attend, be reasoned.
Registration for the first national youth conference has started. Program planning is done and logistics from September will be worked out.
“Young leaders will be divided into groups. They will engage in workshop-based discussions to draw an action plan over three days based on the theme—‘life of youth, their faith, and their vocational discernment,’” Holt said.
Every topic will be based on the above key points. There will also be workshops based on realities of youth today from which they can seek answers to several concerns, especially in this year when the synod is on youth is to take place in Rome in October.
Convened by Pope Francis, the upcoming Synod of Bishops on youth is scheduled from October 3-28 in the Vatican on the theme, “Young People, the Faith and Vocational Discernment.”
“So we will try to understand the realities of youth and help the young leaders find this as an opportunity to seek answers and address their concerns with regards to their realities, their faith and their purpose of life,” he added.
“On the last day, October 25, we also have award function to recognize youth achievers from all 14 regions of India for their contribution to youth ministry, church, and society. With that we conclude the programme,” Holt said.
The CCBI is the national Episcopal conference of the bishops of the Latin rite of the Catholic church in India. The Youth Commission is the chief organ of the CCBI India that inspires and animates the youth apostolate of the Latin Church towards a deeper Christian awareness and commitment through faith formation. It aims to achieve its objective by working in close collaboration with the Regional Youth Commissions, ICYM and other various Catholic Youth Movements in India.