I'm at the Los Angeles Religious Ed Conference and it's been a good year mostly because Maryknoll got a better location. People have been visiting our booth a lot and even posting videos. If you're on Facebook, go to the Orbis books page and check out some of the videos. Just search for Orbis Books and it'll come up. I went to fantastic liturgy today by the Youth Ministry department of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. The young poeple are really into the liturgy and really into being Catholic. They seem incongruous with what we consider to be the state of the youth in the church today. One could say they are just an aberrant fanatical group bent on seeing priests in cassocks and sisters in full habit and celebrating the Mass in Latin. So I visited a booth of young people and asked why is it that they look for from the Church. The response was "honesty, transparency, no lies or secrets." I asked how kids feel about the sexual abuse scandal, has it turned them away from the Church and learned that they are glad it's finally out but that it's really not on their radar unless they have personal experience. I almost can't imagaine being 20 again and facing our world as my future...if these young people are finding Christ, and thereby finding hope, and courage to go forth into the future with a positive attitude, who am I to question it?

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