Called to be light to the world

When St. John Paul II came to town 25 years ago, Carla Struckhoff took her cue from Zaccheus.

Extremely eager to see the pope depart the Cathedral Basilica of Saint Louis, she climbed a tree across Lindell Boulevard.

“I said: ‘I’ve got to see him. I’ve got to see him,’” she said.

Carla and her husband, Eric, then newlyweds in their early 20s, had drawn close to John Paul II through his writings, particularly “Theology of the Body.”

“He just really tugged at me,” Carla said.

The Struckhoffs also attended the papal youth rally in the Kiel Center with teens from St. Clement of Rome Parish in Des Peres and 20,000 of their closest friends. After they sang “Cry the Gospel” more times than they could count (just ask anyone who attended), St. John Paul II entered in the popemobile.

“We were in the mid-section, not even close. But we both got wrecked — just absolutely wrecked,” Carla said.

St. John Paul II addressed the youth, calling on them to be “ready for what Christ wants of you now.”

“He wants you — all of you — to be light to the world, as only young people can be light,” the pope said. “It is time to let your light shine!”

His message resonated with Carla and Eric, who had recently started volunteering with St. Clement’s youth ministry. “(It) was very hopeful and inspiring, calling us to mission, and that we are the Church and not to be afraid,” she said.

After that encounter, God answered a prayer. Carla and Eric had been longing for but unable to conceive a child in their first year of marriage, but after John Paul II’s visit, “we got pregnant right away,” Carla said.

They named their first son Jonathan, a nod to the saintly pope.

Intentional ministry

The Archdiocese of St. Louis’ Office of Youth Ministry (OYM) was born soon after St. John Paul II’s visit, too.

Before then, the archdiocesan Catholic Youth Council had supported some social programs for teens, and some parishes had started youth ministry programs. Good work was being done, but there was a desire for something more: a dedicated approach to forming teens in the faith, said Sister M. Beata Ziegler, FSGM. Sister Beata had been tapped to help plan the youth track for the pope’s visit and continued as part of the team launching the OYM.

“It was a much greater understanding of the need for an intentional reaching out to young people,” she said. Inspired by St. John Paul II, their vision was to invite teens into community and to truly evangelize, sharing with them the truths of the faith.

The OYM supported youth ministers and volunteers as they started and sustained parish youth ministry programs, “caring for those who care for the youth,” Sister Beata said. Sometimes that meant reaching out to pastors and parish leaders to share the importance of dedicated youth ministry — a relatively new concept for some.

Just months after the pope’s visit in 1999, the OYM hosted the first Steubenville St. Louis summer conference at Marquette High School in Chesterfield. The event has grown into the current Steubenville St. Louis Mid-America conference, which is hosted on the Missouri State University Campus in Springfield.

“The parish level is such an important place because that’s home,” Sister Beata said. “And yet, seeing the broader Church and seeing even within the archdiocese how much diversity there is, from a small country parish versus your city parish — it exposes kids to different experiences.”

A family effort

After encountering St. John Paul II, Carla and Eric continued volunteering with St. Clement’s youth ministry. Carla became the full-time youth minister in 2003. With two children already and five more to come, Carla brought her family along to as much of the ministry as possible.

“Just letting (the teens) see family life, I think, was really powerful and very important,” she said. “My pastor approved — I would go to him and ask, can I bring my kids? He was like, ‘Yes, we hired you as a mother, right?’”

In turn, the Struckhoffs welcomed youth group members into their family. Teens came to the Struckhoff kids’ baptisms and birthday parties. After Eric’s grandfather died, a high schooler named Leslie — who’s still a regular at Struckhoff family holidays — coordinated and cooked the food for the funeral reception.

Growing up around high school youth ministry gave Jonathan Struckhoff “some of my most vivid memories of my faith life starting,” he said. On Sunday nights at the St. Clement youth house, the teens would include him in sports games outside, and he’d sit in on talks and small groups.

