The US bishops have set five priorities as part of their strategic plan for the upcoming few years in their work together as the United Sates Conference of Catholic Bishops.  They include (not in any order of importance):

> Implementation of the pastoral initiative on marriage
> Faith formation focused on sacramental practice
> Priestly and religious vocations
> Life and dignity of the human person
> Recognition of cultural diversity with a special emphasis on Hispanic ministry in the spirit of Encuentro 2000

You can review a presentation of these in a meeting before national organizations here as well as see some of the identified objectives here. 

This little video might very well become my latest metaphor for Catholic Youth Ministry.

This little Tweenbot was originally conceived as a disposable creature which was more likely to struggle and die in the city than to reach their destination.

Yet, right in the middle of New York City, within the vastness, busy-ness, and perceived insensitivity of the cityscape, the Tweenbots were successful in rolling from their start point to their far-away destination assisted only by strangers.

Every time the robot got caught under a park bench, ground futilely against a curb, or became trapped in a pothole, some passerby would always rescue it and send it toward its goal. Never once was a Tweenbot lost or damaged.

Often, people would ignore the instructions to aim the Tweenbot in the “right” direction, if that direction meant sending the robot into a perilous situation. One man turned the robot back in the direction from which it had just come, saying out loud to the Tweenbot, “You can’t go that way, it’s toward the road.”

Do our efforts in Catholic Youth Ministry actually err in “sheltering” young people from the culture, from the parish, from their parents?  Do we treat teens as disposable creatures who will become lost or damaged?

  Want to read a master-work of a homily…? Check out Archbishop Dolan’s first day on the job in NYC.  Here’s a few favored moments (humor, quotable, faithful, inspirational), read it all here.

Maybe I should not be so flattered that so many are here . . . after all, everybody wants to “take sanctuary on income tax day!”

I’m so glad Mom is here this afternoon . . . especially because there’s a sale on at Macy’s!

For this is not all about Timothy Dolan, or all about cardinals and bishops, or about priests and sisters, or even about family and cherished friends. Nope . . . this is all about two people: Him and her . . . this is all about Jesus and His Bride, the Church. For, as de Lubac asked, “What would I ever know of Him without her?” The Resurrection, Easter, is the very foundation of our faith, our hope, our love. Everything in the Church commences when, like those two disciples on the road to Emmaus that first Easter, we recognize Jesus as risen from the dead. The Church herself begins.

For as “Jesus is the human face of God,” as Pope Benedict XVI often reminds us, the Church is the human face of Jesus.

And just what, I ask you, does the Church have to give? Does she have power and clout, property and prestige? Forget it! Those days are gone, if they ever did exist at all. The Church instead borrows the vocabulary Jesus Himself used in those days after He rose, as we speak of “a peace He gives us,” of “feeding my sheep,” of “teaching the nations.” The Church really has no treasure but her faith in the Lord, which is not bad at all, as we shrug and say with Peter and John in the Acts of the Apostles, “Silver and gold we have not, but, what we do have, we give: … Jesus Christ…!

For three weeks in July, 1992, I was on pilgrimage in Israel. I had a wonderful Franciscan guide who made sure I saw all the sacred places in the Holy Land. The day before I departed, he asked, “Is there anything left you want to see?” “Yes,” I replied, “I would like to walk the road to Emmaus.” “That we cannot do,” he told me, “You see, no one really knows where that village of Emmaus actually was, so there is no more road to Emmaus.” Sensing my disappointment, he remarked, “Maybe that’s part of God’s providence, because we can now make every journey we undertake a walk down the Road to Emmaus.”
My new friends of this great archdiocese, would you join your new pastor on an “adventure in fidelity,” as we turn the Staten Island Expressway, Fifth Avenue, Madison Avenue, Broadway, the FDR, the Major Deegan, and the New York State Thruway into the Road to Emmaus, as we witness a real “miracle on 34th street” and turn that into the road to Emmaus? For, dare to believe, that: From Staten Island to Sullivan County, from the Bowery, to the Bronx, to Newburgh, from White Plains to Poughkeepsie… He is walking right alongside us.

And that’s only “the good stuff!”  Read it all here.

