We are starting a series of Thursday podcasts, all in support of the National Conference on Catholic Youth Ministry to be held in New Orleans on
December 9-12.

First up are John Smestad and  Maruchi Palomo from the Archdiocese of New Orleans.  In part, they discuss the impact of the generosity of the Catholic Youth Ministry field and the Catholic Youth Foundation-USA following Katrina.

Facebook is fascinating.  (Don’t even get me started on the ten simultaneous FB chats I was having yesterday with people who were all in the same room attending an in-service on Climate Change up in Newport)  Yesterday, I received a multitude of birthday greetings,many via facebook, which was very sweet. No facebook birthday greeting, however, was more interesting than this one!!!!!   Darn it, now I’m wishing I “friended” his Blessed Mother, as well!!!!  Maybe next year!

Dr. Carole Eipers is Vice President and Executive Director of Catechetics for William H. Sadlier, Inc. She was a key member of the development team for Sadlier We Believe, a catechetical program for K-8. Carole served in parish ministries for over twenty years as a Junior High teacher, Director of Religious Education, Catholic Youth Ministry and Pastoral Associate. She served in both suburban and urban parishes and schools.

In today’s podcast, Carole encourages each of us to “Keep your passion. In spite of the challenges and complexities, there have been enormous strides in what we are doing in all dimensions of catechesis and certainly in the catechesis of youth. We certainly have to keep being passionate about it and giving it our all and listening to youth… we have to be able to proclaim Jesus Christ to youth in a way that answers the real questions that they are asking.

The universal urging of the heart is to find home and home is much more than the surface architecture of a house. It really is important to recognize that structures are needed but those structures are there in order to be safe and to provide shelter. So that home-building could happen once the house-building is done.

So says today’s podcast guest, Dr. Michael Horan, professor of religious education and pastoral theology at Loyola Marymount University (LMU), Los Angeles. Michael was a presenter and a collaborator at the National Symposium on Adolescent Catechesis.  He lead a session (this is the article referred to in the podcast) as well as a earlier work. 

Michael reminds us: Whatever it is that we are to do; a big vision will also quickly admit that there are many, many ways to reach that vision and the ways would be dependent upon the very people whom we seek to serve and with whom and for whom we minister.

The National Symposium for Adolescent Catechesis just wrapped up this past weekend. Over 100 school, religious education, and youth ministry “experts” were invited to engage in a dialogue about where we should be going next in this vital component of the church’s work with young people.

Micheál de Barra from Ireland was one the auspicious list of invitees. He is a Catechetical Editor and writer for Veritas, who publishes religious education textbooks for Primary and Post-Primary schools. Their Primary school textbooks are used in schools throughout Scotland, as well as in Ireland.

If you have been a regular reader of the blog, you know how much we appreciate a “big church”/ international perspective on our ministry, having previous heard voices from Canada and Australia. (Man, did I mess up when I forgot to pack the digital voice recorder for WYD!!)

Quote to note: The Irish Church, not just the catechetics aspect of it, but the entire church is at a crossroads. We’ve come through a whole transformation from being an 80% mass attending to maybe somewhere between 40-50%. And the problem area seems to be the under 25 (year olds). The signs of hope are that some people are realizing that this whole scramble to make money and pursue wealth is answering bring the fulfillment that they desire. We are trying to situate our catechetical revival into that and state that “What you are missing is God.”

Again for some podcasts, we return back to The Institute in Adolescent Catechesis which was blogged about back in August.

While there, we visited with Lynette Saenz who is the director of religious education at Christ Our Savior Cathedral Parish in Santa Ana, CA.  (That’s in the Orange diocese.)  Lynette also works with Fe y Vida. 

She has been looking at research, especially noticing that while the NSYR suggests that in kids “that you get what the parents are;” this is not especially true especially related to Hispanic young people.

Shannon Cerneka and his partner (the No-Prize winning Orin Johnson) form Oddwalk Ministries.  Together, they provided music for us while we were at Our Lady of the Snows.  But after doing that, Shannon put on his other hat as a youth minister for St. Peter in Jefferson City, MO, and sat in through all the sessions.

For Shannon, we need to be able to recognize the many diverse settings “where young people are already involved.”  But, we also need to be multi-faceted in our approaches and appeals to young people.

As his young 4-year-old daughter reports, Shannon “works with Jesus,” and I believe that she is absolutely correct!

We are keeping in the pattern of posting up media on Wednesday.  Two we have two more podcasts for you from the handful of interviews we collected this summer at the The Institute in Adolescent Catechesis which was blogged about back in August.

While there, Susan Dorfmeister, director of the Office for Youth and Young Adult Ministry in Dallas, stepped outside for a brief podcast.  Susan is upbeat about adolescent catechesis, indicating that “our legacy is a positive legacy… There are young people who can speak and articulate and live the life of Jesus Christ because of those who risked to be our front of a new field of the lay ecclesial minister, the youth minister.”

Also meet John Gencarelli from St. Leo’s in Omaha who advocates for the whole community to come together to learn together and learn from each other. He is well aware that teens want catechesis presented in a fun way, but also believes that what they really want is content, they want to know what make being Catholic different.

Just a note… I try as best as possible to edit goof-ups, umms, and ahhs out of the podcast.  I kept the flubbed intro for John however because he seemed so entertained by it.  “Gencarelli- sounds just like it’s spelled.”

Following Bishop Malone from last Wednesday, here’s a second podcast and video combination from the October 11th Institute.  Today, we are featuring J. Michael Norman, associate director in the Office of Religious Education for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. Mike was in Baltimore leading a youth ministry track ay the conference.

Listen to the podcast to learn that Mike dreams of a future where “We will finally take Renewing the Vision and do part of it that we have never done. We will really grab hold of this catechetical enterprise, see that youth ministry has been doing catechesis and

can become one of the strongest catechetical components of our church. What better ministry does the ‘aha’ moment for a young person????”

Meanwhile, here’s my fourth shot at self-producing YouTube.   They are gonna get better, folks!  Our office just came into possession of some new Flip videocameras.  We see what a difference those make!!!  And I’m learning more regarding editing as well, so get prepared to become familiar with these “bumpers.”  (Anyone recognized the music yet!!!)

So, with acknowledgement that neither the audio nor the image is of the highest quality, please watch Mike as a storyteller – - who places his hands, his face, his voice, his very self all in service of the story – - – which is exactly that which is required of a good catechists. Let us place ourselves in service of The Story!