Pittsburgh Diocese aims to enhance ministry to middle school students

Published: 2005-12-29

PITTSBURGH (CNS) -- The middle school years have become a crucial time in the lives of young people, when they make critical decisions that can affect their lives significantly, said Father Kris Stubna, secretary for education in the Pittsburgh Diocese. "The church can play an important role in the lives of middle school youth," Father Stubna said. "It should assist them in those critical decisions and help them to answer the very deep and spiritual questions that they are asking." Parishes across the country recently have discovered the importance of enhancing their catechetical efforts by offering youth ministry programming to students in sixth through eighth grade, he said. Toward that end, the diocesan Secretariat for Education and Department for Youth and Young Adult Ministry were releasing "Burning Hearts: Ideas and a Process for Middle School Ministry in the Parishes of the Diocese of Pittsburgh" in January and scheduling four in-service sessions to assist in implementation of the document.

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