Episode Transcript
[00:00:10] Speaker A: Hello, and welcome to another edition of Big City Catholics. I'm Bishop Robert Brennan Bishop of Brooklyn, serving in Brooklyn and Queens, New York. And today we're going to have a chance to talk very specifically about young adult ministry. As always, we begin with prayer. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. And in these troubled times, we pray the Peace Prayer of St. Francis. Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love. Where there is injury, pardon. Where there is doubt, faith. Where there is despair, hope. Where there is darkness, light. Where there is sadness, joy. O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console, to be understood as to understand, to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive, it is in pardoning that we are pardoned, and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Very happy to be here today with Lucia Morales, who is the associate director for Youth and Young Adult Ministry here in the diocese and has very particular attention to Young Adult Ministry. So thank you for being with me today.
[00:01:22] Speaker B: Thank you for having me.
[00:01:23] Speaker A: While we've had opportunities to be together over the course of my two years here, we spent some time in Lisbon together over the past summer, and that was a great experience, wasn't it?
[00:01:32] Speaker B: It was. It was a really unique once in a lifetime opportunity. It was great.
[00:01:36] Speaker A: We were responsible for the diocesan group portion of the pilgrimage, so that was about 350 young people from our parishes. There were other groups from Brooklyn, Queens, but we were together, and we had some time both before in the prep time, before the pilgrims came, and then after. So first of all, wasn't it great to see Lisbon as a city?
[00:01:57] Speaker B: It's a beautiful city. So beautiful everyone should go at least once. And it's a small city, so I don't know how one and a half million people fit in there, but I am grateful Pope Francis picked this place.
[00:02:10] Speaker A: It's just a beautifully temperate spot. Like, the temperature was just right, except for those last two days. But the other days were just perfect. Cool in the evening, warm, but pleasantly so in the day. Oh, it was a great place. Great history, great scenery. And then we were there early, and you and Father Corolli and the other organizing members were really working very hard, collecting all the materials, sorting all the materials, mapping out all the different routes and breaking things down. I was amazed at the work that you guys did in those first couple of days. It was impressive, by all means. A lot of people don't know what goes on behind the scenes in something like this. And it was hard work. Yes, we did have a chance to have dinner together and we certainly enjoyed a bit of gelato.
[00:02:59] Speaker B: It was nice. It was good fellowship time. A nice little break after working all day.
[00:03:03] Speaker A: It really was. It really was. And it was a good preparation for when we would be together with the big group. It was nice just to be together in a small group and to think about things and enjoy the time together. One of the fun things I got a laugh out of was all respects to the US bishops Conference. They had night prayer every night. And so we dutifully ate our dinner, quickly made our way up the hill to the church for night prayer. We went and there was hardly anybody there.
[00:03:32] Speaker B: We made up the whole we made.
[00:03:34] Speaker A: Up the whole church that night. Now, granted, it was early and maybe as the week went on, it was more people, but we decided, even though it was late, night prayer was 930. So it was after that we made our way back down the hill for some ice cream. And now you're getting into my bedtime hours.
But we made our way down the hill and wouldn't you know it, all the team of the UCCB, they were making their way up the hill, having had their own ice cream before.
But we knew better.
[00:04:01] Speaker B: We were obedient.
[00:04:02] Speaker A: We were obedient.
But it was great. We had some laughs, we had some fun, but, boy, did we work, too. And it was just so impressive. And it was great to see it through the eyes of the young people, wasn't it?
[00:04:13] Speaker B: I know, it really was. During, after, it's just beautiful. To see the testimony, just to see the unity, the excitement, the joy during the time and then coming back and seeing how it still continues to impact them is beautiful.
[00:04:28] Speaker A: That's so true.
[00:04:29] Speaker B: Makes it worthwhile.
[00:04:30] Speaker A: Like the excitement that seeing the Holy Father through their eyes, the wonder of it, the idea of seeing other people from other.
[00:04:39] Speaker B: Oh, I know. It was my first time, actually. And seeing just the excitement for us, obviously, Pope Francis is everything for us. And then to see that these young people because I'm not that young anymore, unfortunately, but to see the excitement and treat him like a rock star, to remember his words, to have the respect, it was really great. And it gives you a lot of hope for our church.