Today, I’m wrapping up a much-needed eight-day vacation. It was a staycation, which involved sleeping in past the sunrise, video watching, and many naps.  At the end of a long March and spring, it was not only deserved but necessary.

Down time has allowed me to catch up a little on the blog – -  including catching up on a backlog of media for Wednesdays – -  much of which goes back as far as the NCCYM in Cleveland.  (Yikes!) So, let’s start posting media up again with this one.

I learn something about public speaking/ teaching everytime I sit in front of Mike Patin.

Here he is in front of a great parish and a great youth ministry but at an awful time and place.  The room was way wide, the adults (mostly parents) had hit the fringes of the room, and the kids were squirrelly having gathered on the first Sunday of the new year, not even having returned to their school classrooms yet.  Yet, Mike whittled away at the room bit by bit and won them over by the end of the night, never choosing to just go through the paces, but continuously, patiently, winning the right to be heard – with humor, authenticity, and connecting always to the Lord.

Mike spoke in the Christmas season, this is being posted up in the Easter season, and yet the message connects-  God sent Jesus, his Son, to communicate to us all, “Include Me!”

In the news are heroes local …
FORT MORGAN, CO — Some people don’t know the value of teenagers, but St. Helena Catholic Church youth minister Lance Hochanadel is not one of them. “They’re pretty marvelous people,” he said. “The next generation is in pretty good hands.” Hochanadel has run the youth group for the past three years, with the essential help of his wife, Carolyn, Michelle Hogan and Amy Beltran, as well as many chaperones and other volunteers who bring a lot energy and dedication to the effort, he said. Read more here.

and heroes national …
WASHINGTON, DC — The Catholic Youth Foundation USA declares that raising money in this economy is like climbing Mount Everest. This spring, they intend to not only climb mountains, but move mountains, in the service of our Catholic youth. For years, Bob and Maggie McCarty have shared a dream of going to Mount Everest. The trip is one of their life’s goals—they have been saving for it for a long time—and it is one hundred percent funded by them. Their love of rock climbing and ministry are crossing paths as their trip will now be used to raise funds for CYFUSA. Learn more about a this special campaign.

and heroes the world over …
TAIPEI, TAIWAN — Bishop Thomas Chung An-zu in Taiwan has called on Catholics at home and abroad to support the local Church’s work among young people as it officially dedicated Palm Sunday to them. Bishop Chung, who chairs the Catholic bishops’ youth desk in Taiwan, said in a letter that this annual dedication, starting this year, is to encourage “friends in and outside the Church” to donate generously toward formation work for youth. Read more here

The risk of a blog, or a facebook status updates, or a tweet on twitter is the potential of revealing a little too much about yourself under the presumption in anonymity.

Players in the NFL draft are discovering that this is untrue as potential teams are scouring social network sites for insight on the character of their prospects.

Now, comes an insightful take of the psychology of our tweeting (Hit the link, it will give you an added take on your kids and peers’ use of facebook/ tweets!)

As for me, I’m gonna grab a sandwich and a nap!

Tens of thousands of new Catholics are expected to join the Catholic Church in the U.S. in 2009, with many doing so tonight at the Easter Vigil liturgies. (More here.)

In the Archdiocese of Baltimore, nine hundred and eighty-four local adults are preparing to become Catholics during Holy Week this year, a third more than joined the church locally in 2008. Sharon Bogusz, the archdiocesan coordinator for adult faith formation, says there are as many reasons for conversion as there are converts. “No two stories are the same, each person comes with a different story of how God has moved them and how their heart has changed and why they’re embracing faith.”  Read more here.

Slumdog Millionaire is now on the video shelves or available from Netflix or other services.

Father Robert Barron is a sought-after speaker on the spiritual life as well as the Francis Cardinal George Chair of Faith and Culture at University of St. Mary of the Lake/Mundelein Seminary in Mundelein, IL.   Here he oders a theological take on last year’s Oscar winner:

God gives us exactly what we need.

Our freedom is a lured freedom, it is a drawn freedom… and it is being drawn by God.

As we are drawn into the story of the Lord through the Triduum, may we also recognize that our own stories are built upon or choices to cooperate with the generous grace of our Creator.