The CMA’s Youth Branch supports young Catholics in healthcare (18-40). How?

• Our annual conference hosted in the early autumn provides teaching, catechesis and social time – it’s a great way to meet other young Catholics in healthcare.
• Our day retreats in the spring are an opportunity to come together in reflection and prayer, and be nourished by the wise words of our priests, religious and peers.
• An annual Requiem Mass is offered in November, the month of the Holy Souls, for all deceased members of the CMA. The Mass is kindly said by the Dominican priests at The Rosary Shrine, St Dominic’s Priory, London.
• We maintain an online presence for the CMA – through this website, the Facebook page and the CMA youth branch Instagram.
• We’ve produced printed material – have you got one of our St Guiseppe Moscati and St Camillus de Lellis prayer cards?
• We contribute material to the Catholic Medical Quarterly, the journal of the CMA.

All juniors and students of the healthcare professions (doctors, nurses, midwives, allied health professionals, medical scientists etc.) are welcome to attend our events. You can watch past talks on our YouTube channel. Find out about upcoming events on the Events page.

Our events wouldn’t be possible without our wonderful friends and volunteers to help run them, and our speakers who graciously grant us their time and wisdom (thank you, you know who you are!!).

Read some feedback from our events here:

“It is good to be able to meet with fellow Catholics and establish prayer networks and friends in the Faith. It is easy to lose hope when you are alone but these events renew one’s vigour and charges the spiritual batteries for the battles ahead.” 

“Beautiful and uplifting to see so many other Catholics”

“Talks were useful, moving, inspiring and educational”

Beginnings

There have been many young people in the CMA who have put on events and conferences for students over the years.  So how did the CMA Youth Branch come about?

Our particular group started in the summer of 2016, when the CMA agreed to the foundation of a new committee called the ‘Committee for the New Evangelization’. This committee was made up of young Catholics in healthcare with the specific aim of supporting other young Catholics in healthcare through prayer, friendship and catechesis. We began by hosting events for other students and junior healthcare professionals in London, and have continued doing this every year since.

“We believe there is an urgent need to provide this support to Catholics in healthcare to help them to keep the Faith.”

In 2019, we changed our name to the Catholic Medical Association’s Youth Branch. We have a President and report to the CMA Council in the same way as the Regional Branches.

Inspiration

The CMA Youth Branch have been inspired by Bishop Philip Egan of Portsmouth Diocese, who courageously preaches the radical Good News of the Gospel with great clarity. Indeed, the committee originally took its name from Bishop Philip Egan’s emphasis on John Paul II’s call for a ‘New Evangelization’. Bishop Egan has said this New Evangelization “must be street-wise, media-savvy, critically aware of the culture we live in. Contemporary culture is less a text-based, book culture, more a visual culture of image, art, style, design.”

We have embraced these wise words, such that the CMA Facebook page, which the Youth Branch runs, as well as our conferences, reflect this realisation. At the same time, we ardently adhere to the tradition of the Church, handed down to us generation after generation, as the surest way to remain faithful to Our Lord and His Church in these confused times. The CMA Youth Branch is here to help all young Catholics in healthcare grow in their Faith and respond lovingly to the challenges they face in their workplaces.