Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:00 <silence>
Speaker 1 00:00:10 Welcome to another edition of Big City Catholics. I'm your host, Bishop Brennan, Bishop Brooklyn, and I'm here today with Father Dwayne Davis, co-hosting with me. Father Duane and I are down in the national harbor in Maryland, where we're taking part in the National Black Catholic Congress that's taken place in these last couple of days. Welcome, father Duane. Well,
Speaker 2 00:00:33 Thank you for having me with you today, Bishop. Glad
Speaker 1 00:00:35 You're here. Why don't we begin in prayer if you would like to lead us. Yes.
Speaker 2 00:00:39 Name the Father, son, and Holy Spirit. Amen. Good and gracious God, we thank you for the day that you've given to us. We thank you for the gift of life. We thank you for all our brothers and sisters, and we thank you for especially this national Black Catholic Congress 13. We ask you to be with us. Help us to learn all that we need to learn so that we can bring it back into our parishes and into our diocese. Maybe we always know that we are your sons and daughters, but we always know that you desire to be with us these days and all the days of our lives based all these things through Christ our Lord.
Speaker 1 00:01:14 Amen. Father, father, son, the Holy Spirit. Amen. We're doing an on location edition of this big city Catholics podcast and I thank you for stepping in to help me co-host it, but also to allow me to organize really a number of the participants to share their voices with us today.
Speaker 2 00:01:32 It's been a great joy to really be a part of this. And this is my third Congress. I've been to Congress in Indianapolis as a seminarian. At that time I was the president of the National Black Catholic Seminarian Association and I was in Congress in Orlando and I helped with the liturgy for Orlando. And now we're here for the Washington in Washington arb and I'm the chairman for the youth section in Congress. It's really exciting because the diocese of Brooklyn always show up and show out, and this year we have 27 young people with us and we have 27 adults with us and six priests from the diocese. At least that's the official number. Uh, it seems like there might be a few other people that,
Speaker 1 00:02:07 So we've been meeting people along the way who've come down on their own. Yes. It seems to, you've been very much involved with the youth track, so it was really organizing some of the different conferences and opportunities for the young people.
Speaker 2 00:02:20 Yeah, it is very important to us and to Congress that our young people get the most out of this experience because in the next Congress in five years they will be the adults. And so it's important for us to bridge that gap and and allow them to have real good experience. So we have national speakers from all over the country in in very real ways that are with us this week, trying to engage you to and energize the young people as well.
Speaker 1 00:02:42 And I've noticed that a lot of it has to do with looking forward, giving them a glimpse at the opportunities that are right there at their doorstep to encourage them to seek after their dreams and really try to live them out.
Speaker 2 00:02:53 Oh, definitely. That looking forward is important and oftentimes our young people don't know about certain experiences because they never heard of it. And so we wanna try to put it at the forefront for them right from the beginning. So an example today we have Bud Howard University and Xavier University are here and the president of Xavier University is here. And so our young people have one-on-one connection and can have that contact with those universities.
Speaker 1 00:03:18 And I've noticed that several in our group were anxious really to meet some of these people. Why don't we listen to some of the voices of both our adult and youth delegates? So I'm here with some of the members of our diocesan delegation from Brooklyn and Queens, as well as some of our youth delegation part of the ambassador program. And so right now I'm speaking with Adriana Donna? Yes. And of St. Thomas Aquinas Parish in Flatlands. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So Adriana, where are you in school now?
Speaker 3 00:03:46 I'm about to be a freshman in college.
Speaker 1 00:03:48 Okay. So you just graduated from Midwood High School? Midwood High School. Great. And where are you going to college?
Speaker 3 00:03:53 St. Francis College.
Speaker 1 00:03:54 Oh, nice And local. I love the Franciscan Brothers. Yes, I've known them a long time and I love that school. And what are you gonna study?
Speaker 3 00:04:01 Poli sci.
Speaker 1 00:04:02 Wow, okay. What got you interested in that?
Speaker 3 00:04:04 I like law and history, so I thought maybe I should try this major and if I don't, I'll just change majors, you know?
Speaker 1 00:04:09 That's the way to be <laugh>. Now you're here on the youth delegation to the Congress. How has it been? It is
Speaker 3 00:04:15 Good. I'm also on the youth track, so I've been helping Father Dwayne plan it out.
