Fr Alejandro Munoz, assistant to the Marist Fathers Superior General, is very happy with the response to the Marist Youth International website which he launched towards the end of 2012.
“The primary goal is to be present among the world of young people and then build a network of young Marist people”, Fr Munoz said in an interview.
Fr Munoz observed the visibility of religious orders and what is specific to religious life today, are often talked about topics. He said the Society of Mary wants to go some way to responding to the issues with a humble and discrete New Media presence.
“The primary purpose is not to promote Marist priestly and religious vocations,” said Fr Munoz.
Rather, “we want to reach out and share our spirit, and sow the seed of a new church among young people”.
“We want to show our spirituality in action, share our spirit and involve young people in it”, he said.
Highlighting the positive response to Marist Youth International’s blogs and commentaries, a delighted Fr Munoz said the response to www.maristyouthinternational.org has been tremendous.
Fr Munoz said the talks from senior Marist theologian, John Thornhill have been viewed over 1300 times.
“John’s talks have been so popular we are shortly releasing his commentaries on the Creed”.
“Having Spanish subtitles has helped, so we are now working on Portugese and French translations,” he said.
Fr Munoz says the Marist Youth International initiative is also indirectly seeing some increased interest in Marist priesthood and religious life, so to help the demand we’ve produced some Marist Vocations videos.
Once again released in five different languages, “they’ve gone down well,” he noted.
Asked how this might be useful to young people in New Zealand, Australia or the Pacific, Fr Munoz simply replied, “the world is a smaller place when people network, and while our network is still mainly Latin-American, I’d encourage young people to visit and if the like what they see to join the interchange.”
