“The Congress invites us to shape together how faith is lived and passed on to the next generation.”

Since May 2025 parishes, schools, families, and young people across the Archdiocese have been invited into a process of listening and conversation as we prepare for our Diocesan Congress on Youth, Family and Faith, which will take place from Friday 20 March to Sunday 22 March 2026.

This has not simply been an exercise in consultation, but a prayerful process of listening where we have listened to one another, listened to lived experience, and above all listened for the movement of the Holy Spirit in our communities today.

Through parish gatherings, school conversations, youth engagement, and written submissions, voices from across the Archdiocese have helped shape our understanding of the hopes, struggles, and possibilities facing faith communities at this moment. What has emerged is both realistic about present challenges and deeply hopeful about the future.

From this shared listening, six key priorities and one overarching priority have emerged for the life and mission of the Church in our Archdiocese.

Supporting Preparation Through a New Podcast Series

To support delegates and parish communities as they prepare for the Congress gatherings, the Archdiocese has also produced a podcast reflection series exploring each of the emerging priorities in turn.

The series is designed to allow people to engage with the preparatory material in a flexible way — whether travelling, walking, or taking quiet time for reflection — and offers a prayerful introduction to each priority, together with the proposals and pastoral pathways emerging from the listening process.

The podcast series is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube, and the Spotify playlist is embedded below so that parishes, schools, and individuals across the Archdiocese can listen and reflect together in the weeks ahead.

 

 

The podcast series can also be accessed on Apple Podcasts by Searching for “Youth, Family and Faith – Preparing for the Congress” and on YouTube by clicking the link below:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLvU2KLnY7W5PXOqBiGQAChRSO9eK9mk68

 

The Seven Priorities

1. Digital Communication and Evangelisation

Recognising that much of life now unfolds online, especially for young people, this priority calls the Church to inhabit digital spaces creatively and responsibly, ensuring these spaces become pathways to encounter, belonging and faith.

2. Belonging

People long for the Church to be experienced as a place of welcome and relationship — not simply somewhere they attend, but somewhere they feel known, valued and at home.

3. Liturgy and Participation

Communities expressed a desire for liturgy that is prayerful, meaningful and participatory, helping people encounter Christ in ways that connect worship with real life and missionary discipleship.

4. The Ecosystem of Faith: Family, School and Parish

Faith is not formed in one place alone. Families, schools and parishes must work together so that responsibility for passing on faith is shared rather than carried by any one group.

5. Faith Formation and Catechesis

There is a clear desire for formation that goes deeper — helping people understand not only what the Church teaches but why faith matters for everyday life and decision-making.

6. Prayer and Spirituality

Despite busy and distracted lives, people expressed a hunger for prayer and spiritual depth, seeking spaces where faith can be nourished personally and communally.

7. The Challenges of Modern Life

The listening named the real pressures facing families and young people today: anxiety, mental health struggles, busyness, loss of trust, social and cultural change, and the difficulty of sustaining faith in a secular and rapidly changing society.

A Priority That Touches All the Others

While these seven priorities are distinct, it quickly became clear during reflections that the final priority — The Challenges of Modern Life— runs through and impacts all the others.

At the heart of our journey lies a simple but profound question facing the Church today:

How do we pass on faith in the modern world?

Families are under pressure. Young people face unprecedented cultural and social challenges. Communities are busier and more fragmented. Trust in institutions has weakened. Digital life reshapes identity and relationships. Traditional patterns of parish life no longer automatically carry faith from one generation to the next.

Every priority identified — belonging, liturgy, formation, digital presence, prayer, and collaboration between family, school and parish — is in some way a response to this deeper question and the challenges that arise from it.

The task before us is not to return to the past, but to faithfully discover how faith and the wisdom that resides in our tradition can take root and flourish in the realities of today.

A Moment of Shared Responsibility

The Diocesan Congress is not an end point, but the beginning of a new chapter. Delegates gathering in preparation and at the Congress itself will help refine these priorities and identify concrete pastoral pathways for the years ahead.

This is a moment of shared responsibility, hope and togetherness.  The whole diocesan community is being invited to imagine how our parishes, schools, and families can become places where young people and communities encounter Christ, discover belonging, and live faith with joy and confidence in the modern world.

This journey continues…together!

To read the Priorities and proposals related to them in full CLICK HERE