Teen rally highlights 'rootedness'

By Tanya Connor | The Catholic Free Press

WORCESTER – Teenagers received a message from the pope – and a lesson from a deceased firefighter – at the Diocesan High School Youth Rally, held Sunday at Assumption College.
Bishop McManus delivered this message and lesson in his homily for the Mass.
“Rooted” was the theme of the rally organized by the diocesan youth ministry office. Director Timothy Messenger said about 400 people from more than 20 parishes attended.
Preaching about the Gospel of the day, Luke 21:5-19, Bishop McManus noted that the world did not end when the temple in Jerusalem was destroyed or in the year 2000, as some people speculated it would.
He suggested that Jesus wants people to think about “the end of my world, the end of my life,” and to get ready by following Jesus, who is the Way, Truth and Life.
Bishop McManus said that on Monday he would be celebrating the funeral of Lt. Jason J. Menard, of the Worcester Fire Department. The 39-year-old, who was preparing to go to Disney World with his family, rushed into a burning building, he said.
“He is a genuine hero,” the bishop said. “His world ended … in saving other people’s lives.”
The bishop told listeners to ask themselves, “If my world ended tonight, would I be ready to meet Jesus in judgement?”
Bishop McManus also talked about the New England bishops’ recent meeting with Pope Francis. He said the pope told them, “I, as your spiritual father, want you to be close to God, close to your priests, close to the people, especially the young people.”
Pope Francis asked the bishops to tell the youth “how much I love them,” Bishop McManus said.
He said the pope suggested the bishops remind them about “The Letter from the Synod Fathers to Young People,” from the 2018 General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops on Young People, the Faith and Vocational Discernment.
Bishop McManus read aloud from the letter, which challenges youth to turn the world’s gaze toward love, beauty, truth and justice and make the fragile, poor and wounded people their companions.
Other rally speakers addressed these challenges in various ways.
There were keynote talks by Noelle Garcia, a recording artist from Oklahoma who speaks around the country. There were also breakout sessions presented by her, Mr. Messenger, seminarian Derek Mobilio and Leeanna Holmes, development officer at Cross Catholic Outreach in Montgomery, Alabama.
“Compassion doesn’t mean tolerance,” Ms. Garcia said in one of her keynote talks. “Compassion means to suffer with, that you’re willing to get messy with this person.”
Like Pilate, who washed his hands of Jesus, we separate ourselves from each other, she said. For example, people might claim to be pro-life but not tell others abortion is wrong or say nothing when someone is in an unhealthy relationship.
Instead of telling a woman in a crisis pregnancy, “You got into this situation,” one can give her maternity clothes, Ms. Garcia said. She also illustrated, with the following story, the importance of giving spiritual gifts.
Seeing a homeless man, she told her husband, David McHugh, that they should buy him food. Her husband, noticing the man had a laptop, objected, and someone else bought the man food.
Next Ms. Garcia wanted to invite the man, who also had a Bible, to read Scripture with them. He prayed with them and told them he’d just lost his job.
After he left, a stranger handed her and her husband a note, saying she was going through a difficult divorce. Seeing how the couple treated the homeless man gave her hope for her future, she wrote.
Ms. Garcia also talked about healing from the past. People hear about the bad things priests have done, but not how they give their lives for others, she said. She said her mother was abused by her own father, and struggled to believe her heavenly Father loved her. Her relationship with God was healed through the presence of a father – a priest who sat with her after she had a car accident.
Ms. Garcia also described Mother Church as caring for her children. When they trust that the Church cares about them, they become more free and can care for others.
“God knows that we need community … guidance,” Ms. Garcia said, after telling how a stranger gave her a ride when her car broke down. She had to trust God to get her to the airport so she could go do his work, which she couldn’t do alone.
Sometimes Church teaching is hard to accept, she noted, mentioning the issues of abortion, suicide and euthanasia. She told listeners their value is not rooted in whether they are “convenient, wanted, supported,” but is rooted in Christ.
Ms. Garcia told the teenagers to look around.
“You’re not alone,” she said. “We love you.” She said that if they have questions about Church teaching “let’s talk about it.”
Josh Jenkins, of St. Mark Parish in Sutton, said the rally was really fun, a time of meeting new people. He said his faith was re-established, as some of his questions were answered in the Faith vs. Science session presented by Mr. Mobilio.
Courtney Brouillet, an 18-year-old rally helper from St. Bernard Parish in Fitchburg, said it was fun to hear the talks and interact with participants. She spoke of two breakout sessions as describing “how science and religion were actually working together” and “how people can work together to grow their faith.”
The “Faith vs. Science” session “gave me a better understanding about evolution,” said Anthony Salvatelli, 14, of Holy Family of Nazareth Parish in Leominster.
His cousin and fellow parishioner Frank Iacaboni, 15, talked about learning in that session that “it couldn’t be just the Big Bang – God had to do something.”
Fourteen-year-old Kyra Kittredge, also from Holy Family, said she liked how the rally was well organized and “there’s things to do” – like breakout sessions.