EVANGELIZATION BY YOUNG CATHOLICS AMIDST MODERNIZATION AND SECULARIZATION: A PASTORAL THEOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.60011/jumpa.v14i2.391Keywords:
Catholic Youth Participation, Gospel Proclamation, Pastoral Theology, Phenomenology, Modernization and SecularizationAbstract
Young Catholics are often treated as recipients of pastoral programs, whereas the Church calls them to be agents of evangelization. Existing studies tend to focus on pastoral programs and strategies, while the meaning, motivation, and subjective experience of young people as proclaimers of the Gospel amid modernization and secularization remain underexplored. This study explores how young Catholics understand and live out Gospel proclamation, and how pastoral theology interprets their role. Using a qualitative phenomenological approach, written semi-structured interviews were conducted online with 20 purposively selected participants and analysed thematically. Four main themes emerged. First, proclamation is understood as the Good News of Christ embodied in life witness, presence, and service, not merely in words. Second, motivation grows from relational faith experiences (family, peers, and community) and matures into belonging and vocation. Third, proclamation is lived with joy alongside fatigue, feelings of inadequacy, and hurtful relationships, sustained by community, original intention, and faith. Fourth, modernization and secularization appear at the micro level as religious indifference, plural convictions, event-driven service cultures, and closed friendship circles. Pastoral theology reads these experiences as a locus theologicus and positions young people as subjects of the Church's mission who need accompaniment that listens, walks with, and gives space. Pastoral implications are formulated in theological, accompaniment, communal, digital-contextual, and formative dimensions.
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