VIENTIANE (UCAN) -- Youth ministry in the Church in Laos has expanded to other parts of the country with the help of the Servant Group, a youth group established five years ago in the Vientiane cathedral parish.

Since being founded in December 1999, the Servant Group has helped start groups in Pakse and Savannakhet vicariates. They along with Vientiane and Luang Prabang vicariates comprise the ecclesiastical territories of Laos. Khankham Keosavang, a leader of the group, says they feel their efforts have paid off when they see young people in other Catholic communities began to organize themselves to pray together and to do charity work.

She explained that group members initially focused their activities among Catholic youth in Vientiane vicariate. It was not until 2001 that they started training youths outside its area, after being invited by the bishops of Savannakhet and Pakse, she said.

Oblate Bishop Jean Khamse Vithavong, vicar apostolic of Vientiane, has strongly supported the youth ministry. He told UCA News that laypeople have an important role in the work of evangelization, especially as animators among young people whose faith development has been neglected for many years.

Khankham told UCA News recently that due to the lack of priests, many Catholics have fallen away from the Church. She added that young people she has worked with have taken the lack of priests as "a sign" that they should assume the mission of spreading the Good News among their peers.

Hieu, a youth leader from Thakhek, told UCA News that "the seed of faith has sprung to life" there, where Savannakhet vicariate is based, 245 kilometers southeast of Vientiane.

He said young Catholics of Thakhek come together regularly to share prayer and organize activities to reach out to marginalized people. One service they have offered is repairing roofs and houses of poor elderly people. "I am glad to see how happy this makes the grandfathers and grandmothers. This is something we can do," he said.

Hieu's group also visits young people in other Catholic villages. During their visit, they invite the young people to join in Taize-style prayer with them, he reported. "Young villagers always welcome us," he said.

Taize prayer, popularized by an international ecumenical community of monks based in Taize, France, typically includes meditation, chanting, simple songs, Gospel readings and prayers around the cross with lit candles. It is part of the formation programs the Servant Group organizes for youth. According to Khankham, the programs last three or four days and include talks from priests and youth animators, discussions, prayer and other activities.

Among those who have found the Taize prayer effective is Bao of Ban Xiangvang village. "I wish that Catholics in our village could experience this type of prayer because it would help calm them, encourage them to speak to God," the young man told UCA News, crediting a deepened experience of prayer with motivating him to work with other young people. "This is my dream, to serve the Church," he said.

Phimasorn, 24, a young woman of Pakse vicariate, also has been inspired by the work of the Servant Group. "We are happy that we can do something for our beloved Church. It is not a big thing, but that's all we can do now since there is a lack of priests," she told UCA News.

She and other young Catholics have set up a youth desk that operates out of the bishop's house in Pakse town, 465 kilometers southeast of Vientiane. They have organized activities such as visits to Catholics in remote villages, during which they bring what material assistance they can, as well as Taize prayer for young people, Phimasorn said.

Souk, 18, from a village north of Vientiane, has attended a Servant Group formation program. "We want to organize activities for the children. We do not have any leaders and we want youth leaders from Vientiane to help us organize activities for young people in this village," he said.

Boun Mee, 20, of Luang Prabang apostolic vicariate, also is enthusiastic but does not see a youth apostolate as possible yet in the vicariate. "There is no organized youth group. We cannot organize anything as we do not have any leader. I would like to have a youth group there, but it is very difficult," she explained.

Luang Prabang vicariate has no organized youth ministry, and there is only one priest for the vicariate that covers 83,700 square kilometers and borders China, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam. That priest is based in Vientiane, 220 kilometers to the southeast.

According to Bishop Khamse, young people are "the new source of energy" that will help revitalize the Church in Laos, which has faced difficulty since the Communist takeover in 1975. The bishop says the difficult conditions have motivated young Catholics to seek ways to make the Church alive.

"We do not know the future of the Church in Laos, whether it will be alive, or just in name only, but the Church depends on the youth to make things happen. We do not have anyone from outside to help us, but we are going to make things happen," he said.

According to Church statistics, the four vicariates covering Laos have 123 parishes served by three bishops, 14 priests and 76 sisters. Catholics number 35,000 in a population of 5.8 million.

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