The first national collection for youth was held in the Catholic churches of Holland in recent days. Half of the proceeds will be devolved to youth charities at the national level; the other half will go to fund projects at the diocesan and local level. The specific objectives of the collection are various: the funding of the participation of Dutch youth in WYD in Sydney in 2008 and in National Youth Day; the development of material for the support of youth within their own parishes and dioceses and the launch of innovative local projects. Following WYD in Cologne, a new vitality and a new impetus were generated among Catholic youth in Holland, claims the brochure publicizing the fund-raising campaign, and now we need to work for a structural change to transform this flame of enthusiasm into an ever greater fire. The collection was launched with the slogan “Invest in the future of the Church!”. “If we want to construct, we also need to be able to fund a structure”, says Harm Ruiter of the youth section within the Dutch Bishops’ Conference. “The bishops, by their decision to launch this collection, have shown that Catholic youth charities are one of their priorities”, declares the latest number of Rkk.nl, the internet newsletter of the Catholic Church in Holland. Ruiter’s hopes about the amount of money collected by the appeal are modest, since, in his view, “it’s the first initiative of its kind”, and one that will only take on slowly, and yet it also “represents an appeal to the parishes to give greater priority to activities in favour of youth”. This collection is the first occasion for the Youth Section of the Dutch ecclesiastical province to appear publicly under its new name “Young Catholic”: a name borrowed from the website www.jongkatholiek.nl.
