I would like for you to take a minute and imagine your school’s football field. For you eight-man teams, please add 20 yards to the length and 10 yards to the width. Now place a dome over it, add roughly 60,000 or more seats and call it Reliant Stadium, the home of the Houston Texans.

Reliant Stadium and its surrounding buildings, all of which make up Reliant Park, was the home for this year’s NCYC (National Catholic Youth Conference), or as some would say, National Catholic Youth Celebration. This conference ran from Nov. 13-16, and it was a celebration of prayer, song, scripture, games, dance and witness. From the Diocese of Dodge City, 116 youth and 30 adults joined close to 24,000 other Catholic youth and their adult chaperones from all over the United States, Canada and yes even two young people from our military bases in Germany.

What I witnessed over these four days truly lead me to the title of this article. As Catholics, we are often reminded that catholic equals universal, a message that says, "we are the same throughout the world." This truly is what I experienced at NCYC. I still get chills thinking about it.

I saw a young man who had a part in one of the opening prayers forget his lines. Something like this normally would have prompted people to laugh and make jokes, but instead, over 24,000 people applauded and encouraged him, simply saying "we are behind you and you can do it." He did it! I saw many service projects take place, but the one that seemed to be the most powerful to me was seeing an ambulance over-flowing with teddy bears for the "Teddy Bear Program."

Participants for NCYC had brought these teddy bears to help with this program. The "Teddy Bear" program has law enforcement officials carry teddy bears in their patrol vehicles. When cases involve children, they give the children teddy bears to comfort them. I witnessed security personnel, volunteers and Reliant Park staff truly enter into the experience with the kids.

Giving them high fives as they went through the meal lines, wearing beads and other trading items the youth had given them. Only to hear them say that they had never witnessed a group as wonderful as ours. I watched airport security continue to do their job, but yet enter into the experience with the young people as well.

As I walked around these four days and watched the activities and the sharing between the youth and chaperones, I could not help but think, "If only the media would pick up on this, in the same way that they have picked up on all of the issues the Church has been dealing with these past couple of years." If this were the case, I have a feeling that the views and opinions of many people would change rather quickly.

We were on a pilgrimage to Houston, a journey to a sacred place, and yes, Jesus was present among us, all you had to do was listen to the music or the message of the presenters. But most of all, all you had to do was see the person in front of you, behind you, or beside you, to truly know that Jesus was present. He was there in each individual, and together with Jesus we celebrated our faith in great and marvelous ways.

The young Catholic Church is alive and well. As each of us continues to work more closely with our young people, be proud of them. They have and will continue to witness our Catholic faith in great and marvelous ways. Give them a pat on the back; they deserve it. Is our message Universal? You bet, all you need to do is ask the people of Houston, Texas.