Young people participate in praise and worship in Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament in the afternoon of July 17, 2021, during Youth 2000 at Brescia University in Owensboro. ELIZABETH WONG BARNSTEAD | WKC

BY ELIZABETH WONG BARNSTEAD, THE WESTERN KENTUCKY CATHOLIC

The 24th-annual Youth 2000 retreat, held on July 17-18, 2021 at Brescia University in Owensboro, came about through fervent prayer and the dedication of those who couldn’t imagine a year without the annual Eucharist-focused retreat.

The previous Youth 2000 took place on March 6-8, 2020 – right before the COVID-19 pandemic took the United States by storm. With the pandemic still in full swing in early 2021, organizers realized it would not be safe to hold the retreat yet.

So they waited, and prayed.

“I always pray about this event,” said Lisa Bivins, a member of the Marian Shrine Committee, which helps lead the retreat. “I knew we wouldn’t have it in March, and it was on my heart to pray about having this in the summer.” 

The retreat is cosponsored by the Diocese of Owensboro’s Office of Youth and Young Adult Ministry, whose director is Charlie Hardesty. Bivins had been working closely with Hardesty to figure out the next step.

Hardesty brought the idea of a summertime Youth 2000 to Bishop William F. Medley.

“Charlie called me on Feb. 11, 2021 and said we could have it in the summer if things were open,” said Bivins, pointing out that it was the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes.

Hearing the news on a significant Marian feast day was the answer to prayer for Bivins: “The bishop said yes, and I knew that was a sign from Our Lady that this was happening.”

Youth 2000 is an international organization whose United States’ office is based in Dallas. Bivins told the WKC that the Owensboro-region Youth 2000 was the last to take place before the pandemic hit, and is now the first to take place as the U.S. works to rise out of the pandemic.

“We were just excited to be here, and to get things going for the youth,” she said of the July retreat, which drew about 70 young people.

A.K. Wathen, Caroline Wathen, Mayme Powell and Maddie Edge attend Youth 2000 on July 17, 2021 at Brescia University in Owensboro. ELIZABETH WONG BARNSTEAD | WKC

Will Edge, a junior who belongs to Immaculate Parish in Owensboro, has been attending Youth 2000 for “about five years.”

“My favorite part is Adoration; the time with Jesus is nice,” he said.

Caroline Wathen, a seventh-grader who belongs to Blessed Mother Parish in Owensboro, called Youth 2000 “a really good experience for young Catholics to be able to grow in their faith,” and her older sister, eighth-grader A.K. Wathen, said the retreat provides “good reflection time to open your heart to what Jesus is calling you to do.”

Mayme Powell, an eighth-grader who belongs to Immaculate, said the faith-based talks at Youth 2000 help with “unanswered questions so you can leave with a mindset of what you’re going forward with.”

And Maddie Edge, another eighth-grader who belongs to Immaculate, said Youth 2000 provides “a good opportunity to meet other religious from other parts of the country,” referencing sisters, priests and religious brothers who travel from places outside the diocese to minister at Youth 2000.

The Franciscan Friars and Sisters of the Renewal was one such community which traveled to Owensboro that weekend.

One of the friars who came also happened to be a bishop: Bishop Robert J. Lombardo, an auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese of Chicago.

Bishop Lombardo is one of the founding fathers of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, which started in 1987 and helps lead Youth 2000 retreats. Bishop Lombardo was present at the first and early years of Youth 2000 in Owensboro and was able to attend this year as well.

“Youth 2000 is an opportunity for our young people to have an encounter with Jesus in the Eucharist,” said Bishop Lombardo.

Quoting the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which refers to the Eucharist as “the source and summit of our faith,” he added that this retreat is “a matter of encounter with the head and the heart, reinforcing the teachings on the Eucharist and doing it in a way that’s an opportunity of encounter with the Lord.”

Originally printed in the August 2021 issue of The Western Kentucky Catholic.