Steubenville Youth Conferences; NEWS

Chippewa teens off to California

By EMILIO AITA

Special to the Chippewa Herald

A group of Catholic teens from Chippewa Falls have worked hard to make the trip to a Steubenville Youth Conference in San Diego , Calif. a reality. This year, Chippewa Falls Youth Ministry, a Catholic organization that serves the parishes of Chippewa County and works with youth of all ages, is sponsoring the trip.

This is the first time in a few years a group is leaving from Chippewa Falls . We gratefully received community support and private donations, but the students raised most of the money themselves.

Our two biggest fundraisers were a pancake breakfast with the Easter bunny on Holy Saturday and a three-on-three basketball tournament at Chippewa Falls Middle School .

On Thursday, July 26 the group left Chippewa Falls for San Diego , Calif. The Franciscan University of Steubenville Ohio puts on these conferences all over the U.S.

Steubenville Youth Conferences have become famous among Catholic teens. This summer there are 17 conferences in nine different states across the United States and one in Nova Scotia . Over 39,000 teens will witness the awesome power of the Holy Spirit that moves through these events.

This year’s theme is “ALL ACCESS” from the Bible verse Ephesians 2:17-18. The youth will be directed on how to gain full access to God by giving Him all access to our own lives. We must let the total self-giving love of the Holy Trinity penetrate every facet of our daily lives in order to grow spiritually.

The spiritual fruits of these events are nearly countless. Teens come back on fire for their faith and spiritually charged to live a life for Christ. After having the opportunity to go to Holy Mass and receive the Eucharist every day, and receive the Sacrament of Confession they begin to seek out God and his Church in a way they never have before.

Along with Mass and the Sacraments, these one-of-a-kind conferences also include speakers, small group sessions, Eucharistic Adoration, praise and worship, Christian music (Matt Maher is performing in San Diego ) and lots of fellowship.

The group from Chippewa includes 34 teenagers and four adult chaperones, one of which is a priest from our Diocese. I have the privilege of leading the group as Associate Director of Chippewa Falls Youth Ministry and Campus Minister at McDonell Central Catholic High School . Youth Ministers and parishes from Eau Claire , Cornell, and other surrounding areas sponsor similar trips as well.

The past couple of years the teens in Chippewa have joined one of these other groups. This is the first time in a few years that there is a group leaving from Chippewa, and I’m proud to be accompanying them to my first Steubenville Conference.

Together, Deacon Thomas Kinnick and I run Chippewa Falls Youth Ministry, organizing weekly youth group meetings, a variety of trips, and monthly Teen Life Nights.

Already this year, I took a group on a pilgrimage to Washington , D.C. to participate in the annual Pro-Life March. Deacon Kinnick just returned from Lourdes, France with a group of about 24 youth and adults. I will also be leading the trip to California .

To find more information on the Steubenville Youth Conferences and Chippewa Falls Youth Ministry visit us at www.chippewafallsyouthministry.org.

Emilio Aita is the Associate Director of Chippewa Falls Youth Ministry and Campus Minister at McDonell Central Catholic High School .

Thousands Attend Youth Conferences
7/2/2007

Franciscan University Hosts 39,000 Teens for Summer Weekends of Conversion, Evangelization

STEUBENVILLE, OH--Over three consecutive weekends in June, more than 5,500 Catholic teens attended evangelistic youth conferences held on the campus of Franciscan University of Steubenville, Ohio.

They numbered among the 39,000 teens attending 17 Franciscan University youth conferences being held this summer in 9 states and Nova Scotia, making them part of the largest youth evangelization program of its kind in the US.

For Kylie Hess of Gross Point, Michigan, the June 15-17 gathering in Steubenville was her third and last. Ready to start college in the fall, Hess said the conferences have helped her grow “closer and closer” to God. "And I plan to keep God always in the front of my mind, not in the back,” while in college, she said.

That’s the response conference organizers hope for from the talks, praise and worship, Masses, Holy Hours and opportunities for the sacrament of reconciliation available at each weekend.

"We believe in a God of miracles," conference host Steve Angrisano proclaimed, as he told story after story of the miracles he's seen as a national youth minister and Catholic musician. Angrisano spoke of the tragic Columbine High School shootings in 1999.  Four of the 12 students who died were members of his parish.  God, he said, respects human freedom, but does all he can to frustrate evil.

Angrisano told listeners about Val, who was asked to deny her faith by the killers.  "She knew that she was about to say her last words on earth, and she didn't want to spend them denying God." After she refused, they shot her 12 times. Though she almost bled to death in the ambulance, the bullets somehow missed her vital organs. "We believe in a God of miracles," Angrisano reiterated.

At the June 22-24 conference in Steubenville, speaker Mark Hart affirmed the teens, admitting that he might have struggled to attend a conference like this when he was their age.  Hart said, "I know a lot of you have rough relationships with your parents, but being a dad is tough."  He encouraged the teens to invite the Holy Spirit into their lives, "to release the hidden excellence of your hearts." 

With regard to prayer, Hart had memorable words of wisdom for the teens: "God gave you two ears and one mouth, use them proportionately."

This year’s conference theme, “All Access,” is based on Ephesians 2:17-18. Speaker and conference organizer John Beaulieu told audiences, “Jesus is your backstage pass. Christ comes this weekend to give you access to the very life of God, to the Trinity, the most incredible community of love imaginable.”

He also challenged them: “How much of your life does God have access to? Where are you with God?”

With a chock-full schedule, the teens found plenty of opportunities to gain access to God. Many of them spoke of conversion and healing.

Sarah Khanjian of Wyckoff, New Jersey, didn't want to come this year but said she was touched by Angrisano's words during prayer.  "Now I want to listen more to the Spirit speaking in my life," she says.  Khanjian is on her way to the University of Notre Dame and is eager to help the Church become more youth-friendly.

Ryan Klackle, a sophomore at Greenville High School in Greenville, Michigan, says he enjoyed the access the conferences offered to the sacraments.  "It's awesome to have the opportunity for confession every day and Mass every day, just to be with Christ more and more."

That was just the message Father Larry Richards of Erie, Pennsylvania, gave in a convicting June 16 talk urging teens to get to confession: "The reason people get into heaven is because Jesus Christ died for our sins, not because you are a good person.  Nowhere in the Bible does it say that good people go to heaven." 

He urged them to "live every day with the end in mind: You are going to die. What do you want to happen with your last breath? Be a saint."

At the first Steubenville conference Catholic musician Sean Forrest shared that his spiritual path was a crooked one, telling of the days when he thought he had it all, making $2,000 to $6,000 playing music at a bar. Then he heard the Holy Spirit say to him, "When I see you I don't see your yacht or your condo." He felt naked before God and saw all the alcoholism and abuse he enabled.  Since then, he has devoted his life to making Christian music and ministering to the youth.

Looking to 2008, a youth conference will be held for the first time in the Diocese of Palm Beach, Florida, with additional expansion in 2008 or 2009 to the Diocese of Spokane, Washington.

More information about the summer youth conferences, including All Access Podcasts of talks may be found at www.franciscanyouth.com.

Photos are available on Steubenville’s website photo gallery page.

Main - Calendar - Parishes - Pro-Life Club - Totus Tuus - Dead Theologians’ Society

Teen Life Night - Weekly Youth Groups - Pilgrimages & Trips - Links