« Evangelisation begins by listening to people's concerns and questions. »

Q. You emphasise that youth ministry begins with listening to young people's questions. What spiritual longing did you find in their questions? And what should the Church be thinking about in order to meet young people ?

Listening to young people's questions, I realised that what they lacked was not simply information. They were searching for support, for love, for God. Many also wanted to know whether it is even reasonable to believe. To answer their questions, we began to explore the relationship between science and faith and to communicate in new ways through digital media. That experience reshaped how I understand evangelisation. Evangelisation should not start with what the Church wants to say, but with the real concerns and questions people carry.

Many young people feel that the Church's message does not connect with their reality. Yet within them there is still a longing for meaning and truth. Some are not content with the answers the world offers them, and in searching for something deeper they discover the Church. That is why the Church must hold fast to the unchanging essence of the faith while also working to understand the places where young people live and the language they speak.

Q. When young people question the Church's teaching or speak of disappointment and hurt, how can one listen with openness while still conveying that teaching honestly ?

In DeoQuest, we never treat a question as unwelcome. That includes questions born of disappointment with the Church or of real hurt it has caused. Genuine listening means letting that pain be fully expressed, without rushing to defend an institution. The person, not the argument, comes first.

Of course, listening does not mean staying silent about what the Church teaches. It is a process of respecting the other person and searching for the truth together. Truth must be conveyed in love, and love must also find its direction in truth.

Throughout my youth ministry, I have tried to walk with young people rather than simply work for them. When that happens, the Church stops being a place where something is delivered one way. It becomes a place of encounter, where we question and learn from one another.

Tweeting with GOD was also born of that process. Its questions were not invented by theologians. They were the actual questions young people asked after Mass and online. Their concerns and curiosity determined the book's content and direction.

Q. Tweeting with GOD has grown into DeoQuest. Why did you feel such a variety of pastoral forms was needed to accompany young people on their journey of faith ?

The reason we built a broader framework is simple. A book, however good, cannot accompany someone through every moment of their journey of faith. As young people come to know the faith, they face many questions. At times they need help, and they look for a community to walk with.

They need resources to turn to when a question about faith comes up late at night. They need chances to learn, whether to prepare for a sacrament or to understand the faith more deeply. And they need a community to share their faith with. To respond to these different needs, DeoQuest has grown beyond books into apps, videos and small-group faith formation.

Of course, digital content cannot replace community and encounter. Digital media is only a tool that helps young people come into contact with the faith and take their first steps. Ultimately, it must lead to encounters between people, to a relationship with Christ and into a community of believers.

Q. What message did you want to give young people through your book Your Neighbour is GOD ?

The book helps young people look at the issues they actually face in life from the perspective of Catholic social teaching: poverty and solidarity, the environment, justice and peace, work, politics and technology. What mattered most to me was not to pass on social teaching as mere knowledge. I wanted us to think together about how it can be put into practice in daily life.

God needs us to be his hands and feet, and his mouth too. Faith is not limited to private comfort or inner peace. Our choices, how we treat the environment, how we relate to our neighbours and the responsibilities we take on in society are all ways of living our faith. When young people realise this, social teaching is no longer something remote from life. It becomes a way of putting the Gospel into practice.

Meeting young people across many cultures, I have learnt that the deepest human questions are remarkably similar everywhere. Love and suffering, the meaning of life, death and the longing for God go beyond culture and language. At the heart of the answer there is always Jesus Christ and his Gospel.

The way the Gospel is proclaimed may vary with local circumstances, because language, culture, social setting and the way communities take shape all differ. What matters is not to offer ready-made answers first. We should start from the questions people actually carry and search for answers together in the Gospel.

Q. The Korean Church is preparing for World Youth Day (WYD) Seoul 2027. What do young people need in order to become active agents in the Church rather than mere participants ?

WYD Seoul 2027 already offers a wonderful model. Countless young Koreans are volunteering and will open their homes to pilgrims during the Days in the Dioceses. They are helping to shape the event rather than simply attending it.

I believe this direction will remain important in the years ahead. Young people should not be left as mere participants in events or people who receive help. From the preparation stage onwards, they should be given real responsibility for planning, welcoming, prayer and communication. When young people discover their own role in the life of the Church, their faith can grow deeper.

I hope WYD Seoul will be the starting point of a journey of faith rather than a one-off event. It would be wonderful if young people could keep learning about and sharing their faith through resources such as DeoQuest.

The theme, 'Take courage, I have overcome the world', is not a call to wait for the event in August 2027. I see it as an invitation to start living and sharing the faith from this very moment. Pilgrims coming to Korea will experience the hospitality and warmth of the Korean Church. I, too, was warmly welcomed when I first visited Korea some years ago, and I treasure that memory.

Q. In the digital age, people encounter more information than ever, yet it has become harder to discern what matters. What role should Catholic media play ?

DeoQuest also sets out to help people find trustworthy answers when they meet questions about faith. What we lack today is not information itself. We lack guides who help us understand what it means and see it rightly. We need people who help us discern what is true, what is good and what really matters in our lives.

I believe this is also where the role of Catholic media lies. Its task is not to compete for more attention. It should look at the world with depth and honesty and help people discover the meaning of faith and of life. It should not keep people on a screen or on the printed page. It should be a voice that connects them, so that they meet one another and form community.

Congratulations to The Catholic Times of Korea on its centenary. Through colonial rule, war and enormous change, it has kept telling the truth, proclaiming the Gospel and carrying the voices of the faithful.

As the Korean Church prepares to welcome the world's young people through WYD Seoul, The Catholic Times of Korea reaches a special moment as it begins its next hundred years. May it continue to listen to people's questions, make known the true meaning of faith, and help the younger generation encounter the Church as a close and living community.

God bless everyone at The Catholic Times of Korea and all its readers.

■ About Father Michel Remery

Father Michel Remery is a priest of the Diocese of Rotterdam in the Netherlands. He studied architecture before entering the seminary, was ordained a priest in 2004, and later earned a doctorate on the relationship between liturgy and architecture.

From 2006 to 2012, he ministered to young people and university students in Leiden, South Holland. Their questions about faith and life became the basis of Tweeting with GOD.

From 2012 to 2017, he served as Deputy General Secretary of the Council of European Bishops' Conferences, where he was also secretary to its commissions for social communications and for catechesis, schools and universities. He also acted as the Holy See's contact person at the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe on hate crimes against Christians. In 2018, he moved to Luxembourg, where he served as National Youth Chaplain.

Since 2023, he has combined pastoral ministry in the Diocese of Rotterdam with his role as Director of DeoQuest. DeoQuest is an international Catholic pastoral initiative that connects publications, apps, videos, faith-formation resources, card games, online activities and in-person encounters.

His principal publications include Your Neighbour is GOD, Online with Saints and the DeoQuest Faith Course. Your Neighbour is GOD extends his earlier work on personal faith and Church teaching into Catholic social teaching. It addresses poverty, migration, labour, war, the climate crisis, the common good and the practical responsibilities of Christians.

More recently, he published 26 Questions to Carlo Acutis: How Can the First Online Saint Help You in Your Daily Life?. The book explores young people's questions about faith, the purpose of life, suffering and technology through the life of St Carlo Acutis.

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