Promulgation of the Youth Catechism
We Walk With Christ
June 28, 2021
Holy Spirit Seminary, Lviv
Glory be to Jesus Christ!
Dear Youth,
I am delighted to join you today as His Beatitude, Patriarch Sviatoslav, officially promulgates our Youth Catechism, We Walk With Christ.
Allow me to share with you a few thoughts about the new Youth Catechism and how it came it came about.
From YouCat to We Walk with Christ
At the 2011 World Youth Day in Madrid, Spain, Pope Benedict XVI gifted each youth participant with a YouCat, short for Youth Catechism of the Catholic Church. The Holy Father’s desire was to provide an aid for youth worldwide to better understand the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
Similarly, Patriarch Sviatoslav and the bishops of the Ukrainian Catholic Church worldwide – who love our youth dearly – wanted to provide our youth with a simple guide to the Catechism of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, Christ, Our Pascha, which is celebrating 10 years since it was written. So we wrote to youth all around the world, asking them what they wanted to know about their faith and their relationship with God. We were overwhelmed when we received over 900 questions and responses!
We went to work, and over time, we organized the responses into the Youth Catechism which we are pleased to present to you today. Indeed, Dear Youth, in no small way, you helped write the Youth Catechism. A Youth Catechism written by youth for youth!
What’s in the Youth Catechism?
Our Youth Catechism, We Walk With Christ, is over 200 pages in length, full of vibrant and dynamic colour, text, and icons, is divided into three parts: On the Faith of the Church – What we believe, On the Prayer of the Church – In whom do we place our hope, and On the Life of the Church – How we love God, self and neighbour.
In We Walk With Christ, Fr Andriy, a spiritual guide – who is really Christ himself – accompanies several youth from around the world in their “Emmaus Walk,” that is, their faith journey, as they set off on a pilgrimage to some of the largest and famous Ukrainian shrines in the world.
Along the way, you will meet Khrystyna from Lviv, Serhiy from Luhansk, Martin from Canada, Marichka from Italy, Dmytro from Kazakhstan, and Daryna from Brazil, as they journey from Saint Sofia Cathedral in Kyiv – the very heart of our Church, to Saint George Cathedral in Lviv – the stronghold of our Christianity, to Saint Peter’s Basilian in Rome – a witness to the universality of our Church. From Rome our young pilgrims will return to Kyiv to the Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ – the symbol of the birth of the Church and the people for a new life.
As their journey unfolds, our youth will ask Fr Andriy, their guide, their questions about their relationship with God, growing in faith, growing in love. They will learn about our faith and what we believe, including God, Creation, Sacred Scripture, Holy Tradition, Christ’s birth, passion, death and resurrection, and our response in faith through baptism. They will learn about hope, about prayer as an expression of Christian hope, about the Church and family as centres of prayer, about the holy mysteries (sacraments), and fasting, feasts and charitable works. They will learn about the 10 Commandments of Love, the Christian understanding of happiness as expressed in the Beatitudes, and about joy, peace, and justice.
Christ is alive, and he wants you to be alive!
Dear Youth, in presenting the Youth Catechism to you today, our hope is that you see yourself among the youth pilgrims – Khrystyna, Serhiy, Martin, Marichka, Dmytro, and Daryna. Their questions are really your questions about what we believe, how we pray, and how we live our lives as Christians.
As Pope Francis reminds us in his apostolic exhortation from the recent Youth Synod, Christus Vivit, Christ is Alive!, and Christ wants you to be alive, he wants to be part of your personal lives. And we know that you want to part of his life!
So, together, let’s walk with Christ!
Let the journey begin!
God bless!
Bishop David
Chair, Patriarchal Catechetical Commission