Speaker 1 00:04:18 I've been proud of our delegates. You guys are involved in every aspect of it. I'm seeing Brooklyn, Queens all over the place. What stood out for you so far?
Speaker 3 00:04:26 I think my favorite part so far was the breakout. Session number one was Mr. Jeffrey Ulysses. He did from Passion and purpose, he helps youth just explains like different ways how to turn your passion into a way to make money in something you do.
Speaker 1 00:04:40 Okay, that's interesting. Some real practical advice there. Right, exactly. And you've had a number of cultural events. We've had music and prayer and mm-hmm. <affirmative> Yesterday you had the chance to go to the African American Museum here in Washington dc How was that?
Speaker 3 00:04:53 It was nice. I think our favorite part was when we walked through the sports part.
Speaker 1 00:04:57 Now you are a member of the Ambassador program. How long have you been part of the ambassadors?
Speaker 3 00:05:01 I've been part of the Ambassadors since 2019, my freshman year of high school.
Speaker 1 00:05:05 Tell us about that. Some of the people who listened to the podcast would not be as familiar about with the Ambassador program. Something I'm very proud of,
Speaker 3 00:05:11 The Ambassador program is basically a youth leadership program that also does community service in our community and we do mission trips outside the country as well. How
Speaker 1 00:05:21 Did you get interested in the ambassador program?
Speaker 3 00:05:23 I'd say when I was in around the fifth grade, my two older brothers, Dylan and Julian, they were also ambassadors under Father Dwayne. And when I saw them doing all the service work and going on the trips especially, I was like, I wanna join this program also. Oh
Speaker 1 00:05:37 Good. And are you glad you did?
Speaker 3 00:05:38 I'm super happy I did.
Speaker 1 00:05:40 Oh, that's good. I bet you met nice people along the way.
Speaker 3 00:05:42 I met a lot of friends here. That's
Speaker 1 00:05:44 Good. And that's gonna stick with you for life. For Life. What are some of the experiences that you've had that you've enjoyed?
Speaker 3 00:05:48 Unfortunately, due to Covid, we haven't been able to go on any out of the country experiences, but we have gone to Texas and California already and those were very fun experiences.
Speaker 1 00:05:59 What did you do there
Speaker 3 00:06:00 For Texas? We went to Grapevine for the Archbishop Light Conference. It was a good experience. And for California we went to N C Y C, which is another Catholic youth conference. Yes,
Speaker 1 00:06:11 That's right. I think I've got some pictures of you guys over there in California. <laugh> Sacred Heart Parish was there as well, right? Father Henry Torres. Oh yes,
Speaker 3 00:06:20 Yes. Yeah, that's yes.
Speaker 1 00:06:21 <laugh>, that's Mary of Nazareth Parish. So you were with some of the other Brooklyn youth, you went all the way across the country for that. You were involved at St. Thomas Prius Parish. Tell me about your experience in your parish at
Speaker 3 00:06:31 St. Thomas. I alter server usher, youth lector, part-time croon secretary. I do lot.
Speaker 1 00:06:37 You do it all? I do it all. <laugh>. That's great. So do you find that you're gonna be able to take any of the experiences from here back with you to Brooklyn?
Speaker 3 00:06:46 Yes. When we get back, we're probably gonna speak to some of the other ambassadors who were unable to come on the trip, share our experiences with them. So maybe they can go on the next conference trip and also experience something like this.
Speaker 1 00:06:57 I think that's great And I think you'll be a bright shining light in St. Francis College. Thank you. I'm hoping to get more and more involved at St. Francis, so I hope I get to see you over there as well. Hopefully I see you there. Very good. Thank you very much. Again, speaking now with Joseph Allen, also from St. Thomas Aquinas Parish. Ian Flatlands. Joseph, nice to talk with you. Nice to meet you
Speaker 5 00:07:28 Michelle.
Speaker 1 00:07:29 I've been seeing you all through the week. Real proud seeing you up on the altar the other day. Yes, at the uh, mass, at the Basilica Shrine Basilica, Brooklyn Queens has been well represented this week. And you are the IT person. I think you've been to the social media guy for this team. Yes.
