Category Archives: Youth

Youth ministers ‘recharge’ with day-long workshop

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By Maureen Smith
MADISON – On Saturday, July 28, more than two dozen youth minister representing four deaneries and 10 parishes gathered at Madison St. Francis of Assisi Parish for a day-long event. The theme was “Reflect, Renew, Recharge” as an effort to offer support, encouragement, time for personal reflection, prayer and to share best practices.
The agenda included Youth Culture/GenZ, study from St. Mary’s Press called “Going Going Gone,” the Pre-Synodal Document on “Young People, the Faith and Vocational Discernment,” Creating a Vision in Ministry, Spirituality of a Youth Leader and best practices for youth ministry. The presentation involved prayer, discussion, activities, multimedia, and resources for youth ministers to take home to their parishes. Abbey Schuhmann, coordinator for youth ministry for the diocese, coordinated the day, compiled the materials and lead the workshop.
“We’ve added new diocesan events for youth over the past couple of years and I knew we needed to include something to offer support specifically for youth ministers which is what sparked the birth of this event. It was purposely planned for this time of year to “recharge” youth ministers before the start of a new ministry year which often coincides with the start of a new school year,” said Schuhmann.

MADISON – (l- r) Father Jason Johnston, Mary Catherine George, Amy Lipovetsky and Melissa Smalley, all from Madison, St. Francis of Assisi Parish attend the youth ministry event. (Photos by Abbey Schuhmann)

MADISON – (l-r) Hunter Yentzen, Mary Katherine Yentzen, Melinda Weisenberger, all from Clinton Holy Savior; Hunter Pugh of Cleveland Our Lady of Victories; Edgar Meyer of Gluckstadt St. Joseph and Stephen Martinolich of Clinton, Holy Savior Parishes share their experience at the youth ministry gathering.

MADISON – (l-r) Trish Ballard (Clinton Holy Savior), Alyssa Ingram, Terri Hill, Jamie Cole (Greenville St. Joseph)

Hundreds of students “Rescued by Jesus” at Vacation Bible School

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CLEVELAND – Our Lady of Victories used the “Shipwrecked and Rescued by Jesus” theme for their Vacation Bible School June 24-28 from 6-8 p.m. (Photos by Jenifer Jenkins)

CORINTH – St. James Parish hosted a Vacation Bible School during the last week of June. (Photos by Luis Rosales)

MADISON – Music played a big part in the St. Francis of Assisi Vacation Bible school, also using the “Shipwrecked and Rescued by Jesus” theme June 18-22. Every morning, students sang the theme song, “Never Let Go” to prepare for the parents’ program on the last day. Students got to make their own treasure chests, enjoyed beach-themed snacks and learned about Jesus’ love for them. (Photos by Eileen Dibble)

 

JACKSON – Boy Scout Troop 30 from Jackson St. Richard Parish presented flag at St. Dominic Hospital on Flag Day, Thursday, June 14. The troop also led a flad retirement ceremony at the St. Richard Fourth of July Celebration on Sunday, July 1, accepting flags from the community that needed to be disposed of respectfully. (Photo by Melisa Munoz)

St Richard Boy Scouts present flag at St. Dominic June 14

Synod working document: Young Catholics need church that listens to them

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By Junno Arocho Esteves
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Young Catholics are looking for a church that listens to their concerns, accompanies them in discerning their vocations and helps them confront the challenges they face, said a working document for the upcoming Synod of Bishops on young people.
The synod’s “instrumentum laboris” (working document), published by the Vatican June 19, stated that young people “want to see a church that shares their situations of life in the light of Gospel rather than by preaching.”
Quoting a presynod gathering of young people who met at the Vatican March 19-25, the working document said young Catholics “want an authentic church. With this, we would like to express, particularly to the church hierarchy, our request for a transparent, welcoming, honest, attractive, communicative, accessible, joyful and interactive community.”
The working document is based mainly on comments solicited in a questionnaire last June from national bishops’ conferences around the world as well as the final document of the presynod gathering.
An estimated 305 young adults participated in the weeklong presynod meeting, which allowed practicing Catholics and others to provide input for Pope Francis and the world’s bishops, who will meet at the synod in October to discuss “young people, faith and vocational discernment.” Some 15,000 young people also participated in the presynod process through Facebook groups online.
The meeting, the working document said, “highlighted the potential that younger generations represent” as well as their “hopes and desires.”
“Young people are great seekers of meaning, and everything that is in harmony with their search to give value to their lives arouses their attention and motivates their commitment,” it said.
Presenting the “instrumentum laboris” to journalists at a press briefing June 19, Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri, secretary-general of the synod, said the synod’s goal is that young Catholics may find “the beauty of life, beginning from the happy relationship with the God of the covenant and of love” in a world that often robs them of their “affections, bonds and prospective of life.”
“The synod dedicated to young people gives us the opportunity to rediscover the hope of a good life, the dream of a pastoral renewal, the desire for community and passion for education,” he said.
Divided into three parts, the working document outlines the church’s need to listen to young people, to help guide them in the faith and in discerning their vocational calling, and to identify pastoral and missionary paths to be able to accompany them.
The responses collected by bishops’ conferences around the world cited a need for ways to help young men and women confront the challenges of cultural changes that sometimes disregard traditions and spirituality.

