Dear Archbishop Sean P. O’Malley,
Dear Archbishop,
I am aware
that in this hard time, you must be receiving thousands of letters of appeal
from every parish that met an unfortunate fate this week. While I will not
pretend to know the details of Cannon Law nor those of every accomplished
ministry in my parish, Sacred Heart in
The future of our church lies in the adults of tomorrow being brought into the faith today! Immersed in a world of secular distractions, I have found that for many, it is not easy to commit to God without help. This is the service that Youth Ministry provides.
In only a
year’s time, our parish has made extraordinary leaps and bounds to improve
young members’ faith. Our program began when a small group of teens, myself
included, decided that we wanted to deepen our own faith. A bible study group
was formed, which set the ball rolling for the numerous programs to follow.
Several of us attended Catholic Leadership Institute and the Moving Beyond supplement this past summer. We returned this fall ready to
kick off a spiritual year. We planned
masses, created a church teen room, did community service projects, attended
retreats such as Youth Outreach Weekend, actively participated in The Catholic
Youth Rally, ran a road to resurrection Lenten prayer service, and were present
at the Holy Week’s Tenebrae service in
Our group, the TLC as we like to call ourselves, extended our effort to deepen faith to our entire youth community. Our efforts introduced about a hundred middle and high school students to the enjoyment of worshipping God. We planned activities that were not only fun but gave the teens an opportunity to give back to the community. I know we have touched many live. A key factor to the success of our program rested in teen comfort. As teens, many struggle with the need to fit in and be accepted. This feeling often serves as a barrier. However, by making Sacred Heart an inviting, exciting place free of judgment we cultivated their faith and helped it grow. Unfortunately, I fear that without the guidance of TLC or the comfort of our familiar community, many of these teens will fail to continue to build on their spirituality. Having finally overcome the fear of being different from their non-Catholic peers, they are being thrown back by the reality of a closing church.
Both TLC
members and those we inspired feel defeated. It seems as if our hard work and
time have all been a waste. We have always stressed that no matter what
hardships arise, we always have the church to fall back on. Our church has
served as a place of security and serenity until now. The loss of Sacred Heart
is much more than a loss of a structural building. The teens of
age 17,