Idaho Catholic Youth Convention in Idaho Falls (Boise, Pocatello: fit in, chapel)

[Mtn. States Resident]

I just read about the annual Idaho Catholic Youth Convention 2 day conference, being held this year in Idaho Falls.

I know very little about this event, but think it is wonderful the Convention moves to various areas of Idaho so the students experience different parts of the state. Apparently, a lot of lasting friendships have started at this meeting from earlier years.

Perhaps your local media, or own knowledge, will allow you to add more to this thread. I'm not sure if it is always close to Palm Sunday or not.

I found the comments reported by the Idaho Falls media interesting to hear Treasure Valley youth "finally" able to talk to other Catholic teens.

Also, I am very interested in how this Convention decided to limit the participants to Idaho residents only. So many times Idaho is sub-divided into the three major regions and grouped with similar groups regionally. This must take a tremendous amount of work and some very dedicated people.

IMO, this sounds like a great idea having a Convention for Idaho youth only, be it for a religious gathering, sporting activity or seeing a concert together etc.

One of my real fears for ID, as the population continues to grow, is for those outside of the Treasure Valley to connect more with other metro areas aside of ID. The saying, "The State of Ada," has a sting to many ID residents albeit potentially for different reasons.

I haven't seen Gov. Otter make good on opening his two regional offices as promised (if someone has an update, please post so I can learn more). Consequently, I think organizations, churches, clubs etc. in ID can provide a major format for uniting IDAHO RESIDENTS, instead of dividing them.

PROPS to all involved with this convention from its inception! IMHO, this is a great example of leadership. If this group can have an Idaho convention for Idaho youth, I think others can as well.

Please report whether or not your media even covered the convention (before or after). If not, in your opinion, should they have covered an Idaho Youth event?

If you know anyone who attended, it would be interesting to read what the teens thought about the conference and what they identify as some of their concerns, if any, about Idaho. Likewise, it would be interesting to read what they think is working well in ID.

MSR

[TohobitPeak]

Originally Posted by Mtn. States Resident

I just read about the annual Idaho Catholic Youth Convention 2 day conference, being held this year in Idaho Falls.

I know very little about this event, but think it is wonderful the Convention moves to various areas of Idaho so the students experience different parts of the state. Apparently, a lot of lasting friendships have started at this meeting from earlier years.

Perhaps your local media, or own knowledge, will allow you to add more to this thread. I'm not sure if it is always close to Palm Sunday or not.

I found the comments reported by the Idaho Falls media interesting to hear Treasure Valley youth "finally" able to talk to other Catholic teens.

Also, I am very interested in how this Convention decided to limit the participants to Idaho residents only. So many times Idaho is sub-divided into the three major regions and grouped with similar groups regionally. This must take a tremendous amount of work and some very dedicated people.

IMO, this sounds like a great idea having a Convention for Idaho youth only, be it for a religious gathering, sporting activity or seeing a concert together etc.

One of my real fears for ID, as the population continues to grow, is for those outside of the Treasure Valley to connect more with other metro areas aside of ID. The saying, "The State of Ada," has a sting to many ID residents albeit potentially for different reasons.

I haven't seen Gov. Otter make good on opening his two regional offices as promised (if someone has an update, please post so I can learn more). Consequently, I think organizations, churches, clubs etc. in ID can provide a major format for uniting IDAHO RESIDENTS, instead of dividing them.

PROPS to all involved with this convention from its inception! IMHO, this is a great example of leadership. If this group can have an Idaho convention for Idaho youth, I think others can as well.

Please report whether or not your media even covered the convention (before or after). If not, in your opinion, should they have covered an Idaho Youth event?

If you know anyone who attended, it would be interesting to read what the teens thought about the conference and what they identify as some of their concerns, if any, about Idaho. Likewise, it would be interesting to read what they think is working well in ID.

MSR

I have some long time family friends from SE Idaho who are in the state legislature and have their own irritations about Otter. But the ironic thing about SE Idaho is that they wouldn't dare vote for Brady from Idaho Falls who was running for Governer in the last election because he is, and I know this is a bad word in the Upper Snake River Valley, DEMOCRAT. It is a shame though, Boise wanted him as governor, more than Otter, but it is hard to try to shake all of those extremely conservative Republicans from SE Idaho to consider a Democrat. I had many a long discussion about this with my conservative LDS parents in Bingham County.
I don't see Otter winning in the next election. He isn't popular in the Boise area.

But back to the Catholic Church to not derail this thread.
The Boise Diocese, which covers all of Idaho has built many new beautiful churches here in the Treasure Valley to handle the population growth and currently renovating a Gothic church in the area of Boise which I live. I have seen new Catholic churches in Cascade and Sun Valley. I've also been in St. Josephs in Idaho City and Our Lady of Tears in Silver City near Boise.
How is Southeast Idaho doing as far as R.C. churches, do the current buildings have enough room to hold the congregations or are they building new churches over there?