“I had just good high school role models during that time who I really looked up to and were just pillars of faith,” he said. “They kind of shaped where I wanted to be…. When I got to high school, I knew that high school ministry was what I wanted to do, because a lot of those high schoolers, especially the men, I looked up to as normal guys who played sports and stuff like that but also took their faith seriously.”

Annie Struckhoff, the second oldest, has fond childhood memories of Steubenville conferences and XLT, a multi-parish evening of praise and worship and adoration then held at St. Catherine Laboure Church in Sappington, where Eric played in the worship band.

“From a young age, I just thought it was one of the coolest things, getting to know these older kids,” Annie said. “And then my parents, as well, I saw how they devoted their lives to leading others to the Catholic faith.”

While Carla started teaching at Chaminade College Preparatory School in 2008, she and Eric continued volunteering for several years. They are now involved parents as their kids move through the program.

Youth ministry “helped lay the early foundations in our marriage, of putting faith first and looking outside yourself and doing ministry,” Eric said. “And through all the positive experiences we’ve had in encounters with the Lord and seeing transformations happen with the youth we’ve worked with, (we’re) seeing that within our own family now as they go through youth ministry and have that faith community.”

The next generation

Jonathan, Annie and Patrick Struckhoff attended a West County XLT event in April.

Jonathan brought teens from St. Peter in Kirkwood, where he’s been the youth minister since August 2023. Annie led the music. Patrick, the fourth oldest in the family, attended with St. Clement’s youth group.

A junior at Chaminade, Patrick serves as a “young apostle,” an upperclassman who helps plan and lead youth group nights at St. Clement with youth minister Conner Havrilla. The young apostle initiative follows a discipleship model, where Conner meets with the small group for extra formation and encouragement as the teens reach out to their younger peers.

“The main thing he likes to talk about is defending your faith, which is great,” Patrick said. “I love learning about that stuff, especially at this age, because I’m about to go off to college very soon.”

Last summer, Conner encouraged Patrick and other young apostles to form a solid foundation of personal prayer, especially at the St. Clement adoration chapel. So, every Monday evening, Patrick and his peers met for eucharistic adoration, then shared about God’s work in their lives. Patrick continues the devotion today, whether alone or with friends.

“I go out on Mondays, and I go pray in the chapel — because I’m not perfect, but I know that I can be on that path with God,” he said.

“This is my faith, and I have to take care of it myself,” he continued. “I have to nourish it, and I have to keep speaking to God, because God’s like a friend — if you don’t speak to Him, it’s going to get missed.”

Through her experience, Carla knows the impact of a youth minister who invests in teens.

“When a youth minister sees something in a teen and calls that greatness out, they elevate to that, right?” Carla said. “So I’ve seen that happen in (Patrick) in this process of being a young apostle, not only building confidence in faith and confidence in speaking about the faith but also just calling out gifts that were already there, but by exercising them, allowing them to grow.”

Annie graduated from Benedictine College in May 2023 and returned to St. Louis. She offers her musical talents to St. Clement and other parishes. She picked up the guitar during her sophomore year of college and started leading worship with a band.

When she moved back home, the Lord continued to provide opportunities for her to play music, “and I just kept saying yes,” she said.

Three miles south in Kirkwood, Jonathan is creating a community and space for the next generation of teens to encounter the Lord.

“As a high schooler, one of the things I desired most was to be seen as who I am, completely, in reality, and for a lot of high school just struggling with: Who am I? What do I want to do with my life? Who do I want to become?” he said. “And when I was at youth group, I just felt completely myself. And then I didn’t have to put on a facade for anybody, or make myself act cool or powerful or popular or anything like that — but just be myself and be appreciated for that.”

He wants teens to appreciate “how lovable they are, in their own distinct ways,” he continued. “It might be an affirmation activity or just relational opportunities to be with one another and just grow in relationship and see Christ in one another. I think it’s very important for them to realize that they have, yes, weaknesses, but most importantly, they are loved amidst their weaknesses, and that doesn’t determine who they are.”

