The Eastern Catholic Churches in the United States Encouraging Young Adults to Strengthen their Faith
By: Fr. Tony Massad | Pastor St. Maron Maronite Catholic Church
This Jubilee Year of Hope invites our universal Church to reflect on the foundation of our hope: Jesus Christ and our relationship with Him. The Maronite Catholic Church embraces this Jubilee Year, celebrating it throughout our Eparchies and encouraging the faithful to deepen their relationship with our Lord Jesus, while becoming bearers of hope to their families, friends, and communities. One of the ways we plan to prepare for the Jubilee Year is to emphasize hope and its significance through young adult regional conferences across the United States.
These conferences will be held in Chicago, Detroit, Houston, and Los Angeles on weekends in the Spring, with the Jubilee Year serving as their central theme. The program will explore the history of Jubilee years, their biblical origins, and how they became a tradition in the Catholic Church. Additionally, we will reflect on how to incorporate the blessings of this Jubilee Year into our daily lives, with a special meditation on living and praying the Lord’s Prayer. We aim to welcome approximately 75-100 young adults at each regional conference.
These regional conferences also prepare participants for our annual Eparchial (Diocesan) Young Adult Conference. The Eparchy of Our Lady of Lebanon, which spans from West Virginia to California, will host this Fall 2025 conference and bring together hundreds of Maronite young adults from across the country. During this four-day event, we will build on the themes of the regional conferences, while also focusing on how we can better reflect our discipleship to Christ through the virtues of mercy, forgiveness, hope, and solidarity.
We are also excited to announce that, with the support of the USCCB Subcommittee on the Pastoral Care of Migrants, Refugees, and Travelers (PCMRT), we are actively coordinating an in-person conference to welcome youth and young adult ministers from all Eastern Catholic Churches. This conference will focus on the Jubilee Year of Hope, creating a space for networking, fellowship, and sharing the best practices for ministering to young people in an ever-changing world. This initiative, made possible through the encouragement and support of the PCMRT Subcommittee and the USCCB, will be held in the fall of 2025.
It will be the first event of its kind, bringing together Eastern Catholic Churches in the United States with the goal of fostering future collaboration on national, regional, and local levels. We would be delighted to have you join us as we prepare to engage and journey with young people.
The Eastern Catholic Churches in the United States are generally smaller and more geographically dispersed than Roman Catholic Churches. As a result, gathering for a unified conference presents some challenges, especially when resources are more limited. However, in this Jubilee Year of Hope, we pray for a conference that will uplift all who attend, providing an opportunity to learn, grow, and share in fellowship with one another.