The most effective catechesis for young adults is integrated into a comprehensive program of pastoral care that understands the concerns of young adults and candidly addresses the questions they ask and the problems they face. The goals of such a comprehensive program of young adult ministry are as follows:
- To connect young adults with Jesus Christ through spiritual formation/direction, religious education/formation, and vocation discernment
- To connect young adults with the Church through evangelizing outreach, formation of the faith community, and pastoral care
- To connect young adults with the mission of the Church in the world through forming a Christian conscience, educating and working for justice, and developing leaders for the present and the future
- To connect young adults with a peer community through developing peer leadership and identifying a young adult team for the purpose of forming faith communities of peers.
In catechesis with young adults, several important themes need to be emphasized: the formation of conscience, education for love, vocational discernment, Christian involvement in society, missionary responsibility in the world, the relationship between faith and reason, the existence and meaning of God, the problem of evil, the Church, the objective moral order in relation to personal subjectivity, the relationship between man and woman, and the social doctrine of the Church.
It is important that the Church find attractive ways to let young adults know that Christ loves them and needs them and that they are vital members of the body of Christ, the Church. Young adults are the hope of the Church.
---from the National Directory for Catechesis
There are over 1,400 registered young adults in our parish between the ages of 18 and 39 years old. What are we doing for these people? This is a group that is searching and yearning for something more from us. We are committed to providing for the needs of young adults at different stages in their life in our parish. They are the Church right now.
------from St. Elizabeth’s Strategic Pastoral Plan