Junuee Castro, youth minister, departs diocese

Friday, Mar. 20, 2020

SALT LAKE CITY— Junuee Castro, the diocesan director of Youth and Young Adult Ministry for the past three years, has tendered her resignation and has returned to her home town of Phoenix, Ariz.

Castro, who has worked in youth ministry for more than 13 years, took the diocesan position in November 2016. She immigrated to the United States from Mexico with her family when she was 9 years old, and is bilingual (English/Spanish). She began her time in youth ministry as a volunteer in her home parish. She subsequently completed a two-year formation program for lay ministers in her diocese, and then went on to earn a Bachelor of Arts in pastoral ministry with a concentration in catechetics from the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio. She is currently working on a master’s degree in theology and ministry at Boston College.

During her time in the diocese, Castro developed several new programs and provided training to youth ministers across the state. When Castro joined the diocesan team, the only existing ongoing young adult program was Christ in the City, a monthly gathering at the Cathedral of the Madeleine, she said. Castro quickly made the program, which was only offered during the school year, a year-round program.

“Other than that, I pretty much started from scratch,” she said. 

During her first year, Castro spent a lot of time visiting the parishes in the diocese to meet the pastors, leaders and youth and young adults there.

“I just listened to their needs, what they were searching for, what they were needing in their communities,” she said. 

Castro also organized a field day for parishes from the Salt Lake Deanery her first summer in Utah.

Along with stewardship for youth and young adult ministry, Castro oversaw the Scouting program in the diocese.

“The Diocesan Council for Scouting have been very active and helped me, oriented me to what Scouting was because I didn’t know much about Scouting other than the Girl Scout cookies,” she said with a smile. “They were very helpful in guiding me; I learned much from them.”

Castro created programs, events and gatherings for youth and young adults. These included youth rallies that were held during the diocesan Lenten retreat and Diocesan Congress, and young adult retreats in both English and Spanish. Castro also provided service opportunities for young people to collect items for the Volunteers of America youth homeless center and to help out at the St. Vincent de Paul dining room.

The key to involving young people in the Church is to give them opportunities to serve and to see others serving, Castro said. “The more opportunities that we give to the young Church, the more they will embrace the Church and will feel that sense of belonging.” 

“I’m very content, very, very happy for what I’ve accomplished,” she said. “It’s not just because of me but because of the people who have supported me all along, ever since I came — volunteers, pastors, just the community itself — who have embraced youth ministry, that know the importance and just give it the priority that it deserves. I’ve very grateful to them, to all the community that have supported me. I could not have done it without them.”

While serving in this position, Castro had opportunities to meet Pope Francis and to represent the diocese at conferences and meetings across the U.S. Still, it is the connections that she has made that she will cherish as she moves on, she said.

The best part of working in this position was “walking with the young Church and building that relationship with them and those whom I work closely with,” Castro said. 

She had some advice for young people in the Church in Utah.

“Keep working on the Church and with the Church,” she said. “The youth is the present; the young people are the present. We want you here in the Church; we need you here in the Church. This is your Church. You build your Church and you embrace your Church and you walk with your Church.

“That would be my goodbye to them and really encouraging them to continue what they’re doing, what they’ve built and to continue embracing youth ministry,” she added.

Castro will leave her mark on the Diocese of Salt Lake City, said the vicar general, Monsignor Colin F. Bircumshaw.

“Junuee has been such a blessing for our diocese since I hired her.  First all of, we had been looking for the perfect candidate for Youth and Young Adult Ministry for almost two years; good ones are hard to find,” Msgr. Bircumshaw said. “Junuee hit the ground running; she had both the professional training, personality and commitment. She worked assiduously during her time here, even as she gained advanced education for the ministry she was doing. Whomever we find to follow in her capable footsteps will be blessed in many ways by the seeds she has planted.”

Castro said she hopes to continue in youth ministry when she returns to Arizona, although she also plans to explore other areas.