Church youth work

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Church youth work refers to measures, offers and institutions of Catholic organizations (parishes, dioceses, regional churches as well as church associations and clubs) that take place in favor of young people in accordance with Section 11 of Book VIII of the Social Code and, as with every form of youth work, are characterized by shared responsibility (participation) and life-world orientation. As an independent organization, the church organizations contribute with their ideological (Christian) offer to the diversity of youth work as part of free youth welfare.

From a Catholic point of view, church youth work is part of youth pastoral care . This can generally be understood as the actions of (or as) the Church by, among and with young people.

Goals of church youth work

The goal of church youth work was subject to historical changes. The historically first youth work was performed on acolytes . It was purely a work with boys and the aim was to win as many new candidates for the priesthood as possible from these ranks.

Around the second half of the 19th century, more and more journeyman's associations - going back to Adolph Kolping - and thus the first youth work that no longer only pursued recruiting goals. Slowly but steadily, especially in the cities, the realization of meaningful and varied leisure activities for children and (the newly recognized) adolescents grew. When the first youth associations emerged after 1900, the first form of youth work also developed in the church, but this often still had the stated goal of finding new priests.

After the First World War , clubs for girls were established for the first time. These associations made the goal of finding new priests obsolete. The goal of developing one's own life on the basis of Christian values ​​came to the fore.

After the Second World War , many boys and girls' associations merged into a co-educational association. In times of postmodernism, the goal of “meaningful leisure activities” is on an equal footing in practice with the educational goal of getting to know Christian values ​​and integrating them into life.

Goals of Catholic youth work

In 1990, the German Catholic Bishops' Conference formulated guidelines for youth pastoral care as a quintessence from the Council , the Synod and the current circumstances:

  1. Incarnation in God's image
  2. Aspects of Christian interpretation of life, here in particular:
  • Become capable of relationships
  • Practice identifying yourself
  • Learning to take responsibility for freedom in solidarity
  • Relationship with God must grow
  • Learn partnership relationships
  • Empowering people to help shape the world
  • Open up the future and hope

Church youth work in the Roman Catholic Church

Church youth work in the Roman Catholic Church grew out of the parishes (parish youth). Between the two world wars, regional, supraregional and empire-wide associations emerged - that is, clubs and associations - that bundled Catholic youth work. On the one hand, this was a consequence of Adolph Kolping's journeyman's associations, which had been founded much earlier; on the other hand, existing associations (e.g. the World Scout Movement) played a role, which saw an association structure as the basis of their work.

After the Second World War, the parish youth groups met again, which were not forbidden in themselves because they were not an association and thus - with caution - could also meet during the Nazi era. The earlier associations, which were banned from 1937, were also re-established.

The German Catholic Church, namely the German Bishops' Conference , promoted the establishment of youth associations. In addition to the individual associations, an umbrella organization for all Catholic youth associations was set up at a very early stage, the Federation of German Catholic Youth (BDKJ) .

Even today there is a coexistence of parish and association youth groups. The latter are also active at parish level, but are organized down to the federal level, while parish groups (parish youth) remain limited to the locality. Since the associations, with their symbols and logos, also refer to colors, it became common practice among association members in the 1970s to refer to parish youth groups as gray youth work.

Outline and organizational structure of Catholic youth work

Due to the coexistence of association and non-association youth groups, a two-pronged organizational structure has emerged. Although the structures are similar, they should still be explained separately, as both structures are interwoven with each other. The structures of Catholic youth work are not uniform. They differ from diocese to diocese, sometimes even from deanery to deanery.

level designation activity
group Youth group Here children and young people meet for group hours, activities in the parish, etc.
Parish Leader group / management team The individual group leaders meet for mutual agreements and choose a parish youth leadership from among their number; the management represents the interests of young people and children in committees such as B. the parish council and the youth committee
Dean's office General Assembly of the Dean The parish youth leaders meet for mutual agreements or to organize large projects. They elect the BDKJ board from among their number; first level, which is also responsible for training group leaders; the (arch) episcopal youth welfare offices have their first positions here with full-time staff.
diocese Diocesan Assembly The deanery boards and association boards meet (for similar tasks as above) and elect the diocesan board; that one is employed full-time in places
Federation Federal Assembly The diocesan boards elect the federal board of the BDKJ; the federal executive is a direct link to the German Bishops' Conference
Europe European conference The large Catholic youth organizations are members of international umbrella organizations or are already organized internationally.
Federation General Assembly The large Catholic youth organizations are members of international umbrella organizations or are already organized internationally.

The respective board members of the BDKJ have the right to host and advise at all meetings of the respective levels. The BDKJ Dean's Board visits the local groups in the parishes, the Diocesan Board visits the districts / deaneries, etc.

In some dioceses, the deanery offices have been combined into regional offices. In other dioceses there is a regional level as a link between the deanery and the diocese. Supra-regional associations as an informative level also formed above the diocesan offices (e.g. in Bavaria). These branch offices of the (arch) bishop's youth welfare office also offer the following services:

  • Holiday camps
  • Orientation days for school classes
  • Regional youth days
  • Youth services
  • Regular spiritual offers
  • Project days
  • Training for group leaders and committed people

Many regional / dean's offices also provide a large stock of material for those involved in church youth work. There, for example, projectors, games or other devices that would be unprofitable for a smaller group can be borrowed for a mostly small fee.

