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By Gretchen Keiser, Staff Writer
COVINGTON—Wholehearted, whole energy, giving their all,
it’s the preferred way to live for teenagers.
Catch the spirit as you enter a huge tent on a hot July morning to
see 1,600 teens standing, singing and punching the air with the hand signs that
go with the words. They’re shouting, “The Lord is God, there is no
other.”
Wearing T-shirts, shorts, earrings, sandals, the rock in this
place for teens is Jesus. And wholeheartedly, young adult speakers are telling
them to give everything to be holy, rather than give themselves to superficial
causes.
“We have to strive for perfection, guys. We have to strive
for perfection, girls,” said John Beaulieu, of Winston-Salem, N.C.,
speaking alongside his wife, Lisa, at the weekend conference, Steubenville
Atlanta, July 28.
One of 11 such conferences offered around the country this summer
by Franciscan University of Steubenville, Ohio, the theme at each was
“God--There Is No Other.”
Beaulieu was one of many telling teens to embrace holiness and
reject disobedience to God, especially in sexual mores.
“I know why teenagers have sex,” he said. “They
long for union with someone. Sex outside of marriage is a false union. Give it
to Jesus Christ. He is the true lover. He is the author of true love. You
won’t be used. Offer yourselves, give yourselves in true love to Jesus
Christ today.”
“The world is so full of lies in regard to your
sexuality,” he said. “Sex is not love.”
He spoke of the difference between abstinence and chastity.
“Chastity is not the statement that I’m not going to have sex until
I’m married. Chastity is about giving myself to Jesus Christ,”
Beaulieu said.
At the morning Mass, Father Dennis Gang, TOR, spoke on the parable
of the weeds and the wheat, saying that the wheat is wholesome, edible, part of
the body of Christ. Disobeying God is no longer original, like it was when Adam
and Eve did it, the priest said, it’s just sin. Encouraging teenagers to
reject labels they hear like “safe sex,” he called it
“disobedient-to-God sex.”
Gathered together in praise and worship, the teens stood and
yelled and cheered when he said, “How many people here want to go to
heaven,” and added, “How many people here want to go to
heaven—and—I’m taking all my friends.”
“Brothers and sisters, there is no other way than God’s
love,” he said.
While he spoke, volunteers distributed cards that carry a
commitment to chastity. The priest asked teens to read the card and sign it
only when they are ready, not because of pressure, even from youth ministers.
“When you’re ready, then I want you to sign this card and date it and
live it.”
“Maybe you’re already walking with God,” he said,
“go deeper. Maybe you’re walking away from God. Turn around.”
Deacon Loris Sinanian, a local conference organizer, told teens if
they had been away from confession for a long time, they could approach one of
the priests that weekend and lightly say that they were using their “free
spin” card, to help them get restarted in the sacrament of reconciliation.
Priests had steady lines of teens coming to them for confession, even at
midnight. They were encouraged to stop priests anywhere on the grounds of the
FFA-FHA Center the weekend of July 27-29 to talk.
Teens stayed in cabins and dormitories, separate for women and
men, with youth ministers and other adults serving as chaperones. Main sessions
were held under a huge tent with music provided by a band led by Ed Bolduc and
his wife, Karen, a vocalist, from St. Ann’s Church, Marietta.
Following Mass, the group divided into men’s and women’s
sessions.
Matt Smith, who was a part of the MTV reality show “The Real
World” in New Orleans, told the young men that the temptation he faced was
difficult while on the show, but it has been even harder since he left the show
and become a national spokesman for Life Teen.
“Every time I do not lean on Him, but my own strength, I
stumble,” he said.
Lisa Militello of Columbia, S.C., one of the first women given the
opportunity to speak to the men about sexuality, said women want men who love
them for the person they are. God alone can make women complete, but a man can
be a complement to a woman and walk with her as both seek God, she said.
A competitive sailor, she said virtues are like sails that catch
the wind of the Holy Spirit.
