New ECYD Website: Connecting and Equipping Youth Around the World

ECYD, the Regnum Christi charism lived by adolescents, just launched a new website, ECYD.org, to provide information and connect parents, teens, and other mentors. “It’s an effort to have a virtual reality spot, online, that clearly defines what ECYD is and is a hub for everyone in the world.” Said Maria Knuth, the director of the ECYD territorial support team in North America. She also hopes it is, “A clear explanation of ECYD as the way adolescents live the Regnum Christi charism.” 

When she first saw the website, Corinne Kirkpatrick, who runs a Challenge club in Saskatoon, Canada, exclaimed, “I was really filled with joy. It’s a great moment in our youth work to bring together all the teens who have such a desire to grow in their relationship with Jesus. This is a place that they can feel like they can belong to something better than just as individuals.” 

The site is designed primarily for mentors – parents, Legionaries of Christ, Regnum Christi consecrated and lay members, as well as adolescent team leaders – to help them better understand and live out ECYD. Maria hopes the website helps them have clarity on what ECYD is as the umbrella for all of Regnum Christi’s youth work. It hopes to be relatively comprehensive without being overwhelming. It presents the Global vision of ECYD and how it is lived in North America specifically. 

“I’m really excited about the part called ECYD discover on the website,” Mentioned Knuth, “It has different modules or tools to help in regular ECYD life such as in formation activities and on retreats, to help explain the things that are essential to ECYD.” Right now there only 4 modules in ECYD discover but Knuth promised more to come. She continued, “I think this is the part that will be used most by ECYD mentors and the part I’m most excited about.” 

The website connects people involved in ECYD around the world. In the USA and Canada, Challenge and Conquest are ECYD programs and a common way most young teens live it out. Maria noted, nonetheless, “ECYD is the Regnum Christi charism lived by adolescents, and so it has its own lived spirit that includes and goes beyond your Challenge or Conquest clubs to something that is expressed more as a lived relationship – the reality of Jesus inviting the adolescent into this friendship, and the adolescent responding.  When you look at it like that, it is evident how it is similar to the experience adults have in Regnum Christi.” 

The connect section also shows ECYD all around the world and lets teens and mentors connect to other ECYD clubs around the world via social media. This lets the teen be part of something bigger than their local reality,  which is a need of the adolescent. Corinne noted that this also lets mentors connect to other mentors to share info, she hopes they can learn from each other how to deal with individual situations. 

ECYD mission corps is also on the website, showing how teens can volunteer for a summer mission and connect with others around the world. 

The website was designed by the general committee’s pastoral team in Rome but got input from those in this territory including Maria Knuth. Br. Jaime Lorenzo, LC, was one of the people heading the development of the content and structure. 

“It’s a natural consequence from the whole renewal process of ECYD that’s been years in coming,” explained Knuth, “through the development of the ECYD book, to now the revision of the Statutes.” 

Maria concluded her words on the site looking to the future, “I am excited more than anything about regarding the website as a starting point, offering a platform with a lot of potential. I feel like what’s there now is just the beginning.” 

We invite you to check out ECYD.org.