Catholic teens recently got an up-close look at the Church’s social justice teachings.
The annual Catholic Charities Summer Institute, known as C²SI, took place July 8-12 at St. John Center in Little Rock. Co-sponsored by Catholic Charities of Arkansas and the Catholic Youth Ministry Office, 69 high school students, including incoming high school freshmen and students who recently graduated, learned about social issues in Arkansas, what the Church says about social justice and took part in hands-on community service around the city.
“We’re the Church of social justice, the Catholic Church, and so we wanted to use this camp to help young people understand social justice and what that looks like and what that means in action,” Liz Tingquist, diocesan youth ministry director, said.
The program began in 2007 out of a desire for youth ministers to put together a mission trip. After much prayer, Tingquist and Tricia Gentry, diocesan youth ministry program coordinator, decided to focus on the mission field here in Arkansas. Young people “need to know what’s going on in their own state,” Tingquist said. “We wanted to make it something that was educational, not just going and doing community service.”
Before attending the camp, sophomore Lily Kennedy from Sacred Heart Church in Charleston said she “didn’t realize how many people in need live in Little Rock.” After volunteering at Jericho Way, a homeless day center in Little Rock, she said she found that “it was amazing seeing how happy people in need were, even in the midst of not having much.”
Sixteen-year-old Pascha Wistrand of St. Agnes Church in Mena noticed that “people that are suffering, they still have joy in their life and they’re still happy, which is hard to do sometimes.”
Volunteers also did work at the Arkansas Food Bank, Habitat for Humanity, Arkansas Pregnancy Resource Center and Little Rock Compassion Center. They sorted donations, cleaned and painted and assisted clients and customers.
With ever-changing social issues and high school students participating multiple times, there is a different theme each year for the Catholic Charities Summer Institute. This year’s theme was the dignity of the human person. In the mornings, there was an emphasis on social justice education. Participants heard from guest speakers on topics such as homelessness, immigration and human trafficking. In the afternoon, they volunteered at work sites around the city.
The young people participating have learned a lot from their experiences at the camp.
What drew Zach Ellis, a rising senior at Catholic High School in Little Rock, to C²SI was the opportunity to take part in hands-on service.
“Jesus, he practiced agape, which is that self-sacrificing love,” he said. “We, as Catholics and Christians, are called to live in that world. And I think that the greatest way that we can do that is to give ourselves to service and try and live in that sacrificial way.”
Eighteen-year-old Angel Martinez’s favorite aspect of the week was watching other people grow. The parishioner at St. James Church in Searcy said he loved “seeing other people helping out with each other, as well as seeing people grow in their faith.” He also got to “witness such great things that each individual gets out of retreats or events, especially here at C² right now,” he said.
The educational component of the Catholic Charities Summer Institute is one of the most important aspects of the camp, Tingquist said.
“Over the years I think it’s really enlightening to (participants) to think of a world outside of themselves,” she said. “I think at the very least, it’s just opening their minds to be more open to things and helping them to get out of their comfort zone and know what it means to be an evangelist.”