Speaker 5 00:07:43 Posting on Facebook, taking pictures, Instagram, doing all of that, making sure that that we capture our presence here at Congress and share it with the people of our parish.
Speaker 1 00:07:53 You know, I'm learning by my experience here that's really important. People are interested in what's going on and they want to share the experiences. So you are a delegate. So you represent Brooklyn Queens to the national group here, but also now you represent the national experience back to people in Brooklyn, Queens and you're doing it in real time. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. That's good. I'm impressed. Tell me, Joseph, where did you go to high school?
Speaker 5 00:08:16 Brooklyn Technical High School, which is a specialized high school and I graduated there this summer. And so I'll be attending Boston University in the fall and I'll be doing data science. Wow.
Speaker 1 00:08:27 Did you get much technical experience in high school? Is it really? Yeah.
Speaker 5 00:08:31 Yeah. We did have majors that I, I did that did focus a lot on coding and stuff like that. But I think what made me go towards data science was statistics, because I love to do numbers to do, you know, data, export data and how they signify to us in the real world.
Speaker 1 00:08:48 That's a lot of math. Yes. You like that? I love math. I love math. Good for you. Good for you. That's what I studied in uh, college myself. Really? Yeah. I wasn't as good on the statistics side. I liked the other math, like calculus <crosstalk>. Tell me, how has your week been? 'cause it's more than the congress. The ambassadors have been down here a few days. Right.
Speaker 5 00:09:05 So we started off at the Washington um, retreat house and we moved here Tuesday or Wednesday. That experience was a very calm and peaceful experience. I think that it was definitely a good start for this trip simply because we were able to kind of relax like around the whole area and kind of be able to be together as a group before we kind of headed into
Speaker 1 00:09:25 The big group. So you like you, you got two time with each other. Exactly. Yeah. So we're a group of about 35 and so it was good that you could kind of get uh,
Speaker 5 00:09:34 Connect <crosstalk>. Yeah. Connect with each other before we kind of
Speaker 1 00:09:37 Expand. Yeah. With the other 3000 people. Yeah, exactly. <laugh> <laugh>. That that's good. That's good.
Speaker 5 00:09:43 So we did, we did do masses. We went to the National Shrine for St. Paul I second and we didn't have mass there. We also visited the Basilica and we really just kind of took it in, took the, took through the
Speaker 1 00:09:55 Hallway. Actually I heard about that Father Vito Bonano is one of our priests from Brooklyn and he was telling me he heard through the grapevine that there was a group from Brooklyn here and he came running to see you he said. And you saw some of the uh, historical sites of Washington, DC Washington, yep.
Speaker 5 00:10:12 The Capitol Hill, the White House, all of that. Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:10:15 And tell me what's been the highlight of the Congress?
Speaker 5 00:10:18 Honestly, I think for me it would have to be the music. Music is really something that is just like, it's a very expressive art form and I think that this Congress has done an extremely well job at being able to bring the presence of God through their music and and all that. I've definitely felt that in me every time that we have those, those sessions.
Speaker 1 00:10:40 I have to agree with you. I have to agree with you. Especially this morning prayer sessions. Yes, exactly. No, I think that's great. And what are you hoping now to take back with you to Brooklyn and Queens? From the experience,
Speaker 5 00:10:50 I think I'm hoping to take back a new perspective on black Catholic culture and how they've been able to express their history throughout different ways. And so I'm hoping that I'm able to share that experience with other people so that they can also be excited to also come and be aware and be present and a part of different cultures as well.
Speaker 1 00:11:12 That's excellent. And your experience has been as a this youth leadership training. So you are recognized as a leader. Tell me about your experience with the ambassadors. So
Speaker 5 00:11:20 I joined in my freshman year also in 2019. And obviously we weren't really in person a lot, but I did have the opportunity to go to Indiana for N C Y C in 2019. I think that was my first trip with like everybody. And then throughout the pandemic we've also been kind of helping our church, our community with giving out food. But when we came back we've been able to connect with each other more and I think that that experience has definitely helped me become more of a leader, helped me have a, a better mindset on the people that I am with in the um, ambassador program. We've also had speakers come to speak to our youth about their, their experience to bring their, their wisdom to us. We've had speakers from NASA such as Mr. Grant. We've had an opera singer before. We've had a writing professor. I think we've just had different occupations, different jobs, different people who are also involved with their faith. And so they've kind of given us their wisdom and their experience so that we can be able to grow and be the best person that we can throughout our college and adult life.
