World Youth Day

World Youth Day 2005 was a Catholic youth festival that started on August 16, and continued until August 21, 2005 in Cologne, Germany. It was the first WYD and the first foreign trip of Pope Benedict XVI, who joined the festival on August 18. This meeting was decided by the previous pope, John Paul II, during the Toronto World Youth Day of 2002. The theme was "We have come to worship Him" (from Matthew 2:2). About 400,000 young people from 200 countries attended during the week, and more than 1,000,000 came for the weekend. We were joined by about 600 Bishops and Cardinals. For our Salesian group (53 young adults) we were able to both enjoy World Youth Day as well as spend meaningful time in Turin visiting the holy sites of our Founder St. John Bosco. Thousands of young people from around the world are preparing to go to Sydney, Australia this summer for the next World Youth Day! Lets continue to pray for them and for the success of this pilgrimage of faith! The above video contains the theme song from the WYD in Cologne. It is a beautiful song that goes well with this video on our Catholic faith. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

Louisiana Governor brings hope!

Louisiana has a new Governor who is bringing some hope for real change for the state! Let's pray for his success!

Vocations

The Catholic News Agency reports that "a new survey has revealed that Catholic religious communities in the United States have increased the number of individuals they have in initial formation by 30 percent. Furthermore, 62 percent of communities participating in the survey reported an increase in vocation inquiries last year. The figures come from the VocationMatch.com Second Annual Survey on Trends in Religious Vocation." We need to hope that this trend continues and that our own congregation in the US might benefit from the growing interest in vocations. One hopeful sign for us was this past Discernment Weekend. We had 19 young men visit us who are considering Salesian life! These men came to us from a variety of different backgrounds and geographic locations. 5 or 6 of them may join us in the coming school year. Let's continue to pray for each of these men that they might know God's will in their lives and have the courage to follow it!

Catholics in America

The Pew Forum recently released its survey based on interviews with 35,000 adults last year. The “U.S. Religious Landscape Survey” showed that more than a quarter of Americans have either changed religious affiliations or claim no formal religion at all. The Catholic Church in our country has also been greatly affected by all of this changing but immigrating Catholics have kept us as a quarter of the American population. The study is very significant and shows the need for a renewed effort at the new evangelization that Pope John Paul II called us to. We have to strengthen our own Catholics in the faith.
The above map is also a reflection of where Catholics live in our country. I think it's pretty interesting how our Salesian Houses tend to be located in the most Catholic regions of the country. We in our province are mostly located in the Northeast with some presence in Chicago, Columbus, New Orleans, Tampa/St. Pete and Belle Glade, Florda. Being a Southerner I have to admit that I hope we move with the Catholic population to regions that we may not have been in before. The lighter states on the map don't hold a heavy Catholic population today... but it is growing. Maybe one day Don Bosco's Charism will reach the heart of Dixie in Memphis, Atlanta, or Charlotte. Something to pray for!

Returning to Don Bosco

The Rector Major, Fr. Pascual Chavez, and the 233 Salesian delegates have gathered in Turin for a pilgrimage in advance of the 26th General Chapter, which began in Rome on Monday, February 25. The theme of the General Chapter is "Returning to Don Bosco". It is our hope and prayer that this 6 week gathering of Salesian leaders will help the congregation to draw closer to the heart of our founder. Don Bosco has left us such a rich heritage for the good of the young. Let's pray these coming weeks for the important work of the General Chapter. Let's pray also for all Salesians throughout the world that they may be real signs and bearers of God's love for the young!