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Our Parish Mission With Fr. Richard Leonard SJ

Please join us Monday through Wednesday, April 1, 2, 3, at 7:00 pm in the Church.

Will Our Faith Have Young People?
Pope Francis has called the entire church to reflect on young adults, faith and vocational discernment culminating in the Bishop’s Synod on Youth at the Vatican in October this year. This Mission responds to the Holy Father’s call by asking will our faith have young people. This mission is for all of us who have children and grandchildren, and all of us who want our young people to know the faith, hope and love of Christ and the Church that has sustained us.

Monday: Listening Before We Speak We will look at a large international survey of young Catholics 15-25 years of age asking them what they are most looking for amongst us, and what are the major obstacles to them joining and participating in the life of the Church. How can the Church respond to these challenges?

Tuesday: Context is Everything Young people are now faced with an array of options and choices most of them explored through film, television, the internet and social media. How well do we know the media culture that is profoundly forming the values of our young people (and us) and how does our Catholic tradition help us respond to it? How do we all download the best and leave the rest?

Wednesday: Glimpsing Eternity Given that the media culture is now the primary vehicle for how many young Catholics encounter Otherness through big stories, contemplate other worlds, other realities, other forms of being, spirits, demons and angels, think about metaphysics and meta-ethics. How can the Church harness the best of the media world in a way that deepens faith, for us and children, affirms the best of our values, and aids prayer?

Who is Fr. Richard? Fr. Richard Leonard is a Jesuit priest. He has degrees in arts and education, as well as a Master’s degree in theology.

Fr. Richard did graduate studies at the London Film School and has a PhD from the University of Melbourne. He directs the Australian Catholic Office for Film & Broadcasting, is an Honorary Fellow of the Australian Catholic University and has been a visiting scholar within the School of Theatre, Film & Television at UCLA and a visiting professor at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. Fr. Richard has served on juries at the Venice, Berlin, Warsaw, Hong Kong, Montreal, Brisbane and Melbourne International Film Festivals and he has lectured on faith and culture all over the world. He has been published in America Magazine, Eureka Street, US Catholics, is regular columnist with The London Tablet and is a regular guest on ABC Radio and he is the author of nine books.

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