Catholic youth service reaches out to ‘left behind’ young people

A youth service from the North East is looking to reach out to young people who are “left behind” through its annual Significance festival.

Hosted by the Hexham and Newcastle Youth Ministry Team, 300 people gathered at the Significance Day on 27 June at the Emmaus Youth Village, Consett, near Newcastle, to celebrate the legacy of the late Newcastle priest Fr Dermott Donnelly, who died in 2022.

Fr Donnelly, the brother of TV personality Dec Donnelly, founded the charity Significance to inspire young people to live “lives of true happiness and lasting significance”. He wanted to reach out to young people who may not have the means to visit a conventional youth retreat centre.

Phillip Salkeld, chief executive, told The Tablet: “Fr Dermott wanted to build a place for young people to come and see. How do we reach those who can’t afford to come? How do we reach the people that maybe can’t access the youth village-the people that are sometimes left behind?”

Significance supports YMT and the ongoing development of the Emmaus Youth Village, providing grants for particular projects which provide opportunities to young people.

During the festival, a Mass was said by Bishop Stephen Wright and there was also a tour of a new 8.24 hectare woodland creation project, comprising over 7,500 trees, inspired by Pope Francis’ Laudato Si’.

Attendees were also able to view a new prayer and learning space, a grotto and sacred place in honour of Mary, the Mother of God, containing a statue of Vierge de Judess – the Virgin of Judea, also known as the Vierge a L’ecoute: the Listening Virgin.

Hopes are high for the Grotto, inspired by one of Fr Dermott’s vision statements, placed on a sign at the entrance: “Young people are not called to live lives of survival or even success but to lives of happiness and significance.”

Salkeld said YMT and Significance want to enable every person in the diocese of Hexham and Newcastle to encounter Christ in some way, adding: “How do they claim their God-given identity and potential and listen to what God’s telling us to do?

 “You’ve got to do a bit of thinking to see where God might be calling you. It’s doing it together.”

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