[00:05:04] Speaker A: I always say that for young people, but it's true for everybody. You're made to feel isolated for being a faithful Catholic, for believing. And yet how uplifting it must be for the young people to see a million and a half other people from all over the world with that zeal. But for us, as the grown ups on the trip wow, how impressive. What a sign of great hope for the church. Very much for our future.
[00:05:29] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:05:30] Speaker A: Just to see that they were already committed. They're there, they're the president of the church. They're making their impact, but they have great hope. The other thing, it was great to be with Pope Francis, and I can't take anything away from that. But for me, another real highlight was the chance to go to Fatima.
[00:05:44] Speaker B: Oh, Fatima was incredible. I could not believe it was so beautiful. And then they were seeing them doing the walk on their knees. That dedication.
[00:05:56] Speaker A: They're better than I am.
[00:05:57] Speaker B: Just the admiration that I had for them. Like I said, that respect for our faith, for what that land means, it was just incredible.
[00:06:06] Speaker A: It really was impressive. You mentioned that that continues today. And that's very true. Before the trip, they gathered monthly to pray, to get to know each other. They prepared spiritually. But now, after the trip, they're continuing to meet.
[00:06:20] Speaker B: You have the groups before. You know, this wasn't just something we decided to do on the Whim. Anyone who has been to World Youth Day knows takes a lot of planning. And I think something from Father Karoli's side who stepped into this role, took over for planning the World Youth Day within a year. One thing that was really important was just maintaining that spiritual peace, maintaining that connection with Christ and why we're going. We did monthly holy hours, and now we continue to do them.
[00:06:48] Speaker A: And that's what's important, because a lot of times, and we're guilty of this in a lot of facets of the church, is we do these great events and then it's done, and then that's it.
[00:06:57] Speaker B: Yeah. No, we don't want that. We want this to be part of their everyday life and identity and to take ownership of that, of we're trusting you to go on this trip and to really build your faith. And that goes in hand in hand with daily prayer, attending mass, all of these things, to be a role model and to have people look up to you, that kind of thing. And then we definitely are still maintaining it. We did World Youth Day interviews about a month after.
[00:07:26] Speaker A: Tell me about that. You were very impressed. You told me about the interviews and the depth of what the young people said.
[00:07:31] Speaker B: I couldn't believe how much they remembered from the messages that Pope Francis had for them. I couldn't believe how well they recited it and the impact that it made for them. And listen, you were there. It was hot.
There was a lot of people. It was kind of scary at times how many people were in, especially the.
[00:07:52] Speaker A: Big events, the Saturday, Sunday.
[00:07:55] Speaker B: Yeah. And they still want to go to Seoul. They thought it was amazing they would do it again. So to hear the words, to see the messages that they left with, and they continue to incorporate, and then to also see that they want to keep going and live this faith and continue to do it again and sacrifice your time, your energy, just to be able to show and connect your faith.
[00:08:19] Speaker A: And then they become the missionaries to the other young people in their youth groups, to their parishes, to their families, hopefully, and really all around. So that's great. Now, World Youth Day happens every few years. You mentioned Seoul coming up, and there's a lot that goes into preparing for it. But there is also everyday life. And in everyday life, we have a very robust program of youth ministry, thankfully, and of young adult ministry and actually a growing bit of young adult ministry. And that's really part of your expertise.
[00:08:52] Speaker B: Yeah. We call it World Youth Day.
[00:08:55] Speaker A: Right, right.
[00:08:56] Speaker B: But it is for young adults.
[00:08:58] Speaker A: That's right. The European idea of youth, World Youth Day would be young adults. So it's really geared to an older audience. And so even the young people we choose, we get them when they're a little younger because it takes three years. Exactly. But the idea is they should be going into senior year or college or beyond. But you're right, geared more toward the young adults, the young adult side of things. And now, on a diocesan level, we do have gatherings of young adults and it's a little bit harder to find. Like you say, we spent a lot in investing in youth ministry here in the diocese, thankfully.
