ONLINE EXCLUSIVE - We are all called to "Listen, Teach Send"

Based on the belief that each person in the community has a role in the accompaniment and formation of young people, local church leaders held a special workshop for those who minister to youth in our community.

The workshop, held on April 22 and entitled “Listen, Teach, Send” was based off the recently released National Pastoral Framework for Ministries with Youth and Young Adults by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). The day began with Mass at Notre Dame Seminary with Archbishop Checchio and went on for a day of formative presentations. According to the USCCB, the framework is intended for Catholic pastors, pastoral leaders and families to be a source of inspiration and motivation for engaging and accompanying youth and young adults.

“We felt is was important to help explain the new USCCB framework to our ministries through a workshop,” said Adrian Jackson, Director of the CYO/Youth and Young Ault Ministry Office of the Archdiocese of New Orleans, during the workshop. “We have 130 lay, clergy and religious in attendance today to unpack the USCCB’s document on youth and young adults.”
“We are also joined by representatives from the USCCB Secretary of Marriage, Laity, and Youth who are travelling around the country to break open this great document that came to us about a year ago,” he said. “Listen, Teach, Send” is essentially being taught in workshops and I knew we should have one here for our people in this region.”

Jackson added that the document basically uses the Emmaus Road as in the Gospel where Jesus comes and teaches his disciples and sends them forth to carry the message.
“It’s about us empowering the young people entrusted to our care,” he said. This is an enhancement tool to what we have already been doing and a new perspective on how we minister and accompany our young people. Times have changed and we are changing with it.”
He says the new approach is easy to read and follow and can be purchased in (in both English and Spanish) book format or downloaded for free as a PDF from the USCCB website, https://www.usccb.org/resources/listen-teach-send.

“I hope, much like the Emmaus story, this framework contained in the USCCB document can be applied here in the Archdiocese of New Orleans and we can get hearts burning with our youth and young adults as well as our own,” said James Behan, associate director young adult ministries. “I think the document is well compiled and easy to interpret and use.”

Behan was actually involved at the ground level of this project. He was invited by the USCCB to be part of the implementation team a year and a half ago as part of the group that read the original document.

“I was charged with focusing on the “Listen” section that dealt with what we face with youth day-to-day and how it can be difficult from one generation to the next to listen to each other and provide the space for people to hear each other’s stories,” he said. “I gave practical components of how we accomplish this. It was a collaborative work from folks around the country from Hawaii to Washington D.C. and everywhere in between. It was truly a great experience.”

“When you get asked to be part of these national groups it is a gift to hear the perspective of others and also a gift to contribute to something that others will use,” he added.
Jackson said he was happy with the turnout for the workshop with all 10 deaneries represented along with regional friends.

“Our hope is that when people leave today, they are alive with the Holy Spirit, and they are able to put what they’ve learned into practice right away. It’s not just a chance to listen to the good folks from the USCCB, but also a chance to learn best practices from one another.”