The association structures differ from association to association. Nevertheless, there are similarities that are often taken over from the church structure.

level designation activity
group Youth group / age group Here children and young people meet for group hours, activities in the parish, etc.
Parish Local group / trunk / group of leaders / management team The individual group leaders meet for mutual agreements and elect a board from among them; the management represents the interests of young people and children in committees such as B. the parish council and the youth committee; The local / tribal heads also visit the dean's level of the BDKJ
Region / Dean's Office / City / District District / working group The board members meet for mutual agreements or to organize major projects. They elect the district / AG executive committee from among their number; first level, which is also responsible for training group leaders;
diocese Diocesan Assembly / Diocesan Conference The district / AG boards meet (for similar tasks as above) and elect the diocesan board; The association boards also attend the diocesan assembly of the BDKJ
Federation Federal Assembly The diocesan boards elect the federal board; The respective federal executive committee is also represented at the BDKJ

International youth work

BDKJ Association International umbrella organization
DPSG WOSM
KjG Fimcap
KLJB MIJARC
Kolping youth International Kolping Youth
KSJ JECI-MIEC
PSG WAGGGS

Open youth work

In addition to the parish and association groups, there is also open youth work. A non-binding offer is usually referred to as open , where children and young people without membership can come and go when they want. This is often achieved in youth cafés, youth clubs or disco offers.

Church youth social work and youth professional help

A little outside of pure youth work are youth social work and youth professional assistance. Youth social work is an independent socio-educational field of activity within the framework of youth welfare. Youth social work is aimed at all young people who are increasingly dependent on support to compensate for social disadvantages or to overcome individual handicaps. Catholic youth social work began as early as 1945 in the dire straits of the post-war period. It supported homeless, parentless and unemployed young people and granted them a new home.

Jugendberufshilfe is dedicated to the topic of the transition from school to work. The focus here is on finding a job and application training, as well as preparing application documents at the end of the school career. Further fields of activity are the care and placement of adolescents and young adults in training or work. The activities are almost always carried out by full-time employees and funded by the state, the federal government and the EU.

Church youth work in the Protestant regional churches

The youth work of the Protestant churches in Germany is coordinated by the individual regional churches. The working group of Protestant youth in Germany (aej) acts as a common umbrella organization and represents the interests of youth work at the federal level.

In the individual regional churches, youth work is usually coordinated by an office for child and youth work that is linked to the Oberkirchenrat or the regional church office . As a rule, it is headed by a state youth pastor. The various work areas at the community level, such as the community youth , the boy scouts or the YMCA meet here in order to coordinate the joint work at the state level in a state youth chamber and to represent their interests externally. At the level of the church districts or deaneries , similar structures have been created with the district or deanery youths as on the state levels.

In addition to these structures, which come from the community level, Protestant youth work also includes student work and the Protestant student communities.

In addition to religious and spiritual socialization, an important goal of Protestant youth work is to raise political awareness. Particularly in the field of youth policy at district, state and federal level, great importance is attached to good cooperation with other youth associations in the respective youth groups .

Church youth work in free churches

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Youth work of the free churches
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The youth work of the free churches is carried out by the following organizations, among others:

literature

  • Wolfgang Bisler: Youth social work in Catholic sponsorship under the social conditions of the modern age. Cologne 1996.
  • Karl Hugo Breuer: On the self-image of Catholic youth social work. In: The home. Vol. 33 (1985). Pp. 11–41, republished in: Ders., Contributions ... 2007. pp. 36–92.
  • Karl Hugo Breuer: Contributions to the history of Catholic youth social work. Cologne 2007, ISBN 978-3-8370-0973-6 .
  • Ottmar Fuchs: Prophetic Power of Youth? Düsseldorf 1986.
  • Karl Gabriel, Hans Hobelsberger (ed.): Youth, religion and modernization. Church youth work as a search movement. Opladen 1994.
  • Romano Guardini: New Youth and Catholic Spirit. 4th edition Mainz 1924.
  • Christian Hampel: youth professional assistance. Legal bases, developments, evaluations. Cologne 2006, ISBN 3-8334-4985-3
  • Christian Hampel: Catholic youth social work in North Rhine-Westphalia supports 27,000 young people. In: youth social work currently. No. 82 (April 2009). Pp. 1-4.
  • Dieter Herbertz: Catholic youth social work - Changed problems require new concepts. In: Youth Profession Society. Vol. 44 (1993). Pp. 90-93.
  • Manfred Hermanns: Principle of dialogue, not freedom of rule in church youth work. Cologne 1995, ISSN  0949-8834
  • Patrik C. Höring: Meeting young people. Youth work workbook. Stuttgart 2017, ISBN 978-3-17-032502-9 .
  • Patrik C. Höring: Meeting young people. Youth pastoral action in a church as a community. Stuttgart 2000, ISBN 978-3-17-015892-4 .
  • Martin Lechner: Pastoral Theology of Youth. Historical, theological and kairological determination of youth pastoral care in an evangelizing church. Munich 1992, ISBN 3-7698-0687-5 .
  • Dominik Schenker: Organized Freedom. Youth work of the Catholic Church in German-speaking Switzerland . Zurich 2017, ISBN 978-3-290-20116-6 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Guidelines on youth pastoral care (PDF; 70 kB). Website of the German Bishops' Conference