Reflections from the 2026 USCCB Evangelization Summit – the participation report can be downloaded below.

By JC Montenegro, Ph.D.

(Boyle Heights, California) – I recently had the opportunity to participate in the 2026 USCCB Evangelization Summit as a representative of the National Federation for Catholic Youth Ministry (NFCYM). I arrived expecting to learn more about evangelization, but what surprised me most was how the Summit was organized.

There were no keynote speakers telling us what we needed to do. Instead, we were invited to sit at tables, pray, listen, ask questions, and share our experiences. Everyone had something to contribute. It was amazing to sit at a table where people from different backgrounds and ministries had the opportunity to share their thoughts and learn from one another.

I participated in Table 12, one of 25 tables at the Summit. The reflections I share here come from our conversations and my own experience, not from the official conclusions of the Summit.

One of the ideas that stayed with me was a simple but challenging question: Are we inviting people to encounter Jesus, or are we inviting them to participate in our programs?

After 25 years of working with young people in Salesian ministry, I believe this is a question we need to ask ourselves more often.

We spend so much time planning activities, preparing young people for sacraments, organizing events, and measuring attendance. All these things have value. But sometimes I wonder whether we are so busy running our programs that we forget to ask if young people are actually encountering God.

During one of our conversations, someone shared an expression that I loved: We need to allow people to “flirt with God.”

Think about that for a moment.

When someone begins to fall in love, there is curiosity. There are questions, conversations, moments of uncertainty, and a desire to know the other person better. Relationships take time. They cannot be forced.

Why would we expect someone’s relationship with God to be different?

Sometimes we expect young people to believe before they have had the opportunity to question, to participate before they feel they belong, or to follow Church teachings before they have experienced God’s love.

What if we gave them more space to explore? What if we listened to their questions without immediately trying to correct them? What if we allowed them to discover God through friendship, service, joy, struggles, and everyday experiences?

For me, this is deeply Salesian.

Don Bosco understood that young people need more than instruction. They need adults who are present, who care about them, who listen, and who walk alongside them. Our schools, parishes, and youth centers should be places where young people experience this kind of relationship.

Another thing that challenged me during the Summit was that, although we discussed evangelization broadly, the particular experiences of young people were not a central focus of the conversations in which I participated.

This made me ask: How can we talk about the future of evangelization without bringing young people into the conversation?

Young people are not just the future of the Church. They are the Church today. We need to stop making all the decisions for them and start creating more opportunities to listen to them.

I also left convinced that our Salesian schools, parishes, and youth centers need to work more closely together. We share the same mission, yet sometimes we operate as separate ministries. Accompanying young people in their journey of faith cannot be the responsibility of just one program or department.

One of the greatest gifts I received from the Summit was the experience of simply sitting with others, listening without defending my ideas, and allowing the Holy Spirit to guide our conversations.

Perhaps that is where evangelization needs to begin.

Not with another program or another requirement, but with a genuine encounter.

And perhaps, before asking young people to commit to God, we need to give them the opportunity to get to know him, ask questions, and even flirt with him.

Because our mission is not simply to fill our programs. It is to help young people fall in love with Jesus.