Record number of Bishop Bruté Days participants take part in pilgrimage

Participants in Bishop Bruté Days kneel in prayer on July 8 in St. Paul Church in New Alsace, a campus of All Saints Parish in Dearborn County, during Bishop Bruté Days, the archdiocese’s annual vocations camp. They are, from left, Sebastian Alvarez, Aidan McKay, Joshua Fuller, Patrick Taber and Jacob Branaham. (Photo by Sean Gallagher)

By Sean Gallagher

DEARBORN COUNTY—Bishop Bruté Days, the archdiocese’s annual vocations camp, keeps growing. Last year, it set an attendance record with 59 high school-age boys taking part in the three-day event at Bishop Simon Bruté College Seminary in Indianapolis.

This year, the number of participants was 70 for the high school-age portion of Bishop Bruté Days on July 8-10. They came from 25 parishes across central and southern Indiana, as well as faith communities in the Archdiocese of Louisville, Ky., and the Diocese of Lafayette, Ind.

The growth in the high school participants led to scheduling a one-day junior high Bishop Bruté Days on July 11, the day after the high schoolers completed their camp. There were 39 seventh- and eighth-graders who participated in the junior high camp this year. (Related: See a photo gallery from this event)

“I think we are seeing a new springtime of vocations,” said Father Michael Keucher, archdiocesan vocations director who oversaw Bishop Bruté Days. “Seeing these young men grow in fraternity and prayer gives so much joy to my heart. I always tell people that being vocation director is the best job in the archdiocese.”

This continued growth in Bishop Bruté Days comes on the heels of the archdiocese at the start of the last academic year having 32 seminarians, the most since 1997.

Father Keucher, now in his fourth year as vocations director, has long known that this growth is rooted in an increase of prayer for vocations. That prayer was a big part of Bishop Bruté Days this year. Catholics across the archdiocese responded to a call from the vocations office for people to pray for the camp and its participants around the clock.

“So many people across the archdiocese are supporting vocations, especially in prayer,” Father Keucher said. “I am aware of a lot of people who pray and fast fervently for vocations. Our increases in the number of our seminarians and young people in events like Bishop Bruté Days show that prayers are being answered.”

A brotherhood of faith and joy

In his eight years as an archdiocesan seminarian, transitional Deacon Liam Hosty has assisted with Bishop Bruté Days on several occasions.

“I’ve been very impressed by the quality of the young men here,” said Deacon Hosty, a member of St. Barnabas Parish in Indianapolis. “To be able to see the virtues in these young men at 14, 15 or 16 years old is encouraging. Their formation and catechesis are miles beyond where I was when I was their age.”

But then Deacon Hosty smiles as he watches the campers running around with abandon as a hot summer sun bore down on the seminary grounds on July 8.

“They’re full of energy and full of testosterone,” he said with a laugh. “To be able to make that switch between having reverence and piety and then to come out here on a hot day in July and play capture the flag is encouraging.”

Seminarian Antonio Harbert was a Bishop Bruté Days participant a year ago. Having completed his first year at the college seminary, he helped lead the camp this year.

Looking out at the high schoolers chasing after each other in their game, he said, “I feel like this is our seminary life—at times.”

“During the school year, the brotherhood is awesome,” said Harbert, a member of St. Joseph Parish in Shelbyville. “I see us in our seminary life having this much fun. But we also pray. … This is how I view seminary.”

Elijah Wessel values this brotherhood at Bishop Bruté Days. That’s why the member of All Saints Parish in Dearborn County has taken part in four of them throughout his high school years.

“It’s really powerful to see all of these young men who are here for the same reason I am, to discern their vocation,” said Elijah, who will be a homeschooled senior this fall.

Elijah also appreciates the brotherhood of the seminarians who help lead Bishop Bruté Days.

“It’s the faith and joy that the seminarians have,” he said. “It’s really attractive. I’m still working on discerning my vocation. So, I wanted to come back to work it out more.”