A few interesting facts about the Catholic Church in Idaho:
The oldest standing building in the state is the Cataldo Mission near Coeur d'Alene, The Kaniksu National Forest in North Idaho has ties to the religion, Kaniksu is an Indian word meaning "black robe" which is named after the Jesuit Priests who were in the area and Priest Lake was first named Roothaan Lake by Father Desmet who had a lot to do with early Catholic history in North Idaho.
And the first known religious service in Boise was a Catholic Mass. Boise has its deep Basque Catholic history too and they have a celebration of their patron saint each year.
The Catholic Church has an interesting history in Idaho.

[BannockCounty]

The Catholic Community in Pocatello/Chubbuck has $$ challenges and suffers from the nationwide priest shortage. I grew up in Pocatello (Catholic) and we had four separate parishes: St. Anthony's, St. Joseph's, St. Paul's and the Newman Center at the I.S.U. campus, St. John's. They each had 2,3 or 4 Masses every Sunday. I moved to San Francisco for many years (18) and am now back with three children in the Catholic school here. We now have one combined parish called Holy Spirit Catholic Community and it has three "chapels" or church locations: St. Anthony Chapel, St. Joseph's Chapel and St. Paul's chapel. The parish has desperately been trying to get traction with a capital campaign to build one large building to bring all the chapel communities together (they've been trying for 4-5 years), but as far as I know anyone who could give significant amounts has already pledged and the little bit that could come from the remaining parishioners is not looking like enough to break ground. It's sad, but Pocatello has its unpretentious-blue-collar-and-proud history and people just don't have $15-20K to be pledging to the parish.

I don't want to say it's never going to happen, but it is more of a challenge than the building committee every imagined.

[Mtn. States Resident]

TohobitPeak and Bannock County,

Thanks for posting more information.

TohobitPeak,

Let me reassure you that not everyone west of Blaine County voted for Otter. I generally don't like to write about religion, as I have seen so many examples of people hurt each other with their "cuts" interntional or not. That being written, I will add I found it very interesting that both Otter and Brady are Catholic. (Part of the reason I tell people to check the data, before their assumptions/biases about Idaho and religions).

I find many practicing or lapsed Catholics moving to the Intermountain West because they find their views closer to Mormons than not, than their previous state of residence. Many are from the northeast.

Perhaps, TohobitPeak, you and I should PM some as we have many views in common and live in different areas. My mother even taught one year at the little Parochial school in Blackfoot, at a time when I think every other teacher was a nun.

I was really sad not to see Jerry Brady win the election. For some of the things that matter to me about ID, I thought Brady was a far better candidate. IMO, he actually did something in Washington, D.C. when he practiced law there. I was embarrassed by remarks former Senator, now Gov. Otter made in his last term as a senator! Unfortunately, I think Brady got back lash in eastern/southeastern ID for other reasons, partly due to his family's business, and partly due to the actions of some different Democrats in the area.

Additionally, Otter did very offensive things for many LDS in eastern ID prior to the election. Shall I site, making sure he was present for the dirt digging of the Rexburg Temple photo op, among others, as a start? Honestly, I think many people just didn't vote, but that's a different discussion (but could be an interesting one in a different thread).

I think what I was really trying to tap into when I first posted is a lot of what I'll call "leadership," as I don't want this thread to digress into politics or religious debates. Leadership to unite a state population, not divide. Leadership doesn't come naturally to some.........

When you wrote, "It is a shame though, Boise wanted him as governor, more than Otter, but it is hard to try to shake all of those extremely conservative Republicans from SE Idaho to consider a Democrat," your comment is typical of what concerns me. Let me clarify and say I support your comment.

What concerns me greatly, is if anything, I see Gov. Otter dividing Idaho into the 3 "sub-states" more than any Gov. ever has. And that was the theme of my original post: how wonderful it was that regardles of which of the 44 counties these youth resided in, they could meet each other as fellow Idaho residents.

I'm not the best person to answer your questions about the status of the Catholic churches in eastern ID, with the exception to say I know they are well attended. I'm not sure how many go to the Parish in Rexburg, but there is a church there. The Roberts Parish is busy too.

No new buildings that I can think of, but again, I wouldn't know for many reasons. However, Holy Rosary School constantly gets asked to expand to 4 a four year high school.

Holy Rosary (on 9th Street in Idaho Falls) is the oldest of the two churches. Christ the King, on the very busy 17th Street/Woodruff Ave. is the other and has very interesting design. Both are landlocked in their current locations. I don't know if there are plans for building a third church at some point and maybe building more classrooms to accomodate the wishes of local residents, or not. I believe, but may be wrong, much like BannockCounty wrote, it's more services/bldg. right now.

Since the charter school issue became big, I think a lot of Catholic, Mormon, Baptist, Methodist, and all other religious people of any faith, as well as Atheists and others, came together to make sure they got THEIR CHARTER SCHOOLS for their children. So I don't know if how high the demand is now for additional Catholic classrooms, vs. the Charter classrooms - which I'll just define for my purposes here as being in a specific school district. I might be wrong, but that's my perception - everyone united to get their charter schools up and running. Maybe the same is true in Pocatello, I don't know.

