Making young people visible in their church, community & society
Diocese of Kerry
Find out moreApplication & other materialsA message from the Bishop of Kerry
I welcome the decision of our diocese to participate in The Pope John Paul II. The Award was created in 2006 in commemoration of Pope John Paul II who had such belief and confidence in young people. He died in 2005 and was canonised in 2014. It is worth reading about his life, read it in Wikipedia. Three outstanding aspects of his papacy were:
- Prior to becoming pope, he lived all his life in Poland in Eastern Europe, which at that time was dominated by the Soviet Union. As pope he was a major spiritual influence enabling those nations gain freedom from Soviet domination, largely without war or loss of life, thank God.
- Coming to Western Europe as pope he challenged the West to ensure that its democratic and economic ways were truly for the happiness and good of all its peoples.
- In his final years he bore serious ill health with wonderful endurance, courage and faith in Jesus Christ.
The John Paul II Award is designed to encourage young people to be involved in their local community and parish, to discover the contribution they can make in response to the very challenging words of Jesus, “Love God and Love one another, Love your neighbour”. The Award invites young people to use their talents and energies in service of local needs in both church and in the community and thus discover the joy of giving and the joy of belonging.
A key insight into education and learning is to see it as involving head, heart and hands. The head because adequate knowledge is required for understanding: the heart because you need to decide what you believe to be true and what you are committed to: the hands because what we believe and what we commit to is confirmed in our actions, by how we live our lives every moment of each day. The John Paul II Award seeks to engage young people at head, heart and hands level.
Pope Francis in his Apostolic Exhortation to Young People and the entire People of God wrote:
“The community has an important role in the accompaniment of young people. It should feel collectively responsible for accepting, motivating, encouraging and challenging them. All should regard young people with understanding, appreciation and affection, and avoid constantly judging them or demanding of them a perfection beyond their years.” (Pope Francis: Paragraph 243, Christus Vivit, 2019)
Bishop of Kerry
8th September 2026