BY ERIKA ANDERSON

Staff Writer

LITHIA SPRINGS--Amid a sea of striped circus tents, 1,000 Catholic teens and their leaders gathered for a weekend of worship, reconciliation and fellowship July 31-Aug. 2.

The Steubenville Atlanta conference, the first youth conference to be put on in Atlanta by the Franciscan University of Ohio, was held on the grounds of Sun Valley Beach water park for two days and nights.

High school age teens joined priests, Religious, youth leaders and speakers in expressing their love for God and their desire for the Holy Spirit to guide them “Out of the Jungle,” which was the theme of the conference.

Combining Christian music, national speakers, witness talks and time for Mass, adoration of the Blessed Sacrament and the sacrament of reconciliation, the weekend provided many teens with a setting to make a personal commitment to Christ. Archdiocesan youth ministers, who helped plan and staff the conference, believe the teens returned home better able to live as Christians and to serve their parish and community.

On the opening night, Father Dave Pivonka, TOR, a theology professor at Steubenville, gave the teens insight into the experiences they should expect.

“We want everyone to be full of energy, full of the Holy Spirit and have a blast,” he said. “I know that the Olympics were here a few years ago, but the Olympics were nothing compared to Steubenville Atlanta.”

Teens from as far away as Michigan, Nebraska and Wisconsin joined their peers from Georgia, Florida and Alabama and listened intently, sometimes breaking into spontaneous chants and cheers as Father Pivonka spoke.

“This can be a life-altering weekend,” he said. “I pray that God blows you away. I pray that God does more than you can even imagine in the next 48 hours.”

Voices and hands were raised in praise and worship as Ed Bolduc and the Life Teen Band from St. Ann’s Church in Marietta led the group in song throughout the busy weekend. Life Teen executive director Phil Baniewicz invited the teens to commit their lives to Christ.

“Are you ready to surrender your life? Are you ready to give up control? When Jesus says, ‘Come, follow Me,’ will you drop your nets, drop your desires?” he asked. “You have to say, ‘Holy Spirit, I give you permission to work in my life.’”

Events the next morning began with a Mass celebrated by Father Tim Hepburn, pastor of St. Gabriel’s Church in Fayetteville. Archbishop John F. Donoghue presided and addressed the throng of young people, who had slept in sleeping bags in dormitory-style tents overnight.

“What a wonderful thing to stand here and look out and see so many young people all here for the same reason--to give praise and glory to our Lord,” the archbishop said. “I am absolutely convinced that the Lord is going to bless each and every one of you for your love and devotion to him.”

Homilist Father David Talley, director of vocations, encouraged the teens to allow God to set their hearts on fire.

“This weekend, as we leave the jungle, the illusion of sin, and walk into the fire of God’s love, let us remember that we should be burned on the surface of God’s love,” he said.

The day was divided into men’s and women’s sessions, featuring speakers such as Molly Kelly and Lisa Weible Militello addressing the women, while Father Pivonka and others spoke to the men.

Militello, a convert and the daughter of writer Wayne Weible, told the women that being a Catholic is sometimes a challenge.

“It’s a lot of work to be a Catholic,” she said. “You have to not just exist in your faith, but really live it.”

Author Molly Kelly spoke of the importance of purity.

“Chastity is a virtue for everyone,” she said. “It’s not just about saying ‘no’ to premarital sex, but it’s about revering our bodies as temples of the Holy Spirit.”

Meanwhile, on the other side of the park, the men were given insight into the challenge of becoming centered on Christ.

“What does it mean to be a man of Jesus Christ? Integrity--and integrity means wholeness,” Father Pivonka said. “Being a man of God doesn’t mean you have to turn into a freak and stop doing what you love to do. You don’t have to stop playing sports; you don’t have to be a religious wacko. Be who you are and let your ‘yes’ be ‘yes’ and your ‘no’ be ‘no.’”

After the sessions, the teens were given an opportunity to relax at the park’s pools and water slides and attend an afternoon concert given by the Life Teen band.

A separate tent was conformed into a makeshift chapel for the Blessed Sacrament and was open to participants until midnight each night. On Saturday evening, a special adoration time was held in the main tent following a talk by Kelly.

“Jesus Christ wants to heal your brokenness and he wants to do it tonight,” she said. “He knows where we’re broken, he knows where we hurt and even though he knows it, he wants you to tell him.”

Teens knelt in reverence, some crying, some in prayerful silence as the Blessed Sacrament was processed throughout the tent. For many, this was the highlight of the weekend.

Gennie Schmidt, 17, a parishioner of St. Ann’s, said the time of prayer before the Blessed Sacrament was “really powerful.”

“Adoration was awesome,” she said. “To see all those people with all these different emotions made me very joyful.”

On Sunday, following Mass celebrated by Father Pivonka, the teens were invited to make a pledge of chastity and for those sensing a call to a religious vocation to receive prayer.