I think if the population keeps growing at the rate it has the last decade, then who knows, we may see some new construction. But, I would look for new Catholic "complex" only where there is enough room to build a school, K-12, along with a church etc.

I do wonder how many people who read these forms realize that both Pocatello and Idaho Falls had Catholic Hospitals for decades. There have been many Catholic hospitals in Idaho. Like you mentioned about Boise's own Catholic history, many other Idaho cities have rich traditions or celetrations that were originally started by Catholics in the area.

That goes back to my original post, of why I think this is a great idea for kids (and I don't just mean Catholic kids getting together) in Idaho to get to meet other Idaho kids with similar interests and backgrounds. It could be a bowling league, travel club or any other type of formal gathering that allowed teens throughout Idaho to meet and make friends with people living in their own state.

Within the last year, I read a post from a physician in London who had stumbled upon an Idaho Falls website. Per him, the entire UK could fit into Idaho with 20% excess room. So in no way am I suggesting that having teens from Sandpoint and Blackfoot, as well as Hagerman and Preston (and all location in between) all meet for two days is easy for anyone. The struggles must be enormous, which is why I posted. I was impressed a conference of this size (Shilo Inn in Idaho Falls) had been ongoing for a while.

I think this is an excellent example of hard work, LEADERSHIP and could serve as sort of a "blueprint," if you will, to others who hope for teens within Idaho to have more in common with each other, than the teens in WA, OR, NV, UT, WY, or MT. I've obviously lived in various states and cities and clearly see nothing wrong with having friends in as many places as one can have them.

But, I'm truly worried when I see the funding allocations to BSU vs. ISU, or some in the Treasure Valley arguing U of I should NOT have the law school any more, given the population in the Treasure Valley, or see what politicians say are priorities, then see the realities. We have our only sub-sections on C-D, and some venture into other threads so it is a JOINT IDAHO THREAD, not just an area thread. I see that as good.

For those moving to a specific location, they need information that sometimes only those familiar with the area they plan to relocate to know how (and I don't meant familiar as in 20 years ago when certain subdivision or cities weren't built). I guess I just wish there were more threads where it didn't seem like one area was being marketed against another. I hold our Idaho politicians responsible for that pattern being started. However, true, open dialogue can change that old pattern, at least I hope it can.

Having lived in other states, I know that there is some feeling in various areas of those states or population centers of "not really counting unless you live in the capital city." However, I've never experienced it as strongly as I see in Idaho now. BannockCounty, you lived in the San Francisco area for almost 20 years. Did it feel as divided as Idaho does now?

I look forward to more thoughts and views of how to unite people, not just teens, but the residents of Idaho, with other Idaho residents.

And TohobitPeak, when you speak of the next Idaho Gov's election, that fits into my overall theme here perfectly here. Essentially, there was a failure of Idaho residents to connect and share their views, except at the formal political meetings. Not everyone is comfortable going to a politic meeting, but wants to make their voice count.

I know people in eastern/southeastern ID felt residents of the TV wouldn't hear what they wanted to say about OTTER. And I saw the statements the BYU-Idaho campaign worker worte to a benign question about just not talking about politics for a while, from a contributor, who supported Brady, on a different Idaho Falls forum (which were uncalled for and showed he had a personal ax to grind assuming anyone that axed him to not talk about politics for one night was anti-Brady).

I wouldn't say there aren't Democrats in eastern ID - over 1,000 at the 8B Caucus - something like 100-200% more than any other 8B Caucus previously. I don't know the exact %, but I know the organizers were thrilled. I do think people have to believe like their opinion will be valued outside of their own neighborhood, county or region. Again, a reason for state conventions for any reason help Idahoans talk to Idahoans.

I also know many in Boise (I won't say the Meridian and other high growth areas), but specifically Boise, who knew Otter from his Simplot days and perhaps know his kids, if his kids live there (I don't follow him, so I don't know except that he has 4 kids, I think) had many concerns about him. The rapid growth of ID leaves many new residents lost on how to vote, and I do think a lot of the newer residents in eastern ID mostly didn't vote (but have no proof). Consequently, that is why our professional associations and cross promoting other Idaho cities is so important, in my POV. Idaho has a lot to offer all ID residents.

Syringaloid, I believe, wrote an interesting comment in a different thread about whether or not Idaho food would be served in a fine dining establishment in ID. Excellent point, I believe. Do the majority of residents of Idaho know what products, foods, and patents come from ID? I'm concerned they don't.

That is why I strongly believe conferences like these within state lines are so important. I just hope others will dare to try to do something similar.....and in no way am I suggesting it has to be religious. Thank goodness the Internet allows us to connect with people in our own state of residence, and not just others far away!

Thanks again for your thoughts. I hope both of you and others will add any ideas or examples of other conferences/conventions etc. you've seen working in Idaho for Idaho citizens.