Speaker 1 00:12:27 And really show you all these open opportunities, opportunities are there before you. Right. That that has to be really exciting. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, I have to confess, I noticed in yesterday's morning's session the fellow you spoke about from nasa, Mr. Grant, Mr. Grant. Yes. That he's here at the Congress, he's here and you made a point of going over to greet him. You build those relationships and those again, those are with you for life.
Speaker 5 00:12:47 It has been a very great experience and I would definitely do it again if I could.
Speaker 1 00:12:51 Good. Very good. Well I think you're going to take some of those gifts with you up to Boston University. Yes. One once a leader now you've got those qualities. You, you'll stand out as a leader and even in your parish you'll stay involved. You're pretty involved at St. Thomas, right? Yes,
Speaker 5 00:13:04 I've been an ALTA server since I was eight. I've been a ackerson the IT guy. Like you said, I've also helped out with our Sunday school program.
Speaker 1 00:13:14 Very good. Thank you Joseph. Now I am here with Ruth Mackle of Sacred Heart Parish in Cambria Heights. Ruth, you and I met once before, didn't we? Before this congress? Yes, I had a great privilege. But how did we meet?
Speaker 6 00:13:39 Well you confirmed me. That's
Speaker 1 00:13:40 Right.
Speaker 6 00:13:41 And then you visited the church and then you visited the school.
Speaker 1 00:13:45 That's right. So that's the connection I was looking for. And where do you uh go to high school?
Speaker 6 00:13:50 I go to St. Mary's High School in Manhasset. Ninth grade, right In ninth grade
Speaker 1 00:13:54 Time. Have you lived there so far?
Speaker 6 00:13:55 It's a good school. I enjoy it.
Speaker 1 00:13:58 And you've been part of the ambassador program how long? Since
Speaker 6 00:14:02 September.
Speaker 1 00:14:02 Since September. So it's a high school program, right? Yes. It starts in high school. So you really got right into it. What drew you into it? How did you find out about the ambassador program and what made you interested
Speaker 6 00:14:12 Ms. Ashley, our youth coordinator at Sacred Heart, she actually recommended me for it and my mom explained how it was gonna teach me leadership skills and how to get into college and networking for future job opportunities. And I was like, I wanna do this. And then during the interview I heard that we got to travel and I was like, no, I definitely want to do this
Speaker 7 00:14:34 <laugh>.
Speaker 1 00:14:36 That's good for you. And here you are traveling now down to Maryland and Washington DC right? Yes. That's good. Very good. And one of the experiences at something like a congress is certainly you have relationships within your own group, right? Within the ambassadors you get to know each other more by spending a lot of time together, right? Yes. But you are also meeting people from all over the country. Has that been something exciting for you?
Speaker 6 00:15:01 Yes, actually I have a friend who lives here in Maryland who I met here and another one who lives in Seattle who I also met here.
Speaker 1 00:15:10 And isn't that great to have those kinds of relationships now that span the country? Yes. Good. Tell me, what has been your experience at the Congress so far? What have you
Speaker 6 00:15:18 Enjoyed? So I think I most enjoyed the time that the youth got to spend together. 'cause that made more opportunities for us to make more friends. And I especially liked when we played all those games together on the first night
Speaker 1 00:15:31 That that looked like a lot of fun. You're pointing out the fact that here at the Congress there were two tracks. There's a general track that everybody's involved in and then there's an adult track but there's a special youth track and you have special speakers, special activities and you're part of that. So that's great. You are involved in your parish at Sacred Heart?
