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Fr. Peterson steps down as director of Youth Apostles

Katie Scott | Catholic Herald

Students listen as Fr. Jack gives a homily during a retreat at Marymount University in Arlington. He remains assistant chaplain at the university after completing four terms as Youth Apostle director.

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Fr. Jack shakes hands with one of the participants at the Don Bosco Center, an outreach program to Hispanic middle schoolers in Manassas.

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Fr. Jack works at his desk in the McLean home he shares with fellow Youth Apostle members.

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Fr. John P. Peterson (“Fr. Jack”), who served as director of Youth Apostles for 12 years, sits in the chapel of the Youth Apostle house in McLean. His term ended April 9, when Mike Paquette, a longtime lay member, was elected as his replacement.

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As a teenager at St. Anthony of Padua Church in Falls Church,
Youth Apostle Father John P. Peterson experienced the power
of a friendship-based faith community to ignite a lasting
love of Christ.

The parish youth ministry “gave me an incredible love for
God, the sacraments, Scripture, the church and community
life,” said Father Peterson (known by many as “Father Jack”).
“My reaction was that I wanted to give what had been given to
me.”

That desire helped motivate his entry into Youth Apostles, a
community of Catholic priests and laymen dedicated to serving
youths, and later inspired his call to the priesthood. For
the past 12 years, it was expressed in his role as general
director of the Youth Apostles Institute in McLean.

The first to succeed founding director Eduardo Azcarate,
Father Peterson reached the end of his final term April 9,
when Mike Paquette was elected to replace him. Youth Apostles
limits directors to four three-year terms, and Paquette, a
lay member of Youth Apostles for 35 years, was chosen
alongside a new consecrated assistant director, Youth Apostle
Father Thomas M. Yehl, and lay assistant director, Mike
Power. Father Yehl and Power replace Youth Apostle Father
Peter W. Nassetta and Kevin Bohli, respectively.

During his tenure, Father Peterson “gave a lot of depth and
width to the community” through spiritual formation and
development efforts, said Bohli, director of the diocesan
Youth Ministry Office. Underlying his leadership, Bohli said,
“has been a commitment to bring young people to Christ at
every opportunity he gets.” Among his efforts as director,
Father Peterson oversaw the development of a strategic plan;
the revision of the community’s general statutes, which are
awaiting approval from Arlington Bishop Paul S. Loverde; and
the implementation of their “Healthy and Holy Policy,” aimed
at creating and maintaining a safe environment for youths in
Youth Apostle ministries. He helped develop pilot satellite
programs in Manassas and Leesburg, enabling members to gather
closer to their homes.

Father Peterson also helped expand the community to Virginia
Tech in Blacksburg; develop Women Youth Apostles, a sister
community that shares a charism of bringing young people to
Christ; and establish the Don Bosco Center, an outreach
program to Hispanic middle schoolers in Manassas.

Under his directorship, four Youth Apostle members were named
to diocesan-level positions, one in Arlington, two in
Richmond and one in Vermont.

Father Peterson’s first exposure to Youth Apostles was
through Azcarate, who taught his eighth-grade religion class
at St. Anthony, led his confirmation retreat and organized
the inaugural parish-based Catholic Life Community, a small
faith group for high schoolers that became a core Youth
Apostle ministry. Two years after Azcarate founded Youth
Apostles in 1979, Father Peterson entered as a layman.

Ordained in 1989 by Arlington Bishop John R. Keating, Father
Peterson was named chaplain of the University of Mary
Washington in Fredericksburg after six years in parish
ministry. He went on to serve as chaplain of Marymount
University in Arlington, where he’s continued to minister as
assistant chaplain during his Youth Apostle directorship. He
is remaining in the position post-election.

Members of Youth Apostles – now totaling nearly 90 – include
consecrated priests and consecrated laymen living in
community, single laymen who may choose to live in community,
and married members who live throughout the region. Youth
Apostles is approved in the diocese as a “mixed public
association of Christ’s faithful” – an association, according
to the Code of Canon Law, composed of clerics and laity or
both who are striving “with a common effort to foster a more
perfect life, or to promote public worship or Christian
teaching.”

Lay consecrated member Jonathan Mundell, who served at the
Don Bosco Center for three years and now is director of the
Youth Apostle house in McLean, said Father Peterson has led
the Youth Apostles through hard work and example.

“His prayerfulness and striving for personal holiness and his
love for God – they are an example to all of us in
community,” said Mundell. “He does everything that he expects
from us.”

Father Nassetta, who has known Father Peterson since the
early 1980s, added that his fellow priest brought “his love
for the church, for young people and community to the
position, just as he’s done as a brother in Youth Apostles
for over 30 years.”

Father Peterson said he never envisioned himself leading the
community.

“It was a big adjustment, but I enjoyed it more than I
thought I would because I love the community so much and I
wanted it to grow; I wanted it to be an ever-more effective
instrument of God’s hands,” he said.

With Paquette at the helm, Father Peterson hopes to “offer
whatever assistance I can,” he said. He also said he’ll
continue to remain involved in the mission and development of
the community and in serving youths.

Young people today are grappling with the breakdown of the
family, “a culture that does not support the Gospel way of
life” and pressures on their time, especially as part of the
high-achieving Washington-area population, said Father
Peterson. And then there’s the “attack of the phone.”

“It makes it very hard to get quiet time, to learn to be by
yourself and learn to pray,” he said.

His approach in the face of these challenges remains simple.
“I strive to do relational ministry with young people, and
through that, earn the right to speak to them about God,”
said Father Peterson. “That’s what life is all about –
helping young people truly encounter Christ.”

Find out more

youthapostles.org

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