op-ed.
the importance of high school youth group
mary debona eva rosenfeld art
Students who attend public schools are asked to keep their religion at home and not talk about it at school. That is why it is necessary now for high school students who practice their faith to not only visit their place of worship every week, but have a place to go where they can freely talk about their religion with their peers. “Given that our society is taken by secularism, we’re a non-religious society,” said Enzo Randazzo, the youth minister at St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church in Ann Arbor, “it’s important for Christians to have a place of refuge to express their faith, to learn their faith and to grow in their faith and then be sent out into their society, which is largely rejecting their faith.” It is Randazzo’s first year as the youth group leader at St. Francis. He works not only with high schoolers, but with the young adult ministry and middle schoolers who attend the parish school, too. The high school youth group meets on most every Sunday evening where they have group discussions about mass
that week, movie nights, Thanksgiving feasts, play jeopardy, make food, pray, go on retreats and do volunteer work. Of the high schoolers that attend youth group at St. Francis, many agreed that they finished their homework before going to youth group on Sundays, so they found youth group as a good place to wind down before the upcoming week of school. “[Randazzo] is amazing, he’s welcoming to everyone and he just has a way with wording things that helps me to understand it,” said Madeleine Batra, a sophomore at Pioneer High School. Batra attends St. Mary’s Student Parish for mass, but chose to go to youth group at St. Francis when she met Randazzo this fall. “I go to youth group because I think it is a nice place to go to not only just hang out with my friends, but get closer with God, in a fun way,” said Fiona O’Rielly, a sophomore at Community High School. “You go to church, but then you go to youth group and you get
to ask questions about what you learned in church [and] get deeper into it, but also talk to people that are your age about what’s going on. [Enzo] can connect with us better and he’s just like a really fun guy to be around.” Youth group has also been an important part in Enzo’s life. If he had not gone to youth group when he was in high school, his life would have gone down a completely different path and he would not be a youth minister today. “When you’re a senior, you’re going through a lot of decision making, like what college you’re going to go to, which will determine the rest of your life… [it] affects people tremendously,” Randazzo said. “When I was a senior in high school, because of church and being involved in youth group … I actually came to the conclusion that I wanted to be a priest. I would not have thought of priesthood at all if it had not been for youth group.” apr il
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