By Kelly Haberstroh
Editor-In-Chief
In honor of World Youth Day, University Ministries sponsored a trip to Washington D.C., allowing 18 students, including myself, to celebrate Panama in the Capital.
On Jan. 26, we participated in events ran by The Catholic University of America. Throughout the day, we could attend forums by influential religious figures around the country. Two of the talks I went to were called “On Mission from God: How to Lead as a Christian” and “Faith in Action: Rolling up our Sleeves to Share the Gospel.”
The first talk I went to, Fr. Frank Donio, S.A.C., Mark Shriver, Elise Crawford Gallagher and Gerard D. Smith Jr. spoke about their roles in shaping the minds of others. Smith Jr. is elementary school principal at St. Thomas More and addressed the importance of having a positive impact on young children. With that, he also brought up how faith can play a part in making that impact.
On the other hand, Crawford Gallagher discussed her experiences as a woman and how she found her role in the church without having a distinct title or canonization. She and a co-worker established their own non-profit called Catholic Women in Business, with the goal of providing Catholic women business leaders with resources to excel in their vocation to business.
This talk compared the experiences each has had in their own lives and how they’ve managed to incorporate their faith into their works. In addition to that, they held a question and answer session afterward for those in the crowd to ask questions about how they can lead as a Christian in their own lives and careers.
The second talk, led by Msgr. Ray East and Jonathan Reyes, dealt with issues relating to sharing the Gospel in our present day. East spoke about how he faced that challenge within his own family, trying to convince his nieces and nephews to have a religious standpoint outside of the “none” category.
East also talked about working toward trying to convince those who fall into the “none” category back into the faith. He brought up how many often fell into a religious category previously before deserting their former beliefs for a more atheistic approach.
Reyes, however, talked about his experience sharing the Gospel, through his various means of involvement. Whether it be through his time as vice president of FOCUS, serving as president and CEO of Catholic Charities in Denver and helping co-found Christ in the City and the Augustine Institute, he used these opportunities to spread the word of his faith.
Archbishop Christophe Pierre, appointed by Pope Francis, led a vigil mass in the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. Throughout the mass, translators said half of the readings in Spanish, as well as having two American Sign Language translators who alternated during the mass. When saying intentions during the mass, they had translators for Korean, Mandarin, Portuguese, Spanish and French.
For dinner following the mass, the university served a Panamanian dish to recognize Panamanian culture since we couldn’t attend World Youth Day in Panama.
After the mass, members at the event were invited to attend various live music performances to end off the night. The groups included Marie Miller, Pontem, The Restless and Corrie Marie, who played during the afternoon, and Los Capuchinos, Hillybilly Thomists, Jorge Zurita and The Clovers at night.
In order to make the event possible, they received sponsorships from a variety of organizations including: The Catholic Apostolate Center, Saint John Paul II National Shrine, Embassy of Panama, Grotto Network and more.
These sponsorships helped students from across the country have the opportunity to participate in an event that brought them all together to celebrate their faith as Christian youths.
habersk15@bonaventure.edu
