FORGING NEW ROADS FOR THE GREAT COMMISSION | KAIROS GLOBAL | OCTOBER 2026

Author: Archbishop of Canberra and Goulburn

Audio

Intro: His Grace Christopher Prowse, Archbishop of Canberra and Goulburn, from his observations of the movement in the past decades, writes of fresh evangelisation avenues open to Jesus Youth.

This 40th anniversary of Jesus Youth gives us cause for deep reflection. 

First, it allows us to thank the Lord Jesus for the gift of Jesus Youth that has been shared with so many people over the years. They see the movement as their Catholic family. Without a doubt, amongst the many other ecclesial movements in the Catholic Church in recent decades, Jesus Youth has offered a flourishing of love of God in the Catholic Church. For this we will be forever grateful to God and Mary, the Star of Evangelisation. 

Of course, Jesus Youth is part of the greater story of Catholic missionary activity for 2,000 years. 

Surely all this responded from the great Commission of Jesus as He ascended into Heaven. In Acts 1:8 we hear, You will receive the power of the Holy Spirit coming upon you, and you will be my witnesses both in Jerusalem and throughout Judea and Samaria, and indeed to the end of the earth. 

It is interesting to note the modality by which grace through Jesus Youth in the Catholic Church has been transmitted.  

The early Church’s evangelisation used the modality of ancient Roman trade routes. In other words, economic and military routes. Most of these were roads. Many of these ancient roads are still, in part, visible and can be walked upon even today. 

We think first of how St Paul, surely one of the greatest of Christian evangelists, used the Via Egnatia as an important means of transport throughout Macedonia, Greece and beyond. Even today, we can walk the roads that St Paul walked as he visited nascent Christian communities he founded in places like Philippi and Thessalonica. 

There is the happy belief that St Thomas used ancient shipping routes to plant the Gospel in today’s Kerala region of Southern India. 

Of course, we are aware of the great evangelisation that took place in India under the young Jesuit, St Francis Xavier (1506-1552). By the 16th century, major trading routes relied on shipping. It seems clear that St Francis Xavier used these spice routes to begin evangelising the western Malabar Coast of India. It is well known that he stopped in fishing villages and in the most creative ways evangelised very simple people, who became the first Christians in that part of the world.

Today we are fascinated by how the Jesus Youth movement has evangelised using the great migration routes of today’s world. It is intriguing to listen carefully to the stories of married couples and families settled in varied places throughout the world, emanating from India and especially Kerala. 

Here in Australia, for instance, I have been monitoring carefully how, over the last decades, wonderful Jesus Youth families have been coming to all major cities of Australia as migrants. They have brought with them all their hopes and joys from their country of origin and are now in their country of final destination. They are ‘planting’ themselves in all fields of endeavour to make Australia an even greater nation. 

One of the greatest gifts the Indian diaspora gives countries like Australia is that when they come to these countries of great hope, they bring not only their family and working expertise but also their strong Catholic faith. Among others, Jesus Youth families coming to Australia and worldwide are new evangelisers who offer the fragrance of the Holy Spirit to all those they meet. 

We thank the Lord for the migration routes of past decades, built on the shoulders of shipping and land routes going back to antiquity. The Gospel must be proclaimed to all nations through the power of the Holy Spirit. We must use every means available for the living Word of God to flourish and be planted in new places. 

So, as so many of the Indian diaspora representing Jesus Youth have come to new countries, we now celebrate that this has happened over the last 40 years. 

The inspiration of their Catholic Gospel energy has been extremely helpful over these decades. They activate the six pillars that helped Jesus Youth to form and articulate itself in today’s world. 

