Ncyc

[master_alterserver]

[quote name='Raphael' post='1418910' date='Nov 13 2007, 07:36 PM']Was anyone else uncomfortable with how far they bent the liturgy to be multi-cultural and youth oriented? I feel like, had I been a minority or a teen, I would have just felt like they were patronizing me.[/quote]
I haven't been on here in a while, but I though I'd pitch in. In a liturgical sense, I didn't care for the closing liturgy. After NCYC Atlanta, though, it was orthodox. In the general scheme of things, it shows how far youth ministry has come in the United States over the last 20 years. I would argue that the hosts we received weren't even consecrated a few years ago.

In Columbus, though, they made sure to keep the doves and banners separate from the processional, which I was appreciative of, though there is room in a procession for banners if one follows the rubrics. Before the conference, the Columbus Liturgy Office shot down the idea of having a sprinkling rite by means of SuperSoakers (thank God they addressed that!). I didn't see the cloth thing at the offertory. I missed it, but I was told there was no need for it. I didn't care much for the way the music was done, but i was glad that the responses and propers used matched the Liturgical texts. Overall, it was not as uplifting as it could have been, but it was VALID. That's a change from NCYC Atlanta.

[Lil Red]

master, i can't really remember Atlanta (though I was there). could you give me examples of what you mean from Atlanta?

and agreed, there was a lot that was done right and i hear kansas city is going to be even better.

[Laudate_Dominum]

I've never been to NCYC but I've read this guy's take on it recently which makes me wonder about some of the people that organize it. ("[i]Finally, NCYC is sponsored and organized by spiritandsong.com, GIA and OCP, the most liberal liturgical music companies out there.[/i]")

[url="http://unamsanctamcatholicam.blogspot.com/2007/11/im-back-from-columbus.html"]http://unamsanctamcatholicam.blogspot.com/...m-columbus.html[/url]

[url="http://unamsanctamcatholicam.blogspot.com/2007/11/columbus-part-ii.html"]http://unamsanctamcatholicam.blogspot.com/...us-part-ii.html[/url]

[url="http://unamsanctamcatholicam.blogspot.com/2007/11/fr-zuhlsdorf.html"]http://unamsanctamcatholicam.blogspot.com/...-zuhlsdorf.html[/url]

[Lil Red]

the thing that was awesome was that in the vocations area (in my experience) the booths that had a lot of kids at them were the ones with habits, or clerics

and i will say that there is plenty not good about NCYC's, there is a lot of good. and it's getting better

[Lil Red]

and i totally agree with the guy about this:

[quote]Then we had to listen to a speech by Bob McCarty, president of National Federation of Catholic Youth Ministries (NFCYM). In his speech, in reference to the girl Veronica who had been killed the night before, he made the following statement. It was so audacious that I wrote it down verbatim:

"By the power vested in me as the president of the NFCYM, and with great arrogance, I proclaim Saint Veronica a saint of the universal Church and declare that she is living with the saints in the Kingdom of Heaven."

Talk about an automatic canonization! He had 20,000 people in front of him and he had the opportunity to ask for prayers for her soul. Did he? Nope. He proclaimed her a saint to the uproarious applause of everybody. Later, I took some kids aside and told them that they needed to pray for her soul, despite the President of NFCYM's canonization. Thankfully, her name was mentioned at a Mass later that weekend.[/quote]

i thought it was totally inappropriate for this guy to do this, and i hope to let them know what i think about it as a youth minister.

[Lil Red]

and not to harp, but someone left this comment on that guy's blog:

[quote]I happened to be in Columbus last weekend for another conference, but most of the people in my hotel were kids attending the NCYC. They were cute, enthusiastic, having a good time - but not even remotely Catholic, and I have no idea what they got out of it. All I saw was people running around saying "Praise Jesus, praise Jesus," and having group hugs. It was basically an Evangelical event, all fluff, emotion and entertainment.[/quote]

honestly, my youth were probably doing that. but, at the same time, every night we sat down and discussed what happened at the conference, bringing up subjects like: faith is not just a feeling; Mass is not a performance (that's why you don't clap); full active participation means what?; why only priests do blessings; etc.

but we had these discussions in a conference room that the hotel let us use, away from the noise and everything else. so no one would've seen that.

