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Canada������Ƶapp capital will play host to its first Youth Summit this month, taking the torch from Quebec City which started hosting the youth gatherings in 2005.

The bilingual event in Ottawa May 21-24 promises to draw up to 500 young adults, ages 17-35, who will participate in activities and events centred around the theme “Sent!”

According to organizers, the theme is meant to bring participants to reflect on their personal role “as missionaries in today������Ƶapp Church, particularly amidst other young adults.”

TORONTO - A Newman Centre evening aimed at revitalizing Catholic social justice work in downtown Toronto got people talking mainly about who wasn’t there.

The April 19 gathering of about 60 people for Mass, potluck dinner and discussion was supposed to draw young people, but couldn’t compete with exams, the start of summer jobs, moving dates and all the other commitments students face in the spring.

When Jesuit Father Jack Costello looked out at the grey-haired crowd in the Newman Centre chapel he said he would have to adjust his homily to fit an older crowd than he had expected.

TORONTO - When she volunteered for the Toronto archdiocese������Ƶapp Office for Refugees’ Catholic refugee sponsorship conference in January, 25-year-old volunteer Emily Anderson noticed a marked absence.

“I know from experience volunteering with other organizations that there is often a lot of youth involvement, especially with mandatory high school volunteer programs, so I saw a real void and thought it������Ƶapp probably because there������Ƶapp not really an outlet for the youth to know about these kind of circumstances,” Anderson said.

{mosimage}Hawthorn School for Girls sent its first team of students to Peru over the March break to get their hands dirty and learn about partnering with the locals.

The Toronto independent school������Ƶapp trip was inspired by a presentation given by alumnus Kristina Douros last year, then a 24-year-old student at the University of Western Ontario who spent nearly four months in 2008 volunteering with Condoray, a 47-year-old rural development project.

Condoray, a  training centre devoted to human, social and religious development and promotion of women in the Cañete Valley of southern Peru, is a centre for higher learning where villagers can learn how to be “promoters” of growth and improvement and then implement these in their own communities. The spiritual and religious activities of Condoray are overseen by the Prelature of Opus Dei.

“The remarkable aspect of Condoray is that it is run by Peruvian women for Peruvian women,” Douros said. “These women know the needs of the people, they have lived it and are still living it. The leaders live in the communities and many of their children are very involved.”

The issues targeted are not projected by outsiders who do not fully understand the situation and this is why Condoray is so successful, Douros added.

TORONTO-“Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” This quote, from Mark 10:17, is the theme for World Youth Day 2010, and helped set the mood at the archdiocesan Palm Sunday event at St. Paul������Ƶapp Basilica and St. Michael������Ƶapp Cathedral in Toronto March 27.

Hosted by the Office of Catholic Youth and in its eighth year, the event consisted of about 30 volunteers, and averages around 400-500 participants annually.

The event began at St. Paul������Ƶapp Basilica with praise and worship songs. Susan HooKong-Taylor and Ana Da Costa, who wrote and performed “Song of the Cross” for Pope John Paul II at World Youth Day 2002, delivered lively music for the crowd. Da Costa said it is “very hopeful that youth are gathered here today.”

After much clapping and joyful singing, Archbishop Thomas Collins delivered a catechesis on integrity, hypocrisy and reconciliation. Collins ended by answering the question that the theme poses, saying that to inherit eternal life we must live with integrity and show forgiveness to others.

{mosimage}ST. JOHN’S, Nfld.-On a beautiful Sunday afternoon in March, Archbishop Martin Currie of St. John������Ƶapp met with a group of young adults for “Dinner with the Archbishop” at Mary, Queen of the World parish in Mt. Pearl.

The meeting was an opportunity for the archbishop to get a first-hand look at what������Ƶapp happening in the spiritual lives of 20- and 30-year-olds in the region.

This informal group consists of individuals from different ministries and fields of interest who, through  conversations after Mass beginning two years ago, decided to organize events and activities together. New members continue to join and although it started with just a few people, there are now close to 30.

The archbishop was pleased to discover that such a group existed after being invited by one of the members for this special event. The group wanted to make contact with the leader of the church in Newfoundland on a personal level to discuss plans and ideas for young people in the province.

{mosimage}MISSISSAUGA, Ont. - The Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults (RCIA) program at St. Joseph������Ƶapp parish is a witness to the positive influence of Catholic education in three Mississauga schools.

“Everybody who goes to Mass, even if they are not Catholic, they say it makes them feel good, feel cleansed,” said Alexa Fitzpatrick, a Grade 11 student who enrolled at St. Marcellinus Secondary School after graduating from a public elementary school.

{mosimage}BRAMPTON - Campuses, parishes and schools across Canada took part in a 25-hour education and fundraising fast to increase awareness about global issues and to raise funds for those causes.

The Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace fast, commonly known as THINKfast, is a growing national initiative.

{mosimage}In August, the Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace will take its first combined French-English group of young adults to the Philippines.

The “Young Adult Solidarity Trip” aims to expose young adults to the reality of the global south and teach first-hand what Development and Peace does through its programs and partners.

{mosimage}WINNIPEG - On Oct. 18, 1914, in a small chapel sitting in a valley in Schönstatt, Germany, Fr. Joseph Kentenich called a meeting with a group of young men from a seminary nearby. During the meeting, 29-year-old Kentenich and the young men prayed together and offered what they called a “Covenant of Love” to the Blessed Virgin Mary. With that act began a community they hoped would bring spiritual renewal to the Catholic Church.

Fast forward 96 years.