PITTSFORD — Drizzly weather did not deter roughly 50 young adults from walking along the Erie Canal May 13 before heading to nearby St. Louis Church to hear Father Joseph Maurici explain the Catholic Mass.
Following Father Maurici’s presentation, the young adults participated in the Mass and then mingled during an ice cream social.
“People are dying for young-adult ministry,” observed Allison Nordman, who, with her friend Luke Lynch, traveled from Corning to attend the gathering.
Lynch said that building connections between young adults through a variety of activities is key to supporting those seeking community, friendship and opportunities to grow in their faith.
Mark Capellazzi, project coordinator for youth and young-adult ministry for the Diocese of Rochester, agreed that young adults are desperate for connection and community, and that they are seeking spaces in which to share their lives and faith.
To provide such spaces, several regionalized young-adult groups have formed in the diocese over the past two to three years, and more are being planned. Parish-based young-adult ministries, meanwhile, are either being formed or renewed.
Regional initiatives led for and by young adults
The May 13 event was cosponsored by the Monroe County young-adult groups Converge, Trinitas and Stay.
Converge began in 2022 as a collaboration among Irondequoit’s Peace of Christ and St. Kateri parishes and the Southeast Rochester Catholic Community (Blessed Sacrament, St. Boniface and St. Mary churches). Since then, Converge has grown to include Fairport’s St. John of Rochester, Church of the Assumption and Church of the Resurrection.
Sharing resources as well as the burdens of planning and publicizing events is part of Converge’s success, noted Tyler Davis, pastoral associate for youth and young adults at SRCC.
Davis said about 250 young adults regularly engage in Converge’s social, service and faith-based events.
Although Davis helped to found Converge, he said he’s happy to see such young adults as Colleen Young, who is a youth minister at St. John of Rochester in Fairport and a special education teacher, grow into leadership in the group.
Inspired by Converge’s regional approach and positive impact, Anya Rosien, young-adult minister at St. Leo Church in Hilton, said she realized she could broaden the existing young-adult group she had been leading at the parish for several years.
In September 2024, she founded Trinitas as a collaborative, multi-parish, young-adult group that also comprises St. John the Evangelist Church in Spencerport, Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Brockport and St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Church in Hamlin.
Another collaborative young-adult ministry is gaining momentum at Our Lady Queen of Peace and St. Thomas More churches in Brighton, according to Katherine Rogers, who coordinates young-adult ministries at Queen of Peace.
Nordman and Lynch also are working to form a young-adult ministry team in the Southern Tier with an eye toward multi-parish collaboration, they said.
Diocese of Rochester parishes are renewing their young-adult ministries
Alongside this collaborative model of young-adult ministry, many parishes are beginning or renewing their own ministries to young adults as well, Capellazzi noted.
Twenty-one-year-old Molly Westcott had attended several Converge events before deciding she wanted to start a young-adult ministry at her own parish, St. Theodore in Gates. In December 2024, she and two other parishioners cofounded the group Stay.
Yet another young-adult group has formed at the Parish of the Holy Family in Gates, according to Deacon Dan Pavlina. The group offers “a chance for young adults of the parish to get to know one another, to share some fun and to also share some faith elements with one another,” he said.
At Canandaigua’s St. Benedict Parish, a small group of young adults who had just been initiated into the Catholic Church began a group in 2019, according to Mitchell Buck, who, along with Marissa Donnelly, continues the ministry through coffee hours, seasonal events and ice cream socials.
Young adults are seeking ‘deeper truths’
Sharing faith is a key element to the flourishing young-adult ministries in the diocese, Capellazzi noted.
From talking with others around her age and from her own experience, Rogers said she thinks social media, influencer culture and aggressive commercial marketing “have people, particularly young adults who are so exposed to it all, looking for deeper meaning and deeper truths.”
Nordman agreed, noting that young adults such as herself are “looking for a spiritual connection.”
“You’ve also got the phenomenon of a lot of that (young-adult) age group starting to re-engage with the faith,” Father Maurici said. “So now there’s this need for more and deeper catechesis, more fellowship.”
EDITOR’S NOTE: To learn more about young-adult ministry in the Diocese of Rochester, watch or listen to Episode 6 of the Catholic Courier’s “Jubilee 2025: Pilgrims of Hope” podcast at CatholicCourier.com/podcasts.
Tags: Faith Formation
