Our diocesan Catholic Committee on Scouting developed an award program that leads young people through the history of the Catholic Church in America. It recounts the great story of evangelization in our country. Isaac Jogues and Jacques Marquette who preached among the Indians east of the Mississippi, Juniper Serra who preached among them in California, John Carroll—the first bishop of the United States and brother to one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, Elizabeth Ann Seton, Prince Demetrius Gallitzin, and Edward Fenwick, all played a key role in the evangelization of the United States.

The Founders in Faith program was developed by youth, for youth—young men and women in our diocese’s Venture Crew developed the program—and it is open to Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, as well as youth leaders and parents. The idea started while Ohio, celebrated its bicentennial and has been offered every year since 2003. We held the 2008 program in Somerset, Ohio, where the first mass in Ohio, was celebrated two hundred years ago on the Joseph Dittoe farm.

These men and women brought passion and dedication to their work of bringing the Gospel of Jesus Christ to North America—to both the American Indians and to the early settlers. Some died a martyr’s death and others died from the hardships of pioneer living, but all their stories, and those of hundreds of others, chronicle the history of the Catholic Church in America.

I encourage you to have your youth explore the history of their own Catholic communities. How was the faith brought to their state, region, diocese, or town and what are the names of those who spread it? By knowing more about the history of their local church, young people can perhaps better understand their own mission to evangelize.