Speaker 6 00:15:47 Yes. I'm the head altar server. So I'm in charge of training all the younger ones. I also used to be in the choir and I'm thinking about becoming a lector
Speaker 1 00:15:55 Boy. Those are all very exciting kinds of things. And tell me about the earlier part of the week. You were here for a couple of days before. Oh,
Speaker 6 00:16:02 We were in the Washington Retreat house. We went to the Museum of St. St. John Paul II and the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. We got to explore those two buildings. They're really very nice. Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:16:18 You actually had two opportunities at the Shrine, right? Yes. So you sort of had your own private time in the Shrine. Right. And then yesterday you were there with about 3000 people. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. And it's exciting to see it both ways isn't it? Yes. It's nice to be able to walk around and not have the crowds but it's nice to be part of something big. Yes. Right. And how have you enjoyed the music so far?
Speaker 6 00:16:37 I love the music. Actually I was singing along almost dancing this morning yesterday. I didn't know many of the songs but I learned the refrains 'cause they were sung over and over and I really enjoyed them.
Speaker 1 00:16:49 And what are you hoping to bring back now you're at the beginning part of the ambassador program so you've got some good experiences here and hopefully now you'll be an ambassador back in Queens.
Speaker 6 00:16:59 When I get back to Queens, I hope to be able to share this experience with my fellow ambassadors and maybe be able to convince them to come to some of our other travels later on.
Speaker 1 00:17:11 So imagine you've had a chance to talk to the eighth graders. What would you like to say to them about being an ambassador? Would you want to try to encourage them?
Speaker 6 00:17:21 I'd like to encourage them to join the ambassador program because it's a really helpful program to be in. Teaches you leadership skills, college skills. There's also networking opportunities if you're trying to get a job. And it's a pretty fun program plus all of those other things. You
Speaker 1 00:17:37 Mentioned the networking. So you get to meet people in different fields and
Speaker 6 00:17:40 Yes, the speakers come and talk to us. They share their knowledge and then if you feel like you connected to a speaker really well, then you can actually like speak to the speaker and get to know them and they could hook you up with a job later on.
Speaker 1 00:17:56 And it also just opens the whole world to you, right? Yes. Good. Before the Congress, you had some interesting visits. We spoke about the shrine and and museums. So tell me what else did you do?
Speaker 6 00:18:07 We also went to Catholic University of America. We had a tour there and then we went to Howard University also. I think I liked Howard University a lot. Catholic University was nice.
Speaker 1 00:18:18 The whole point I think of doing these college visits is again, just to show you all the different possibilities that are out there, right? Yes. What do you think you'd like to study one day? It's still early yet. I know.
Speaker 6 00:18:28 Medicine and or engineering.
Speaker 1 00:18:30 Wow. Pretty impressive. Good. Well you've got lots of opportunities ahead of you and I, I wish you the best along the way and I'm so glad I had a chance to talk to you. You celebrate somebody's confirmation. It's real nice a year later to connect again and to see the work of the Holy Spirit that Holy spirit's working in you, isn't it? Yes. Good for you. Thanks a lot. Thank
Speaker 6 00:18:49 You.
Speaker 1 00:18:58 Michelle Gire is one of our delegates from Brooklyn and Queens and we know each other because we were fellow pilgrims this past spring. In some ways it was just providential by the grace of God that we would be at the same places at the same time, same time. Absolutely
Speaker 8 00:19:12 <laugh>.
Speaker 1 00:19:13 Absolutely. So Dan, tell me about the experience down here in Maryland and Washington DC This is my
Speaker 8 00:19:19 First Congress. I've never been to Congress before and I am just amazed at the number of Catholics from all over the country and what amazes me even more here, we come together as all blacks because you have the Africans are here. I'm of Haitians said we have Asian, we have various African countries and we are all here as black Catholics. We are the universal church and we are here together worshiping and planning.
Speaker 1 00:19:48 In fact, the theme for the conference comes from the book of Habakkuk is called Write the Vision. Yes. Right. The vision
Speaker 8 00:19:54 And, and we need to be able to participate in writing the vision because we are the vision. We are to live the vision.
Speaker 1 00:20:01 Right. This morning we remembered some of the people from the past. Yes. Some of the people from the far distant past. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, but some of the people who've been part of our lives. Yes. Even in the last year or so. Mm-hmm
Speaker 8 00:20:12 <affirmative>, I, um, I was moved because I was very close to Bishop Giri and even Bishop Sheri. During C we did a virtual overnight prayer vigil and both Bishop Sheri and Bishop Gee spent the night virtually praying. So moved
Speaker 1 00:20:28 And now they passed the baton to us.
