Home / News & Publications / Michigan Catholic News / 2008 / Youth ministries work together to find sense of universal Church
Youth ministries work together to find sense of universal Church
by Joe Kohn of The Michigan Catholic
Published November 14, 2008
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Joe Kohn | The Michigan Catholic
Hannah Kennedy, 16, from St. Michael Parish in Monroe, carries the Lectionary at the beginning of Mass on Sept. 20 at St. Joseph Parish, Monroe. Youths from small parishes are crossing parish boundries to strengthen Christian fellowship. |
Monroe — For teenagers, life in a small parish isn't always easy. Many feel isolated at Sunday Mass as they scan the pews to look for their peers.
But several small parishes in the Archdiocese of Detroit are trying to combat that feeling by having their own youth ministries cooperate with those of neighboring parishes for liturgies and social gatherings.
"We all need to come together to worship," says 13-year-old Taylor Moody from St. Michael Parish in Monroe, who recently attended a vicariate youth Mass and subsequent reception at Monroe-based St. Joseph Parish.
"It doesn't matter who we are and where we're from," Taylor says. "With the parishes so close together, it's silly to be separated."
In recent years, youth ministers have increasingly tried looking outside the box for ways to get young people involved in their faith. Often, it's led to efforts that connect nearby parishes, even when those parishes aren't connected to begin with.
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Joe Kohn | The Michigan Catholic
Teenagers from St. Michael Parish in Monroe have fun following a Mass for youth at St. Joseph Parish in Monroe. From left: Hannah Kennedy, 16; Olivia Bacarella, 15; and Tim Kennedy, 14. |
In Monroe, for example, St. Joseph, St. Michael, St. Mary and St. John the Baptist parishes this fall started what they hoped would become a monthly Saturday vigil youth Mass, followed by a social. Since, their plan shifted and youths in the city have been invited to regular get-togethers at St. Michael Parish.
St. Michael youth minister Kathleen DuBay says many of the teenagers don't see parish boundaries the same way their parents do.
"A lot of the kids associate across church boundaries," DuBay says. "Once they are in high school, they are associating with youths from various other parishes, so it's a natural form of evangelization for them."
For example, though there are five parishes in Monroe, teenagers from each of parish know each other because they attend St. Mary Catholic Central High School together.
A similar across-parish-boundaries camaraderie has formed in Redford Township, with a monthly Sunday afternoon service and get-together planned among the municipality's four parishes, Our Lady of Loretto, St. John Bosco, St. Robert Bellarmine and St. Valentine.
Similar to Monroe, the township has seen its Catholic population – and institutions – on the decline over the past several years.
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Joe Kohn | The Michigan Catholic
Katie Drouillard (left) of St. Joseph Parish in Monroe and Taylor Moody of St. Michael Parish in Monroe present the gifts at the Sept. 20 youth Mass. |
A decade ago, Redford Township had five parishes, five grade schools and a high school. Today, it has four parishes and two grade schools. And young people aren't as numerous in the pews on Sundays as they used to be. So when fellow Indian Pallotine Fr. Ralph Besterwitch, pastor of Our Lady of Loretto Parish, approached Fr. Paul Coutinha, SAC, and the other Redford Township pastors with the idea of combined youth Masses, they agreed to seek strength in numbers.
"We kind of embraced it and said one parish doing that is not good, so we need to get all four parishes in Redford together," says Fr. Coutinha, pastor of St. Valentine Parish, which in September hosted its first Sunday afternoon youth Mass.
"It's a known fact that the young people feel more free in their own circles," Fr. Coutinha adds.
The Church of Detroit, through its reorganization plan Together in Faith, identified youth ministry as its No. 1 priority. Joyce Francois, director of the office of youth ministry for the archdiocese, says it's important, foremost, that each parish has its own structure for youth ministry – including a paid or volunteer coordinator for youth ministry.
"Every parish should have someone, whether it be a volunteer or paid staff, doing youth ministry to connect young people to the life of the parish, or to help the parish invite the youth," Francois says. "The parish supporting the youth is really what's at the heart of youth ministry."
And though even a small parish should have its own youth minister, the youth ministry may benefit from get-togethers with youth groups from surrounding parishes, Francois says.
"In the rural areas, we really encourage people to do ministries together so the kids can see a greater sense of the universal Church," she says.
Being with other young people allows teenagers to let their hair down, so to speak, youth group members say. At the social gathering after a September youth Mass at St. Joseph, 15-year-old St. Michael parishioner Olivia Bacarella dressed up as a banana and taught her friends a banana dance.
Another dynamic is at play, too, some teenagers say — making Church less about a weekly family event, and more about meeting their peers in the Christian community.
"It kind of makes you feel more welcome than just going with older people," says Frank Viger, a 17-year-old from St. Joseph Parish, about the concept of youth Masses. "It's kind of like you're forced to go when you go with your parents, as opposed to going with people your own age who are all going to church together."
Universally in the Church, youths have been harnessing their power in numbers, as evidenced by Catholic World Youth Days, which have drawn some of the largest crowds in recorded history. Locally, events such as the Catholic Youth Organization's Rainbow youth conference in downtown Detroit each January, and regional summer conferences, also have given teenagers a taste of just how many of their peers are enthusiastic about their relationships with Christ.
But whether they're traveling across the world to see Pope Benedict XVI in Sydney, Australia, or whether they're walking a few blocks further in the city to greet peers at their neighboring parish, the concept is the same.
"It's my values I share with them," says Taylor Moody. "I like to share my faith with people my own age, and have them share their faith with me."
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