Some were moved to tears. Others were left speechless.
No, it wasn’t tickets to the latest big concert or keys to a new car that
provoked such a show of emotion among 40 teens in the Arlington Diocese.
It was the chance to attend a youth rally with Pope Benedict XVI at St. Joseph
Seminary in Yonkers, N.Y.
Kevin Bohli, director of the Office of Youth Ministry, said he was able to round
up 55 tickets to the New York event thanks to a little bit of persistence and
a lot of begging.
So at 5 a.m. April 19, eight parishes will each send five youths and a chaperone
on a charter bus ride from St. Luke Church in McLean to New York. The rally is
scheduled to begin at 4:30 p.m. that day, and the group is scheduled to return
to Virginia around midnight.
Bohli said he used a lottery to pick eight parishes that would have the opportunity
to send youths to the rally, which is expected to draw many seminarians from
across the country as well as youths from the Archdiocese of New York.
The delegation from the Arlington Diocese will include groups from the parishes
of St. Francis de Sales in Purcellville; St. Theresa in Ashburn; St. Luke; Holy
Spirit in Annandale; All Saints and Sacred Heart in Manassas; St. William of
York in Stafford; and the Don Bosco Center, a Youth Apostles outreach for at-risk
Hispanic middle-school students.
“There’s a large amount of excitement about the papal trip, and we
wanted to exhaust all our possibilities,” Bohli said, noting that many
youths would not be able to attend the papal Mass in Washington due to the small
number of tickets available through their parishes. “The youth rally will
hopefully be an opportunity for the pope to show his softer side, and give the
youths an opportunity to embrace him like they did John Paul II.”
Jane Treado, director of youth ministry at St. Francis de Sales, said several
teens cried when they found out they were headed to New York. Treado said the
group plans to spend the night at her house to make sure everyone catches the
bus on time.
Like Bohli, Treado used a lottery system to determine who would make the trip.
“The ones who responded (that they were interested in tickets), they’re
the ones who are the really spiritual kids,” she said. “They really
wanted to go.”
Larry Bayne, youth minister at St. Theresa, also used a lottery to pick from
a pool of youths who are actively involved in the parish. He said some were “ecstatic” at
the mere chance of attending an event with the pope, and “almost speechless” at
actually receiving a ticket.
“It’s important for them to see the pope as Our Lord’s representative
on earth,” Bayne said. “I’m personally looking forward to it.
I saw John Paul II in Denver, and that experience started me on the path to youth
ministry.”
Youth Apostles Father Ramon Dominguez, director of the Don Bosco Center in Manassas,
said choosing five youths to attend the rally was a little more complicated since
most of the children who use the center are middle-school aged. But Father Dominguez
said he hoped the rally would be a positive experience for them, many of whom
have struggled in their lives.
“I’m hoping it will be an experience that will bond them together … and
a way for them to meet other kids from other backgrounds and circumstances,” he
said. “I hope it gives them a chance to see they share things in common,
and that this will be an encouragement for them to continue to move forward with
their lives, to recognize the value of things like an active faith life and going
to school.”
Stephanie Tracy can be reached at stracy@catholicherald.com.
