Youth Speak News

VAUGHAN, ONT. - The Sara Elizabeth Centre (SEC), which offers arts-based inclusive programs for young adults with developmental and physical disabilities, officially opened its doors on Nov. 5.

Established in 2006, the SEC never had a place to call home, until now. The centre is located at 7412 Kipling Ave. in Vaughan.

The permanent location has provided a new beginning for the organization, said Cris Smith, founder and executive director of Blue Veil Charity, the non-profit charitable organization that runs the centre.

PORT COQUITLAM, B.C. - Friendship can often be symbolized in the simplest way: the classic friendship bracelet.

Jordyn Sinkie, a Grade 12 student at Archbishop Carney Regional Secondary School in Port Coquitlam, B.C., has taken this concept a step further to create ties with underprivileged girls in Ghana.

Sinkie founded the fundraising group, HandmAID. HandmAID is a group of 20 senior students from Archbishop Carney that came together in July to create handcrafted bracelets by weaving embroidery floss to form colourful braids of string and sell them to the community at parish functions, flea markets and around the school.

There are nearly one million e-books available for purchase on Amazon.com alone. One quick click on the “religion & spirituality” genre reveals that there are nearly 100,000 books and more than 30,000 on Christianity alone — more than any other subgenre in this category.

For today’s younger generation, e-readers and other electronic books are a new and crucial resource for accessing religious texts and testimonials of fellow Catholics.

OTTAWA - Most girls dream of Mr. Right, and though they might find him, they will never meet Mr. Perfect, says Catholic mother Irene Freundorfer. 

Drawing from her experience as a wife for 25 years and a mother of 10, Freundorfer addressed an all-female audience at Valrideau, a female university residence run by Opus Dei in Ottawa on Oct. 29. Valrideau is not affiliated with any specific university but its residents include students from Saint Paul University, the University of Ottawa, Carleton University and students on exchange.  

Ottawa teen Jamie Hubley, 15, recently committed suicide after years of struggling with depression and homophobic bullying. In September, American teen Jamey Rodemeyer, 14, did the same. In a YouTube video Rodemeyer said that “people would just keep sending me hate, telling me that gay people go to hell.”

Homophobic bullying has no place in our schools or in our lives as young Catholics. Not only should we not be participating in it, but our hearts should be “moved with compassion” for those who are being persecuted and oppressed. As Catholic youth, we need to step up and take a stand against violence and oppression — and we can do this in full loyalty to the Church’s moral teachings.

MISSISSAUGA, ONT. - At St. Francis Xavier parish in Mississauga, women have the Catholic Women’s League, men have the Knights of Columbus and boys have the Columbian Squires. But there was nothing for the girls in the parish.

Some parishioners felt it was time to start something for the girls, said Olivia De Souza, chairperson for family and community life in the parish’s Catholic Women’s League. So they started a Catholic Girls’ League.

“It is the first Catholic Girls’ League in the archdiocese of Toronto,” said Mary Hawkley, president of the Toronto diocesan council of the Catholic Women’s League of Canada. “Our aim is to have Catholic Girls’ Leagues in many parishes where we have CWL councils, but to date, this is the only one.”

During a Mass held at the parish last month, pastor Fr. Bob O’Brien officially inducted the Catholic Girls’ League of 28 members into the Church.

The Catholic Girls’ League is targeted at girls aged 10 to 18. Under the leadership of the members of the CWL and encouraged by inquiries made by girls in the community, the Catholic Girls’ League aims to unite girls in their Catholic faith through bonds of friendship and promoting their spiritual growth by embodying the Christian values of prayer and love.

Months prior to the official induction, the Catholic Girls’ League was already participating actively in the parish community. Last December, for instance, the girls participated in the parish’s annual talent show to raise money for the Vita Centre (a centre for young and pregnant single women) and raise money for gift hampers for people living in retirement homes. And as Mother’s Day neared, the girls were handcrafting cards for sale to raise funds as they prepared for yet another talent show. The girls also volunteer their time as part of Totus Tuus, a parish-based summer camp program for Catholic youth.

Ramona Leitao, president of the Catholic Girls League, believes that so far they have been able to reflect the organization’s founding principles of faith, friendship, fun and formation while they develop as a family of sisters.

But like many other new clubs, the League also faces its own challenges, said Leitao, a Grade 12 student at St. Aloysius Gonzaga Secondary School. In their case, it is increasing awareness about the organization so that girls in their immediate community are given the opportunity to learn more about the organization.

Juleena Suvaminathan, a Grade 12 student at St. Marcellinus Secondary School, agrees.

“Right now the club is new so we haven’t achieved our potential yet because not that many people know about us…. We need to make ourselves more popular because that is the only way for girls to know that this opportunity is available to them,” she said.

Katherine Athaide, a Grade 5 student at St. Gertrude Elementary School in Mississauga, is one of the younger members of the league.

“(The league) teaches you what it means to be a Catholic girl… before I didn’t have as many friends and it helped me make a lot of new friends.”

De Souza hopes the organization will not only help the girls serve their community but also make them develop leadership skills necessary for them to become good members of society.

Meetings are held at the parish on the second Saturday of the month. These meetings usually have themes to go with the season (October was costume-party themed) or the occurrences in the Catholic calendar at that time (September was Our Lady’s theme and different girls led the rosary at the Church every Saturday).

Preparations are currently underway for this year’s talent show on Nov. 12 in support of the Vita Centre. For more information on the Catholic Girls’ League, email cglxaviermiss@gmail.com.

(Chigbo, 17, is a communication, culture and information technology student at the University of Toronto Mississauga. Read more about her at youthspeaknews.org)

CLARIFICATION: An earlier version of this article stated Rachael Dillman worked for an Alberta MP. She was not working for that MP at the time of publication.

OTTAWA - While October may be the official month dedicated to the Holy Rosary, for St. Pat’s Young Adults Rosary Group in Ottawa, every month is Holy Rosary month. 

WINNIPEG - Parents who fear that pop music is having a negative impact on their children should listen carefully to those tunes perceived as pernicious and talk to their children about values and making the right decisions, says a California-based author and speaker.

Anna Scally, president of Cornerstone Media, was in Winnipeg recently for the annual Retrally (a combination of retreat and rally) at St. Mary’s Academy. She told a theatre full of students that parents have legitimate concerns about what young people are listening to, but added “there’s a way your music can help you grow spiritually, whatever style you listen to.”

Dragging myself out of bed one Sunday morning, all I could think about was the pile of school work I still had to finish by Monday.

I had signed up for the 27th annual Rosary Sunday pilgrimage held at Martyrs’ Shrine in Midland, Ont., because of the guilt I felt in neglecting to say the rosary as frequently as I ought to. But mostly, I wanted to experience the sense of fulfilment and serenity I had heard a lot of people experienced after going on pilgrimages.

Home to the remains of saints like Jean de Brébeuf, Martyrs’ Shrine reminds pilgrims of the sacrifices others have made for their faith in the past — a good way to set the mood for the solemnity that is pilgrimage.  

WINDSOR, ONT. - The “undead” walked the streets of Windsor during the fifth annual Zombie Walk on Oct. 15 to collect food for the Windsor Food Coalition.

About 700 people came to the event dressed as zombies, with most participants being young adults and teenagers along with some adults and younger children.

“It’s a good way to make a community event and to raise food cans for the poor,” said Matthew Johnson, 18, a young Catholic who participated in the walk.