from how our parents lived, and their parents before them lived. hello, on behalf of the arch diocese of san francisco, we live in a rapid world. it's different from how our parents lufed. two great facts have not changed. one, we're all born as babies and grow through childhood and through adolescence and into young adulthood. two, for the older generation parents and grandparents and counselors and coaches, nothing is more important than to help the upcoming generation to find its way and grow up good, wise

and happy and find deep meaning in life and embrace the meaning. we will talk about how the catholic church can engage the rising generation. there's an office of youth and young adult ministry. today we're talking with george about our younger people. what are younger catholics seeking from the church? where do they find meaning and a deeper life of faith? how can we help the young people to answer their deepest questions and di certain their mission in the world and integrate that nonl into their future work and family and community life? after this brief break, join us for a discussion on how young people can grow in faith, love and purposefulness. ♪[ music ] ♪ the south bay's first bart station is fuelling another big trend.

>> as local leaders try to pair transit and housing. >> we have constructed high density units. >> santa rosa wants a massive housing complex near the bart train stop but will bay residents leave their folks behind? original reporting from kfiix news.

hello and welcome to mosaic. amanda george is our visitor today. she's the coordinator for the youth youth ministries for the arch diocese of california. welcome. >> thank you.

>> i would like to find out something about you. you have an interesting biography. >> yeah, i'm from the bay area. i have a background in tech and bio tech as well. i am new to the arch diocese. i started in february as coordinator of youth and adult ministry. >> congratulations. >> thank you. now i am excited to be working here and helping youth and young adults grow in their faith and supporting parishes in efforts to asis our young people. >> you have a big job. 92 parishes and everyone should have a working youth ministry program and young adult program and it seems like it's your job to coordinate and structure that. >> well, to assist, right? to assist parishes in their

efforts and to provide the source of things that parishes couldn't do on their own like cross parish events and arch diocese events so also to consult with parishes finding it difficult to start a young adult ministry. and need some advice. >> and you're experienced as a young person yourself. did you convert to catholicism and grow up catholic? i did. i have a typical cradle catholic experience. went through the motions in my teens. i prayed with rosaries on car rides and then in my 20s i wasn't really feeling that the faith was super compelling even though i never lost faith in god or stopped believing or praying to mary.

if i was scared or something like that. but i wasn't practicing my faith in my 20s and then i had an experience of intense suffering at work and my mother encouraged me to seek so lass in the church and go to mass on sundays and then my aunt would bring these catholic lighthouse media cd's to family gathering and one thing she brought was 15 things to do in the mist of suffering. i listened to it on the way to wosh and listened to it on repeat. and it was huge for me. all i wanted to do was get my hands on more of these cd's and more of this catholic teaching that i somehow had missed even though i went to sunday school and had communion.

i didn't know these things i was hearing. it was fascinating to me. so i started listening to catholic radio all the time. i didn't know what music was popular anymore because i listening to catholic radio and it trans formed my faith. the more i learned, the more i wanted. i was seeking out young adult groups and diocese of san jose and arch diocese of san francisco making a whole new group of friends. i have more friends now than i ever imagined i would have and it's hard to keep up with them all but uts trans formed my whole life when you say suffering i won't inquire into personal details but you were working in the high-tech industry. >> yes, i was working t a bay owe tech company and it was a time of persecution in my job -- not faith persecution or

anything like that but just kind of wrong place at the wrong time kind of. and you know, taking the fall for somebody who you know was not available to persecute. so it was a rough time, coming home crying every day hugging my dog when i got home and just crying. couldn't make it through mass without crying. >> that's human behavior. there's a lot to cry about. but specifically you found solace and meaning. in other words, you found the meaning of your life. >> i think it really opened me up to the purpose of suffering in our lives and the redefrp tive quality of suffering. escape i that cd.

