Young adults gather to celebrate bilingual spring fest

Friday, Apr. 23, 2010
Young adults gather to celebrate bilingual spring fest
Intermountain Catholic
+ Enlarge
The Most Rev. John C. Wester, bishop of Salt Lake City, celebrates Mass at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church in Salt Lake during the inaugural Spring Fest.
By Laura Vallejo
Intermountain Catholic

SALT LAKE CITY - Rabbi, where do you live?...Come and see (John 1:38-39) was the theme of Spring Fest 2010, the first bilingual youth festival in the Diocese of Salt Lake City. The Spring festival is an annual reunion for the Catholic Youth.

Dozens of young people gathered at Judge Memorial Catholic School to celebrate with songs, games and plenty of fun.

"It’s important that this gathering is in both languages so people know that we (Catholics) are not divided by Anglos or Hispanics," said Ivan Jimenez, a Hispanic leader from Saint Francis Xavier Catholic Church.

"For me, even when all these kids share the same language, their culture is very different so they have the same faith but not the culture," said Sofía Palestinos from Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church, adding that "some times Hispanic kids are afraid of Anglos and Anglos are scared of Hispanics, so gatherings like this help them to get united."

Matthew Boerke, director of the diocese’s youth and young adult ministry, was in charge of the welcome and introduced the volunteers and the youth leaders, in English.

Maria Cruz-Gray, director of the diocese’s Hispanic ministry, was in charge of giving the welcome in Spanish and introducing the Hispanic leaders.

"I think that the goal of this encounter is to make everybody meet new people and be comfortable being Catholic," said Mandy Silva, a youth leader from Saint Rose of Lima Catholic Church in Layton.

The event started with games such as the centipede and dances and songs. Afterward, those present crossed the street to Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church for a Mass celebrated by the Most Rev. John C. Wester, bishop of Salt Lake City. Following the Mass was a dinner and a concert; the Mascorro family from Saint Francis Xavier Parish in Kearns was in charge of the music.

"It’s better that they are in the church instead of in the streets or watching TV," said Alejandra Alvarado, one of the volunteers from The Cathedral of the Madeleine in Salt Lake City.

For questions, comments or to report inaccuracies on the website, please CLICK HERE.
© Copyright 2024 The Diocese of Salt Lake City. All rights reserved.