[00:09:33] Speaker B: Yeah. And I think we're trying to maintain that momentum. Like you said, we don't want to lose them. We don't want this to be a one off experience. And we want to make sure that when they come back home, which they are now, there's a lot of gatherings for them where they can see other people that are similar to them and share the same. Father Karoli, you know, he has been in this role of director of Youth and young adult Ministry. And me as Associate Director for we are going into our second year. The first year was very much geared towards making sure people know the mission statement and vision of the office. And youth ministry was a big focus, our young people. But this second year, a big focus also is now young adults. Young adults are usually over 18 right. Till about 40. And we really tried to be as strategic as we could. There's a lot of great work happening in our local parishes. And what we want to do is just kind of help support that and promote it on a diocesan level so.
[00:10:33] Speaker A: That people can, in a sense, network exactly. That they can connect.
[00:10:36] Speaker B: Yes.
We saw that the youth holy hours was great, so now we're doing a young adult holy hour with Shalom community. Every month they would do their Mass at 615. And the idea we pitched is for us to now, afterwards, have a holy hour after the Mass. So we just had our first one last week. It was so beautiful. And then we are also doing the Young Adult Deanery gatherings. The next one in November will be at Our Lady of Angels in Bayridge. So the idea is that we would want them to be locally connecting within their parishes. Sometimes you don't know what's happening in the neighboring parish. Right. I grew up in St. Bridget's in Bushwick and maybe I don't know what's going on in St. Barbara's. Right. So we would like to promote that Deenery connection which some deneries are doing a fantastic job already. And in addition to that, we are doing the Young Adult Mass which you have led with collaboration of St. Joseph's, the Co Cathedral and Teresa.
[00:11:35] Speaker A: That's right, yeah. So yes. So I've been to the mass at St. Teresa. So it's one parish. The Co Cathedral of St. Joseph and St. Teresa Annalis Church on Sterling Place. And they have the evening Mass there on Sunday. The Sunday evening mass is there? So we plug right into that. So monthly, it's actually really pitched toward young adults. So that's generally there. But monthly there'll be activities connected to the Mass. So I've been there last year for their October Fest, for the gathering after. And then I offered Mass in the summer and we had a little bit of a rooftop gathering that was just great. But you meet very impressive young adult people from all walks of life, people involved in all kinds of careers and who are living in the neighborhood. You have some people who grew up here in Brooklyn and Brooklyn through and through and through and some people who are newcomers to the area. That's one of the things about Brooklyn and Queens is we are a borough where a lot of young people pass through at one stage or another in life. And so many of those young people would be glad to connect, especially Catholics who are faithful Catholics who want to live the faith, who are looking for other people to share those values. We have those opportunities.
[00:12:49] Speaker B: Yeah. We want to make sure that we get them and support them and where they are in their life. We get a lot of young adults who are starting families or thinking of and I would like to, while we're on that part, bring up the great new, I guess, organization that we're just starting off here, which is Young Catholic professionals, YCP, for sure. And I know you're very familiar with.
[00:13:10] Speaker A: I am. I had a great experience with YCP when I was in Columbus. In fact, the members of YCP, they gave me the Young Adult version, the Young Adult tour of so they took me in a car up there's, a section near Ohio State called the Short North where there's all the trendy stores and all that. They took me up and down there. They took me to a place called Jenny's Ice Cream. Jenny's was a big brand in Columbus, actually. The two of them are Jenny's and Grater's. They took me to the North Market. So I saw all these different sides of Columbus that I would probably not have ever gotten to see had I not been introduced to it by these young people. But YCP had just started a chapter. It's a national organization. He just opened a chapter in Columbus. When I got there, maybe they were a few months ahead of me, so I was in on their early days. They would gather monthly. They usually had at least 100 people. It was like, a big deal.
[00:14:07] Speaker B: That's great.
[00:14:07] Speaker A: They have a speaker and then social. That was basically the format. It's basically speaker and social and speaker. It would have a religious bend. Sometimes it would be about faith, but sometimes it would be about contemporary issues. It might be somebody in a field. I remember one that stood out. They had somebody from the FBI talking about human trafficking. And human trafficking is a serious issue in Columbus because of the highway system. So it was a very informative kind of a group, too. But they would have a lot of fun together, and then they would get together at other times, and then there would be time for prayer and those things. So YCP is young Catholic professionals. A national organization. And when they start up a new just I don't say, hey, I'm Bishop Brennan. I really want to start YCP here.
