Catholic and Loving it!

Wherefore art thou?

Being an agency of the Catholic Bishop's Conference of England and Wales is a pretty big deal. CAFOD (Catholic Agency for Overseas Development) have a big office in London, employ quite a few people and have a definite presence in every Catholic school. CASE (Catholic Agency in Support of Evangelisation) have only been going a couple of years but they already run three web sites and are churning out resources all over the place.

Catholic Youth Services, therefore, is pretty important. They have certainly hindered my life in youth work on many occasions - many times when I have disagreed with something our Youth Office has done, they have come back with "we are following the guidance from Catholic Youth Services".

Imagine my surprise then, when I read this...

Following the closure of the Catholic Youth Services earlier this year, the Bishops of England and Wales have instructed that research is to be carried out to determine the current provision for youth ministry within the Dioceses, and directions for further development. This work will be carried out by an Interim Youth Ministry Co-ordinator under the supervision of Bishop Kieran Conry, within the Bishops' Department of Evangelisation and Catechesis.

[link]

Does anybody else recall the closure of the Catholic Youth Services earlier this year because I didn't. Did they run out of money? Were they closed down for being a big pile of pap? What happened? It's a mystery. Agencies of the Bishop's Conference don't just disapear.

I always said that you could close down Catholic Youth Services and nobody would notice, turns out it's true. Somehow, this year's National Youth Sunday got organised anyway. According to the Reclaimthefuture.org website it was a joint effort by the livesimply network and the youth ministry community in England and Wales.

It raises serious questions for our own Diocesan Youth Service - what exactly are they for?