First YOUCAT Trainer Program Held in Bangalore

training catechists with youcat's new method

The Train the Trainer workshop is a fruit of the new YOUCAT book “Dialogical Catechesis” which was released last year at World Youth Day Lisbon.

YOUCAT India has been instrumental in developing this methodology which is now accepted internationally to train YOUCAT Missionaries around the world. The workshop covered the aspects of how to run YOUCAT in a parish, diocese or integration to a particular Catholic spirituality eg. Charismatic, Ignatian, Salesian etc. Digital tools for the Mission were also discussed and new tools to empower youth to take the gospel and YOUCAT to their unique context were proposed. The YOUCAT DNA principle of participation was followed throughout this workshop. Youth, priests, and laity worked together at eye level to study the YOUCAT methodology and develop new tools. The sessions went beyond surface level and the youth openly discussed their issues with church leaders and priests to find practical solutions.

A special eye-opening session on “How to develop new gospel tools for the young people without diluting the gospel message” was rendered by Fr. Juventius Andrade CSSR and was well received by the participants.

Launching the Y-Bible Kannada App and Youth Outreach

A practical YOUCAT immersion experience was organized for the work group at St. Francis Xavier’s Cathedral Bangalore, Our Lady of Velankanni parish Yelahanka and St. Joseph’s Cathedral Mysore. The participants were exposed to almost 350 Indian youth from different contexts through this immersion experience.

The 100-day Y-Bible Challenge app in Kannada, the national language of India, was initiated by Archbishop Emeritus Msgr. Dr. Bernard Moras, the Apostolic Administrator of Mysore. It is noteworthy that he was the first to initiate the spread of YOUCAT in India by sending a youth from Bangalore for special training in Germany in 2017. Having him inaugurate our Y-Bible Kannada app was a real god-incidence moment for the whole team and we remain eternally grateful to God for this humble shepherd who believed in this mission.

YOUCAT stands for empowering and revitalizing the local church and this workshop brought together an amazing synergy and collaboration between diocesan priests (Fr.Y.M Joseph (Bangalore), Fr.Ritchie Vincent (Chennai), Fr.Stany (Mysore), Fr.Amarnath (Bangalore) , Fr.Lourdraj (Bangalore)) , religious congregational priests (Fr.Sandeep CSSR, Fr.Peter CSSR, Fr.Mario Paul MCBS, Fr.Juventius Andrade CSSR) and the CCBI Commission for Faith Formation (Fr.Vijay Machado).

We also thank our publisher Mr.Nigel Fernandes (ATC Publishers) for his vision in making the YOUCAT books accessible to all and for his endless support to this mission. Diversity and collaboration are two important pillars of YOUCAT and we hope to see more in the coming days. The gospel speaks about pouring ‘new wine into new wineskins’ and this unique workshop was a ‘new wineskin’ for the church!

 

Dialogical Catechesis