Now, after 40 years, these Jesus Youth families have had families of their own and, in some cases, have grandchildren. Will the children of couples coming from India but now born in other countries of the world continue the impulse of the Holy Spirit through this movement in the future? How will the younger Jesus Youth and second-generation Jesus Youth be able to negotiate living in, in many cases, very secular countries like Australia? Will they downplay the ‘genius’ of Jesus Youth in its inspiration or neglect it altogether? Will they be able to carry on the Jesus Youth charism to a new generation in a new cultural environment? Will a new Jesus Youth generation, dispersed throughout the world, find that the culture in which they are placed, so aggressive to Christianity, moves them inward and becomes more pietistic rather than outward-looking and becomes a fresh salt of the earth and light to the nations? This is something that we could all ponder on in this year of Anniversary.

I can see already, however, that Jesus Youth is budding forth new fresh roots in non-Indian contexts and can negotiate new cultures in a very confident manner. I can see this happening in universities and the fermenting of new ideas that come from that educational environment. I see so many Jesus Youth offering alternatives to a rather pagan environment and offering fresh ways of evangelisation to people who have never taken Christianity seriously. May this continue forever!  

Not only universities but mention also should be made of the married couples and families who have gone throughout the world. They have strengthened many countries that were Christian but are now decidedly not. 

In the future, will the largely Indian composition of Jesus Youth become more international in its cultural background, and not just simply be an Indian new ecclesial group? 

I look forward to learning afresh just how Jesus Youth families use the new ‘transport routes’ of today’s world. These will not be ancient roads or shipping lanes but will be undoubtedly ‘roads’ resulting from the digital revolution of today’s world.  

Most particularly with Artificial Intelligence (AI), how will Jesus Youth be able to use this new medium of ‘transport’ as a means of advancing the Kerygma of the Gospel? The Kerygma proclaims, by any means possible, that the greatest event of human history has been the Life, the Death, the Resurrection, the Ascension and Pentecost of Jesus Christ. 

Through the digital revolution, how can Jesus Youth influence its trajectory away from violence and militarisation, and move towards peacemaking and respect for creation in today’s world? 

So, in reflecting on ancient ways and new ways of conveying the Kerygma to the nations and pondering on new possibilities of doing this through the digital world of today, let us look to the future and set down some time benchmarks. 

Certainly, one of the greatest time benchmarks coming up over the next period of time is 2033. This will be a great Anniversary celebration of 2,000 years of the Christian message. The Lord’s Death and Resurrection is the centre point of human history. Christ’s Death and Resurrection and the sending of the Holy Spirit are not just historic events but also something that lives on today through evangelisation. The Holy Spirit needs a new generation of evangelisers and people formed in our Catholic Faith to be able to transmit the message further into the world. 

It is rather sobering to reflect on the fact that after 2,000 years of Christian history, the vast majority of the world today still have not heard of Jesus Christ. So, the work of our redemption continues in Word and Sacrament to the ends of the earth.  

Let us recapture, once again, the evangelising dimension of all our Sacraments and how our ancient sacred Tradition has shaped us and offers us a foundation upon which we can launch into the future with an irresistible language in our cultural diversity. 

So let us see in the years ahead how we can plan to make this 2,000-year Anniversary, not just a point of arrival but a point of departure for fresh evangelisation methods, beneficiaries and mission fields. 

When we talk of Catholic evangelisation, I am always reminded of the great Apostolic Exhortation of St Paul VI, Evangelii Nuntiandi (1975). In summary, this prophetic document continues to offer us fresh impetus for future evangelisation. In this, Pope St Paul VI declares in a crisp fashion about evangelisation. He states: ‘The Church exists to evangelise…the deepest identity of the Church is to evangelise.’ (Evangelii Nuntiandi Chapter 36). 

So let this celebration of the Great Commission not pass us by. It is to be a ‘great Commission’ not a ‘great omission’! 

Jesus Youth, after 40 years, is well placed to enter into a new phase of global evangelisation. We thank the Lord for the many gifts He has given us in the past, but we do not remain in the past. We go forward into the future knowing that the Holy Spirit is opening up new methods and ways to proclaim to our world of today, in all its different cultural manifestations, that Jesus is all and is in all (Colossians 3:11).

His Grace Christopher Prowse is the Archbishop of Canberra and Goulburn, Australia and the International Patron of the Jesus Youth movement.