Hoping to include many voices in the life of the local Catholic Church, the archdiocese has launched the Archdiocesan Youth Council for high school students.

“Our young people aren’t just the future of the church, they are the present,” said Kimberly Abadir, the Archdiocese of Seattle’s director of Youth Ministry Services.

Abadir, a parishioner at Our Lady of Fatima Parish in Seattle, recognizes the importance of nurturing the faith in young people and keeping them engaged.

“We want them to know they are valuable members of our parishes and communities and each one has   a unique set of gifts to share,” Abadir said. “We welcome them and invite them to participate fully in the life of the church.”

So in fall 2023, Youth Ministry Services invited Catholic sophomores and juniors to apply for a two-year term on the council. Twenty-three students were chosen, and they kicked off this new endeavor with  a two-day retreat at the Archbishop Brunett Retreat Center in Federal Way. Archbishop Paul D. Etienne celebrated Mass and spoke with the students about his experiences at  the Synod on Synodality in Rome.

Northwest Catholic asked   Abadir to share more about the Archdiocesan Youth Council and  how the archdiocese is engaging young people.

Why start this now?

So many reasons! Surveys and the Synod on Synodality indicate that the faithful care deeply about our young people and the future generations of our church. We are listening to parishioners at each step of Partners in the Gospel and inviting them to share their thoughts, concerns and hopes. We want our young people  to know that their voices are important too. So this is the perfect time to start up a new youth council.

Who is on the Archdiocesan Youth Council?

We have one to two members from each of the archdiocese’s 10 deaneries, and our Hispanic, Vietnamese, Korean and Congolese communities are represented. We also have a student from the JBLM military community as well as a brand new Catholic! We reached out to all of the Catholic high schools in the archdiocese and have student representatives from Bishop Blanchet, Archbishop Murphy, Kennedy Catholic and O’Dea. It’s our goal to have a voice from each Catholic student body on next year’s council.

How will the council operate?

It will function much like a senate, with our members acting as representatives for their peers. As a group, we will look at issues that are important to our young people — our councilmembers will talk with their friends, classmates and other young people in their communities to identify these issues and solicit their feedback. We will explore a variety of local topics, including Partners in the Gospel and how parish families can invite and engage young people.

As with the synod and the Partners in the Gospel process, we will trust in the Holy Spirit to guide our discussions.

You recently led a retreat for the council. What struck you most about the experience?

It was amazing how the members got to know each other so quickly. It seemed like they had all been friends for years. I believe it’s because our whole gathering was centered in prayer, and we called on the Holy Spirit to guide us in all that we did. I was struck by how seriously they approached all of the topics and how open everyone was to this new experience. Each one is dedicated to serving others and advocating for their peers.

How are the members reaching out to their peers?

After hearing from Archbishop Etienne about the synod, the councilmembers participated in  an “interim-stage listening session.” Now they are bringing all they learned about the synodal process to other young people in the archdiocese.

Seriously, this is amazing: They scheduled listening sessions with youth groups and other groups of teens in schools and parishes. They organized all the details and reached out to introduce themselves, the youth council and this project. This was their first project, and they took the reins and ran with it.

The feedback from these synodal listening sessions will be reviewed by Archbishop Etienne and sent to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops as part of the Synod 2024 Interim Phase.

Anything else you want to share?

Just that God sent us an incredible group of young people to serve on our Archdiocesan Youth Council. We are so very blessed.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

To learn more about youth ministry programs in the  Archdiocese of Seattle, visit archseattle.org/youthministry.