Brothers and sisters in Christ,

May the strength of our Lord’s Passion be with you this Lenten season! It seems too long since I last wrote anything to you, so I want to be sure to thank you all for your continued support of me here at North American Martyrs.

I am so blessed to be in such a vibrant and caring parish with such outstanding people as yourselves. This month I especially want to thank you for—you guessed it—using SCRIP!

Many of you have responded with great enthusiasm to the opportunity for our SCRIP proceeds to fund a youth minister, while some of you, I realize, aren’t sure what a youth minister would do. So, this is the job description—more or less.

The youth minister will be responsible for “starting up” and promoting a junior high level youth program. This program would be more social in nature and have as its focus keeping young people connected after their Confirmation year. Unfortunately we lose track of some of our students after Confirmation because they stop coming to CCD.

The youth minister would also make regular visits to our students at the public middle schools.

At the High School level, the youth minister would be the primary coordinator of the Godparent Program assisting with curriculum setting, clarification, etc.  They would plan the monthly teen holy hour, parish level retreats, mission trips, fun trips, etc.

I think the most beneficial thing he or she will do is to start weekly bible studies at Northstar and Lincoln High. The youth minister in this way becomes the “arm of the pastor” reaching out to all of his young people no matter where they are.

I love my work at Pius, but I am one person. Our young people who are in public school deserve someone who cares about them and their spiritual growth and well being.

Right now I don’t even know most of our kids in public high school, unless they have come to me. The youth minister would be going to them.

In addition to all these things, a youth minister will coordinate and advertise involvement in diocesan youth activities, retreats, trips,etc.

I hope that we will be able to hire someone who is competent enough to also serve the parish at large through some sort of adult education initiative, or new bible study.

I hope that when you read this over you will realize that so much is possible, but Fr Panzer and I can’t do it all. There is also too much work for our amazing volunteers to do it all well.

Youth ministry has been a passion of mine because of the impact my youth minister had on me in High School and because young people are our future, and we have a lot of young people to take care of in the coming years.

Once more I thank you for using SCRIP and ask you to continue to be vigilant about using it.

All profits exceeding $2500 within each month will go toward making this position a reality.

Sincerely yours in Christ Jesus,
Fr. Sean Kilcawley