By Katie Vasquez

It’s a big day for scouts at the Ten Mile River Scout Camp in the Catskills.

While normally they are preparing to strengthen their camping skills, today they got a lesson in faith from Brooklyn Bishop Robert Brennan.

“It’s a beautiful spot, but it’s great to see the enthusiasm of the young people from all around the tri-state area and beyond, actually, who love the outdoors, love the skills they’re learning, practical skills, really in harmony with nature,” Bishop Brennan said. “Then they encounter the Lord in that.”

Bishop Brennan’s trip to the camp is an annual tradition.

For the last three years, he has hiked to the camp, leading the young men and women in prayer in the mess hall, and at the nature chapel, where he celebrates Mass.

For the scouts hailing from the Diocese of Brooklyn, the prayers make being hundreds of miles away from home feel a little less daunting.

“I do like that because I go to Mass usually every Sunday,” said Aryan Adams, a scout from Troop 173. “So this makes me feel more at home.”

“I like expressing how it is and loving Jesus and all of that stuff,” said Lucas Senatore, a scout from Troop 99.

Bishop Brennan also just finished his own journey, hundreds of miles from home.

He recently attended the 10th National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis and is excited to share with the scouts the event’s main message about Jesus’ real presence in the Eucharist.

“I was making that connection between the wonderful world of nature that we have here with the scouts and then the power and the majesty and the glory of God,” Bishop Brennan said. “He calls us into friendship and gives us his very body and blood in the Eucharist. So it all comes together. The experience of the Congress, their experience here, it all comes together in friendship with the Lord.”

Bishop Brennan hopes these scouts will also be inspired to evangelize.

Jon Paolo Marasigan, youth minister at Mary Gate of Heaven Church in Ozone Park, and a member of Troop 173, said he can already see a difference among his fellow scouts.

“We do have guys in our troop that are not Catholic and just kind of exposing them to the Catholic Mass, just giving them just even if they have questions as to what’s going on,” Marasigan said. “Answering those questions is enough to kind of give them the understanding that this is who we are, this is who we believe in as Catholics. I feel like scouting as a youth ministry is definitely a way of evangelization.”

Bishop Brennan said he hopes the Catholic scouts at the camp will be the faces of the Church, spreading witness to Jesus Christ, maybe even helping the scouts who have no faith find God in the wilderness.

The Scouts are enjoying their summer in the Catskills, working on their wilderness skills at Ten Mile River Scout Camps. But there was a break for faith as groups came together for a mass by Bishop Robert Brennan. His visit takes on a new meaning after the recent National Eucharistic Congress.

Katie Vasquez will have details on his visit tonight on Currents News at 7 PM.

FLATLANDS — It was the trip of a lifetime for a group of young Catholics from the Diocese of Brooklyn, who came away with enriching, unforgettable memories.

Seventeen members of the Youth Leadership Ambassador Program of the Vicariate of Black Catholic Concerns went on a missionary trip to three African countries — Ghana, Senegal, and Morocco — where they visited churches, helped renovate schools, looked after children in orphanages, and fed people at soup kitchens.

Four of the travelers — Jada Brown, Ruth Mekako, Joseph Allen, and Bryan Maitland-Jones — joined Father Dwayne Davis, project director for the program and pastor of St. Thomas Aquinas Church in Flatlands, to talk about their journey, which took place from June 27 to July 8.

According to the Vatican, the Catholic Church in Africa has grown over the past 114 years. In 1910, the continent. had fewer than 1 million Catholics, but by 2021, it had 265 million, or 19% of all Catholics in the world.

All four said the trip to the African continent strengthened their Catholic faith and admitted it was an eye-opening experience, especially when visiting poverty-stricken countries.

The poverty rate in Senegal is 36.3% in 2022, according to the World Bank, and 24.2% in Ghana, according to Oxfam America. Morocco, with a 6% poverty rate, according to Statista, was the most prosperous of the three.

What struck the youthful ambassadors the most were the people they met. They explained that the people of Ghana, Senegal, and Morocco welcomed them with warmth and good humor.

Bryan, a parishioner of Mary, Queen of Heaven Church in Mill Basin, recalled watching in awe as people presented gifts during a Mass in Ghana.

“It was really shocking to see that they weren’t just walking to the altar, they were dancing to the altar,” he recounted. “And they weren’t bringing bread and wine. They were bringing actual gifts to the altar. I’ve never seen that before.”

Ruth, a parishioner of Sacred Heart Church in Cambria Heights, was struck by the patience residents in Ghana showed her group when they arrived more than 30 minutes late for Mass after being stuck in traffic.

