UNIONDALE, N.Y. (CNS) – At a retreat for teens at a Catholic high school, Msgr. James McDonald, rector of Rockville Centre's diocesan seminary, talked baseball.
"When I go to Yankee Stadium – actually I go to Shea Stadium, not Yankee Stadium," Msgr. McDonald said, drawing laughter, "I think, 'How many of these people need to go to confession?'" The audience laughed again. "That's really how I think," he said.
Msgr. McDonald, rector of Immaculate Conception Seminary in Huntington, was just one of many speakers at a July 20-22 retreat here sponsored by Youth 2000, an international Catholic retreat movement for teens and young adults. Bishop William F. Murphy of Rockville Centre celebrated the closing Mass.
The priest told his audience that he often thinks about souls outside of church, for example, when he passes people in a restaurant parking lot.
The doctrine of hell, that those in mortal sin face eternal separation and punishment from God, "is hardly ever spoken of in a Catholic church," Msgr. McDonald said. "And when that is not being spoken of, you and I are being cheated and salvation is being compromised."
"For you and I that is the central question -- salvation," the priest said.
The Catholic Church "has so many activities" but "we are faced with the stark reality that fewer and fewer people know Jesus Christ and fewer and fewer listen to him," he said.
Many church activities serve those who already go to church, yet many people have no contact with the church but need to, he said. There are too many of those people for priests to know about or find, Msgr. McDonald said.
"But any one of you can go up to that other person," he noted. "If you don't, who will?"
The priest told the teens that just as God spoke to the Old Testament prophet Isaiah he is speaking to them. "But if you're listening to your iPod, playing on your computer or talking on your cell phone, you might not be able to hear him."
He told them to think about what they are planning to do about their relationship with Jesus Christ and what they are "doing to help bring others to God permanently," he said.
It is not enough to receive the sacraments, as important as they are, he said. "To fully benefit, what you and I have to do is give ourselves totally to God."
The retreat at Kellenberg Memorial High School drew a few hundred young people from Long Island, Brooklyn, Westchester, Staten Island and Syracuse as well as New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Michigan. They came at different times over the three days.
Angela Schannapieco, director of Youth 2000 New York, said the retreats first came to New York in the early to mid-1990s. They "are based on the old Forty Hours devotion," she told The Long Island Catholic, Rockville Centre's diocesan newspaper. Forty Hours is a eucharistic devotion consisting of continuous adoration of the Blessed Sacrament by shifts of people for 40 hours.
The retreats are Eucharist-centered, but have been adapted with music and talks geared to young people.
At the Uniondale retreat, there was exposition of the Blessed Sacrament throughout the weekend and opportunities for confession offered by Msgr. McDonald, Franciscan Friars of the Renewal and other priests. There was an evening eucharistic procession July 21.
Talks were given under a big tent on an open field at Kellenberg. Banners with quotes from Scripture -- such as "The truth will set you free" and "Who do you say I am?" -- adorned the fence surrounding the field.
Inside the tent, a monstrance holding the Eucharist sat atop a wooden tower. Lighted candles adorned the rungs of the tower below it. A banner outside the tent read "Silencio/Silence" for the time between talks.
Between speakers, people prayed quietly, many kneeling on mats. A life-size picture of Our Lady of Guadalupe stood inside the tent.
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