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NEWARK, N.J. - It was just past 10 p.m. when a dozen young adults pulled up in two minivans at Newark Penn Station. Nervously, they began to walk around the station, bagged meals in hand, saying “midnight run” to anyone who looked like they could use one.

For Meg Fraino, the organizer of this group of young Catholics on Salesian Gospel Roads (GR), the poverty in Newark was a new yet familiar site — she began her work with the Salesians in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. Between Newark, New Orleans, Haiti and other sites, Fraino has attended or directed eight different Gospel Roads programs, week-long service retreats for young people. The latest was GR Newark, which ran from June 25 to July 3 and hosted 15 university aged young adults from Toronto and across the United States.

Gospel Roads is a three-stage program that has grown from a single service trip in South Orange, N.J., in 2001. The first stage is offered about six times a year across the United States for high school students as an introduction to service, while the second is a smaller, more refined experience for university aged youth offered twice a year. The third level takes place in Haiti and Mexico, where the service is needed most.

TORONTO - Young adults in Toronto will have the opportunity to be stewards of the Earth at this year������Ƶapp Hike and Prayer.

Run by Faith Connections, a ministry for young adults run by the Sisters of St. Joseph, this year������Ƶapp annual hike takes place July 9 with the theme, “The Green Spirit of the City.” Participants will have an opportunity to hike and reflect at the newly renovated Evergreen Brick Works, a community environmental centre in Toronto������Ƶapp Don Valley.

“Young adults are eager to learn and share with each other about how they can better care for the Earth and all of creation in their daily lives,” said Kelly Bourke, interim program director of Faith Connections. “The hike will give young adults an opportunity to meet new friends with similar concerns and to learn and share about ways to connect ecology, faith, good food and a greener approach.”

Evergreen Brick Works, run by Evergreen, a national charity, has transformed the site from a collection of deteriorating heritage buildings into one of the top 10 finalists in National Geographic������Ƶapp Geotourism Challenge in 2010. The site was recognized for connecting city dwellers with nature.

VICTORIA - Young people are learning how to defend their faith in Victoria thanks to a new Catholic apologetics group — and it������Ƶapp just for girls.  

Real Women in Christ was founded this spring and meets once a month to discuss the reasons behind Church teachings.

Laura Pearse, a mother of nine, was inspired to start the group after she noticed her older kids were being challenged to defend their faith by atheist arguments at the secular universities they were attending.  

“I realized that they had a lot of faith, but they were unable to really know their faith and have answers when they were faced with a lot of criticism,” she said.

Pearse set out to form the group so that her youngest daughter, Olivia, who will be entering Grade 9 in the fall, will be prepared post-graduation.

Henrick Sales had butterflies as he approached the mic. A Catholic in a synagogue, and younger than most in attendance, he probably felt a little out of place as he took the stage.

But as soon as the 19-year-old opened his mouth and began to speak, the nervousness disappeared.

Sales, or ‘Shoolie’ as he������Ƶapp known in the world of spoken word, was one of more than 200 people to send a submission to the 10th Annual Creative Writing Contest for the Homeless and Marginalized, organized by Jewish charity Ve’ahavta. On June 12, at Toronto������Ƶapp Congregation Habonim, he delivered “I Am,” an original poem that won second place in the competition.

“It������Ƶapp a poem about people who face hardship, like friends and people I know and their struggle with homelessness,” said Sales. “They’re actually just like us, they’re just not as fortunate as us and that makes a lot of difference.”

After almost a quarter-century of success in the United States, Totus Tuus is coming to Canada.

Totus Tuus is a parish-based summer-camp program for Catholic youth. It will be offered for the first time in Canada at 18 parishes in the archdiocese of Toronto starting July 3 and running until mid-August.

The Totus Tuus program began in 1987 in the archdiocese of Wichita, Kansas, and today is established in over 21 dioceses in the United States. The name was derived from Blessed Pope John Paul II������Ƶapp personal motto, Totus Tuus, translated as “Totally Yours.” The program aims to fulfill evangelical and catechetical needs of young people.

