Youth encouraged to let their voices be heard
By Regina Kelly
Correspondent
Young people across the diocese are getting ready to voice their interests, concerns and hopes for the future of the Church.
The Diocese of Metuchen is having its first synod and young people are invited to participate in Speak Up . . . We’re Listening Sessions to be held in January and early February. Some parishes are hosting Speak Up Sessions just for youth; in other parishes, young people will join adults in general, parish-wide sessions.
Youth-only sessions
St. Cecilia Parish, Monmouth Junction, is one of several parishes hosting youth-only Speak Up Sessions.
Father Sylvester Cronin, pastor, said that a separate session for the youth of his parish seemed necessary because “teenagers are more comfortable listening to one another” and because young people in the parish have responded overwhelmingly to the parish youth ministry program begun three years ago. More than 100 young people now belong to this program, and about 60 attend its weekly Sunday evening meeting, he said.
St. Cecilia’s youth are active in service projects that have “great overlap with parish ministries,” Father Cronin noted. Their activities include holding a youth ministry Mass every Sunday evening, for which they provide music and serve as extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion, lectors and ushers; orchestrating a Confirmation retreat for eighth graders; participating in social justice efforts; and visiting a nursing home.
“Listening to them, seeing their love for the Church, their love for the Lord, their relationship with the Lord,” said Father Cronin, “is very inspiring.”
St. Cecilia’s youth Speak Up Session, open to young people in the ninth through 12th grades, is scheduled to take place during the youth ministry group’s regular Sunday evening meeting time, 7 p.m., Jan. 22. Its facilitators will be adults, but teens will act as the session’s scribes, having received formal training from the diocese to do so.
Another parish with an active youth group, Annunciation Parish, Bloomsbury, is holding a separate Speak Up Session for young people Feb. 15 at 7:30 p.m.
Father Roberto Coruna, pastor, explained that the youth have great involvement in the parish, so their participation in the synod seems natural. He said that the youth group meets weekly and participates in a variety of service activities, most recently a fall cleanup on church/rectory grounds and obtaining a Christmas tree for the parish.
In addition, the youth have been praying the diocese’s synod prayer at Mass, and their youth ministry coordinator, Mark Pincos, is a synod delegate.
St. Luke Parish, North Plainfield, is holding two Speak Up Sessions for youth: one for the fifth through eighth graders enrolled in the parish school during its regular religious education instruction time, Jan. 22 at 10 a.m., and one for high school students, Jan. 15 at 7 p.m. in the parish center.
“We think that the youth would like an opportunity to have a voice not overshadowed by adults’ voices, to be free to express their own ideas in their own way,” explained Anita Maier, coordinator of ministries for the parish.
Maier, who is also an adult Speak Up Session facilitator, noted that about 55 youth are active in the parish youth group, with 10 to 22 attending the group’s weekly meetings. She lamented that young people’s involvement in the Church tends to drop off when they are between ages 18 and 35 — they return to Mass and the Church only after having children of their own.
“This is an opportunity to give them more involvement now so that they don’t drift away. We need them,” Maier said. “The Church is reaching out to them and saying, ‘We care what you think, tell us what you think, we’re listening.’ My hope is that they will feel included.”
Maier said that the parish is encouraging the young people to embrace their opportunity to “speak up” with notices in the bulletin, announcements from the youth advisor and inviting the young people of the parish to create the prayer space for all the parish Speak Up Sessions, including those for adults. High school students will act as scribes for their own Speak Up Session.
Intergenerational Speak Up Session
St. Charles Borromeo Parish, Skillman, is not holding a separate session for youth but rather inviting youth in the ninth through 12th grades to participate in the parish’s adult Speak Up Session.
“It’s important for young people to hear where people from other generations and backgrounds are coming from and what their hopes are, and then to share their own hopes and perspectives,” said pastor Father Gregory Malovetz.
“If we who are now in a position of being stewards of the Church want to begin sowing the seeds in terms of change, we need to be talking to people who are the future of the Church. The fruit of the conversation will be revealed in how the Church affects those who are its future,” Malovetz said. “And since the model of the synod is gathering a diverse group of people, listening to everyone’s hopes for the Church, and then unifying these hopes, we wanted to follow that model at our parish.”
Malovetz acknowledged the challenge of structuring a Speak Up Session for people with diverse life experiences and age levels. “But that challenge is overshadowed by the greater good of allowing everyone to feel that they are being heard, that different age groups are hearing what their hopes are,” he said.
Father Malovetz added that the parish has a track record of successful intergenerational events for its parishioners, including religious formation sessions. Because of its extensive youth ministry program, with 200 to 300 young people involved in various ministries throughout the year, part of a new 20,000 sq. ft. addition to the church is devoted to facilities for youth ministry program.
St. Charles Borromeo’s adult/youth Speak Up Session will take place Feb. 2 at 7:30 p.m.
*The attached/referenced article was originally published in The Catholic Spirit, the official newspaper of the Diocese of Metuchen, and is protected under U.S. and international copyright law