“We rush through every season of our lives, especially in
this country,” Militello said. “I don’t want you to rush your
life away. We want you to live the seasons of your life. God gave you your
teenage years--don’t rush.”
She and her husband of seven years met when both were involved in
youth ministry in South Carolina, Militello said. She had gone through a
divorce and the annulment process. They had been friends for a period of time
when Tom was struck by the thought that she would someday become his wife. He
asked her out saying, from his heart, “One day I’m going to marry
you, and in the meantime, can we date?”
They made the decision to date yet remain chaste, she said,
acknowledging “it was hard” and as adults “we had a whole lot
more opportunities” to be alone together. They were able to persevere. She
wept as she described how proud she is of her husband’s effort to be a
godly husband and father, especially in recent years as he started his own
company, meaning very lean financial times.
“We pray for you to be godly men,” she said. Whether
remaining single or eventually marrying, “if you use virtue, you will
never go wrong. You will always be the godly man women will look up to.”
Speakers prayed collectively for those among the young men who had
addictions, mentioning cigarettes, drugs, and pornography on the Internet,
television and in magazines. A plan is needed to break sinful patterns, they
said, encouraging teens to be aware when they are in a moment of temptation, to
pray for help, and to act immediately on the strength they receive in prayer.
Confiding in and calling one trusted friend, who is also striving
to follow Christ, can be a plan that helps keep two people honest and
spiritually strong, the speakers said.
Later in the day, a choice of workshops was offered, one for those
just committing their lives to Christ, one for those wanting to go deeper in
their walk with Christ, and one for those who want to bring Christ into their
schools.
At the same time, Father Tim Hepburn, chaplain at Blessed Trinity
High School, Roswell, offered an hour-long session for youth ministers.
In an interview, Father Hepburn said that sexuality is focused on
with teens because “it is so integral to who you are as a person . . .
It’s where we experience our freedom and our sins so powerfully.”
At the same time, he said, teens need just as much to be told of
God’s mercy and forgiveness and taught how to grow spiritually, use
Scripture and walk with Christ daily.
In his homily at the closing Mass July 29, Father Hepburn told
teens, “It is a journey. It will not be without failing and falling. It is
about overcoming the lie that it is impossible to be holy. It is not impossible
to be holy . . . God will accomplish great things in you on the condition you
believe more strongly in his love than your weakness.”
Militello, a speaker at Steubenville conferences for the last five
years, estimated the Catholic conferences are now impacting 26,000 teens every
summer. Next year one will be offered in Charleston, S.C., as well as in
Atlanta, she said, because the conferences are filled to capacity.
The topic of chastity, she said, is meant to communicate much more
than sexual abstinence.
“It is about respect. It is a way to help kids understand the
life God has in mind for them. Chastity isn’t something that stops when
you get married. It is selfless, always very respectful of a person’s
dignity,” she said.
Organizers of the Steubenville Atlanta conference said many
participants this year appeared to be making their first public commitment to
Christ.
“These kids seem hungry about how to live the life,”
Militello said. “It really struck me this summer, these kids don’t
believe they can attain sanctity . . . If there is one thing I would wish for
these kids, it is that sainthood is attainable. It is something they should
work for every day of their lives.”
Deacon Sinanian, who has watched the Steubenville Atlanta
conference grow in size over the last four years, told of a young man who came
the first year, later saying that a friend had dragged him there, although he
wasn’t Catholic, and that he had thought it would be the last weekend of
his life. “Now I know what He expects of me, so I can go on,” the boy
later testified, saying the weekend saved his life.
Open to eighth-graders through graduating high school seniors, the
conferences bring teens away for a weekend of prayer, music, worship,
eucharistic adoration and teaching with their peers. The scriptural theme is
established more than a year ahead.
“When they see others just like them seeking the same God . .
. it is an encouragement,” Deacon Sinanian said. “They remember
something from here and they take it with them. Everybody is open and they are
receptive to what the church is teaching. Just seeing the way they respond,
they’re ministering to me.”
