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Southwest Youthfest
Youth festival empowers teens to be Church’s witness
By Ambria Hammel, The Catholic Sun
March 20, 2008
GLENDALE — World Youth Day is four months away, but teenagers throughout the diocese already experienced a similar convergence of faith in their own backyard.
Roughly 4,000 teens from the diocese’s six Catholic high schools and several parish youth groups came together for the Southwest Youthfest March 7 at Jobing.com Arena.
Mass opened the five-hour celebration. The rally featured a series of guest speakers and praise and worship music calling the teens to be witnesses of the Holy Spirit, the theme for the youth festival and World Youth Day.
The speakers explained the youth’s responsibility to stand up for justice and be of service to others both locally and globally.
“The Catholic Church is incomplete without the witness of the young,” Fr. Billy Kosco told the teens during his homily.
He said the teens could be witnesses of obedient children who respect their parents and other elders. Fr. Kosco also said the youth could one day be witnesses of good matrimony or fulfill the dire need for religious leaders.
“We need witnesses who will work for others so that others can finish their work,” Fr. Kosco said.
Students in the all-school choir — under the leadership of Jaime Cortez, St. Bridget’s music director — were examples of that. More than 30 young singers and musicians led the youth into worship during Mass and a pre-event concert.
Fr. Kosco also talked about justice and the need to defend its cause.
Musician Sal Solo expanded on that theme. He combined live singing with video images, statistics and messages portraying national and worldwide social injustices during his presentation.
The teens relived the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and the terrorist attacks on 9/11. Solo showed images of an unborn baby, who often suffers injustice in a pro-choice world.
He also exposed them to images of the poor, hungry and sick in Africa plus the reality of the international debt crisis, which he said allows 7 million children to die every year.
Solo hoped the images and information would motivate them to get involved in fighting for justice.
“Evil prospers when good people do nothing,” Solo told the teens via a typed message on two large screens.
That message resonated inside Chelsea Bergner, a junior at Notre Dame Preparatory in Scottsdale.
“We’re really called to use everything that we have,” Bergner said after the youth festival. She knows teens like her have a lot to offer.
Mary Elizabeth Zabilski, a member of the St. Thomas the Apostle teen’s group, knows that too.
“Whether we are at school, at practice or with our friends, we always have the opportunity to be witnesses by living the Gospel,” Zabilski told her peers during a speech at the youth rally.
She also talked about service, something she has been doing regularly since age 5 at Society of St. Vincent de Paul dining rooms. Now a high school senior, Zabilski challenged her peers to serve others through prayers and action.
The Holy Father “really believes that we have the power to make changes in our culture,” Zabilski said.
Mark Hart, Life Teen’s so-called Bible Geek, agreed. He called the Holy Spirit untapped power.
“If you give God back a little,” Hart told the teens, “He’ll give you a lot.”
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