WOODLANDS, Texas — During the four years he was a high school student and a Life Teen member at his church, Joshua Gautreau used to gather in front of the altar with several hundred other teen-agers, standing just several feet away from the priest during the Eucharistic Prayer.

It led to a greater appreciation of the Eucharist, he said. Gautreau, 19, is now a core team member of the Life Teen program at a different church, St. Anthony of Padua Church in Woodlands, Texas.

Life Teen is an international Catholic ministry that encourages teen-agers to get closer to Christ. During a typical Life Teen Mass, the liturgy is geared toward teens, with a rock band providing upbeat music.

But, starting this fall, some changes will occur in about 950 parishes that use Life Teen as their youth ministry program. Msgr. Dale Fushek, Life Teen's founder and director of special projects for the Diocese of Phoenix, announced last month that, in accordance with the new General Instruction of the Roman Missal, Life Teen is asking that all who participate in their Masses conform to the following:

The teens won't be allowed to enter the sanctuary during the Eucharistic Prayer because that location is reserved for the celebrating priest, concelebrants and those in a specific ministry.

The phrase that Life Teen has advocated to end the liturgy — “The Mass never ends, it must be lived” — cannot be used.

After music practice and a welcome, there should be a period of silence before the liturgical celebration starts.

The music must not detract from the action at the ambo, altar or chair.

Msgr. Fushek, the pastor at St. Timothy's in Mesa, Arizona, where the Life Teen Mass originated 19 years ago, acknowledged the changes might be difficult for some parishes and teens. But he emphasized in the letter that was sent to all Life Teen programs that “our cooperation with Rome and the (U.S. bishops' committee on the liturgy) will only enhance our liturgical celebrations and our mission in the Church.”

He also advocated obedience to the local bishops and said that the General Instruction should be fully implemented by Oct. 1 and “accomplished with a spirit of joy.”

Gautreau, who spent a year in the seminary after high school, said the new liturgical directives make sense. “They don't come out with random stuff,” he said, referring to the Vatican. “They spend a lot of time discerning about that.”

Discussions in Rome

Life Teen was a topic of discussion when Bishop Thomas Olmsted of Phoenix was in Rome for his “ad limina” visit — to report on the state of the diocese — earlier this year.

“Since arriving in Phoenix as its new bishop, I have been able to see first hand how Life Teen is touching so many teen-agers through the liturgy, and the positive impact of its mission is now felt worldwide,” Bishop Olmsted said in a statement released to the Register. He cited the apostolate for its work for vocations, commitment to Pope John Paul II as its role model and Mary as its patron.

In Rome, he discussed Life Teen with Cardinal Francis Arinze, prefect of the Congregation of Divine Worship, whom he described as “supportive” of the apostolate. Cardinal Arinze also has been a major proponent of liturgical reform.

The bishop also met with Msgr. James Moroney, executive director of the U.S. bishops' liturgy committee, who said he was pleased that Life Teen was “humbly seeking” the will of the Church in conducting its Masses in accordance with the new General Instruction.

Msgr. Moroney said that, by submitting to the Church, Life Teen sets an example of what the Holy Father has been seeking in the celebration of Mass: “To look carefully at the liturgical practices that may have crept into our lives and to humbly embrace an authentic celebration of the liturgy as the Church gives it to us.”

Life Teen officials recently sent out a training video to parishes to make sure people are catechized as to what the changes are, said Msgr. Fushek in his letter.

Phil Baniewicz, Life Teen's president, predicted that “some people will be disappointed” with the restrictions. “Some teen-agers have a profound experience of the Eucharist maybe being closer around the altar,” he said. But he added that the Church “in her wisdom has a much better perspective than myself or anyone in Life Teen. We always submit to the authority of the Church.”

Baniewicz recently told the St. Louis Review, newspaper of the Archdiocese of St. Louis, that the changes would reflect a uniformity with the way Mass is celebrated universally.

Bob McCarty, executive director of the National Federation for Catholic Youth Ministry, said adolescents live in their own world with their own symbols and music. But they also belong to the body of Christ, he said. It's important that they learn not only about their own personal spirituality, but also what it means to belong to community, he said.

“When there are changes in the Church, we have to help young people understand that part of being in a large community like this, you have to know the community's traditions and teachings,” he said.

Barbara Beale, director of youth ministry at St. Anthony of Padua in Woodlands, Texas, didn't think the changes would affect her teens. For one thing, there is always a pause for silence before the Mass begins, she said, and her teens don't actually gather around the altar during the eucharistic prayer. About 300 usually stand, in a semicircle and usually three to four rows deep, on one of the three steps that lead up to the altar, she said.

“I think…they will want to do what's best for the liturgy,” she said. “If that's what Rome and the bishops are asking to bring everything into agreement and accordance, the kids will follow suit.”

“It doesn't matter if you're sitting in the front pew or the back pew — it's all the Eucharist,” Gautreau said. “As long as you're in the right state of mind, it's still the same presence.”

Carlos Briceno writes from Seminole, Florida.