“We held up the people there. But after Mass, they still gave us gifts — handmade gifts that were personalized. And they were really welcoming,” she said, adding that she came away from the trip having made many new friends. “I have several Ghanaian numbers in my phone now.”

An impromptu soccer match after that Mass provided Joseph with one of his fondest memories.

“We just bonded with the kids over there,” he recalled. “I think just enjoying that moment, being able to relax and not think about anything else for two, three hours was a nice moment for us.”

Joseph, a parishioner of St. Thomas Aquinas Church in Flatlands, was struck by the universality of the Catholic Church when he attended a Mass in Senegal.

“Even though we didn’t speak the same language, we still celebrated the same God,” he said. “God wants us to love one another, and I feel the people we met showed love for foreigners.”

For Jada, a meeting with Bishop Anthony Narh Asare, a religious leader in Ghana, made an impression. “My favorite quote that he said to us is, ‘Life is not what we seek but what we give.’ I really live by that quote because I like to put out my helping hand to a lot of people,” she explained. “And that quote gives me an understanding of why I like to do what I do.”

Ruth conducted some research into Ghana, Senegal, and Morocco before she left and was eager to see if the countries would live up to what she read about them.

“I heard a lot of good things about the countries we were going to, like the perfumes in Morocco. I heard that they were awesome and they were,” she said. “I heard the mangoes in Senegal were great, and they were.”

Father Davis, who has led youth ambassadors on missionary trips to South Africa, Rwanda, and Jamaica in the past, called the recent African journey “a transforming experience.” He loved seeing the participants “really engage fully and put themselves in the spirit of the surroundings.”

The Youth Leadership Ambassador Program was established 15 years ago by the Vicariate of Black Catholic Concerns to encourage young blacks in the diocese to serve as role models in their parishes and their communities.

Jada, a parishioner of St. Bonaventure-St. Benedict the Moor in Jamaica, said the African trip was a valuable learning experience.

“As to why I wanted to go, honestly, it’s because I’ve never been outside of the country,” she added. “I was trying to step out of my comfort zone.”

By Jessica Easthope

Everything has a name, and triplets Giuliana, Alessandra, and Francesca Caserta are quickly learning what it all means.

“What holds the wine and the water are the cruets,” Alessandra said. “I never knew paten, that’s what we put the Eucharist on, like the small plate that the priest puts the Eucharist on when he’s done.”

“I wasn’t really sure what a ciborium was, but now I know,” Francesca said. “They hold the bread in it.”

“The thing that we wear is called a cassock, and we could call it a vestment also. And it’s nice because we have, like, a certain uniform for it,” Giuliana said. “We have something that is respectful and not too fancy.”

It’s a vocabulary lesson for altar servers. The girls are new to the job, but they already said they’re in it for the right reasons.

“I was so excited, and I really wanted to be an altar server to be closer to God because you get to serve God by helping the priest get everything ready for the Mass and helping others get closer to God also,” Alessandra said.

“My sisters were doing it, and I would also like to be closer to the church and closer to God,” Giuliana said.

“I really wanted to do it because I always wanted to be included in the Mass more than just watching one from the pews,” Francesca said.

Father Jeremy Canna, the pastor of St. Bernadette, was struggling to fill slots until he opened altar serving up to a younger crowd.

Eager to serve God and their church, the 8, 9, and 10-year-olds answered the call.

“They help the priest to be the priest,” Father Canna said. “I don’t think the people want to see the priest running from the table to the chair to here. I think the people of the parish, the congregation, much prefer when there’s a server present. And often it’s most inspiring when it’s a young child. They still have that childlike curiosity, even in third grade, that allows them to want to know more about what is going on at the altar.”

Enza Caserta, the triplets’ mom, said that growing up, she never got the chance to serve in this way. The Catholic Church didn’t allow girls to be altar servers until 1994.

“I think I was a little bit jealous, but I was okay with it,” Caserta said. “I was a Eucharistic minister and a lector, so I was able to serve in other ways. But I had to wait until I was a little older in order to be able to do that. So seeing my girls in fourth grade, so excited about the opportunity to be altar servers and be able to serve their first Mass now in the next coming weeks, I’m super happy for them.”

Now her girls are making her proud in a whole new way.

“I think they wanted to do it,” Caserta said. “Seeing that come to fruition on their own volition, I’m super proud.”

“It makes me feel proud that I get to do something that my mom didn’t get to do,” Francesca said. “I’m happy that the girls can now do it because I feel like girls should be given a chance as well.”

St. Bernadette now has 25 altar servers, a 400% increase.

The young people have completed five training sessions and have already begun serving at Masses.