Young people from more than 30 countries help create YOUCAT Love Forever

More than just a book launch

On 6 October, Rome hosted the international launch of YOUCAT Love Forever. Young people from different countries, Church leaders and members of the team behind the project gathered at the Centro Internazionale Giovanile San Lorenzo to present the fruit of years of questions, conversations and shared work.

The gathering was much more than a book launch. Many of those present had contributed to the questions that made the book possible and to the search for language that could speak to young people from very different cultures. The afternoon began with the celebration of the Eucharist, presided over by Archbishop John Joseph Kennedy, Secretary of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, and continued with testimonies and reflections from those involved in the project.

As the gathering unfolded, one idea became clear: YOUCAT Love Forever grew both from the answers the Church wanted to offer young people and from the questions young people themselves had raised.

A conversation that challenges the Church

Archbishop John Joseph Kennedy, Secretary of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith and a member of ACN’s Supervisory Board, placed YOUCAT Love Forever in the context of a generation seeking solid answers. Young people, he said, are “tired of being lied to and being told that nothing is certain”. They are looking for “truth, community and a love that lasts”. For Kennedy, this is also central to YOUCAT’s approach: helping young people receive answers, but also come to know, understand and make the faith their own. “Faith is not meant to be something vague. It is meant to be known, loved and lived”, he said.

This was ultimately the idea running through the gathering: catechesis that begins by listening, before speaking.

A book that began with a request from young people

Speaking from the stage, Bernhard Meuser, coordinator of the project and its editorial work, recalled a conviction that has shaped YOUCAT from the beginning. Quoting Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, O.P., he said: “If you want to do something for young people, you have to do it with young people.” After the experience of the first YOUCAT, requests from young people in different countries pointed to a specific need: a resource on love, marriage and sexuality.

This led to an international process involving young people from around 30 countries. The aim, Meuser explained, was for them to recognise the result as their own and say: “This is our book.” At the same time, the Church needed to be able to say: “This is my book.”

The work was painstaking. Answers were discussed word by word, and the team could sometimes spend “half a day discussing a single sentence” to find the balance between accessible language and theological precision. For the editorial team, the experience confirmed one conviction: “Synodality works.” Young people were active participants in developing the catechesis, as well as its intended readers.

Making room for difficult questions

For Veronica Katz, the story began in 2020, when a missionary project in Lourdes was cancelled because of the pandemic. A few days later, she received an email from YOUCAT with an unexpected proposal: “Pope Francis urgently wants a catechism on marriage.” She agreed to join the project and coordinated a team of 16 young people: single people, couples, married people and a seminarian. Over four months, they worked on 58 questions, providing a short answer, a longer answer, a quotation and a personal testimony for each one.

Their motivation, Katz explained, came from a reality they saw around them: “We live in a society where love has lost its deeper meaning.” But one of their greatest surprises was discovering that the Church wanted to draw on their experience for catechesis aimed at young people around the world. “What? The Church wants to take our experience into account? For catechesis worldwide?” This, she recalled, was how her friends reacted. The process helped them realise that “the Church was listening to us seriously”, including when they raised questions about relationships and sexuality that can still be difficult to discuss openly.

Now Katz wants that conversation to continue beyond the book. She invites young people to share their questions, including the uncomfortable ones, with their boyfriend or girlfriend, friends, fiancé or fiancée, or spouse. Her final invitation is also a call to mission: to become “a new generation of missionaries of love”.

Learning to love amid difficulties

Regina Lynch, Executive President of Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), brought the conversation to the real circumstances in which many young people and families are called to live out love. She stressed the need to accompany young people as they ask what it means to love faithfully and how to prepare for marriage. “Young people need help to understand and live this vocation, whatever their circumstances”, she said.

She described Christian marriage as “a vocation, a journey and a lifelong covenant”, adding: “Strong marriages help the Church grow.” Her hope is that YOUCAT Love Forever will help young people ask questions they may never have dared to raise and discover that “lasting love is worth asking about. It is worth preparing for”.