Pope Francis prepares to take a photo with young people at a presynod gathering of youth delegates in Rome March 19. The Vatican has released the working document for the October Synod of Bishops on young people, the faith and vocational discernment. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)

The working document also states that while the church highlights the importance of the body, affection and sexuality, many young Catholic men and women “do not follow the directions of the sexual morality of the church.”
“Although no bishops’ conferences offer solutions or indications, many (conferences) believe the issue of sexuality should be discussed more openly and without judgment,” it said.
Young people attending the presynod meeting said issues such as contraception, abortion, homosexuality, cohabitation and marriage are often debated both by young Catholics and non-Catholics.
The working document also highlighted the need to reaffirm church teaching on the body and sexuality at a time when biomedical advancements have pushed a more “technocratic approach to the body,” citing examples such as egg donation and surrogacy.
“Moreover, precocious sexuality, sexual promiscuity, digital pornography, the exhibition of one’s own body online and sexual tourism risk disfiguring the beauty and depth of emotional and sexual life,” the “instrumentum laboris” said.
Church leaders, it said, must “speak in practical terms about controversial subjects such as homosexuality and gender issues, which young people are already freely discussing without taboo.”
Also, “LGBT youths, through various contributions received by the secretariat of the synod, want to benefit from a greater closeness and experience greater care from the church,” while some bishops’ conferences are asking what they can recommend to young people who enter into a homosexual relationship, but want to be closer to the church, the document said.
Regarding the use of the initials “LGBT” in a major church document, Cardinal Baldisseri told journalists that it was a term used in one of the documents given by the bishops’ conferences “and we quoted them.”
“We are open. We don’t want the synod to be closed in itself,” Cardinal Baldisseri said. “And in the church, there are many areas, there is freedom for people to express themselves – on the right, left, center, north and south – this is all possible. That is why we are willing to listen to people with different opinions.”
The working document also said young Catholics would like more initiatives that allow further dialogue with nonbelievers and the secular world to help them integrate their faith in their dealings with others.
Young men and women from primarily secularized areas “ask nothing from the church” and “expressly asked to be left in peace, because they feel its presence as annoying and even irritating.” These feelings, the document stated, do not come from contempt but rather due to “serious and respectable reasons.”
Among the reasons are the church’s sexual and economic scandals, priests who do not know how to engage with young people, and the way the church justifies its doctrinal and ethical positions to modern society.
Young men and women are also hoping the church can help them “find a simple and clear understanding of the meaning of vocation,” which is often misinterpreted as referring only to priesthood and consecrated life.
While the church has confirmed that marriage is also a vocation, the document confirms the need for “a youth vocational ministry capable of being meaningful for all young people.”
“Called to holiness and anointed by the spirit, the Christian learns to grasp all the choices in existence in a vocational perspective, especially the central one of the state of life as well as those of a professional nature,” it said.
“For this reason, some bishops’ conferences hope that the synod will find ways to help all Christians rediscover the link between profession and vocation in all its fruitfulness … and in view of the professional orientation of young people with a vocational perspective,” the document said.

Camp Friendship builds Catholic spirit

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AMORY – Ryan Stoer, right, a seminarian for the Diocese of Jackson, chats with a camper at Camp Friendship, a summer camp for Catholic youth in Mississippi started by the Glenmary Missioners many years ago. For the last couple of years, dioscean seminarians have spent part of their summer helping at the camp. The parishioners from Aberdeen St. Francis go Wednesday while camp is in session and prepare a traditional fried chicken dinner for the campers, counselors and staff. The counselors are from all over the nation including Chicago, New York, D. C., even Rhode Island. (Photos by Rhonda Bowden)