AND, since we went to the Traditional Latin Mass at Holy Family, it was a nice counterpoint to the closing Mass at NCYC. and they loved it

[Thy Geekdom Come]

[quote name='Lil Red' post='1422229' date='Nov 19 2007, 03:11 PM']master, i can't really remember Atlanta (though I was there). could you give me examples of what you mean from Atlanta?

and agreed, there was a lot that was done right and i hear kansas city is going to be even better.[/quote]
Kansas City should be good. I know the Kansas City, Kansas diocese is decent, but I studied in the Kansas City, Missouri diocese, and Bishop Finn will do everything he can to make it a solid, orthodox liturgy...and conference in general.

[Laudate_Dominum]

[quote name='Lil Red' post='1422320' date='Nov 19 2007, 05:27 PM']and not to harp, but someone left this comment on that guy's blog:
honestly, my youth were probably doing that. but, at the same time, every night we sat down and discussed what happened at the conference, bringing up subjects like: faith is not just a feeling; Mass is not a performance (that's why you don't clap); full active participation means what?; why only priests do blessings; etc.

but we had these discussions in a conference room that the hotel let us use, away from the noise and everything else. so no one would've seen that.

AND, since we went to the Traditional Latin Mass at Holy Family, it was a nice counterpoint to the closing Mass at NCYC. and they loved it [/quote]
Yeah, comments like that are lame, spiteful and unfair. I have no problem beefing with organizers who may be trying to spread a liberal agenda, but to pick on the kids? That's just dumb.

[Lil Red]

things that annoyed me were:

-really no mention of Mary. how unCatholic!
-no rosary. also unCatholic
-the youth who led morning and evening prayer had the same hand gestures as a priest would (we discussed that).
-it seemed like the vocations area was 'tucked away' by the inflatable games. maybe they thought by having the vocations area by the games, it would draw more youth to those booths, but i didn't see that happening.
-while i really liked Fr. Tony's creation story, i didn't like anything else he said. kinda Protestant.
-no mention of Pope Benedict XVI.
-the concurrent session we attended (The Gospel of Life), was very ambiguous about life issues, seemingly putting all life issues on the same level (abortion, death penalty, etc.)
-it would be nice to have more solid speakers in the workshops and sessions.

[Lil Red]

[quote name='Laudate_Dominum' post='1422329' date='Nov 19 2007, 03:34 PM']Yeah, comments like that are lame, spiteful and unfair. I have no problem beefing with organizers who may be trying to spread a liberal agenda, but to pick on the kids? That's just dumb.[/quote]
exactly. and honestly, it's the organizers with an agenda. most of the speakers/performers are solid (steve angrisano, jesse manibusan, matt maher, sarah hart, etc.)

and ya know, it stinks that it wasn't more Catholic, but my youth really grew up in their faith (especially since we spent each night talking about Catholic stuff), and i'm glad that we went. and if i'm still here in 2 years, i'll probably be taking a group to Kansas City.

[master_alterserver]

In Atlanta, the propers for the Mass were not the same texts, the celebrants, at almost every Mass, were changing the words to the Eucharistic Prayers so they "fit better" for the youths, and for the huge closing Mass, the hosts consecrated weren't in the same room! Now, there's debate, with a Mass that big, whether the hosts to be consecrated need to be on the altar or not, but in Atlanta, they had them in the Sacrasty and brought them out at Communion. That's completely ridiculous.

As for Veronica, the young girl killed, and her "canonization." It wasn't completely uncalled for, but presented in a very unorthodox way. We can pray that she is in heaven, but none of us has the right to declare her a saint. Ihope that's why he used the word "arrogance," in order to qualify his spiel.

I enjoyed, in Columbus, hearing the man who was playing some praise and worship before the closing liturgy talk about the Rosary and Mary's role in our life. That was another change from Atlanta. Nothing in Atlanta came up about Mary or the Rosary something integral (not necessarily required) to our salvation as Christians.