Service is teen watchword

The Guilderland High School senior is spearheading a "Senior Ball" for residents of Our Lady of Mercy Life Center, a nursing home not far from his parish, Christ the King in Westmere. Senior citizens will be escorted by teens for the evening and receive souvenirs made by children in the parish.

It's part of an effort at the parish to connect young Catholics to those in need. When Nancy Paino, faith formation director, arrived at Christ the King three years ago, she sat down with then-associate pastor Rev. Mark Allman to talk about developing a comprehensive youth ministry program. They agreed that it would be a good idea to offer teens voluntary service experiences.

Today, she said proudly, Christ the King offers all of its 90 or so teens in grades nine through eleven the opportunity to reach out to the community at sites as varied as a Ronald McDonald House or the Interfaith Partnership for the Homeless. Half to three-quarters of them take the challenge -- and several high-school seniors, including Adam, have continued to do service work after Confirmation.

"Because of our Baptism, we are called to be concerned about the needs of others," Mrs. Paino tells parish youth. "As Church, we're called to look at the world through Jesus' eyes, look at the issues that cause injustice and do something actively to change that."

She initially talks to the teens at an annual parish "service fair," which brings representatives from 19 organizations together. Teens go from table to table, learning about various service projects and signing up for what they choose. Opportunities include staffing phones at a fund drive for the Center for the Disabled; making lunch for guests at Schenectady's City Mission, a soup kitchen; participating in the annual Crop Walk to alleviate hunger; or building a home for a needy family with Habitat for Humanity.

The director said that her job is easy, since "young people understand the idea of service because of their very idealistic nature. They do it because we ask them to."

After their service projects are completed, Christ the King brings the teens together to look at how they were changed as a result of their experiences. Two adults trained to help them process their thoughts join the youth for the day, one step toward Mrs. Paino's vision of having teens "mentored" by adults in the parish community.

She also hopes to get the young parishioners more involved in advocacy work and to connect teens with organizations like Bread for the World or Amnesty International, holding letter-writing campaigns to help political prisoners and others. Eventually, she said, she hopes to help teens study Church documents on social justice and related topics to foster advocacy.

"I hope they come to understand they are vital, that their gifts and talents are very much needed to be shared with those in need," said Mrs. Paino. "I hope they see the Church as something that can make a difference in the lives of people in the world and embrace service work as part of their lives beyond high school."

That message certainly got through to Adam Duff, who said that "being Catholic, the major thing we're taught is to go out and help others. That's something I really believe in."

After attending the Diocese's Christian Leadership Institute (CLI), he got involved in service work -- and stayed involved. He boasts about his parish's youth music program and Renew 2000 effort for young people, the pancake breakfasts, coffeehouses and Christmas caroling they do.

When asked why he helps to organize so many activities, the teen said simply, "I've learned how much you enjoy it. You feel the biggest sense of accomplishment as a group."

It's important for teens to have programs like Christ the King's so they can share their gifts, he said, noting: "It lets kids get together with the supervision of one or two adults and talk about all these ideas you have in your heads."

(11-05-98) [[In-content Ad]]