“I thought that there wouldn’t be a better way than to offer a parish summer camp to provide something substantial for our young people,” said Fr. Hansoo Park, director of  vocations for the archdiocese of Toronto.

BRAMPTON, ONT. - St. Thomas Aquinas Secondary School������Ƶapp year-end musical gave the audience much more than entertainment. It imparted an educational message on poverty and access to resources.

Amid the backdrop of a Romeo-and-Juliet-like love story, The Other Side of the River portrays the uneven distribution of the world������Ƶapp wealth and how poverty is treated in the Western world.

The audience saw how the worlds of the rich and the poor can work together and share resources in order to make the world a better place, said vice principal of arts Leslie Marchand.  

Produced in association with World Vision Canada, a Christian relief, development and advocacy organization, The Other Side of the River included more than 70 actors, dancers and singers from the school������Ƶapp regional arts program. The play opened June 2, with additional performances on June 4, 10 and 11.

With final exams just around the corner for some, and in full-swing for others, many high school students are feeling the pressure. But they can use faith and the knowledge that they are not alone to help them through these challenging times.

“Sometimes teens think that God is only in the most spiritual parts of their lives, but God is in every aspect of your life,” said Denise Lobo-Pryce, a religion teacher at Pope John Paul II Catholic Secondary School in Toronto.  The upcoming exam period for high school students is no exception.

In the Toronto Catholic District School Board, semestered schools start their exam period June 20 and non-semestered schools started on June 14.

Lobo-Pryce said that there are many different ways for students to connect with God and relax during this stressful time, such as praying the rosary or going for a walk in nature.

WASHINGTON - Move over, Spider-Man. Here come some new comic-book heroes.

Among this new breed of heroes are Pope Benedict XVI, St. Paul and Old Testament figure Judith.

They are the stars of comic books done in a style older generations never saw in the comic-book rack at the neighborhood drugstore growing up. The genre is called manga, a Japanese genre of cartoons and comic books, and Jonathan Lin, who runs Manga Hero, may well be the world's only publisher of Catholic manga comics.

A 32-page Pope Benedict manga comic will be distributed in August during World Youth Day in Madrid. Lin said he expects to have 300,000 copies produced in Spain to meet demand. He hopes it will whet World Youth Day participants' appetites for a longer Pope Benedict manga to be produced this fall in the United States.

Forty-five years ago, Pope Paul VI warned the Catholic world of “the vast and complex phenomenon of the modern means of social communication, such as the press, motion pictures, radio and television.”

To youth today, this caution may seem comical, yet it bears a striking resemblance to Pope Benedict XVI������Ƶapp message for the 45th World Communications Day, which landed on June 5. This time, however, it������Ƶapp all about the Internet.

“As with every other fruit of human ingenuity, the new communications’ technologies must be placed at the service of the integral good of the individual and of the whole of humanity,” said the Pope. “If used wisely, they can contribute to the satisfaction of the desire for meaning, truth and unity which remain the most profound aspirations of each human being.”

In his message, the Pope celebrated the benefits of modern digital communications like social networking and blogging, while heeding their shortcomings. And to youth, who are the most invested in digital communications, he extended a specific invitation to maintain a Catholic identity — even on the web.

QUEBEC CITY - In a tourist-haven like Quebec City, even with all its secular distractions, Catholics engaging in their faith are no strangers.  

Despite the rise of secularism in the province, a trip to Quebec City in May showed that Catholicism is still shining its light in la belle province — you just have to know where to look. The province������Ƶapp capital city is a great place to start.

There are several noteworthy religious attractions in Old Quebec, such as the Notre-Dame de Québec Basilica-Cathedral, the Ursuline Convent, the Séminaire de Quebec (Seminary of Quebec) and the Collège Francois-De-Laval.  

Notre-Dame is located at the centre of the walled city, in the heart of Old Quebec������Ƶapp tourist zone. Constructed in 1647, Notre-Dame lays claim as the oldest parish in North America. Twice destroyed by flames, the site is rich in history.