“It is no longer about building buildings” – Southern Africa bishop urges Church to focus on youth formation

Bishop of Queenstown, South Africa and Liaison Bishop for the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SACBC) Youth Department, Most Rev. Siphiwo Devilliers Paul Vanqa, SAC has called for a decisive shift in the Church’s priorities in Southern Africa, saying the future of the mission depends not on infrastructure but on the formation of young people.

Speaking during the annual conference of the SACBC Youth Department in Benoni, Bishop Siphiwo Devilliers Paul Vanqa SAC said the Church must rethink its focus as it marks 75 years since the establishment of the hierarchy in the region.

“It is no longer about building buildings,” he said. “It is about building people. Forming our young people to become the next missionaries of the Church.”

The four-day meeting, bringing together youth chaplains and diocesan coordinators from South Africa, Botswana and Eswatini, heard reports outlining both the struggles and progress of youth ministry across the region. Challenges include high unemployment among young people, limited financial sustainability for youth programmes and ongoing questions around formation.

Against that backdrop, Bishop Vanqa stressed that responsibility for forming young Catholics can no longer depend on past institutional structures.

“We now have to rely on our own communities. Our parishes and our families,” he said. “Formation must become the responsibility of everyone in the Church. If we want to form our youth, we must all be part of that mission.”

He also underlined that youth ministry cannot be addressed in isolation by individual dioceses.

“The reality of the youth cannot be the responsibility of one diocese alone. It is something we must face together as a conference,” he said.

The bishop’s remarks frame youth formation not as a pastoral programme, but as central to the Church’s future in Southern Africa.