The Loyola School of Theology invites you to the online oral defense of the S.T.L. Tesina entitled “Renewal of Vietnamese Catholic Youth Evangelization in light of Evangelii Gaudium and Christus Vivit” by Sr. TRAN THI HOAI AN, O.P. on March 22, 2023, Wednesday, 3:00pm. The Board of Examiners is composed of Fr. Renato de Guzman, S.D.B., S.T.D. (Second Reader/Principal Examiner), Br. Joaquin Yap. Jr., S.W., D.Phil. (Adviser), and Fr. Tran Thanh Tan, S.J., S.T.D. The defense is being held in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree, Licentiate in Sacred Theology. It is open to the public.
Abstract: Young people are a most important focus of the Church’s missionary activity. They are not only objects needing to be cared for by the Church, but even more must be regarded as acting subjects in the mission of the Church. However, this pivotal role of young people in the mission of evangelization is not yet fully understood, much less appreciated, particularly by the Vietnamese Church. Until now, in the transmission of faith to the younger generation, the Catholic Church in Vietnam prefers to use prefabricated programs and to teach “theories of Christ” rather than to assist the young to deepen their own experience of Christ and their understanding of the Christian faith. In this way, the Church makes the youth merely passive objects who simply receive the faith transmitted to them. In other words, the Vietnamese Church often fails to inspire them towards a missionary spirit and empower them to be acting subjects in continuing the mission of Christ.
Based on the vision of Pope Francis in his recent apostolic exhortations, Evangelii Gaudium on renewed evangelization and in Christus Vivit on renewed youth evangelization, as well as his thoughts on missionary discipleship, this research calls for the renewal of youth evangelization in the Vietnamese Church. This research highlights the call for the Catholic Church in Vietnam to empower and accompany its more youthful members to become missionary disciples in the mission of evangelization, so that they might in turn evangelize their fellow youth. Thus, together the Church and the youth in Vietnam will journey as missionary disciples in evangelization in the 21st century.
