The adventures of Scouting and faith were celebrated at the Catholic Committee on Scouting Religious Awards Ceremony at St. Joseph Cathedral in Baton Rouge on Aug. 21.
Boy Scout, Girl Scouts, American Heritage Girls and their families gathered for Mass to be publicly recognized for their hard work and faith as Catholics and Scouts.
In his homily, Bishop Michael G. Duca said, “All that is good and best in terms of your faith is there, often times in our faith under different words. But nevertheless, the virtues that you and your leaders can and should continue to make.”
He pointed to the example that Scouts are supposed to be “thrifty,” which Catholic theology and spirituality is referred to “being good stewards” or taking care of things and using the gifts they receive from others not for their own good but for the good of others. When Scouts are called to be “kind” it means to not disrespect others.
The bishop emphasized that as Catholics and Scouts “every decision you make for a positive virtue, a positive promise or positive goal in your life, such as to be kind, means that in moments when you are tempted to be mean, to disrespect or be hurtful to someone you call yourself to the higher ideals.”
He emphasized, “Remember as young people any time you say ‘yes’ to something good you’re saying ‘no’ to something else, and you want to make sure that you’re not saying ‘yes’ to something that is bad and ‘no’ to something that is good. And those ideals of Scouting in all its forms hopefully raise our desire for being the best people you can be as God created us to be.”
At the awards ceremony after Mass, Bishop Duca blessed the awards and gave a “campfire chat” with the Scouts about the adventures of Scouting and faith.
The bishop told the Scouts as they move forward in their faith and knowledge in being a good disciple of Jesus Christ, they will learn the things they need to do to be part of, serve and build up the community by being good men and women of faith.
“Don’t be surprised that you might think about being a priest or a sister and serving the church and serving the people not in the church in some way,” said Bishop Duca.
“At that point listen. God may be calling you. God called me and I was a Scout,” he said.
Bishop Duca started in Cub Scouts and went all the way through Boy Scouts in high school.
He shared how his scouting roots run deep in his own family, from his dad, who was involved in scouting in a variety of roles, all the way through his retirement years, and to his sisters, who were Girl Scouts.
One of the highlights for the bishop was an exploration canoe trip of the Northern United States and Canada at the Charles L. Summer Wilderness Camp.
“I saw the Northern Lights,” said Bishop Duca.
One night while they were out taking in the wonders of nature, a bear came into one of the tents.
The midnight camping, survival skills training and swimming all added up for a “real wilderness experience,” noted the bishop.
Bishop Duca said the most important thing about the awards is not accomplishing them but the effort in achieving them will make them not only more self-sufficient but better disciples of Christ.
The bishop presented the award in 11 different categories to the scouts.
“I thank you for what you’ve done to get these. You are great witnesses of faith,” said the bishop.