Speaker 8 00:20:29 Yes.
Speaker 1 00:20:30 We remembered them in prayer and now we pick up the pen, so to speak. Exactly. Continued to write that vision. Exactly. And like you said, we are that vision.
Speaker 8 00:20:37 We are the vision, we are the vision. Very good to live it.
Speaker 1 00:20:40 Anything that stood out from the congress experience?
Speaker 8 00:20:43 Yesterday I attended a breakout session and it was talking about evangelizing different cultures and we talk about, you know, the African culture, the Haitian culture. And then it was brought to me another culture, which is the young adult culture, which is sometimes we forget, we tend to focus on the youth and the adults. And I think we really need to realize, you know, our next leaders in the church are the young adults and we need to pay attention to them. We need to pay attention to them.
Speaker 1 00:21:12 Good insight. Well, uh, anything you think you'd like to take back? Oh,
Speaker 8 00:21:16 I have a lot. One of the things in the, the other workshop I went to, it was about how to use testimonies in evangelization and you know, talking about bringing people back to church and they showed testimonies and the first three testimonies were about people that came back to church because they missed the connection. They miss fellowship. And I said, you know, we need to be honest and look at ourselves. If our churches, if the people aren't coming back, we need to look. Did we fail to make that connection? And we need to find ways to reconnect
Speaker 1 00:21:48 Again. It brings us back to that whole Eucharistic revival. Yes. Yes. That's great. I can't wait. That's good. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks for being with me today. But thanks to for representing us here in Oh, it's a pleasure
Speaker 8 00:21:59 Washington. It's a pleasure. Brooklyn's in
Speaker 1 00:22:01 The house. Brooklyn's in the house. <laugh>. <laugh>. Thanks. Alright,
Speaker 4 00:22:04 Take care.
Speaker 1 00:22:15 So here at the National Black Catholic Congress, I've had the chance to meet with some of our youth delegates, but also a number of our adult delegates from Brooklyn and Queens. And Arlene Latimer is really kind of crossing over the two because you're here as part of our adult delegation, but you're also working as a chaperone or an advisor to the youth program. Is that correct? That's correct. So Alene tell me, what parish are you representing?
Speaker 9 00:22:42 The parish of St. Matthews and it's our Lady of Charity worship site.
Speaker 1 00:22:46 Tell me about your experience here at the Congress.
Speaker 9 00:22:48 You can see the changes, the growths of the ambassadors and the young adults as they're participating in some of the sessions. And I have found that seeing other like-minded people and seeing like-minded people who look like you is very strengthening and gives them courage to speak out and proclaim their belief system. So I think the value is, you can't even measure it.
Speaker 1 00:23:11 That's amazing. That's great. This has been a powerful week. So we've had some powerful speakers, but we've also had some very touchy moments of prayer. And, and how has that experience been for you?
Speaker 9 00:23:22 I love music. So particularly when we have the praise and worship, it really, really touches my heart. And at our Lady of Charity, we're a very, uh, vocal church, so there's a lot of call and response and participating in the music. So I really had to restrain myself, but I still felt the emotions of the song as we were going through.
Speaker 1 00:23:43 One of the things that was so exciting yesterday was the roll call and talk about restraining yourself. That was not a moment to restrain <laugh>. It was so encouraging when they called out Brooklyn to hear all our delicate standing and cheering.
Speaker 9 00:23:55 It's really great. And I, I love watching the children mature and grow in their faith. We've had several students early on in the ambassador program and to watch the transition when they returned, how they went from little boys to more mature like young adults in the way they think and perceive life and Christ's role in our lives. That's what triggered me to get involved in the Ambassador program. Just seeing the change in these teens, it was amazing to me. Um, so it's been some years that I've been involved in. I encourage the kids to make time, make space. It's really a life changing experience and I know personally I am so grateful to what the Ambassador Program does for our young people and for Father Dwayne and just not giving up. 'cause teens are not necessarily
Speaker 1 00:24:46 Easy, but you stay at it, you do. Great. Now, your parish, uh, lady Charity, we consist of the three churches, is that correct? That's a, that's that's a lot. I had the chance to be there for confirmations. You know, I think I'm going back again for Labor Day. I think you the big Oh, nice. Yeah, the big parade. Yes. Um, the Caribbean Day parade, but we begin with mass at St. Matthew's. We'll go forward to that. Tell me about your experience in your parish.
