The "Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus" video has gone viral with many of your high school youth and young adults. Mark Hart (Life Teen’s Bible Geek) gives an effective pastoral strategy to help those you serve to unpack the profound message of in this video from the mistakes it also makes about religion.

A response to the viral youtube video: "Why I Hate Religion But Love Jesus." The teachings on God's grace in this video are actually pretty awesome, but his arguments against religion (Catholicism in particular) are seriously theologically flawed. Don't let the emotional sensationalism of this video sweep you away from religion. Christ himself said he came not to abolish religion, but to fulfill it. And he established the Catholic religion, from which came the Bible this man clings to so dearly.

Youth and Young Adults of the Des Moines region have the opportunity to gather, sing and pray at the Wednesday, January 18 concert, Canticle of Life. It will also be an opportunity to joyfully send our area pilgrims to the March for Life.

Inculturation is one of my favorite things about being Catholic. Incultur-what? Inculturation. It's the three-fold response that the Church has to secular culture and holidays like Halloween. If you want to be ready for Halloween, keep reading to understand what the Church has to say about the festivities you might participate in or encounter this time of year.

YOUCAT is short for Youth Catechism of the Catholic Church, which will be distributed in multiple languages on World Youth Day 2011 in Madrid, Spain. The English-language edition is available from Ignatius Press. Check out 10 ways youth ministers can use it in their ministry.

"Bye-bye church. We're busy." That's the message teens are giving churches today. by Cathy Lynn Grossman and Stephanie Steinberg- USA Today

The CCHD Multi-Media Youth Arts Contest is an opportunity for schools and parishes to engage young people grades 7-12 in learning about the root causes of poverty; CCHD’s support for groups of empowered, low-income people working to address these causes; and Catholic social teaching’s call for Catholics to support such efforts through both charitable works and social justice.

This is a must read about Adolescent Catechesis

RELIGION AMONG the MILLENNIALS The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life has released their findings on Millennials and their religiosity. It is an interesting read. Here are a few highlights as well as a link to the article.

The following is a resource to gain a greater understanding of the Church’s stance on suicide and some help in detecting signs of suicide and prevention. As well you will find the websites of counselors in case the need would arise for your child to seek help.

This week the focus of the newsbrief will be on Sacred Scripture. This focus was taken from the Core Curriculum from the Framework set forth by the Bishops.

The past several News Briefs have covered the Components of Comprehensive Youth Ministry, as set forth in the USCCB document “Renewing the Vision.” This is the last News Brief in the series, and it will cover the component of “Evangelization.”

This week the focus of the newsbrief will be on Jesus Christ's Mission Continues in the Church. This focus was taken from the Core Curriculum from the Framework set forth by the Bishops.

This week our focus will be on Social Justice and Service:

This week we are going to focus on Religious Vocations.

Cutting and other forms of mutilation are growing into an epidemic in our country.