NCYC a hit with Iowa youth
December 13, 2022
About 20 teenagers from the Des Moines Diocese went to the first National Catholic Youth Conference in California last month for a life-changing experience.
“It really deepened my faith in a way that I didn’t know that it could. It was honestly a really, really good experience,”
said Kalee Owens, of St. Patrick Parish and St. Albert Catholic School in Council Bluffs.
“Before I went, I wasn’t super in touch with my faith,” she said. “On Sunday, I found myself wanting to go to Mass.”
Part of the change was from positive peer pressure.
“This is such a big deal for them and I looked at myself and thought this could be a big deal for me if I paid attention and I did. All together, it was just amazing,” Owens said.
Her mother, Stephanie Koch, decided to chaperone.
“The feeling you get there just rejuvenates the faith inside. It gets really emotional,” she said.
It was Sawyer Sheffield’s first experience with NCYC. The St. Patrick parishioner and St. Albert School student said the experience was more than he expected.
“It was really cool just being around so many people who are also trying to share their faith and get closer with God, which is what we’re all trying to do,” he said.
Since going to NCYC, he’s been trying to follow up with a suggestion of Father Max Carson to pray the Liturgy of the Hours, a prayer that priests pray daily.
“Heading into it, I wasn’t as strong in my faith as I have been in the past and as I would have liked. Going to NCYC reset my mindset about that and really brought me closer in my faith,” Sheffield said.
Once Joe Wilwerding learned NCYC – which typically gathers every other year in Indianapolis – was trying a West Coast gathering in California, “there was no not going,” he said. He was one of six teens from Holy Trinity and six from St. Theresa Parish in Des Moines who went together.
“I really decided to go because I thought it would be a good opportunity to grow in my faith and I would get a chance to see a little more of the world while I was at it,” he said.
While the gathering was smaller than that of Indianapolis, there were still thousands of youth gathered in Long Beach, California Nov. 10-12 for one cause: growing in faith.
“It was so cool to see different people from all over the country,” Wilwerding said.
What was particularly memorable was a talk by New York Bishop Joseph Espaillat.
He explained adoration to the youth in cool terms, he said.
“It taught us a different way to go about it,” Wilwerding said. “It altered the way I look at adoration now, which is something I do fairly frequently at Dowling (Catholic High School).”
Lexi Narmi, of St. Patrick Parish and St. Albert School in Council Bluffs, was also struck by the bishop’s testimony.
“What he said was super good. I just felt like he really related to our age and just really made comments directed to us, especially during adoration,” she said. “He was like ‘Snap out of it. You need to be focused on this right now.’ It was a different way to see it.”
Megs Howe, youth minister at St. Theresa Parish in Des Moines, said the New York bishop caught the attention of everyone at adoration when he said: “This is God here. Are you in or are you out?”
The Iowa youth had an opportunity to meet young people who live on Native American reservations, who came from Hawaii and other West Coast communities. They met folks from religious communities based in the western part of the country and were introduced to Catholic colleges on the West Coast.
“It was awesome to see the young church alive and thriving. The kids were engaged in everything they were doing,” said Howe.
The NCYC 2023 will be Nov. 16-18 in Indianapolis.