Young Catholics who participated in a wide-ranging study of youth and young adult ministry in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington expressed a hunger for deeper faith, meaningful relationships and a stronger sense of community.
The Cardinal’s Youth and Young Adult Ministry Task Force reached that conclusion after reviewing 442 survey responses and consulting clergy, parish leaders, ministry volunteers, youth and young adults across the archdiocese.
Its final report, issued earlier this year, assessed what was working in youth and young adult ministry, where support had broken down and what the archdiocese could do to better reach and accompany young Catholics.
The task force was formed as Washington’s archbishop, Cardinal Robert McElroy, announced that the six goals for pastoral action for the archdiocese over the next five years include the goal to “Reverse the Avalanche of Young People Leaving the Church.” Those goals were formulated after the cardinal’s extensive consultations with parish lay leaders and following input from local priests.
The Cardinal’s Youth and Young Adult Ministry Task Force report found that respondents wanted authentic community, deeper formation, reverent liturgy, Eucharistic Adoration, Confession, retreats, and adults willing to accompany them in their faith.
Successful ministries varied in style but shared common elements: personal invitation, small groups, strong leadership, prayer and a path from an initial encounter into an ongoing community.
Father Alex Wyvill, pastor of Saint Mary, Mother of God Parish in Washington and a member of the task force, said the findings confirmed what many people working with young adults had already understood.
“The approaches that work are not programmatic or silver-bullet solutions,” he said. “They involve ongoing spaces of connection instead of events that don’t feed into a relationship or flow out of one.”
The report also found that the archdiocesan structure supporting those ministries had weakened.
Before 2020, the archdiocese maintained dedicated youth and young adult ministry staff, regional young adult groups and archdiocesan programming. Staffing changes and the COVID-19 pandemic reduced that coordination, leaving much of the work in the hands of individual parishes, priests, staff members and volunteers.
Sara Blauvelt, secretary for catechesis for the archdiocese and a task force member, said those disruptions exposed weaknesses that were already present.
“Anything that was fragile going into the pandemic was most easily disrupted,” she said. “There was no structure, particularly personnel, in place to pivot and try to reach young people in creative ways during the shutdown. Too many young people just got lost to us.”
The task force recommended restoring full-time archdiocesan leadership for youth and young adult ministry, providing training and support for parish ministers, establishing major annual gatherings, strengthening retreat and leadership formation and developing missionary-style initiatives to reach young people beyond existing parish programs.
Since the report was completed, some of those recommendations have moved forward.
Rebuilding staff and coordination
The archdiocese has staffed an Office of Youth and Young Adult Ministry, with Mariana Pimiento serving as the director of Youth and Young Adult Ministry; Catherine Cavanagh serving as the assistant director for Young Adult Ministry; and with Francesca Battista as the assistant director for Youth Ministry. (See story, page 15.)
Father John Benson, pastor of St. John Vianney Parish in Prince Frederick and a task force member, said full-time archdiocesan staffing was among the report’s most urgent needs.
“At the level of the archdiocese, full-time staff coordinators are needed, and the time is now,” he said.
The office now lists more than 25 parish and regional young adult communities, creating a central place for young adults to find local ministries. It has also begun rebuilding connections among parish leaders and those working in youth and young adult ministry.
That kind of communication was one of the needs Father Benson noticed during the task-force process.
“One thing I did not expect was how many of the youth and young adult ministers were so grateful just to be asked about their experiences and ideas,” he said.
He said he hopes the archdiocese continues bringing those ministers together “to collaborate and share best practices, and encourage one another.”
A new archdiocesan youth gathering
The task force also recommended establishing a major annual gathering for youth.
On Oct. 24, the archdiocese held the first EXULT Youth Conference at The Catholic University of America in Washington. (See story, pages 16-18.)
More than 600 high school students attended the sold-out event, which included Mass, Eucharistic Adoration, Confession, presentations, live music and recreation.
The gathering reflected many of the desires identified in the task-force report: opportunities for prayer and the sacraments, time with other young Catholics and an experience of the Church beyond a teenager’s home parish.
Father Benson said large gatherings can play an important role when they lead young people back into sustained relationships at the parish level.
“There is value in that kind of event,” he said. “It can be a moment of conversion, which then needs follow-up and accompaniment at the parish level.”
The Office of Youth and Young Adult Ministry is also coordinating the archdiocese’s delegation to World Youth Day 2027 in Seoul, South Korea, for high school students and young adults. (See story, page 19.)
The report also highlighted programs that work, including young adult programs at parishes, campus ministry programs, Hispanic Catholic youth ministries and Catholic summer camps.
Work still ahead
Other recommendations remain in development.
The task force called for a consistent young adult retreat program, support for leadership formation, retreat opportunities for Catholic high school students, efforts to foster youth and young adult ministry in underrepresented communities, and a missionary-style initiative that could place trained evangelists in areas with large numbers of young adults.
Father Wyvill said that kind of missionary outreach will require investment in people.
“We have to put missionaries in places where there are lots of young adults,” he said. “They need to evangelize, and then teach others how to evangelize.”
Father Benson said the recommendations were never likely to move at the same pace.
“The programming recommendations will have the greatest short-term impact,” he said. “The staffing recommendations and missionary initiatives will have greater long-term impact.”
Blauvelt said the work also cannot be treated as a project with a fixed end date.
“A timeline presumes this is a project that will be done,” she said. “It will be an ever-unfolding way of accompanying youth and young adults.”
Father Wyvill said sustained investment is about more than preparing for the Church’s future.
“Investing in youth is not about preserving the future of the Church,” he said. “It’s about being the Church now.”
Read about work that has been done so far to implement recommendations found by the Youth and Young Adult Ministry Task Force
