THELEAVEN.ORG | VOL. 37, NO. 33 | APRIL 8, 2016
LEAVEN PHOTO BY JOE MCSORLEY
Father Andrew Strobl uses a combination of trivia and video game speak to explain Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann’s 10-year vision to students at Hayden High School in Topeka. Father Strobl, archdiocesan director of evangelization, and Deacon Dana Nearmyer, lead consultant for the office of evangelization and Catholic formation of youth, have presented the archbishop’s vision to all seven of the archdiocese’s Catholic high schools.
VISION QUEST
Father Andrew Strobl and Deacon Dana Nearmyer take to the high schools to lay out the archbishop’s 10-year vision plan By Moira Cullings moira.cullings@theleaven.org
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EAVENWORTH — Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann’s 10year vision isn’t normally compared to video games and 1990s trivia. Except, of course, when it’s explained to high school students. Over the course of a week, Deacon Dana Nearmyer and Father Andrew Strobl visited all seven archdiocesan high schools to make a presentation to each student body on the archbishop’s vision. For one very significant reason. “We think you’re an extremely important part of this vision,” Deacon Nearmyer told students at Immaculata High School in Leavenworth at an all-school presentation. “So we want you to know
about it.” Deacon Nearmyer, who is the lead consultant for the office of evangelization and Catholic formation of youth, was concerned that without an opportunity like this, high school students might never understand the archbishop’s hopes for their future. Deacon Nearmyer compared the building up of the church in the archdiocese to the Sagrada Familia, a church in Barcelona, Spain, that began construction in 1882 . . . and is still under construction! “The archdiocese — not just a building, but the mystical body of Christ — is not done,” he said. “It was started so, so long ago, and each of us has to pick up these tools of evangelization to pass on the faith, or else it dies with our generation. “We have to pick up this mission if we want our church
to grow and be alive.” His co-presenter, Father Strobl, is archdiocesan director of evangelization, in addition to being the pastor of Holy Name Church in Kansas City, Kansas. The messengers brought added credibility to the message, said Allyiah Calvert, a sophomore at St. Thomas Aquinas High School in Overland Park. “I thought [the talk] was a good way to inform us about what we may be called to do later in our lives,” she said. “Especially because it was coming from a priest and deacon who have experienced God’s calling themselves.” In fact, Deacon Nearmyer and Father Strobl were perhaps the perfect pair to reach out to this young audience. With a combination of games, trivia and inspirational messages, the duo was able to
keep their audience engaged, while challenging the young people to connect with their message on a deeper level. “I think the way they explained things kept us interested and wanting to know more,” said Calvert. For Deacon Nearmyer, there was no better way to present a Catholic vision to young people than by putting himself in their shoes. “I had a lot of questions growing up,” said Deacon Nearmyer. “Hard, crazy ones. “I was, like, ‘How did I get here? Why am I in this family, in this state, in this place? How did I wake up in the middle of a story I didn’t pick?’” He spoke of the difficulties he faced and the curiosity he felt about Catholicism growing up, which many young people can relate to. “God’s got this plan for all of us,” he said. “And we can pick up the mission, or we can walk into a different story.”
Accepting the mission After asking the students a series of trivia questions, Father Strobl explained how walking within the plan God has for our lives is like an-
Every once in a while, Leaven reporters are sent out on one story only to bring back two. In the past, those “second” stories often wound up on the cutting room floor. But The Leaven is now introducing a new feature called One+. Whenever a news story in the paper is accompanied by the One+ logo, readers should look farther back in the paper for a shorter, feature piece that is somehow related to it. In this first edition of One+, Father Andrew Strobl explains how the Royals aren’t the only ones swinging for the bleachers.
swering every trivia question correctly — it isn’t easy. “Here’s the challenge,” he said. “The story of our salvation is not just a story someone else tells to us. We were made to participate in the story of our salvation. “But so often, it can feel like . . . it’s just a bunch of trivia . . . a test in theology.” “So often, when it comes >> See “EACH” on page 16