Catholic Youth on Fire!
Meet four youth ministers determined to grow – and share – their Catholic faith
By Rachelle D. Garbarine/ Pictures by Denmark Photo & Video
On a sun-soaked afternoon, inside one of the small offices of the Diocesan Catholic Center in Raleigh, a quartet of college-age young people serving as youth ministers this summer – as they have in the past – sit quietly in chairs pushed hard against the walls. Except for the faint sounds of distant traffic all is still.
But once this group begins talking, their passion for youth ministry comes through loud and clear. It is reflected in their wide smiles and in the lively cadence of their voices, which warm the heart like a comfortable, old sweater.
Their boundless energy is infectious, making them ideal ambassadors to get their younger colleagues excited about and closer to their Catholic faith. As such, Matt Aujero, Kym DeLaRosa, Erin Bitker and Meredith Crovitz join a small but growing number of young Catholic adults committing to and reshaping the face of youth ministry.
Michael J. Hagarty, director of the Diocese of Raleigh’s Office of Youth Ministry, notes that in the last two years, dozens of youths and young adults have approached him about becoming youth ministers, up from one or two inquiries annually when he started his job nearly eight years ago. There are, he notes, myriad ways for young adults to participate in the more than 30 programs, serving some 3,000 middle and high school youths, offered through his office; as well as in the programs the 90 parishes in the diocese sponsor.
“All slots we have ever needed (for youth ministers) have been filled at every event where we have asked for their help,” Mike continues. Being a youth minister, he explains, “gives them an opportunity to grow in their faith and share it at the same time.”
Kym, Erin, Matt and Meredith, ranging in age from 19 to 21, share a fervent love of their faith and a strong desire to make an impact in today’s Church. “I just love having an impact on people, influencing them the way I have been influenced and bringing them to their faith,” says Matt, a member of Holy Infant parish in Durham. One after the other Kym, a St. Francis of Assisi parishioner; Meredith, of St. Andrew Church in Apex; and Erin, who is from Minnesota and attends St. John’s Abbey there, echo that same sentiment as if they are reciting a mantra.
“Some parishes,” explains Erin, who spent the summer in Raleigh working at St. Francis of Assisi, “discourage their youth because adults do not invite them to take on roles in serving the church community.” To help change that, she says she “wants to bring kids into the church community and keep them here because they are having fun, yet doing something important and meaningful.”
Meredith adds that when youths are not invited to get involved they should take the lead and “do everything they can.” Her hope, she says, is that “I can guide them on how to do that.”
All four share similar histories, from going to public elementary and high schools - where they participated in athletics, school government, and music, among other activities - to attending faith formation classes. Those classes, they agree, introduced them to some of their role models.
“I would like to mirror their enthusiasm,” Matt says of the youth ministers he had while in high school. One guitar-toting male minister, he adds, “also made the role look cool for young men.”
Yet, there are elements of that experience this foursome hopes to improve. There are some programs and parishes that are not open to empowering youth, to enabling them to promote religious life, says Kym, who speaks of Church personalities in the same way her contempories talk about rock stars; and who counts Mother Teresa as another of her role models. “I want,” she stresses, “to provide a space where discussion of faith can happen, not where faith is taught, but a place where it can be experienced.”
Meredith, too, wants to offer youths “a more hands-on experience,” starting with asking them what they want to know and how they want to get involved. “The more they are involved, the more they will get out of it,” she notes.
Still, the four are as different as they are similar. Kym is the high school student body president with a cheerleader’s bubbly personality and an activist’s determination; Erin is the teen athlete turned religious explorer and teacher; Meredith is the petite dynamo with a musical spirit and an immense drive; and Matt is the writer-realist who is as impassioned about the written word as he is about spreading God’s word.
For each, involvement in youth ministry came at a different point during their elementary to high school years, despite what they describe as harmless taunting from their peers. Terms like “holy rollers” and “Jesus freaks’ – along with the underlying peer pressure – simply rolled off their backs.
“I don’t care what other people think of me – at least I try not to,” Meredith explains. “I got involved because it’s something I wanted to do and it’s where I am the happiest.”
Though Matt says he “felt like the only practicing Catholic in high school,” he never felt like “I needed to explain myself to anyone.”
Kym adds, “When you try to incorporate faith into your daily life you are breaking the mold.” Her closest friends, those she could call at 3 a.m. for a heart-to-heart chat, she says, are those she met on church retreats. “What’s cooler than that?” she asks.
These four young adults have accumulated a wealth of youth ministry experience, gleaned from their involvement in, among other activities, parish or diocesan youth boards, Confirmation retreats, youth conventions and vacation Bible schools. Some even initiated new youth programs. It doesn’t end there. All four say they will - in one capacity or another – continue to work in youth ministry after college.
Meredith, who is majoring in community services and religious studies at East Carolina University, sees youth ministry as a career, despite the allure of other, more lucrative jobs. The same is true for Kym, who like Erin, is majoring in Theology with a concentration in pastoral ministry at the College of St. Benedict/St. John’s University in Minnesota. “To see a high school student ask questions about the Catholic tradition is just so awesome,” says Kym. “It means that they care.”
Matt, a business management major at Catholic University in Washington, DC, says he will volunteer in youth ministry after college. So will Erin, who was raised on her family’s sprawling farm in rural Minnesota and is toying with the idea of entering the teaching profession.
Mike Hagarty notes that, when young adults ask him about youth ministry as a career, he encourages them “to follow their passions academically, interview people in the field, supplement their formal education with the youth ministry certificate (a two-year professional-level national training program offered in the Diocese of Raleigh), and to pray ceaselessly.”
While that is the future, Erin, Meredith, Matt, and Kym are currently deep into their youth ministry experience, both at home and at college. Meredith had what she describes as “an eye-opening experience” this summer as a youth ministry intern at the Raleigh Diocese, and this fall is continuing her campus ministry work at college. Meanwhile, Kym and Erin created a summer pilot program at St. Francis of Assisi for rising seventh- through ninth-grade girls that, Kym says, “encouraged healthy self-esteem and relationships between friends, family and especially God!” Back at St. John’s University, both women are involved in providing Confirmation retreats for local parishes.
So what would they say is an example of youth ministry at its best? Without hesitation, each of the four point to the gathering of hundreds of youths at either the National Catholic Youth Conference or the Diocesan Catholic Youth Convention.
Kym calls such events “a kind of mountain-top experience that makes me aspire to empower youth in the Catholic faith.”
As Matt describes his first time at a youth convention the appeal is clear. “There I was, one of 800-plus people. I was in the front row, the music was phenomenal and I was overwhelmed, speechless,” he says. “I realized then that the Church is bigger and better than I imagined and that I am part of something larger. It’s all about seeing examples, about your actions influencing others, and about your life being a message.”