“Renewal and integration” are the keys to the path that the Catholic Church in Buenos Aires seeks to undertake together with young people, summarizes Father Santiago Obiglio, member of the Young Vicariate of the capital archdiocese. To do this, it uses different proposals for accompaniment, listening and dialogue, covering both the first announcement and the growth and solidity in the faith of the new generations.
As an example of this intention, the local archbishop, Mons. Jorge Ignacio García Cuerva, starred alongside students from Catholic schools in the documentary “First”inspired by “Amen”, the production in which Pope Francis answers questions from youth.
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Faith is asking
There were 11 young people chosen to bring their doubts, concerns and reflections to the Archbishop, who answered questions about faith, the emotions of adolescents or the role of women, although he also faced questions about his personal opinions, supernatural experiences and renunciation of paternity.
In the presentation of the documentary, which took place before 150 students from different schools, the Auxiliary Bishop of Buenos Aires, Mons. Gustavo Carrara stated that “Faith is asking.”
“The adolescents and young people bring us today’s questions, they question us and that is nice: to dedicate time to them, to be with them, to start a dialogue,” considered the prelate before the cameras of World 21also valuing that “young people transmit to us their restlessness, their dreams, and that rejuvenates the face of the Buenos Aires Church.”
On this path, the Archdiocese of Buenos Aires, through the Young Vicariate, coordinates the ecclesiastical response to their different demands, under the premise that “Young people are not extinct!”, emphasizes Father Santiago María Obiglio. in dialogue with ACI Prensa.
Encourage diversity, reinvent proposals
The vicariate is in charge of “encouraging” young people and the “very lively” and diverse communities that exist in Buenos Aires. Some, the priest describes, are more numerous than others, “but it is exciting to see the effort that individual kids make to support the groups, encourage—coordinate—other young people, or children,” he points out.
For years, the Archdiocese of Buenos Aires has highlighted some major events that bring together young people every year. However, the priest considers that “it is time to reinvent the proposals, refresh them.”
In that sense, he recognizes that there is a very great tension between “maintaining traditions and encouraging ourselves to the new.” Young people “ask us for that courage—’New wine, new wineskins’—and we are gaining strength to launch ourselves,” says Father Obiglio, who for the last two years was in Spain doing a master’s degree in Youth Ministry.
Among the concerns shown by young people, the priest identifies the search for more open spaces and “flexible belongings.” In the words of Pope Francis, “a popular Youth Ministry.”
In a terrain “as complex, as diverse and heterogeneous” as that of Buenos Aires, “perhaps today’s young people are not so schematic, and in that diversity we must help them,” he warns, mentioning the activity in the neighborhoods, in schools, missionary groups, summer camps, as well as solidarity services and charity nights.
Currently, Father Obiglio indicates, work is carried out by projects. Within this framework, recently the Archdiocesan Retreat, the Carlo Acutis Festival, and training workshops were held.
First announcement and growth: 2 faces of the same pastoral
“The Pope insists that we must have two attitudes: look for those who are far away with creative proposals and first announcements who have the experience and love of Jesus and begin to know him without much doctrine, without many rules, without much demand; and also proposals for growth, so that this meeting can mature.”
Youth Ministry seeks to combine entertainment spaces, which “do not have to be afraid of,” with initiatives for growth and maturation, such as workshops and retreats, and in this way “demystify that youth ministry is about entertaining the young ones. It is also bringing them closer to Jesus and causing a conversion in them towards the Gospel,” he says.
“We must not replace one thing with the other, but rather expand the map, because the young man who has never met Jesus needs something that does not compromise him so much… And the young man who perhaps is already inserted in the parish and is growing, needs that greater solidity.”
Renovation and integration
Two words that summarize this process are “renewal and integration,” the priest summarized: “Renewal by seeking new paths. What we have been doing is good, but we need to look for new paths; and integration between all the young life that exists in Buenos Aires, but we do not always walk together or know each other or strengthen each other.” The idea, he pointed out, “is to enrich each other.”
“At this time we do not want to enclose our activity in a detailed program of activities,” he clarifies. “It is time to rethink ourselves and look for new paths,” he maintains, assuring that “it is a period of transition—the Archbishop of Buenos Aires has been exercising that ministry for just over a year—and we are trying to think of new paths for greater integration of the Youth Ministry in Buenos Aires”, he summarizes.
Finally, Father Obiglio addresses a message to young people who are far away: “God is looking for them to love them, to give them life,” and he advises them: “Do not be discouraged in the face of reality.”
“The Church has an open door, and the Church in Buenos Aires really is imperfect, but it wants to transmit the mercy and joy of faith. We want to offer them that,” he concludes.
Among the Youth Ministry initiatives, this Sunday from 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. the first meeting of a cycle of training workshops for young people and youth animators will take place. On this occasion, it will be about “Links and prayer”, and will be led by Ms. María Emilia Carli and the Little Sisters of the Lamb.
The appointment is at the Casa de la Pastoral Universitaria, Riobamba 1227. Registration: https://forms.gle/nZJEEwEyg4uChN8Q8
Juliet Villar
I am a journalist, with a degree in communication from the National University of La Matanza in Argentina. I have work experience in non-governmental organizations. Since 2016 I have been dedicated to Catholic journalism, first at the Argentine Catholic Information Agency (AICA) and, since 2022, as ACI Prensa correspondent for Argentina, Chile, Uruguay and Bolivia.