Rockville Centre Diocese starts youth ministry certification program

Published: 2004-02-05

ROCKVILLE CENTRE, N.Y. (CNS) -- After more than a year of preparation, the Rockville Centre Diocese has become the third in the United States to establish nationally approved standards for youth ministry certification. Late last year, Mike McCarthy, director of the diocesan Office of Youth and Young Adult Ministry, received notification from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Commission on Certification and Accreditation that the office's certification program for youth ministry coordinators had been approved. "This makes us only the third" in the country, McCarthy said, noting that the Archdiocese of Cincinnati was the first to have its youth ministry coordinators' certification standards approved by the commission. The Detroit Archdiocese also received approval. "We are very pleased to have approval for the certification standards because this is one way to say that youth ministry is important," McCarthy told The Long Island Catholic, Rockville Centre's diocesan newspaper. "It is a recognition that youth ministry is a viable, professional ministry which calls for serious commitment."

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