Pilgrims around the country have been fundraising to attend this year’s Australian Catholic Festival (ACYF) in Melbourne, which is less than a month away. Together with her team, Qwayne Guevara, outgoing manager of Catholic Youth Parramatta, has been busily preparing their local pilgrims both spiritually and practically. This includes some creative fundraising efforts, including Qwayne running 100 kilometres in 30 days, which contributed to the more than $5,500 raised for local pilgrims to attend ACYF.
Although she’s leading the group for the Diocese of Parramatta, Qwayne says the fundraiser was a personal initiative. “It was a personal fundraising initiative, as a donation to ACYF,” she explains. “Every dollar [raised] is less of an impact on our young people.”
The generosity shown by locals pleasantly surprised Qwayne. “I think sometimes we just need to invite people into the story,” she says. “People don’t know that they can help.”
Since 2022, Qwayne’s committed herself to taking up physical challenges to raise funds for causes she’s passionate about. “So I thought if there was something that was worth raising money for, then it would be the young people that I care about here in the diocese, and that’s kind of how that all aligned for me.”
Advocating for a cause is not something that Qwayne is unfamiliar with. The former corporate immigration lawyer says she’s always been drawn to advocacy and grassroots initiatives.
“In high school, I had a burning desire to work in human rights law, so that’s what I pursued in my undergrad [degree] and eventually moved into advocacy and grassroots organising,” she explains. After a few years of practising the law, her experience at World Youth Day Poland in 2016 led her to change her career trajectory.
“I had a really profound experience of the Eucharist, and I returned from that pilgrimage just feeling like God was inviting me to something different.” The decision was a little perplexing for her parents though, she laughs. “You know, parents just want you to be happy and secure. They were very concerned that I was leaving my law career for just ‘a question mark’.”
After leaving her role, Qwayne decided to take up missionary work in the Philippines, walked the Camino de Santiago and discerned the prospect of religious life, visiting religious convents in North America. Sadly, it was around this time that Qwayne’s grandmother passed away, which meant “I really needed to park that question of vocation”. But, she says, another opportunity presented itself: an opening in the local diocesan youth office.
Qwayne Guevara, Catholic Youth Parramatta Manager speaks during Catholic Youth Parramatta’s LIFTED Launch at West HQ, Rooty Hill. Image: Diocese of Parramatta
“The diocese had discerned a grassroots role as a local engagement leader,” she recalls. While she was overqualified for the role, Qwayne saw it as an invitation to serve God in a different capacity.
It’s been almost nine years since Qwayne joined the Diocese of Paramatta, and while she works predominantly in youth ministry, she has also taken up other roles around the diocese, including leading preparations for its recent synod. Qwayne also recently completed her Master’s degree at the Clough School of Theology and Ministry at Boston College in the United States.
“Everything has kind of figured itself out,” she says.
Qwayne in front of entrance to Boston College’s Clough School of Theology and Ministry. Image: Supplied
Accompanying young people
The Diocese of Parramatta is sending more than 160 young people to ACYF. Qwayne’s hope is that the pilgrims will have a deep encounter of God’s love and community.
It’s part of what she sees as a shift from an events-focused approach to youth ministry to one of patient, intentional accompaniment.
“I’m really convicted in us needing to [build] community, allowing our young people to experience what authentic friendships look like, and that people in the Church have their back,” she says. “We have four formative sessions with them in preparation before we have our commissioning Mass and then head off [to Melbourne].”
Young people of Western Sydney and the Blue Mountains during their pilgrimage formation for the Australian Catholic Youth Festival. Image: Catholic Youth Parramatta
She’s also explicit about this being a pilgrimage where pilgrims can experience God’s love. “I think sometimes we water down how much God loves our young people, like we’re not explicit about it enough. And in a world where they have access to everything that tells them that they’re not enough or they should be something else, I think the Church has a huge responsibility and opportunity to be explicit about God’s love for them, so I really hope that they encounter that along the way.”
“My vision for young people … would be that they would see themselves in who they are in their entirety, as part of the Church, and that they have a place to contribute to what God is doing in our lives.”
Finally, she hopes young people will come to the festival and see how they are part of “something bigger than themselves” and experience a sense of “belonging and connectedness … that their life actually isn’t about them, but about what God is doing through them.”
Those are her ‘three big hopes’ for ACYF, she says. “Even if they were to encounter some parts of that … it’s never anything that we can measure in data, but it’s a trust in what the Holy Spirit is doing.
Young people of Western Sydney and the Blue Mountains at LIFTED Live in the Forecourt. Image: Alphonsus Fok/Diocese of Parramatta
“If somebody asked me what my vision for young people would be, it would be that they would see themselves in who they are in their entirety, as part of the Church, and that they have a place to contribute to what God is doing in our lives.
“I think we need to be a little bit more trusting that young people can be creative and it doesn’t need to look like the way that we think it needs to look like.
“We need to be creative about the way that we give young people the language of what it means to be missionaries,” she says.
Members of the faithful across the Diocese of Parramatta are invited to pray and support our ACYF pilgrims at their Commissioning Mass on Sunday 23 November at 6pm at St Patrick’s Cathedral, Parramatta. The Mass also coincides with the Solemnity of Christ the King and the annual World Youth Day celebrations.
The Diocese of Parramatta’s participation in the Australian Catholic Youth Festival aligns with our Diocesan Pastoral Plan priorities of Community, Formation and Mission.
Reproduced with permission from the Australian Catholic Youth Festival (ACYF) and Melbourne Catholic, the news publication of the Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne.
