CYM News 08-16-11

News from Around:

As World Youth Day officially kicks off today, let’s consider the “impact” of this gathering

ABILENE, TX – Bishop Michael Pfeifer of the Diocese of San Angelo remembers being in Rome in 2000 for World Youth Day and "looking out at the huge crowd on a Saturday evening," Pfeifer recently recalled of the largest World Youth Day he attended. "There was just a mass of people for probably two miles. (I thought), ‘Out there, there’s future presidents, future prime ministers, might be a future pope, statesmen, whatever.’ More from the Aberline Reporter News

VATICAN CITY – -"Young people can find themselves in a lot of local churches on the margin of things, with a lot of people who don’t speak their language, who treat them as if they just descended from Mars," said Archbishop Joseph W. Tobin, secretary of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life.

For many young Catholics, World Youth Day can be the one church event where they have the time, space and camaraderie they need to start pondering the way God wants them to live their faith. More from the Catholic News Service

ROME, ITALY — The head of Madrid’s Housing and Economy Office, Percival Manglano, confirmed Aug. 2 that World Youth Day is expected to bring $143 million into the Spanish economy. More from Catholic News Agency.

News from ‘Round Here:

Sunday was a wasted day… after fourteen days straight on, it was good to take a day off (but for one office errand), even if I had a headache most of it. Clark returned late at night

I was out of the office as I attended a memorial service celebrating the life of the father of a colleague and friend. Tuesday started with four meetings before 1:30, never a good thing. It was, however, nice to have the whole dyyam staff together again.

More desk time Wednesday and then a run to the PX before the army son leaves town.

Thursday was my last day in the office before departure to Madrid. An e-newsletter went out, a facebook posting on our young adult page went up, and our office intern and I went out for a farewell lunch. In the evening, Clark and a friend and I played some cribbage, a card game of my family. Friday was another building closed day in the summer. Took the opportunity to store up some blog posts for my return and into September, began packing for Madrid and had a lovely lunch with the family.

BLOG ADVISORY: There will be no news posting next week as we will be wrapping up WYD coverage.

D. Scott Miller

D. Scott Miller is the dean of Catholic Youth Ministry bloggers which is a polite way of either saying that he is just plain old or has been blogging for a long time (since 2004.)

Scott recently married the lovely Anne and together they have five adult young people and also grandparent three delightful kids (so, maybe he is just plain old!) Scott presently serves at Saint John the Evangelist in Columbia, MD as the director of youth and young adult ministry.

He has previously served on the parish, regional, diocesan, and national levels as well as having taught within a catholic high school. He is one of the founders of RebuildMyChurch and has returned to posting regularly (keeping regular is important to old guys) at ProjectYM.