By Michael Soh
With an intention to challenge its participants on the relevance of faith, the Stronger Teen Rally at Kolbe College on Friday, 27 March drew close to 100 students.
The rally was run by Catholic Youth Ministry in conjunction with Kolbe Catholic College and the parishes of Rockingham, Baldivis, Kwinana and Port Kennedy.
It started with a sausage sizzle and various games and activities, and music was provided by Paul and Jessie Curtis and a band of Kolbe students.
The title of the rally, ‘Stronger’, was channeled through the question ‘Is Faith Relevant?’ which was addressed by guest speaker Justine Howard.
Ms Howard, a lecturer in law at the University of Notre Dame, spoke about the importance of faith and challenged the audience to say ‘yes’ to God’s call to be in their lives.
Her talk was followed by testimony from Kolbe head boy Charlie Smith and spirituality captain Erica Fernandez, who spoke about their own faith journeys and recent pilgrimage to Flores, Indonesia.
They presented a video from the trip which highlighted their time spent with local villagers and their children, despite the poor conditions.
The display of the video was followed by a time of prayer, and participants had the opportunity to attend the Sacrament of Reconciliation.
A cross symbolising faith was displayed at the side of the hall, where participants lit candles and wrote their prayers or intentions on foot-shaped pieces of paper.
The evening concluded with a panel of speakers for a question and answer session where various questions on the Catholic faith were answered.
The panel consisted of young Perth Catholic Chantelle Bertino-Clarke, Head of Catholic Youth Ministry Anita Parker, Kolbe Catholic College Religious Education Co-ordinator Damian Ramos and Mandurah Catholic College Religious Education Co-ordinator Richard Sellwood.
Mr Ramos said he was impressed by the event and is pleased the school is now in the loop.
“Events like tonight will definitely have a positive impact in strengthening the faith of young people,” he said.
“I would be more than happy to host another rally at Kolbe, but I also suggest going to other schools like Seton or Emmanuel or other colleges in the southern metropolitan area and even beyond.
“It’s a great way for young people who are like-minded to meet each other.”
Fellow Kolbe Religious Education teacher Patrick Branson said he was also happy with the event and reinforced the need for students to be involved with similar events in the future.
“I was really impressed with it and it was just the joyousness of people that they were here and having a bit of fun and I was really impressed with the students’ participation. They [all] pitched in and got a lot of things done very quickly,” Mr Branson said.
“It gives them an understanding of what a youth rally can be like and hopefully it will whet their appetite for having another one in a few months’ time.
“So, in the end, we want to get it to the point where the students do everything, and all the adults do is be here to make sure that everything will work for them.”
Kolbe head boy Charlie Smith was surprised by the number of fellow students who attended the event, particularly their involvement in prayer and reconciliation.
He also used the Flores pilgrimage as an example of having faith.
“I think it was awesome because I didn’t really think that many people from our school would get into the whole prayerful side of the night, but I was really surprised that everyone was open-minded and willing to get involved in the prayer side of things tonight,” he explained.
“I also wanted to share my experience in Flores and encourage other people to do something like that, and I think that’s a really important thing in developing faith and also think it was great that the Reconciliation was amalgamated with it as it gave everyone the opportunity to access that.”