9,000 Young Catholics Gather in Phoenix for FOCUS SLS20, by Claire Dwyer

“Who is your saintly friend for 2020?”

By Claire Dwyer, EWTN News,  1/8/20

Another year, another decade, another season ripe for renewal. Even amid a challenging time for the Church, 9,000 Catholics — most of them college students and young adults — gathered in Phoenix and welcomed 2020 with a celebration of hope and life in Christ.

From Dec. 30 to Jan. 3, the Fellowship of Catholic University Students (FOCUS) conference, SLS20, “You Were Made for Mission,” brought together religious, priests, bishops and cardinals from dozens of orders and dioceses, college students from 311 campuses, and passionate Catholics who serve in a myriad mission fields: media, education, publishing, teen chastity, family life and pro-life — you name it.

Since it was practically in my backyard, I was able to come for part of the powerful event, witnessing firsthand the fullness of the Church today. I wove through flocks of nuns — Dominicans in black and white, Sisters of Life wearing their beautiful blue, Franciscans radiant in brown, and friends from the Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity in their trademark gray. I passed priest after priest, most of them young and leading a pack of students. I stepped over youth groups praying in clusters in the corners and waited in long lines to hear powerful speakers encourage the thousands who had come to be inspired and educated and fed with the sacraments and prayer. ….

Read more here  http://www.ncregister.com/blog/clairedwyer/9000-young-catholics-gather-in-phoenix-for-focus-sls20