---

A local youth minister and a teenager will both accompany a group of young Catholic filmmakers to World Youth Day in Madrid, Spain, next week.

Dave Oakes, youth minister at the Shrine of Our Lady of Martyrs in Auriesville, submitted two Catholic-themed videos to a competition hosted by the Kentucky-based website Goodness Reigns (http://goodnessreigns.com/).

He wrote, produced, filmed and edited them at past St. Isaac Jogues Youth Conferences held in July at the shrine. Youth participated as actors.

Although the films didn't win the contest, Mr. Oakes and Julia Bianculli, a 19-year-old from Our Lady of the Annunciation parish in Queensbury who starred in one of them - "Good Samaritan Rap," a 21st-century retelling of the Gospel story of the Good Samaritan - were invited to attend World Youth Day as guests of Goodness Reigns. Mr. Oakes also raised funds in order to attend.

The pair will join close to 20 other Americans on the trip. Goodness Reigns will host one of 16 theater sites in Madrid, where it will showcase about a dozen films from the U.S.

The filmmakers with whom Mr. Oakes and Ms. Bianculli will travel are scheduled to view films from all over the world and mingle with such stars as a producer of the 2004 film "The Passion of the Christ."

Mr. Oakes also looks forward to showing his other film, "North American Martyrs," which chronicles the first Catholics to spread the faith in New York State.

He wants to demonstrate "how young actors can take messages from the Gospel and show how it applies to modern-day times," he said.

Mr. Oakes has been making movies since he was a teenager himself. Since he became a youth minister six years ago, he has used filmmaking to engage teens in discussion on themes like abortion, peer pressure and the 10 Commandments. He also recruits teenage actors to produce Christian music videos.

[[In-content Ad]]

---