LAST year’s World Youth Day celebrations left a lasting impression on an energetic young parishioner from Stella Maris parish, Maroochydore, north of Brisbane.
Mariana Passeggi attended her first youth camp in 2003, but the Catholic youth event in Sydney was just the catalyst the young woman needed to encourage her to form a youth group locally.
Mariana said her parents Horacio and Stella had been a great help throughout the group’s formation.
“After World Youth Day they saw how empowered I was,” Mariana said.
“So my dad went off and started it all happening.”
It took a little more than a year, and “Baruch4” was the result.
The group ran its first youth-ministered Mass in July this year and since then, numbers have continued to grow – both youth participants and other parishioners.
While Baruch4 is a youth group it has prayer experiences and regular retreats centred on the community and network building.
“It’s a place (where) they (young people) can belong and feel safe,” Mariana said.
“(They can) practise their Catholicism … (and it’s) something they can feel proud to be a part of.”
A key part of encouraging youth participation was the rock band that plays at the Masses – among them youth from St Joseph’s, Nambour.
The musicians got together at the Ignite youth conference held in Brisbane in Sept-ember this year and came up with the idea for the band as a way to encourage more young people to come to church.
Guitarist Chris Brown said modern music was especially important in encouraging youth to come to Mass.
“Young people find it easier to pray when there is music they are interested in,” he said.
Band members agree that all has “come together really quickly and is working well”.
The Stella Maris stewardship group secretary Peta Simpson has helped to run the weekly meetings of Baruch4.
She said an important philosophy was the notion that “you are not there because you have to be there but because you want to be there”.
“I liken it to sport,” Peta said.
“Like soccer, there is only so much training you can do on your own.
“To get better you need to get involved with others.
“It is about making it cool to love God.”
Baruch4 is hosting a fundraiser on Tuesday (December 15) with all proceeds going back to youth Masses.
The event will feature a talk by local radio personality Caroline Hutchinson about her Kokoda trek experience, and piano entertainment by Maroochydore parish priest Fr Joe Duffy.
Mariana said Baruch4 has given young people a reason to attend church and participate.
“It started with a dream but it has become a reality,” she said.
