Issue Date: August 29, 2003
The key word in leadership is “you have to act, ” Stan Cordero told several hundred Catholic teens at his Living Christian Leadership workshop at Anaheim, Calif., in February. And the “reason you need to act and assume leadership in the church,” he said, “is that the people who are in leadership in our parishes today are the same people who were in leadership 20 and 30 years ago.” “Somewhere,” said Cordero, youth ministry director for the diocese of Santa Rosa, Calif., “we missed out on generations of Catholic youth and young adults, missed calling them forward to share in the ministry and mission of our lives as Catholics.” Leaders, he said, bring hope into people’s lives. And he spent part of the next 50 minutes having them stage an impromptu version of the Good Samaritan story. The important lesson about Christian leadership, he concluded, is: “You do not have to be selected, you do not have to be nominated or appointed. You just love God and your neighbor -- and act on it.” -- Arthur Jones National Catholic Reporter, August 29, 2003 |
