We believe in one God.

The first five words of the Nicene Creed, recited by many of the world’s more than 1 billion Roman Catholics, were the first thing projected onto a screen in front of 450-plus Catholic Youth Coalition Convention participants in Helena.

Musician David Casey provided soft piano background as a youth choir hummed a quiet melody, and the creed was recited and interpreted on stage. Large black boxes, each bearing the words “we believe” in a different language, formed the cross that would be on the stage throughout the April 9-11 convention.

As the last word of the creed was spoken and the house band broke into the weekend’s theme song, Casey’s “Great Is the Love of Our God,” the 33rd CYC Convention had officially begun.

What happened next departed from what you might expect at a youth rally.

Twenty priests from around the Diocese of Helena gave of their time and vocation to offer reconciliation for all of the youth and adults. The collective joy from celebrating the sacrament set the tone for the rest of the weekend.

Keynoter Chris Stefanick, a nationally recognized Catholic speaker who directs Youth, Young Adult and Campus Ministry for the Archdiocese of Denver, spoke in an interview about the value of the CYC Convention.

“The entire world is trying to reach young people with its message,” Stefanick said, “God’s given us something amazing to share and we need to give it to young people, because they need to base their lives on something solid, not just something passing and empty, which is what the world has to offer them.”

Katie Murray, a recent Carroll College graduate who is a lay associate minister for Carroll College Campus Ministry, was a chaperone for the convention held at the Lewis and Clark County Fairgrounds, and saw the impact of Stefanick’s message to the youth.

“It was awesome to see this keynote speaker who would talk to them about real things, about what it means to be a youth in this society where things are very difficult,” Murray said.

The theme for the weekend, “Believe, Receive, Proceed,” was evident in each activity, from the youth keynotes to the homily that Bishop George Leo Thomas delivered during Saturday-night Mass at the Cathedral of St. Helena.

Commenting on the convention theme, Father Marc Lenneman, the Carroll chaplain, said, “When we sent them forth it was with `Believe, Receive and Proceed,’ and when we send them forth and they have to proceed into the world they need to know who they are and they need to know the ways in which their identities get strengthened, through sacrament, through prayer, through fellowship and through service.”

Another tradition that was maintained and even strengthened was the yearly collection for the diocesan mission in Guatemala. Previous collections at the convention have amounted to as much as $700. His year, the youth were challenged to “put $5 aside.” The youth responded by donating $1,510, the largest CYC convention collection in its 33-year history.

Guatemala Mission Manager Mark Frei was thrilled with the response to “put $5 aside.” “I was amazed at the generosity of the youth at the CYC Convention. What remarkable concern and care they have for the real needs of their brothers and sisters in a distant land!” he said.

The CYC Convention is designed to bring together the youth of the Diocese of Helena, to draw them closer to God and to strengthen their faith.

Francesca Roberto, a high school senior and a member of the youth group at St. Mary Parish in Stevensville, said that being a teenager is “hard because you’re surrounded by negativity.” At the convention, she said, “you see that it’s OK to be excited about Jesus. You get to really be who you are. And nobody will judge you for that.”

Text and photos by Eric Connolly


Published in The Montana Catholic Online, Volume 26, No. 4, April 16, 2010.


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