[00:14:53] Speaker B: No.
[00:14:54] Speaker A: They do some scoping out and check out the sustainability and make sure you have structure to support it. And the gatherings are very informal, but the structure is very formal.
[00:15:05] Speaker B: Very formal.
[00:15:05] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:15:05] Speaker B: They know what they're doing, for sure.
[00:15:08] Speaker A: We have to make an investment into it, which we were able to do through the generosity of the Catholic Foundation. But then there are board members, not necessarily young adults. Some might be young adults, some might be older people, but there are board members who do the strategic thinking. You can talk about that a little bit. And only then do they choose leadership and then start to invite people. So last year, they had a launch of a New York chapter over in Manhattan. It's actually the Manhattan chapter. They want to start a Brooklyn chapter. And who knows? They're even talking about one day starting a Queens chapter. Right now it'll be Brooklyn and Queens, but they want to start a chapter here. I'm all for it. I would like to see it happen. And you and Father Torres have been working diligently with the national leadership to make this dream come true.
[00:15:51] Speaker B: Yeah, we're paired up with a really great, awesome young man. His name is Derek, and he is very dedicated not only to the mission of YCP, but also to his faith. So he really wants to bring this to our borough and our diocese. I'm very blessed as a young adult to work within my faith and to have that as my center. Right. We have Mass at 310 in our office every day, just about. And Father Corolli is my director. He makes sure that my prayer life and my faith life is always being addressed and taken care of. But there's a lot of young adults in our city who don't we're very blessed. We're a big city. So we have people who are in finance, who are in tech, who do secular jobs, and they may not know yeah, doctors, all of this who they don't know another Catholic in their field. They don't have that person. That religion is something we don't really talk about and YCP is something that you get to meet other young like minded professionals, someone who maybe can be a mentor to you one day, someone who can be a friend. And you get to not only explore your faith, but you also get to talk about just daily life, things like you said about human trafficking. That's amazing. I would love to attend a workshop or talk on that. So it's really built on not only your faith, but it's also being able to connect and have that regular social time that as a human, we crave right. To be in community. And then we also get to learn something about it. That's something we're trying to build. We just got two leadership roles filled in which we're very excited. We're next now looking for the president. So if anyone listening okay. Very thinks that they would be great, a great leader. That really is the next moving piece that we got to fill so that we can kind of take this off.
[00:17:41] Speaker A: The ground that's separately. So those would be the young adults taking on the responsibility for the leadership of the group. But then you also have board members and the board.
[00:17:51] Speaker B: Yeah, it's twofold here. Like you said, they're very formal. They know what they're doing. They've done this many times. So there is the board member piece, and the idea is that you oversee this mission. Your input is important for the strategic planning, the events. You become a mentor to those who are on the ground. So that's one piece. We have the board members, and then we have the young adults who are actually planning the talks, who are reaching out and getting young adults doing the flyers and everything like that. And they train you for this. So it's not like they just recruit you and then you got to figure it out. They train you over the summer and yeah, they make sure that you know what you're doing. There's eight roles that are being filled right now. We have the evangelization role taken care of. We have the outreach role. Like I mentioned, we're looking for a president. So there's a lot of great things here. It's not something that we're just kind of like making a flyer for, and that's it. This is very thoughtful. If you really want to learn how to build a program, this is a really great thing to have on your resume. And then also it's about your faith. Who wouldn't want to be that role model, right?
[00:18:59] Speaker A: That's right. Exactly. Again, we build on the things we already have. And you spoke a little bit about the Shalom Center. Well, the Sandamiano center. So it's the Shalom community at the Sandamiano Center, and they've been doing some great work there. Shalom is really an international community and there is a stress on community. So we have a priest, Father Cristiano, and then there are missionaries, people who really are dedicated themselves to this community. So they live and breathe it. So there is a men's house and a woman's house, and they live in community among themselves. But then they come together and worship together, pray together, but then they work to develop this spirituality among young people.
