THE Italian youth of Holy Cross parish in Lutwyche are taking the initiative in forming a new youth group embracing Brisbane’s diverse multicultural community.
Under the guidance of Scalabrinian Father Mauro Conte, the Italian youth group has taken the first step by joining with Korean, Indonesian and Spanish speaking youth.
Fr Conte is working with the assistance of Jose Zepeda from Multicultural Pastoral Care to form the coalition of ethnic young people.
The leaders of each of the respective groups held their second meeting in early March.
Fr Conte said all the youth group members would meet for the first social gathering of the group in New Farm Park on Saturday, April 28 from 11am-3pm.
“We expect 60 to 70 young people will attend this social event and even more to get involved in this new project,” he said.
Those attending the multicultural picnic are asked to bring food and drinks to share.
“Each of the groups is very happy to be working with one another to foster multicultural understanding between ethnic young people in Brisbane,” said Fr Conte.
He is also visiting each of the youth groups during their meetings to talk face-to-face with the young people concerned.
“I want to show them that we can’t just live together, that we have to make an effort to work towards a united multicultural focus in Brisbane archdiocese,” he said.
The Ethnic Catholic Youth Group hopes to expand to include other nationalities such as young people from Croatia in the near future.
