Catholic Diocese of Kitale

Your Word is the Lamp to My Feet

Tel: +254740232762

Email: cdkitale@gmail.com

Youth Apostolate

Overview

The Diocesan Youth Apostolate/Department/Ministry is a Pastoral department that operates under the Diocesan Pastoral Directorate. It has been in existence since the inception of the diocese in August 1998. The department was established to address the moral and spiritual needs of the youth in the Diocese. The department focuses on all youths; in the parishes, in schools, colleges and universities.
CDK has a Diocesan youth office that acts as a coordinating platform of all the activities of the youth, both in and out of school. The office is headed by a Youth coordinator who work hand in hand with other priests who are Youth and schools chaplains.
Since inception, the youth department has had five different coordinators from 1999 namely; Rev. Fr. Werunga, Ms. Leah Wairicu, Mr. Boniface Mmen, Mr. Silas Sum, Mr. Stanley Siakilo, and currently Rev. Fr. Joseph Odongo.
The department has since then grown in membership, activities and movements. It started with one general movement that consolidated both the youth in and out of schools under the same program and activities between 1998 and 2004. Since the year 2004, the Youth Apostolate department has grown into two separate movements, namely; the Youth In Parishes (YIP) and Young Christian Students (YCS).
This classification of the youth later demanded for the introduction of two more movements based on the different needs of different groups. The YIP was further sub-divided into two i.e. the YIP and the Catholic Young adults (CYA) while the YCS gave birth to the Catholic Students Association (CSA).
According to the 2014 revised Kenya Catholic youth constitution, a youth is defined as any unmarried or married person aged between 13 years and 35 years. This explains the dynamism in the different needs of the groups above. Thus, each group must be handled differently with emphasis on enhancing transition and sustainability. The CSA comprises of all Catholic youth in tertiary learning institutions i.e. colleges, universities, technical colleges etc. and are coordinated by a CSA Patron appointed by the school.
The YCS comprises of all the students who are in secondary schools from Form one to Form Four and are coordinated by a YCS Patron. The YIP comprises of all the unmarried youth aged between the age of 13 years to 24years and are in the parishes. CYA comprises of all the married and unmarried youth, literate/illiterate, employed/unemployed between the ages 25years to 35 years.

Youth Apostolate Coordinator
Rev. Fr. Joseph Odongo

Each movement has its own Slogan or Motto as follows:

i. YIP – Youth Information, Transformation and Formation.
ii. YCS – See, Judge, Act, Evaluate and Plan.
iii. CSA – Informing the mind, Soul and Spirit.
iv. CYA – Journeying together for transition.

Mission: To enhance spiritual growth among the youths and improve their quality of life.