the cd 15 things to do in the midst of suffering, it cracked it wide open for me and i thought i can do something with this. not just like why is this happening to me. in hindsight i really consider that time of suffering to be one of the biggest gifts god gave me in my life because it completely changed my path in life. if it had not been for that, i wouldn't be sitting here today. i don't think i would be happy where i was i understand what you're saying. that you found a way through the suffering and to make use of the suffering. >> yes. suffering really truly is a gift. i can say that with 100% could have had. i have found that in subsequent times where i had to suffer in life, i've been able to see this is not a punishment but it's a gift and god is inviting me to learn something and grow

somewhere, maybe preparing me for something new lapping in my life and i find myself more hope and questioning. -- -- happening. and curious about where the suffering might lead, even as etc, painful. >> what i like about your story, i think you're saying this catholic faith you renewed didn't give me a way to avoid looking sorrow and suffering in the face. it gave me a way to understand it and offer it for redemption. which is something many young people go through. they wonder what life is about and what they're here for. we'll come back in a few seconds and talk about the different aspects of your ministry. the youth ministry and young adult ministry. stay with us.

we're talking about ministry to youth and the young catholics. we have amanda george, coordinator of youth and young adult ministry. those are two categories on your website. you have a richly populated website, the arch diocese so under ministry there's a young adult ministry full of events and resources and information all there laid out nicely. so youth ministry is ages 13- 17. teenagers. >> correct. >> and young adult ministry, let's talk about youth ministry first. the young adult ministry is aging up into the 50s now. failure to launch is going on. >> right. >> youth ministry is dealing with teenagers. >> yeah. >> you have events for them and

socializing and online communications. >> yes, youth ministry can take many different forms. any time you're working with youth in the church, you're doing youth ministry and people don't realize that. if you doing scouting and your troop is related to a church based scouting troop, and they have catholic religious emblems you can earn for your catholic faith, that's youth ministry. if you're working with altar servers who are teens, you're doing youth ministry. it's not just a youth night on a friday night or sunday night where a youth minister is there and that's the only person who does youth ministry. any time you're interacting with teens in the church you're doing youth ministry. part of your job is to awaken the people on the ground

to the nature of what they do. >> right. >> and provide resources and so on definitely. so we are available to help parishes in the arch diocese connecting with them with different resources as far as programs that they can subscribe to and materials available at no cost. speakers connecting them with speakers that they can use for rallies or retreats or just bring a speaker into their youth night to offer a different voice or faus to interact with that might keep things more engaging for regular ongoing youth ministry. so i'm also available to act as a consultant with parishes who are maybe trying to do something different with their youth ministry that they generally haven't done before or trying to talk it up a notch

or a parish that doesn't have youth ministry, we can come in and help consult and assess the situation and who are their young people in their parish and what are they looking for and what is their experience in life? and what sort of program might best benefit them. >> yeah, there's no one size fits all parish program. there's endless resources that you can draw attention to. i notice also on your website, you have pay juror events cross diocese events. the summer you had a couple of events. there's one coming up in september. tell us about those. >> yeah, earlier in july we had youth on a mission. we had 92 young teens from five different diocese in the north cal area and that event is

disciple ship training camp for teens with leadership potential where they learn practical skills to help run youth ministry in their own parish. so that can be a huge help to youth ministers who are often volunteers and they're doing this out of the goodness of their heart and for the passion they have for our young people. this allows our young people to really help and really take some ownership of their own youth ministry they participate in. it was a great success, the workshops were well received and then we followed up just a week later with stew benville nor cal which is a collaboration between franciscan university of stew benville and they put on conferences around the country. we were so happy to have one this year and we had 985 teens. >> all from this area? >> yes, northern california and four states.

california, oregon, nevada and hawaii. yeah. people came from hah hey to attend. >> interesting. >> it was phenomenal. really incredible. even had healings. we had a man there who has the gift of laying hands and healing and somebody was healed of a torn acl while at this conference. . >> it's been a long time since i was a teenager but i remember being shy about my faith and the idea of getting out in the open and mixing with other people, 900 people from five states who are smarter and better than you are, you make new friends. >> tons of new friends. a lot of new friendships made there. at one point i was manning a table and i was talking to the teams as they were coming by looking at different things and one of the girls was on her phone and showing her friend

something that she had posted to social media and she was commenting on how her friends who are not at that conference were commenting on this saying "where are you? "because she was posting videos and stuff of the music performances we had there, the faith and worship music. everybody was energized and she's like my mom made me go and i thought it would be boring but i'm pretty much flabbergasted -- of course she didn't use that word. young kids continue say that. >> what i understand is these conferences are well done and well organized and put on and have deep and thorough catholic teaching and a lot of enjoyment. >> yes, the incense and everything was beautiful. >> so that's a little glimpse

into youth ministry, age 13-17. when we come back, we'll talk about young adult ministry. those who are older and perhaps searching. stay with us.

