The founding General Assembly of the Armenian Catholic Youth Union took place at the Ordinariate in Yerevan from 19 to 21 December, 2025. 48 young people from the Armenian Catholic communities of Armenia, Georgia and Russia participated in the event. The Assembly was held under the presidency and patronage of H.E. Kevork Archbishop Noradounguian, with the assistance of Rev. Fr. Nerses Galstyan, Dean of the Armenian Catholic Church in Armenia, Fr. Hovsep Galstyan, Secretary of the Ordinariate, Fr. Komitas Daveyan, parish priest of Yerevan, and Fr. Mickayel Dombourian, parish priest of Panik. Sister Narine Simonyan and Mariam Haroutyunyan, members of the Order of the Immaculate Conception, as well as Valentina Karakhanian, employee of the Dicastery of the Holy See for the Causes of Saints, also took part in the Assembly.

Establishment of the Armenian Catholic Youth Union was initiated by a group of young people who had participated in the pilgrimage of Hope to Rome this year. They presented their suggestion to His Excellency and then with His blessing developed the Statutes and the Strategy of the Union, the final versions of which were drawn up with the assistance of the Secretary of the Ordinariate. These two documents, presented at the Assembly in detail on 21 December, 2025, display ideas of the youth about the Union as a voluntary association, aiming at uniting the Armenian Catholic youth and bringing them closer to the Lord Jesus Christ, guiding them towards holiness, self-improvement, education and fruitful service for the Armenian Catholic Church with youthful passion and hope, in harmony with the concept of the Jubilee Year of Hope, which has served as an impulse for the formation of the Union.

It should be certainly noted that during the past 34 years the former Ordinaries, clergy and youth implemented a lot of work for implementing youth initiatives, organizing joint meetings, community days and establishing the Union, which has certainly given its results in the Church and souls of the young people. Due to the initiative of the present generation of youth, as well as the current principles and characteristics of the pastoral work, the time has finally come for official establishment of the general youth union as a canonical institution, in compliance with the official decree of the Ordinary, internal Statutes and Strategy of concrete actions.

On 20 December, 2025 the youth initiative group presented the five-year Strategy of ACYU to the Ordinary, the clergy present and their friends – the vision of the Union, its mission, values, main directions of activities, then the Statutes and the action plan, after which His Excellency announced his official Decree (Prot. Res. 09/025) on Establishment of the ACYU and signed it together with two other documents in three languages: Armenian, Russian and English.  

Thus, the ACYU has been officially established as a voluntary public association of the Armenian Catholic Youth under the canonical and legal patronage of the Ordinariate.

The next step was the election of governing bodies of the ACYU. Mr. Nairi Hajyan was elected the ACYU President by secret ballot. Born in Gyumri, he is a member of the Armenian Catholic union of Yerevan, a residency student at Yerevan Medical University, rehabilitation specialist by profession. Ms. Katya Hakobyan was appointed administrative Vice-President. Born in Mets Sepasar village, she is a member of the Armenian Catholic union of Yerevan, a graduate of the University named after V. Bryusov, linguist by profession. Mr. Serzh Nazaryan was appointed financial Vice-President. Born in Tashir, he is a member of the Armenian Catholic union of Yerevan and Tashir, a graduate of the Faculty of Management of the French University, works as an analyst at “RED Invest Group” real estate agency. Ms. Venera Petrosyan was appointed secretary. Born in Bavra village, she is a student at the Faculty of Public Management at Yerevan State University, works as a coordinator of youth projects at “Bright Impact” NGO. Ms. Naira Ghazaryan was appointed SMM manager. Born in Ghazanchi village, she is a member of the Armenian Catholic union of Yerevan and Ashotsk, a student at the Faculty of Public Management at Yerevan State University, responsible of the department for education process coordination at AYB school. Other sectoral responsibles will be also appointed from 21 representatives of communities, elected in the result of consultations with the parish priests and at their suggestion. The positions were elected and appointed for 3 years’ period.

Actions planned for 2026 were also discussed at the Assembly. They will be finally approved along with the agendas within the coming days. Planned actions are divided into two main groups:

1. General actions, such as the annual General Assembly of ACYU, Lenten retreat in February – March, which will be held in Yerevan, backyard summer and joint camps, informative and motivation visits of the initiative group to various communities aiming at involving the local youth.   

2. Local actions in communities in compliance with the ACYU strategy and principles, such as classes of religion organized by volunteers (currently 5 young people, continuously attending trainings, are already working), events dedicated to church holidays, actions for study of the Saint Scripture, watching and discussion of films, organizing of pilgrimages, etc.

Besides these two directions, deepening of the personal and collective prayer life of young people and Christian education, acquiring of deeper knowledge are emphasized as the prerequisite and starting point of the entire activities of ACYU. This will be implemented through face-to-face and available online trainings (such as classes of religion started in 2023), reading and discussion of concrete literature.

The General Assembly of youth ended with a feast in the festive spirit of Christmas, in anticipation of profound spiritual experience of the sacrament of the Incarnation of the Son of God and with great Hope, which had given birth to this youth initiative – with the great Hope that Christ is Himself “who never puts to shame”, as the apostle says.

P.S. Organization of the General Assembly of the ACYU has become possible due to the generous support of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), for which we express our deepest gratitude.  

Translated by Gohar Soghomonyan

Secretary of the Armenian Catholic Ordinariate

24 December, 2025