Community among the seminarians and the Bishop Bruté Days participants is important for Roman Caito. This year’s camp was the third one in which he’s participated. He is a member of St. Michael Parish in Greenfield, where he will be a homeschooled senior this fall.

“This is hopeful for me,” said Roman. “In Greenfield, there’s not too many Catholics. So, seeing so many people who are truly Catholic, enjoying the sacraments with me, praising the Lord, is helpful. I really do enjoy it.”

‘Following in the Lord’s footsteps’

With tens of thousands of Catholics from across the country set to visit Indianapolis a week after Bishop Bruté Days for the National Eucharistic Congress, this year’s vocations camp focused on the Eucharist.

Several archdiocesan priests gave presentations on the Eucharist. And, as is usual at Bishop Bruté Days, each day included Mass, adoration and Benediction.

But this year there was added participation in the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage. On July 9, Bishop Bruté Days participants rode in two school buses to All Saints Parish in Dearborn County where they joined the eastern route of the pilgrimage that began on May 19, Pentecost Sunday, in New Haven, Conn.

It and the north, south and west routes of the pilgrimage converged in Indianapolis on July 16, the day before the start of the congress.

The Bishop Bruté Days participants worshipped at Mass at All Saints Parish’s St. Paul campus in New Alsace.

Father Jonathan Meyer, who serves at All Saints Parish and the other three parishes in Dearborn County, reflected on the connection between the Eucharist and the priesthood in his homily at the liturgy.

“There is no Eucharist without the priesthood,” he said. “There is no holy Mass. The continuation of our ability to enter into the one saving act of Jesus doesn’t happen when Mass is not celebrated.”

He went on to suggest to them they might hear a “supernatural call” in “the smallest whisper of a voice that says, ‘Be my priest. Serve me. Give me everything.’ ”

After a lunch provided by the Batesville Deanery faith community, the teenage boys joined the east route’s perpetual pilgrims and some 300 Catholics from the area in a 3-mile eucharistic procession to the parish’s St. Martin campus in Yorkville.

Elijah was glad to come back to his parish with his fellow Bishop Bruté Days participants to take part in the historic pilgrimage.

“It almost felt like following behind our Lord like [when] he was on Earth,” he said. “I could really connect to how the Apostles would have felt walking behind him as he went about his daily life, preaching to people in the Holy Land, following in the Lord’s footsteps.”

Father Keucher was glad to see the teenage boys from across the archdiocese take part in the pilgrimage.

“It gave them the chance to literally follow Jesus together as brothers, and following Jesus is what good discernment is ultimately all about,” he said. “They got to see the hunger in so many people for what only the priest can give: the Eucharist. I think they also profited by being able to see how in love with the eucharistic king the Church’s priests, seminarians and religious are. It was heavenly, and I think it was the highlight for many of the boys.”

The following day, during the closing Mass for Bishop Bruté Days, Father Keucher recalled in his homily the Mass in which he received the sacrament of confirmation when he was 16. In that liturgy, then-Archbishop Daniel M. Buechlein suggested that God might be calling young men in that congregation to the priesthood.

“In my 16-year-old heart and mind, I knew that was me,” Father Keucher said. “I didn’t want it to be me. It scared me to think about that. But I knew he was talking about me. And I’m so happy that Jesus made me a priest.”

Father Keucher then made a similar invitation to the 70 Bishop Bruté Days high school participants.

“God has chosen you, all of you,” he said. “ … You carry Jesus because you received Jesus at this holy Mass, at this altar. And you can make changes wherever it is that you go because you have him. And get this. It isn’t you that is doing it. It’s him.

“My brothers, I invite you to surrender to Jesus and to say yes. Whatever you want in my life, Jesus, I give you. You give me everything in the Eucharist. I will give you everything in return.”
 

(For more information on the archdiocese’s seminarians and on a vocation to the priesthood in the archdiocese, visit www.HearGodsCall.com.) †