This coming Sunday will see what has become a very important annual event in the Diocese of Rockford. We will celebrate our third Youth Summit. Over 2,000 Catholic young people from all over the diocese will gather at Rock Valley College in Rockford. Throughout the day they will laugh and yell, listen and sing, celebrate Mass and adore Christ in the Eucharist, and they will confess their sins and pray.

The idea of a Youth Summit was first conceived as part of the Year of Faith called for by Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI in 2012. Anticipating in some ways the themes of the pontificate of Pope Francis, Pope Benedict called on the Church and on each of us to look anew at our Catholic faith and our personal love for Jesus Christ. Throughout that year, the Church throughout the world and the Diocese of Rockford sought renewal in our faith. The first Youth Summit gathered our diocesan youth for that purpose.

While a one-day gathering cannot address and resolve all of the problems that young people or other believers might experience in life and in faith, still it is an event that positively and joyfully makes a point for long term reflection. It is this: Jesus loves us and He is the answer to all our questions. That is a significant contribution in an increasingly secularized society that puts so much pressure on our Catholic youth.

And they are under pressure. Some studies show what many of us see and experience regularly. Young people are falling away from the practice of their Catholic faith, and sometimes even from belief in the existence of God, in alarmingly high numbers.

Of course in terms of simple demographics, families are having fewer children than just a few decades ago. But still, our Masses and faith activities are increasingly devoid of significant numbers of young people. In fact, as one bishop recently commented, there is a new minority group about which we need to be aware. It is those young people who embrace their Catholic faith, pray regularly, live her moral and spiritual teaching, marry within the Church and joyfully accept and raise the children with which God blesses them.

It’s not surprising that Catholic young people experience pressures that make them question their faith.

Many have had the blessing of an environment provided by committed, loving and faithful parents who have modelled for them married love and family faith. But many others have suffered their own sorrows from the high rate of divorce in our society. All have grown up in a society whose values reflected in the media and culturally have praised materialism, the sexual revolution and the exclusion of God from public discourse.

A consequence of many of these factors is an abandonment of a life of prayer. When prayer is missing, we don’t see the world with God’s eyes. Young people, without support or encouragement, can find this environment daunting, leading them to question the reality and value of faith.

The Youth Summit is a means of addressing those tensions for our young people. First, it brings them together, in an atmosphere where others not only share their faith but do so with enthusiasm. Our young people can be courageous in confronting their challenges, and are greatly strengthened to know that they are not alone.

During the summit, many of the questions of faith will be addressed, and head on! This gives our youth a sense of confidence. There are answers presented to the many questions they face from their friends and even from their family members.

It is remarkable to see the change that takes place in our young people at three particular moments of the summit. At Mass, they almost instinctively quiet down and enter into the prayer and reflection of the readings and the Eucharist. Later, during adoration, many have mentioned that the quiet and reflective prayer spoke to their hearts in a way they were not accustomed to. And at various times during the day, the lines of young people waiting to confess to the generous priests who have come are a reminder of conversion and forgiveness.

We as adults can learn from the Youth Summit. We can be reminded of the need for solidarity, prayer, trust in God and a spirit of conversion. But we can learn as well from the needs of our youth. They need encouragement. They need life-long lived examples of faith from adults and especially from their parents.

The Youth Summit is a blessing to the Diocese of Rockford and to our young people. It is also a reminder to us adults to renew our faith and to ask, what kind of example am I setting for the next generation?