On Sunday 29 September, more than 300 young people from 20 different migrant and ethnic communities across the Archdiocese gathered together for the inaugural Migrant Youth Festival. An initiative of Mgr Joselito Cerna Asis, Episcopal Vicar for Migrants and Refugees, the festival celebrated the diverse gifts of Melbourne’s migrant communities on the occasion of the 110th World Day of Migrants and Refugees, an annual event celebrated by the Church since 1914. The 2024 theme, ‘God walks with His people’, was also embraced as the theme for the festival.

As attendees flooded into ACU’s historic Cathedral Hall, they were welcomed with lively music provided by a band representing the Feast Melbourne, a Filipino prayer group. The day began with prayer, Scripture readings and keynote addresses on the topic of pilgrimage.

Guest speaker Fr Nicholas Pearce, Senior Chaplain for Youth, Young Adults and Campus Ministry, spoke about how the Scriptures always show Jesus on a journey with people and how that relates to young people today, encouraging his audience to ask themselves, ‘What is the journey of my life, and where am I encountering Christ, and what is he sending me on to do?’

Speaking on the early life of Pope St John Paul II, Fr Pearce described how the young Polish priest—known then as Karol Wojtyła—would take young people from his diocese on outings away from their everyday lives, ‘because when they did this, they could learn, more deeply and more truly, not only about their faith but about themselves’.

Pope St John Paul II would later go on to establish World Youth Day, providing a opportunity for young Catholics from across the globe to go on pilgrimage, ‘taking them out of their ordinary lives to examine a little what it is to go deeper in the life of faith and the journey of faith.’ Fr Pearce invited attendees to discover what God might be asking them to do on their journey of life, reminding them that ‘his will for you is extraordinary. He wants you to do something amazing with your life.’

You and I are called to be saints, to build up God’s kingdom on earth and to be witnesses to Christ in the world.

Andrew Tran, a fourth-year seminarian from Corpus Christi College, spoke about his faith journey and how he came to hear God’s call, explaining how he was invited by a friend to join the Camino de Santiago, a pilgrimage on foot to the tomb of St James the Apostle in Spain. Despite the rigours of the pilgrimage, he found that the hours spent walking alone in silence, and the opportunity for reflection and prayer, were exactly what he needed. ‘In the midst of silence, God was there,’ he said. ‘His presence was felt. He was walking beside me.’

Andrew encouraged those gathered at the festival to make time for prayer, find moments of silence amid the busyness of life, persevere in faith, trust in God and seek support from one another. ‘You and I are called to be saints, to build up God’s kingdom on earth and to be witnesses to Christ in the world,’ he said.

In one of the highlights of the festival, a panel of six young representatives from the Burmese, Filipino, Indonesian, Portuguese, Syriac and Vietnamese communities joined Archbishop Peter A Comensoli in conversation, asking him a series of wide-ranging questions that touched on his personal faith journey, the Catholic Church in general and the migrant youth of today.

God, our God, the God of Jesus Christ, is a pilgrim God. He goes on pilgrimages with his people.

In response to a question about how God has walked with him in life, Archbishop Comensoli said, ‘Jesus has journeyed with me through his Word—the story of Jesus and how his presence was with others, that sense then that he was with me’.

Expanding on the theme of pilgrimage, the Archbishop recalled how God accompanied Moses and the Israelites on their journey to the Promised Land. ‘God wasn’t in a building,’ he explained. ‘God went with the people. God, our God, the God of Jesus Christ, is a pilgrim God. He goes on pilgrimages with his people,’ inviting young people to seek God among his people, especially the vulnerable.

Archbishop Comensoli encouraged his audience to embrace and ‘bring something of the enfleshing of God in the Church from our different cultures’ into the melting pot, like minestrone, ‘a soup that’s made of all sorts of parts that bring it together’. He concluded by inviting the attendees to the 2025 Australian Catholic Youth Festival in Melbourne, encouraging them to find ways to share their cultures among a wider audience.

Following lively group discussions, festival attendees enjoyed performances from Tongan, Burmese and Filipino community groups over lunch, before walking together under overcast Melbourne skies to St Patrick’s Cathedral to join with the wider Archdiocesan community in the Mass for All Nations.

Reflecting on the festival, Olivia Piwowar, Sebastian Zych and Sebastian De La Parra from the Polish community highlighted the value of sharing a united experience of lived faith through the lens of different cultures. Olivia said the talks affirmed for her the importance of a personal relationship with God. ‘Going on a journey and that period of self-reflection, that silence that I have—that’s when I spend the best time with God, that’s when my relationship [with him] has grown the most,’ she said.

Sebastian appreciated the opportunity to share his faith with his peers, observing that ‘being around other young people who are also Catholic and also seeking God was a reminder that I really am not alone on that journey.’

From left: Olivia Piwowar, Sebastian De La Parra and Sebastian Zych. (Photo by Francis Nguyen.)

Azariah and Emeline Fifita are part of the Tongan community, having both immigrated from New Zealand more than 12 years ago. They also found the festival an encouraging experience, buoyed by the sense that they were not alone in their faith journey. Emeline says that attending made her ‘love being Catholic more’. She hopes that future events will provide opportunities to bring along friends who are not necessarily Catholic, ‘to teach them about our faith and show them our Church and our beliefs’.

Azariah and Emeline Fifita. (Photo by Angelo Rivera.)

The inaugural Migrant Youth Festival was a joyful celebration of the cultural richness of our Archdiocese and the diverse gifts of young Catholics. It was also a reminder that God walks alongside each one of us, encouraging us to set out on the journeys we are called to as pilgrims of hope.

Banner image: Participants gather at the Migrant Youth Festival. (Photo by Francis Nguyen.)