Summer = Vacation Bible School

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GREENVILLE – (l-r) Hunter Ford, Lela Hallman, Olivia Nevels, Julia Hooker and Emerson Lipscomb explore the “Marvelous Mystery” of the Mass during Saint Joseph Parish’s Vacation Bible School- June 11-14. (Photo by Rayetta Serio)

JACKSON – St. Richard Parish Vacation Bible School during the first week of June. Teen volunteers joined adult organizers for the week. (Photo by Shannon Garner)

PEARL – The children of St. Jude Parish went “around the world in five days” for their Vacation Bible School June 11-15. (Photo by Rhonda Bowden)

Church praised for proactive response on abuse but warned of complacency

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By Peter Finney Jr.
NEW ORLEANS – Despite groundbreaking steps the U.S. Catholic Church has taken to prevent the sexual abuse of minors in the past 16 years, a potential “complacency” in following safety protocols could pose a challenge to those hard-won advances.
Francesco Cesareo, chairman of the National Review Board, shared that view with diocesan safe environment and victims’ assistance coordinators attending the Child and Youth Protection Catholic Leadership Conference in New Orleans. The Diocese of Jackson was one of the sponsors for this conference and Bishop Joseph Kopacz delivered the closing address.
The 13-member lay board advises the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops on safe environment protocols for children in Catholic parishes, schools and organizations.
In his talk June 6, Cesareo said that because a large percentage of abuse claims deal with incidents that happened many years and even decades ago, the issue may appear now to be less urgent.

“The church has responded very concretely to this question and very proactively, but one of the issues now is that because it is now historical – you have newly ordained priests who were children when this broke out – the urgency of it is not there,” he said. “You have bishops who are new. They weren’t there in 2002. The urgency is not there.”
Cesareo, who is president of Assumption College in Worcester, Massachusetts, said he was pleased the church has shifted its conversation about sexual abuse of minors “from a legalistic approach to a more pastoral approach, which is very helpful in the process of healing and reconciliation and also in getting the church to understand the real pain that victims have felt and have experienced through the abuse.”
But, he said, because the church has done such a good job dealing with sexual abuse in the past 16 years, “there is this notion that this is a problem in the past, ‘we’ve dealt with it, we don’t have to put as much attention on it, we have the policies in place.'”
“That’s where the complacency comes in,” Cesareo said. “It’s like a hospital. You have the protocols in place and then suddenly someone dies in the operating room. All the protocols were followed, so why did this happen?
“We need to create a culture whereby the church is doing the same thing. Why did this happen? How do we prevent it? How do we strengthen what we’re already doing? That’s where the complacency issue is becoming problematic.”
Cesareo cited encouraging statistics from the most recent audit of how individual dioceses are performing under the U.S. bishops’ “Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People:” outreach and support was provided to 1,905 victims/survivors; training on abuse prevention and safe environment was provided to more than 4.1 million children and more than 56,000 priests, deacons and candidates for ordination; and background checks have been administered to 97 to 99 percent of all adults serving in ministry with children.
“That’s no small feat,” Cesareo told the conference. “Yet, we are not finished. We can never be finished.” Bishop Kopacz focused his talk on doing what he called “tightening the bolts” or revisiting and renewing efforts to create and maintain safe environments.
Some dioceses are going “above and beyond” the charter’s guidelines, Cesareo said.
Cesareo said accurate parish and school audits are vital in assessing compliance with the charter and also with diocesan policies. He suggested that individual diocesan review boards, which are called on to evaluate allegations of sexual abuse by clergy, should meet regularly – at least annually and ideally four times a year – even if no allegations have come forward, as the one in Jackson does.
“It is the belief of the (National Review Board) that diocesan review boards mitigate the risk that allegations will be mishandled and that possible offenders remain in ministry,” Cesareo said.
No other organization in the U.S. has done a better job than the Catholic Church has in setting up safeguards to protect children, he said.
“Absolutely and without any doubt, even though we don’t get the credit,” Cesareo said. “That is clarified, No. 1, by the charter; No. 2, by the audit process that’s in place; No. 3, by the policies and procedures that are in place. All the background checks, all the training that has taken place. There’s no other organization that’s doing what we’re doing.
“Catholics in the pew should feel very confident that their children are safe in our schools and in our parishes, that the church is doing everything it can to ensure that kind of culture of safety and healing and that we are being proactive and not forgetting that this has to be always at the forefront of everything we do within the church.”
The 13th annual conference, held June 3-6, drew more than 150 people from across the U.S. working in areas of safe environment, victims’ assistance and pastoral care.

(Finney is executive editor/general manager of the Clarion Herald, newspaper of the Archdiocese of New Orleans).