Tasmanian Catholic Youth Festival

Hundreds of young people attended the first ever Tasmania Catholic Youth Festival in May 2018.

The festival’s first day was held in Launceston and saw students travel from as far as Burnie to take part in sessions of music, talks, workshops, prayer and a festival expo, before a night rally – open to all youth and young adults – was held in the evening.

Among those who attended were nearly 50 students from St Brendan-Shaw College in Devonport.

The college’s co-ordinator of religious education and faith development, Kamil Douglas, explained that the group included a number of Year 8 students who were chosen to represent the college, while others attended to experience the energy and vibrancy of a Catholic youth festival.
Some of those in the group had previously been to Australian Catholic Youth Festivals interstate.

The festival was packed full of memorable moments for the students.
“Highlights of the day included singing and chanting along with singer, songwriter and storyteller Steve Angrisano; hearing about the lives and work of Therese Nichols … engaging with Archbishop Porteous and the Immaculata Sisters, meeting students from other schools, and speaking with all the representatives at the expo,” Mr Douglas said.

The second day of the festival, held at Guilford Young College’s Glenorchy campus, saw an even larger crowd of youth gather to experience the Catholic faith and the joy it has to offer.

Archbishop Julian says that young people have been saying they are “loving everything from the music to the talks”.

“And some of the talks have been really strong and challenging. But the young people have been saying that they’re really loving it,” he said.

“I think it shows them the faith in a whole new dimension to what they’ve been used to before.”

Southern festival-goers also heard from US singer-songwriter Steve Angrisano and inspirational founder of the charity OnePlate Therese Nichols, who were joined in Hobart by US speaker Jason Evert who spoke about true love and joy in relationships.

“There’s a lot of confusion now days and the difference between love and lust, and the whole function of the virtue of chastity is to free you to love and to free you to know if you’re actually being loved. And if I don’t have self-control, if I don’t have control over my hormones or my desires I’m not really free to make a gift of myself, I’ll just use others as an outlet for my lust,” Mr Evert said.

“Chastity really brings another person’s intentions to the surface, to see if they’re authentically being loved, or just being used.”

“The Church’s teaching on sex is not a litany of regulations and prohibitions,” Mr Evert said, “[But] the roadmap for the human heart to find the love that God wants to give us.”

“Our spirituality and our sexuality: so often in today’s culture they never intersect. But they’re supposed to go together so that we can be free to love.”

He said he hoped that young people would take away the message that it’s never too late.

“It doesn’t matter what happened last week or last year. Every morning God’s mercies are new.

Anybody can start over, it doesn’t matter what you’re struggling with – God is with you in the struggle and that He has a plan for your life and if you trust Him, amazing things can happen.”

Persecuted Christians inspire us not to hide our love for God
Christians persecuted for their faith are “an example for us not to hide our love for God” said Tasmanian Catholic Youth Festival speaker Therese Nichols.

Over the two days of TCYF, Miss Nichols spoke to the young people about her founding of OnePlate, a charity which links cafes and restaurants with providing meals for those in need, as well as the experience of Christians around the world who face persecution – and even death – for their belief in God.

“I think the persecuted Christians are such a great example for us of what it means to be faithful, of what it means to be courageous, and what it means to love God with all that we are,” she said.
Insert image Therese Nichols

During her workshops she shared the personal stories of Christians who had suffered physical persecution in places like Syria where to be a Christian has meant to be at risk of violence and death.

She said that some of the young people spoke with her following her presentations and told her that they suffer a different type of persecution.

“I think, so often for us Christians here in Australia, we can be fearful of proclaiming our faith, of our love for God, and we can hide our faith.”

“Christians who are going through physical persecution are an example to be more courageous here in Australia. For those students who gave feedback, I think it affirms in them God’s greatness and affirms in them a call to rise up and be courageous.”