NEW ORLEANS — On a recent mission at St. Benilde Parish in Metairie, La., Youth for the Third Millennium went into a neighborhood that had been devastated by Hurricane Katrina.

They found an elderly woman sitting on her porch and offered to help her clean up her home — and rebuild her hope. In tears, she told them that she had been praying for help, and felt God tell her he was going to send someone.

She believed the Youth for the Third Millennium folks were the answer to her prayers.

In the decimated Gulf Coast, young Catholic missionaries are going door to door bringing hope to people who are still recovering from the Gulf Coast storms of 2005.

The group is one of the recipients of funds from Catholic World Mission’s “Mission Hope” (missionhopela.com) project sent that Youth for the Third Millennium into Louisiana.

Director Rob Duke thanked donors — including Register readers who responded to the Register Relief Effort — for being willing to give spiritual support along with material help.

Many philanthropic efforts are helping clean up homes. Youth for the Third Millennium missionaries help homes and parishes. But they offer more.

“We’ve really noticed one thing in the humanitarian missions,” he explained. “Sometimes in evangelization missions the door is closed in our face, but on these we haven’t had a door closed once. And when we’re done working, people are always willing to pray with us. The hurricane really opened people up to talk about their faith.”

The groups also invite people to Mass and to Eucharistic adoration at the local parish.

In the case of the elderly woman in Metairie, La., said Duke, “We had to move a mountain of stuff across the street so we could get a FEMA trailer into the yard.” She “was so open to talking to us, she was ecstatic we were inviting her back to St. Benilde’s for adoration and for the dinner we were holding after Mass.”

‘Christ in Our Works’

Youth for the Third Millennium is run by members of Regnum Christi, the lay movement of the Legionaries of Christ. The founders were looking for a way to help bishops and priests provide opportunities for young people to share their faith with others.

With the invitation and permission of a pastor, young people and families working with Youth for the Third Millennium make home visits to families and shut-ins in the parish. They bring the Gospel message, give a personal witness and offer to pray for their hosts. The missionaries might also bring along basic items people need for everyday living.

“Over the years we’ve expanded how we define mission,” said Executive Director Paul Bernetsky. Some missions combine organized sports with talks on human and Christian virtues.

On any given weekend, up to 40 youth, many from nearby Louisiana State University and from Texas, come on a mission to cut down trees, remove waterlogged furniture and carpeting from houses and make repairs.

“Instead of the normal format of going to talk to people about the faith,” said Stephen Caruso, an LSU senior who has been with Youth for the Third Millennium for a year. “We brought them Christ in our works.”

Father Pat Wattigny, pastor of St. Benilde’s, agreed. “The main thing they brought to a lot of people is they brought hope. They brought good disposition and prayerfulness. … The living faith in action is what inspired my parishioners.”

Bernetsky described Youth for the Third Millennium as a “practical response” to Pope John Paul II’s urging young people in 1993 at World Youth Day in Denver to “go out on the streets to preach the Gospel.”

As Bernetsky pointed out, “The missions themselves really provide an opportunity for young people to do something practical with their faith, using their gifts and talents to really serve the Church and Christ, and to serve people.”

He illustrates with story after story. In Virginia, for example, at the last hour of the last day of one mission, one group decided to extend their ministry to just one more house. They could have called it a day, but they went on to meet a very sad, lonely woman.

As they told her their own personal faith, one youth named Michael Hasson decided to give her his Bible. Bernetsky said the woman stayed up all night reading it. The next day, she went to the local parish to return the Bible to the pastor.

“Eventually that visit led to her baptism — and then her husband and children entering the Church,” he said, “all because of a selfless young man who handed over his Bible to this woman. That experience was life-transforming not just for the woman but for the young man himself.”

On another mission, three high school girls happened to knock on the door of a widower who had been away from the Church for 20 years, angry with God. The man responded to the girls’ gentle invitation to come that evening to a holy hour and the Saturday vigil Mass at the local parish.

“When the pastor saw the older gentleman kneeling there before the Blessed Sacrament, he told the teens he’d been working on that man for 20 years to get him back in the Church,” Bernetsky said. “‘Whatever you girls are doing,’ he said, ‘keep it up.’”

Caruso also organized a trip to Mexico during Youth for the Third Millennium’s annual Holy Week Megamission. On it, 10 young men visited the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City, then took a bus to a rural village of 300 people where few houses had running water. Daily activities included morning prayer, door-to-door visits and inviting people to the afternoon’s activities of games, soccer and spirituality talks geared toward the youth.

“The talks were on purity and why it’s important to keep your relationship with Christ during the teen years,” Caruso said, noting the mission’s primary goal of evangelization.

People in this area see a priest only once a month, so when the missionary group told them a Legionary priest was coming to hear confessions and celebrate Mass, 40 people were waiting in line for two hours before he arrived.

“On the trip to Mexico, there were incredible stories of people coming to Christ,” Caruso said. “But in New Orleans, it’s more subtle. You know these people who you have helped are incredibly thankful and have definitely come in contact with the Church and with Christ.” 

Joseph Pronechen is based

in Trumbull, Connecticut.

Information

Youth for the Third Millennium

ytm.org

(678) 947-5363