While 21 archdiocesan parishes brought teens to Steubenville
Atlanta, the largest being a group of 72 from St. Michael the Archangel Church
in Woodstock, people from the archdiocese made up only about one-third of the
attendees. Teens and youth ministers come from most surrounding states in the
Southeast and from as far away as Missouri and Virginia.
In addition, 125 volunteers from the Archdiocese of Atlanta
supplement the staff of the FFA-FHA Center, serving as doctors, nurses,
security teams, prayer teams, ushers, eucharistic ministers and workers. A
chapel is set up for perpetual adoration of the Eucharist.
Ron Knapp, a retired Cobb County police officer who belongs to St.
Catherine of Siena Church, Kennesaw, has been the volunteer security director
each year. He has about 23 volunteers who assist him.
“God gave me a good long life as a police officer. I’m
just giving a little bit of it back,” Knapp said.
Other than teens being naturally rambunctious, he said the biggest
problem is making sure they drink enough water and keep from getting dehydrated
during the outdoor activities.
Each year “when it’s over with, I can’t wait for it
to start over again,” Knapp said. “It never ceases to amaze me we can
get 100 to 125 volunteers together like this.”
“In my entire life I’ve never felt the Holy Spirit like
I have at these Steubenville Atlanta conferences.”
About 20 to 25 priests from the archdiocese usually come to help
out with confessions and liturgies, in addition to about 15 priests already
there as chaperones to various youth groups.
Father Yves Geffrard of the Diocese of Palm Beach, Fla., said he
found it “fantastic to see how many young people, their faith is so
strong. I found it unbelievable. I didn’t know so many young people were
reaching for God. That makes my faith stronger.”
Faith Enrichment Institute, a nonprofit organization established
by Deacon Sinanian and other Catholics of the archdiocese, is the local
organizing group for the conference, while Franciscan University provides the
speakers and other programmatic aspects.
Kristi Jeffries, 23, youth minister at St. Pius X Church, Conyers,
said attending a Steubenville conference the summer before her junior year in
high school changed the direction of her life and the depth of her commitment
to Christ.
“It literally changed my life. All of a sudden, (God) was so
real. I realized he needed to be number one,” Jeffries said. “I stood
up (to make a commitment to Christ). Since then, I’ve been trying to stand
up every day.”
At that conference, she made a pledge to remain chaste, she said,
and made a number of close friends. They started a rosary group and she began
going to daily Mass while at Loyola University in New Orleans. She traces her
involvement in youth ministry back to that weekend and says her experience of
the time of eucharistic adoration held on the Saturday evening of each
conference “was the first time I truly understood the eucharistic presence
of Jesus.”
Bringing 17 teens from St. Pius this year, Jeffries hoped some
would be impacted as she was.
“God’s asking them to be different and to follow him,
when the world sends so many signals and so many distractions that are not of
him,” Jeffries said. “I just hope this weekend there are some other
teens being impacted too. It is bound to have blessings.”
Maryann Judge, a member of St. Augustine Church, Covington, and
prayer team volunteer, said that there was an “altar call” the night
of July 27, inviting teens “who had not verbally committed their life to
Christ” to do so. Prayer teams made the sign of the cross on those who
stood up.
“I personally signed at least 100 people myself,” Judge
said. “In their eyes, there was such a commitment.”
At the closing Mass July 29 Archbishop John F. Donoghue presided,
saying, “I can’t tell you how inspiring it is to stand here and see
so many young people from 10 states, even as far away as Missouri . . .
It’s inspiring. It’s encouraging . . . The church has plenty to look
forward to and plenty to be proud of.”
“I pray for you. I think of you. I pray the Lord will
continue to bless each of you,” Archbishop Donoghue said. “You are
the future of the church. Stand up and be proud to be Catholics. Help others
who are struggling, wondering if they should have faith in God. Show them by
living good, Christ-like lives.”
Invited to come forward for special prayer, more than 30 young
women and more than 50 young men said they are considering vocations to the
Religious life or priesthood. Their peers gave them a standing ovation.
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