Sometime during the 1980’s Anne Murray had a hit song entitled, "Little Good News." As I share some of the lyrics of the song, we can quickly realize that not much has changed over the years. "I rolled out this morning, kids had the mornin’ news on. Byrant Gumble was talkin’ ‘bout the fighting in Lebanon. Some senator was squawkin’ ‘bout the bad economy. It’s gonna get worse you see, we need a change in policy. I’ll come home this evenin’, I’ll bet the news will be the same. Somebody takes a hostage, somebody steals a plane. We sure could use a little good news today. Whoa, tell me, nobody robbed a liquor store on the lower part of town. Nobody OD’ed, nobody burned a single buildin’ down. Nobody fired a shot in anger, nobody had to die in vain. We sure could use a little good news today."

Thinking about these lyrics brings about a somber mood. But I can to tell you that there is some good news.

During this past NCYC (National Catholic Youth Conference) I was able to witness close to 18,000 young people celebrating their Catholic faith in many special ways. If only the media would have taken the chance and moved away from the negative stories to focus on the events of this conference, one thing would have happened. They would have seen -- "A Little Good News." As I mentioned in my last column, during these four days I was able to see a renewed spirituality come over every one in attendance. I saw a transformation take place. Truly there was a change of heart.

Of course to fully understand what I am saying, you really needed to be there, but maybe this thought will help explain it. During my years as a youth minister, one thing I have learned and one which has helped me more in working with our young people, is to let go of any preconceived ideas of where the youth should be, and to accept them where they are. For myself this was very true while I was in Atlanta. As I watched our 66 young people enter into the NCYC experience, I had hopes of where they would be spiritually from the beginning. I, of course, was struggling with this, as some were not responding to things as I thought they should. But once I let go of my ideas, and placed my trust in the Holy Spirit, accepting them where they were, I began to see this transformation take place. I began to witness the lives of our youth being changed. Words cannot express everything I witnessed from our youth.

I spoke with Robert Tibbetts, a senior from Liberal and a very good athlete. He chose to miss a football game for NCYC. I asked him why and his response was simple. "This is more fun, and I would rather be here. I told my coach in March that I was going to this." What a powerful witness when our lives seem to be so absorbed in school activities. Other youth simply said, "This is awesome," and the smiles on faces speak volumes.

I invite you to look at the pictures on Page 10, and you too will, in some small way, be able to see the transformation that I witnessed. Look at the pictures, and rest assured, from the Diocese of Dodge City and the young Catholic Church of this nation, there is a lot of good news.