Nearly 90 young people recognized at annual Religious Awards Sunday
Each year, Scouts and other young people are recognized for their achievements at Religious Awards Sunday at the Cathedral Basilica of Saint Louis.
For the past 20 years, Greg Owen has served as a religious emblems coordinator, first guiding his own children and now assisting other Scouts as they work through the requirements for the Ad Altare Dei and Pope Pius XII awards. But the awards are more than working through a set of requirements, Owen said. Within those lessons, he sees how Scouts grow in their faith and live that out.
“Ad Altare Dei gives the foundation: What does faith means to us? What are you going to do with the message?” said Owen, who serves with Troop 35 based at Sts. Joachim and Ann Parish in St. Charles. “The Pope Pius XII Award goes one step above that. Now we want to hear how you have internalized it and what kind of changes it’s made in your life in order to become a responsible solider for Christ.”
This year Owen guided several Scouts who earned the Pope Pius XII Award, one of several emblems developed by the National Catholic Committee on Scouting in which Scouts explore vocations and ministries in the Church as calls from God. They were among nearly 90 Scouts and other youths who received awards Feb. 1 at the cathedral basilica.
Archbishop Mitchell T. Rozanski presided at the awards ceremony, hosted each year by the Office of Youth Ministry and the archdiocesan Catholic Committee on Scouting to celebrate the achievements of youth in faith formation programs and honor adult leaders for their service to youths.
More than 50 girls also received the Mary, the First Disciple Award, a program through the National Federation for Catholic Youth Ministry for girls to grow in appreciation of Mary and to understand themselves as disciples of Mary.
Catholic Scouting troops also may present other religious awards at their parishes on Scout Sunday, typically observed on or near Feb. 8.
The Ad Altare Dei Award is a 100-year-old program that focuses on the seven sacraments and helps Catholic Scouts develop a full Christian way of life in the faith community. Cady O’Grady, a religious emblems coordinator with Troop 323 at St. Peter in Kirkwood who helped mentor eight Scouts through the program’s requirements, said she sees a clear intersection of faith with the leadership skills they develop in Scouting.
“Some of the most valuable legacies we give our children are education and faith,” O’Grady said. She’s seen how the programs have impacted the faith of her own children, who are now young adults, and now the young people that she continues to mentor through the emblem programs.
“It is a lot of time, but what you get out of it and you see in their faith journey … I can’t imagine years down the road what will come up for them,” she said.
Carol Casolari, chair of the archdiocesan Catholic Committee on Scouting and a longtime religious emblems coordinator with Troop 829 at St. Ferdinand in Florissant, said the religious emblem programs help Scouts think about how God should permeate every aspect of their lives.
“They should be looking at their baptismal call to be a disciple, and through that they begin to realize it’s not about me and what I want to do and that God gave me certain gifts and talents and He has a call for me,” she said. “All of this works with Scouting, because you’re learning citizenship and responsibility and duty to God, country and self — and they reflect on all of that in these awards. It develops them into good, outstanding people who are willing to serve.”
Several others also were recognized at Religious Awards Sunday. Cub Scout Pack 918 at St. Joseph Parish in Cottleville received the Chaplain’s Unit Award, Troop 627 at Holy Infant Parish in Ballwin received the Archbishop’s Unit Award and adult leader Doug Tilly received the St. George Emblem.