Many men and women responded to the possible call to a religious vocation, stepping forward and standing around the stage as Father Pivonka and conference participants extended their hands and prayed for God’s will in their lives.

On a weekend where a cool breeze was considered a blessing from heaven and the mention of the word God sent teens into frantic cheers, hearts were changed and lives were transformed.

Coordinator Kathy Wolf, the director of religious education and faith formation for the archdiocese, said that the conference works in many ways to transform young people.

“This program really allows for a conversion of heart on many levels,” Wolf said. “There is a conversion of heart toward chastity where teens really make a pledge to lead a pure and chaste life. There is a conversion of heart with vocations that allows males and females to look at vocations as a possible call for their life and a possible desire for their life, because it is presented in a positive way.”

The highlight comes when teens have the opportunity to worship God present in the Blessed Sacrament, she said.

“If you’re talking about a conversion of heart, the culmination is really there in the Blessed Sacrament when the Holy Spirit touches teens and helps them to look at vocations and pledge to lead a chaste life and really dedicate their lives to Christ.”

“Adoration and Benediction really touched me,” said Beth Davis, 14, a parishioner of St. Gerard’s Church in Rossville. “I realized I was holding Jesus out because I was angry, and now I feel a lot closer to Him.”

Christa Ozog, director of religious education at Christ the King Church in Ann Arbor, Mich., traveled 14 hours with 71 teens from her parish of 350 families. Ozog, a 1995 graduate of the Franciscan University, said that the best part of the weekend was the availability of the sacraments.

“It’s always great to be able to receive the sacraments,” she said. “They were readily available and not just available, but you almost couldn’t resist. I believe that the more opportunities for grace we receive through the sacraments, the more we see God working in families and in teens.”

The conference provided an awakening for Emily Knoblock, 16, a parishioner of Sacred Heart Parish in Bad Axe, Mich.

“I thought the speakers were really good,” she said. “It made me feel closer to God and made me want to change some of the things in my life.”

For Julia Leonard, 16, also from Sacred Heart Parish, the weekend gave her the opportunity to grow closer to Christ, but also closer to her older brother and sister.

“I’ve never really been into church much and my brother and sister were. I always felt left out, but we all came here together,” she said. “I opened up my heart to Christ for the first time. I’ve said I have before, but this time I really felt God’s presence.”

Throughout the weekend, seminarians of the Archdiocese of Atlanta were on hand to make sure the conference ran smoothly. Rev. Mr. Jack Durkin, studying at Mount St. Mary’s Seminary in Emmitsburg, Md., said the conference gave the teens “100 percent truth with no hypocrisy.”

“I think the weekend was great because it does everything that the church does, new and old. It compacts the traditional with adoration and the rosary and a very reverent Mass, and it speaks the truth about the church without fear,” he said. “Kids get straight church teaching and it speaks it bravely, and the kids want to hear it.”

“It focuses on freeing young people from sin and the misconceptions of sin,” he continued. “It’s faithful to the church and yet fearless to what’s new and embraces the future of the church.”

Franciscan University began its youth conferences in 1976 with the National Catholic Charismatic Conference for Young People held on the campus of Steubenville. For the next several years, participants by the thousands traveled to Ohio for the conferences.

In 1986 the conference was split in two, with a high school age youth conference and a young adults conference for college age and older adults. In 1995 two youth conferences were held in Steubenville and Steubenville South in Alexandria, La., was held for the first time.

In 1997 over 12,000 youth attended conferences in four locations: Steubenville, Ohio; Steubenville South in Alexandria; Steubenville East in Attleboro, Mass., and Steubenville West in Phoenix. This is the first year for Steubenville Atlanta and for Steubenville of the Rockies held in Denver.

The Steubenville Atlanta conference was sponsored by the non-profit Faith Enrichment Institute (FEI). Deacon Loris Sinanian, executive director of FEI, said the institute hopes to continue to hold the conference each year.

“It was truly a leap of faith to bring this in. We are $20,000 in the hole right now, but all of the programs Steubenville generates are truly teaching the faith, whether to adults or the youth, and we felt it was a great program for the youth of the Southeast,” he said. “Hopefully with donations and support from the people of this archdiocese, we will continue to have youth programs such as this.”

Lisa Fiamingo, youth minister at St. Catherine of Siena Church in Kennesaw, who helped to coordinate the event, hopes that Steubenville Atlanta conferences will return each year. Fiamingo brought 20 teens, most of them new to her program, and said she was amazed by the conversion that took place.

“They were totally free. They just found a freedom to praise God that I didn’t know they could have,” she said.

The youth group meets on Tuesdays for adoration and prayer and Fiamingo said that she has really seen the difference the Steubenville conference has made in the teens.

“Since Steubenville, our Tuesday night prayer group has been so alive. The praise in that room would blow adults away,” she said. “They used to be quiet and reserved about praying, but the Holy Spirit really got to them at Steubenville.”

“I’ve been working (at St. Catherine’s) for seven years and I’ve never seen anything like this happen.”