[00:19:44] Speaker B: It's really incredible. And from two years ago to today, when we just had the first Young Adult Holy Hour this month, they really have put their heart and soul into the place. They're very genuine, kind people. Father Cristiano is just so authentic and such a great person to know and confide in. But to see the coffee space that they have there, where they welcome the community, they have open hours and anyone from anywhere in the neighborhood, if you want to just relax, if you want to do some work from home or bring your laptop and they have an open hours for you. The people there are very centered on their face. Like you mentioned, they're missionaries, but they do a lot of, like, what we're trying to do on a diocese level. They have cultural parties.
They just had their ACAMP retreat this month as well, and they just had the reunion. So they do a lot of great work, exciting work. They really do care about the person praying for them.
[00:20:41] Speaker A: And so as a community, they're available a lot of the time. People can come by just about anytime. And then there are times for prayer as the community events. They have Sunday Mass there. It's sort of a quasi parish. But then also our own diocese in Youth and Young Adults has the Young Adult Nights, and that consists of Mass and prayer and social.
It's hard with a podcast. You can't jot down everything and be specific. But tell me about communication. Do you have website? Do you have Facebook? Like, how could somebody find out more? Or if somebody's listening and says, I know somebody would be interested, what would you suggest that they do?
[00:21:19] Speaker B: Well, they can always email us or email me. We do have Instagram, which we've been grateful to get a lot of followers now, especially after World Youth Day. It's really put us on the map.
[00:21:30] Speaker A: Really?
[00:21:31] Speaker B: Yeah. It is called Brooklyn B-K-L-Y-N youth on Instagram.
[00:21:36] Speaker A: And I bet if you did in the search engine, the words Brooklyn Youth yes, you might find Brooklyn Catholic Youth or something, but it's called Brooklyn, B-K-L-Y-N youth on Instagram.
[00:21:47] Speaker B: Yeah. Or you can always feel free to call me. My work cell phone is 646-201-8002 or email me. And Father Corolli, we're more than happy to connect other people. We're more than happy to connect other young adult leaders and all of that. If you're looking for a parish, there's been times we get emails and people are looking for a youth group or a young adult Mass and we'll connect them with a local parish.
[00:22:10] Speaker A: During the week, we had the Catholic Foundation lunch and I was struck by the image of the Brooklyn Bridge and then the unispheres from Fleshy Metal Park behind it struck me that maybe the better image for us is the Koskyoska Bridge. I know, because we need to work on unifying Brooklyn and Queens. So I'm going to say now, please don't get mad at us right now. We're concentrating on where we have some of these connections. I know that there are connections in Queens and we're building up some of those, and we're looking forward to having a chance to talking about those. But do keep an eye on our website so that we can network people into the things that are happening both in Brooklyn and in Queens.
[00:22:47] Speaker B: And in Queens.
[00:22:47] Speaker A: But everybody from Queens is, welcome to Brooklyn. And everybody from Brooklyn, welcome to Queens. So we look forward to building up on those things. Thank you, Lucia, for your time today, but for the great work you're doing and the energy you bring to it, this was most enjoyable. It was a lot of fun today.
[00:23:03] Speaker B: Same here. We got to get an espresso.
[00:23:05] Speaker A: That's right. This over an espresso?
[00:23:07] Speaker B: Yeah. That's a Lisbon World Youth thing reference.
[00:23:11] Speaker A: Guys, I'll tell you what it is. I'm off of ice cream. And we went down to a gelato place, and apparently, for a number of the guys in the group, it was the second visit to the ice cream shop in the day.
[00:23:24] Speaker B: Second one, it was prayer and ice cream.
[00:23:27] Speaker A: So you and I, we skipped the ice cream and we got the espresso. Yes.
We'll have to do this over espresso. Well, listen, why don't we just turn to the Lord and ask his blessing on us, on the work we do, and certainly on the young people of our diocese. The Lord be with you and with your spirit. May Lord bless you and keep you. May his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. May he look upon you with kindness and grant you his peace. And may Almighty God bless you. The Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
[00:23:54] Speaker B: Amen. Thank you.
[00:23:55] Speaker A: Thank you. God bless you. And thank you for joining us for this week's edition of big CD Catholics. We look forward to next week.
