CCBI – NATIONAL COMMISSION FOR YOUTH HISTORY

CCBI Youth Commission is the chief organ of the Conference of Catholic Bishops of India that inspires and animates the youth apostolate of the Latin Church towards a deeper Christian awareness and commitment through faith formation. It aims to achieve its objective by working in close collaboration with the Regional Youth Commissions and other various Catholic Youth Movements in India.
The scope and the key areas of the work of the Commission for Youth (CCBI) will be the promotion and encouragement of Catholic youth in their understanding of Christian Faith and Vocation, and their personal commitment to Catholic values. In particular, The Commission focuses on the holistic growth of the Catholic youth and on their ensuing commitment towards the Church and the larger society in India.
The Youth Commission was officially set up by the Executive Committee of CCBI at CBCI Centre in New Delhi on April 22, 2008. However the for number of reasons, the commission was unable to set itself in motion. With the appointment of a full time executive secretary in Fr. Elias ofm, effective from the 3 July 2012, and with the guidance of its chairman in Bishop Henry D’Souza, the commission achieved half of its objectives stipulated for the Year 2012-2013 in a short span of time. In 2016, Fr. Chetan Machado took over as the National Executive Secretary. National Youth Sunday was implemented in the year 2017 and the National Animators Training Programme ACT was introduced in the same year. In the year 2018, Indian Catholic Youth Movement under the Latin rite had its first council meeting and elected the office bearers. Most Rev. Franco Mulakkal guided the commission during this period. In 2019, during the Plenary Assembly of Bishops held at Changleput diocese in the month of January, Most Rev. Soosai Nazarene, Bishop of Kottar was appointed Chairman of the Commission. The CCBI Youth Commission is persuasively guiding the youth of India with the principles of Christian charity, with the significant support of the Regional Youth Commissions and the various Youth Movements in India, in a spirit of collaboration, cooperation and complementarity.