you're right in library with pope francis, working from the top of the executive line. pope francis has a survey for young people ages 16-30. and there's a 2018 program on youth and faith and world youth day coming in 2019 and here you are dealing with young adults in our local arch diocese. you left the church and fell out and came back. i think that's a fairly typical example of what happens with young people. they're searching for something. who are the young adults you work with in the arch diocese of these three counties? >> young adults, many of them transplants. it's rare when you meet somebody else in the arch diocese who grew up here. >> i was going to ask that. seems to me this place is a magnet for young people.

they come for jobs. >> right. yeah, a lot of young adults move here having bay area experience and silicon valley and san francisco experience. it's a great resume builder and it's exciting to move to california even though they may need to buy some sweat shirts when they get here. >> there's a question of how can young people live here because it's so costly. >> many young adults move here wowed by the salaries that they get offered thinking oh gosh, 60 thousand dollars is a lot of money per year. back home they would be flying high on 60 thousand dollar but they get here and find out that rent for an apartment is 2500 dollars a month and they quickly realize 60 thousand dollar is not much if you want to live in the city. >> so here are these people

uprooted and newly set down and you have events for these young adults. i noticed things like theology on tap. you meet in a bar and hear a talk about catholics. there's a single con fres, also good. something called "on fire"? >> yes, it's an event coming up in september. it will be at six flags marine world park in valejo. it's foe cussing on the nor cal area and it's for adults -- -- focusing. we'll have five bishops present and we'll have mass there and we'll have speakers and catholic musicians. speakers for both youth and talking about youth topics and

those addressing young adults. >> there's a lot of socializing in this format. i understand that. and that's to the good because you can't become a catholic on a westboundinar. -- -- webinar. what are the most popular sorts of gathering for young adults? what do they really respond to? >> i would say that the most popular gatherings that i see the most of with young adult ministries are either talks focusing on learning more about the faith and practical aspects of the faith like catholic dating and the other, the most popular ones i see are adder ration based. >> and that means prayer? >> yes, before the blessed sacrament. silent prayer. i will say i've only ever seen

it silent prayer followed up by fellowship at a nearby republican. >> but i would think so. after an hour of prayer that seems unlikely. how do i put it in our day and age of constant communication to back out for an hour and communicate with god as best you can and let god communicate with you. seems look a strange way to spend a saturday night? no? >> it's not on a saturday night. usually on a tuesday. which i think is easier to sell. but no, i think people know that they need the silence. they don't necessarily realize it until they get it. once they do, they keep coming back. >> yeah, that makes sense. is your general estimation of the young adults that you know, this cohort going through clenl perhaps and are single married, searching, what is the thing they seek most deeply?

what are they looking for? >> i think the authenticity. they want to be their authentic selves and interact with others in an authentic way and they want the authentic church as well. they want the fullness of the faith. i think there's a lot of people who think maybe some of the teacherings of the church are too hard for young adults and it turns them off. i disgrow. i don't think it's the challenging teachings of the faith that turn off young adults. it's watering down the faith and that lack of authenticity in watering it downturns them away. because they're seeking what's real and true. and if there's any hesitation about speaking the truth, of course in love always in love but if the truth is being hidden or kind of skirted, they sense that.

and they don't want that. that makes sense. so bright young people doing their jobs and looking for some meaning in life and you helped them to find that. i know that you have lots of other things to tell us about. we're running out of time. thank you for being here and we recommend people go to the website and find all the riches there. thank you very much. >> thank you very much for joining us on mosaic. see you next time.

lots in store this morning... but first... a treat for the ballerina in your house... i know i've got one in mine. there's new film out.. and it s called.... 'leap! starring elle fanning... i got a chance to talk to her about her new film... let's take a look. thanks to elle fanning for spending some time with us... since i can remember, i've wanted to dance. >> oh no. . >> it was there with my mom when i was a baby. >> but dreams are not reality. >> they have a cool in paris. >> you a dancer at the ballet? you wouldn't last more than five minutes out there. >> are you sure about that? >> f