As summer turns to fall, children return to school, and youth catechesis picks up again, middle and high school students have something special to look forward to in the St. Cletus Pastorate.
At Holy Mother of Consolation Church in Oregon, two donors fully funded the renovation of the rectory into the pastorate’s new youth center.
‘To be together’
Becky Phillips, St. Cletus Pastorate director of faith formation, was one of the first to learn that the old rectory at Holy Mother of Consolation Church would be renovated.
The building, which was last renovated in 1962, needed repairs.
Because of Into the Deep, the pastorate’s priests were living elsewhere.
Combined, these reasons meant that the building was unused for half a year, and as the rectory sat empty, Phillips said it was a time of “prayer and reflecting” on what purpose it could serve.
Ultimately, thanks to an extremely generous $350,000 donation from a longtime parishioner, pastorate priests decided that the rectory would be renovated and used as a youth center, not only for Holy Mother of Consolation Church but for the whole pastorate.
Once it was decided, renovations quickly began in November last year, and the St. Cletus Youth Center was ready for youth formation by May of this year.
Phillips said that, in planning for the pastorate’s middle and high school catechesis, the new youth center was renovated according to their needs.
She said, “We really desire them to be together and celebrate the Catholic faith together, and we’re able to do that in this great space.”
“It just fits in with our programming, because we don’t do a classroom model with our middle school and high school students,” she continued.
“We love when we’re able to gather as a large group, pray together, play a game together, build our community, and then break off into small groups.”
Phillips also brought attention to the various sizes of groups the space will accommodate and types of activities that will take place.
She said, “We intentionally made it a very flexible space, so if we need this big open space to play a game, we have that. If we want to have chairs, we have chairs that they can quickly grab and join — if it’s five people, if it’s 100 people.
“Just this summer, we already had 100 people in there.
“Last week, we had a small group of 10 people, and it works for them, too. So, it’s a really flexible space, no matter who God brings us.”
Fully furnishing the center
Phillips was excited to give a tour of the renovated space, which features a kitchenette for snacks and food preparation; a large open room, which doubles as a large-group activity room and gathering space; and smaller rooms for Bible studies and small groups.
The large, open room features a wood fireplace, functional wood flooring, a ping pong table and other table games, and a new projector for use in catechesis and socials.
The smaller rooms feature everything to make them great for cozy breakout sessions — couches, books, carpeting, and beautiful Catholic artwork.
Phillips shared that, in addition to the anonymous parishioner who donated the initial renovation funds, another donor, Sil Acker, stepped forward to entirely furnish the youth center.
Acker’s wife, Jean, recently died, and after her death, he said that he was looking to commemorate her in a special way.
Acker said, “My wife, Jean, and I both graduated from eighth grade Catholic schools — she graduated from St. Norbert in Roxbury, and I graduated from St. Peter in Ashton — and we both felt that was a good foundation to build our life and our belief in our Lord, Jesus Christ.”
“We also both agreed that the way to maintain and grow our community is through the youth,” he continued.
This led Acker to think about donating funds for a scholarship in his wife’s name, but “then the youth center was pointed out to me, and I thought, ‘Oh, that sounds wonderful. A youth center will serve all the youth of our community, not just a select few.’”
“The funds that I was thinking of for the scholarship I donated to the youth center, and Becky [Phillips] has done tremendous [things] with it. I’m very happy with the way things are turning out,” Acker said.
St. Cletus Pastorate’s Parochial Administrator, Fr. David Wanish, echoed that same sentiment.
Father Wanish said, “As I look at it now, I see it’s a great facility.
“I think it’s a facility that’s going to really be a ‘faith builder’ — it’s going to help us with the activities of our young people and the faith life of our young people for years to come.”
Two Oregon high school seniors, Ryan Dins and Klaudia Ritter, are excited to use the new space.
Dins pointed out that before, there was a lot of prep work involved to make spaces useable for youth events, but “Now that we have our own space, [everything] is all in one area, where it’s more centralized and it’s our own space. We don’t have to worry about moving stuff back for the next thing.”
Ritter was especially excited to lead small groups in the youth center and said that because the youth center and church are connected, “The space is very versatile because we’ll have fun game moments, and then we’ll transition and we’ll be deep in prayer” in the church.
Both seniors voiced their excitement to bring more friends to their youth group, and Ritter added that after high school graduation, she’s “excited for when I come back to visit, to see how it’s grown and the connections kids have made in the community”.
Now that youth formation has begun again, St. Cletus Pastorate parishioners can be proud of the way they’ve repurposed a long-standing building and how they’re forming the faith of young people for years to come.