Immaculata HS asks students to ‘Speak Up’
Immaculata High School, Somerville, will host two Speak Up Sessions for students, Jan. 11 and Jan. 25, from 7 to 9 p.m. “The youth are an integral part of the Church, they have much to say, and their voices should be heard,” said Helen Sanford, director of Campus Ministry.
Immaculata, which has a total of 810 students, is promoting awareness about the synod and the Speak Up Sessions through lessons in theology classes and signs posted throughout the campus.
“They’re excited that our bishop is open to hearing their voices,” Sanford said. “And they want to celebrate who they are, too.”
Immaculata’s Speak Up Session facilitators, Phill Cuhna and Becky Germino, both juniors, were selected because they are “faith-filled, involved in campus ministry, and dedicated to proclaiming the Gospel,” Sanford said. The teen Speak Up Session facilitators received formal training from the diocese to oversee the session and manage its interview-style format.
Cuhna, a 16-year-old from Milford who is on the school’s Campus Ministry board, said he’s excited that the youth of the diocese are being invited to express themselves.
“I think it’s awesome that the diocese is giving us this opportunity,” Cunha said. “Now it’s really in our hands. Now it’s up to us to take the opportunity to express what we’re feeling.”
Cuhna described his facilitator role as “listening to the voices of the students and the youth, letting them know that they have an opportunity to express what they’re feeling, and going back to the bishop with what they’ve said.”
Immaculata students will begin signing up for the school’s Speak Up Session after the New Year holiday. Sanford said that she has high hopes for the students who participate.
“I’m really excited about this opportunity for them to understand how the Church really functions,” she said. “They will definitely get to see that dialogue is possible and that their voices will be heard — that the Church is a living, breathing entity that listens to their voices, and that their bishop wants to listen to them.”
— Regina Kelly
*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