Scouts Recognized at Annual Mass For Earning Religious Awards
By Lynne Conner, Observer Correspondent
February 9, 2023
ROCKFORD—Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts, and American Heritage Girls from across the diocese gathered Feb. 5 at the Cathedral of St. Peter for the annual Scout Sunday Mass.
The event celebrates scouts and adult leaders who have earned various religious scouting awards throughout the year.
Bishop David Malloy presented the scouts with medals, patches and certificates that corresponded with their achievements. Adult Scout leaders Christopher Weickert and Donald Miller, Jr. were presented with the St. George Medal, which is the highest recognition for adults conferred by the National Catholic Committee on Scouting.
In his homily, Bishop Malloy encouraged the scouts to follow the Sunday Gospel reading and “… be salt of the Earth and a light to the world.”
“When we become salt for our families and society, we keep the decay and rot away by the way we live in faith,” Bishop Malloy said. “We become a light so others can find the right way to walk and avoid getting hurt and lost.”
“The list of adjectives associated with scouting fosters our desire to be that salt and light for others. Scouts are trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent,” he said.
“The Scout Sunday Mass reminds us that we have been called to something deeper. It is not just a human action; this Mass is a grace that we receive, it is the grace that we live, and it is the grace that we infuse by doing the right thing. That is at the heart of what flows from scouting combined with faith.”
Bishop Malloy concluded his remarks by challenging the scouts to live their scouting values and following the example of Jesus. “Salt and light spread. Salt moves throughout food, and light spreads throughout a room,” he said. “With your faith and with your scouting, be the salt and light that keep away the bad, protect the good, and show others the way to the Lord.”
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