Twenty-five years after the archdiocese started an intentional approach to youth ministry, it continues to be an essential method of evangelization, Jonathan said. In his experience, many teens have their first “Jesus moment” through a youth group or retreat, coming to know Christ more personally than before.

“Without youth ministry, the Church would hurt very badly when it comes to faith formation and making disciples and sending them out on fire and creating a space for God to encounter them,” he said. “It’s just a gift to be called to (youth ministry), and I pray for more people to be open to that calling, to give themselves for the sake of these children that are just wanting to know Him more.”

The seeds and the harvest

Having been involved with youth ministry in the archdiocese for decades, Carla has had the privilege to witness the graces that have come over the years.

The early days “were so anointed, planting a lot of seeds that would grow,” she said.

She thinks of a teen struggling to believe in the power of the sacrament of reconciliation. During a retreat, Carla helped prepare her to go for the first time in a while. She had an “absolute transformation,” Carla said. Today, the former teen teaches theology — specifically, the sacraments — reaching hundreds more high schoolers.

Carla has countless other stories of teens who fell in love with Christ and now live holy lives as priests, consecrated religious and young married couples. Some come to speak to her students at Chaminade, where she teaches the “Theology of the Body” and runs a vocations club.

And, 25 years after St. John Paul II’s St. Louis visit, she still sees his influence at work.

“You know how they talk about how a grain of wheat needs to be crushed and die to bear fruit? I really think this is the time,” she said. “(John Paul II) died, and now there’s life in all who encountered what he had written and what he had spoken. This is the harvest time.”

The Office of Youth Ministry

The archdiocesan Office of Youth Ministry serves those who serve young people, with a focus on youth ministers, Scout leaders, priests and parishes and parents.

Ministry support services include parish consultations, Scout and faith program leadership development, Scouting consultations, youth minister formation and retreats and youth ministry consultations.

The Office of Youth Ministry, which is supported by the Annual Catholic Appeal, also hosts diocesanwide activities, including the Steubenville St. Louis Mid-America youth conference, The Summit middle school event and Totus Tuus.

“Parents are going to be the primary catechists for their children. But I think as in ages past, the phrase ‘it takes a village’ is so true today,” OYM director Amy Eschelbach said in a recent episode of the GO & MAKE podcast. “Of course we want strong catechesis coming from the domestic church (the family), but let’s pair that also with other ministry outlets to give our young people many opportunities to encounter Jesus Christ and make their faith their own.”

To listen to the full GO & MAKE episode with Amy, visit go-make.captivate.fm/episode/the-young-church-ft-amy-eschelbach

To learn more about the OYM, visit stlyouth.org.

St. John Paul II’s St. Louis visit

Pope John Paul II’s Jan. 26-27, 1999, visit included three major events: a youth rally at the Kiel Center (now Enterprise Center); Mass at the Trans World Dome (now The Dome at America’s Center); and an Evening Vespers prayer service at the Cathedral Basilica of Saint Louis.

His visit to St. Louis was part of a journey to North America that included a stop in Mexico for the Synod of Bishops for America. It was his fourth trip to Mexico and his seventh to the United States.

Pope John Paul II’s speeches and homilies in St. Louis

Homilies

• Homily from the Eucharistic Celebration Jan. 27 at the Trans World Dome: bit.ly/2slZW2g

• Homily from Vespers Jan. 27 at the Cathedral Basilica of Saint Louis: bit.ly/2Fm97HI

Messages

• Address at the welcome ceremony Jan. 26 at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport: bit.ly/2H6Ib1b

• Address to young people Jan. 26 at Kiel Center: bit.ly/2Fm9EJI

• Written message to children at Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital: bit.ly/2TG3B6q

• Farewell address Jan. 27 at the Cathedral Basilica of Saint Louis: bit.ly/2sj9JGp