Speaker 9 00:25:10 So I'm the pastoral associate for liturgy and I also do confirmation che. So it keeps me busy, busy, busy.
Speaker 1 00:25:20 Well, you do a good job at it. I'll tell you that I <laugh> had the chance to meet some of those young people beforehand and they are really impressive. This has been, for me, just such an uplifting experience to, to be around to 3000 people who, as you say, we're sharing our faith, sharing heritage. It's just absolutely beautiful.
Speaker 9 00:25:39 I really think it emboldens the students to just, you're not alone. It's not Jesus and me walking the earth together that, you know, there are thousands of people who share your belief system and walk with you and can encourage you and strengthen you and be with you. And it's comforting for me to see them see that you can see them almost rise up and knowing, okay, I'm part of many, I'm not an outlier.
Speaker 1 00:26:09 That's so true. You know, that's something that's so important. I find that some ways the world wants us to feel like we're odd for what we believe and alone, kind of like you say outliers. And yet it's just so invigorating when you see other people who share that faith but share it with great joy and enthusiasm. Thank you so much. Thank you Father Dwain. What a great opportunity it was to meet so many of our delegates over the course of this week. A number of them are all friends now already to me that I've met along in different settings in the parish and in the diocese. A few of them were members of the ambassador program and every one of them just speaks with great eloquence and enthusiasm about the experience here and really about their lives of faith. It was very, very encouraging for me and I hope for anyone who's been
Speaker 2 00:27:07 Listening, it's a really great joy and and we're so happy that you're with us and you've been journeying with us, uh, for the last couple of days and how important it is for our shepherd to be with us, to take time out of this busy schedule to be with us. And the young people really appreciate that.
Speaker 1 00:27:19 Well, thank you. It's been invigorating for me. I was so impressed by seeing our young people really standing out in the crowd. So at the Shrine Mass on the first night, we had a number of our young people who were servers and they really enjoyed that. There was a young fellow Christian on the opening day when they had the roll call and called out all the different diocese. He and a young lady joined with the host in doing the roll call, calling out the different diocese. And he was so impressive.
Speaker 2 00:27:50 So they, our young people on this time have been given so many privileges and opportunities to be front and center. As we look to the future, we wanna make sure that young people know that there is a bright future and that it can be a part of it. And so everything we do, and that's part of the planning committee, myself and nine other members wanted to make sure that young people were inserted in almost everything that we do at Congress. And that was very clear and we can see that happen in throughout the Congress because that was something important and crucial to us. I
Speaker 1 00:28:18 Congratulate you for that. And then the other thing I noticed that I thought was just wonderful, as the church is engaged in this process of the syn journeying together, that's what this has been about. And I've noticed just working with our own delegation, that we are journeying together back at home and we together made this pilgrimage. As a matter of fact, a funny story. One of the young people from St. Benedict, the Moore Parish, when I visited the parish, the lady who runs the altar service arranged for me just to spend a few minutes with the altar service. And something came up about pilgrimage, about going to different places and journeys of faith. And I spoke about the possibility of coming over to St. James Cathedral. But this one fellow caught me and said, um, so Bishop, does this count as a pilgrimage? <laugh> <laugh>? And I would say, yes, it does, because that's what we are doing. We're journeying together in faith and that's really the story of our lives. So thank you for all your work journeying together and thanks for helping me to co-host this edition of Big City Catholics. It's
Speaker 2 00:29:18 My privilege. Thank you, Bishop.
Speaker 1 00:29:19 We close in prayer with Thanksgiving to God for this opportunity to be together and asking God's help. As we go forward, we ask, may the Lord bless you and keep you. May his face shine upon you and be gracious to you, may look upon you with kindness and grant you his peace, almighty God bless you, the Father and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Thank you for joining us for this edition of Big City Catholics and speaking of journey and, and pilgrimages. Our next edition will come to you from Lisbon in Portugal, where some of our young people will join the millions of others from around the world with the Holy Father. God bless you. Have a great week.
