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By Eric Connolly
The line at the Indiana Convention Center
was about the length of a city block and
consisted of youth and adults standing not
in single file, but in randomly assembled
“rows” of sorts, many with 10 or more people
side by side.
The youth and adults inched forward,
toward a room where easily more than 100
priests were ready to hear confessions. The
people in line were not waiting for tickets
to the latest teen-vampire movie or to purchase
the newest in touch-screen technology.
They were waiting to courageously
confess their sins to God.
They were at the National Catholic
Youth Conference, which drew some
23,000 people to Indianapolis last month.
Thousands more connected with the conference
online.
Butte Central Catholic High School
senior Logan Shrader was at his second
NCYC.
Logan is energetic. Whether he was in
conversation, a loud praise and worship
music set or hearing an animated speaker,
he always seemed to be locked in, enjoying
and absorbing what was happening around
him.
“I feel like God calls me to be that person,
to give that burst of energy,” he said.
“When everybody else is tired and I’m up
dancing, I want to get them on their feet.”
Logan said that the collective spirit of
the Indianapolis conference, which held its
general session at Lucas Oil Stadium, was
something he fed on mentally and spiritually.
“That energy is real,” he said. “I see
those people down on the floor and I want
to join them. I want to be down there with
my brothers and sisters in Christ.”
The National Federation for Catholic
Youth Ministry in Washington D.C., facilitated
the biennial conference, which was
held Nov. 17-19 and included keynote addresses,
prayer, workshops, liturgy, reconciliation,
Eucharistic adoration, concerts
and exhibits.
The conference theme of “Called to
Glory” resonated with Logan.
“If you give it a chance, it will transform
you like it transformed me,” he said.
“It’s one of the only experiences that can
make you laugh, cry and feel blessed, all at
the same time.”
Abra Casey had never been on an airplane
before. As she walked through airport
security in Helena, she was visibly
excited, but also apprehensive.
The high school freshman from Helena
said she was a bit nervous about the whole
expedition, from the airport security, to
being airsick, to being enveloped by Indianapolis,
a city larger than any she had visited
before.
“I thought it was all going to be really
stressful, the travel, the crowds, the workshops,”
Abra said. “But it ended up being
really easygoing. Everything was really
well organized.”
Walking to the stadium on the first day,
“you could just tell that there were a ton of
people,” she said, and wherever she went,
“someone would yell ‘NC’ and the crowd
would yell back ‘YC.”
Spending three days with a body of
people not considerably smaller than her
hometown of some 30,000, Abra found that
she gained a fresh insight into the scope of
her Catholic faith.
“In Montana, we get together for things
like kickball tournaments, CYC Board
meetings and CYC Convention, but you
never really think that this is all across the
U.S., and that kind of slapped me in the
face when we got there,” she said.
“It felt like it made my faith more real.
Going to this you realize that it’s not just
you. There is more than just your little
town of Catholics; they are all across the
nation.”
It was abundantly clear, she said, that
“I’m not just a single person that believes
in God.”
Of the stories that Logan and Abra told,
one memory overlapped for both: the closing
Mass.
Nine bishops, 250 priests, 30 deacons
and 175 seminarians gathered on the stage
in the center of Lucas Oil Stadium. The
music was uplifting, the entrance compelling
and the homily by Bishop Christopher
J. Coyne, apostolic administrator for
the Archdiocese of Indianapolis, moving.
“The Mass! How do you worship with
23,000 other youth and adults?” Logan
said. “I mean, it’s amazing seeing all these
people receiving the body and blood of
Christ from these nine bishops and over
200 priests.”
Abra said she was surprised by how
time seemed to move during the Mass.
“I felt like even though it was 2½ hours
long, it felt like it was even shorter than
other Masses,” she said. The quiet times
were so quiet, she said, that “you could
hear a cough across the football stadium.”
The feeling of unity as a Church remains
strong in her mind. “Everyone there
knows exactly what they were doing and
why they were there,” she said.
That statement from Abra speaks to the
purpose of the National Catholic Youth
Conference.
Everyone there at that moment, gathered
together for something they do every
week, a seemingly ordinary miracle, is on
the same page. Twenty-three-thousand
souls directing their intent toward one common
purpose, 23,000 gathered together in
a world filled with what some call the
“evils” of technology, war, division and
spiritual poverty.
Gathered with the common purpose of
praising their God, together.
Published in The Montana Catholic Online, Volume 27, No. 12, December 16, 2011.
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