It Happened One Summer
Summer is more than a time of beach and vacation and fireworks. For Youth Apostles, it is a season that figures heavily in our history.
We officially celebrate the foundation of Youth Apostles in late summer – on September 8, the feast day that marks the birth of the Virgin Mary. We just celebrated our 44th anniversary by the way! Our General Director John More offered a wonderful reflection about it, which you can read here.
But the meeting at which Youth Apostles was born took place on June 26, 1979 in Falls Church. That handful of people meeting with founder Eduardo Azcarate gathered to discuss the establishment of a new community that would minister to young people.
Less than two months later, in August 1979, the first statutes were composed. Like the current statutes, they set forth that Youth Apostles was founded with the “ultimate purpose of inspiring youth to a Christlike life based on His love and the truth which sets us free.” They went on to say that to accomplish that purpose, Youth Apostles are committed to being the salt of the earth and light of the world “through spirituality, high moral values, and the development of Christian values.”
In concert with the community’s growth and development, the statutes have become more and more sophisticated, and have undergone numerous revisions. But as Eduardo noted in 1992, “If you look back at the history of Youth Apostles back in 1979 when we first started the community, we wrote very simple 5-page statutes…and you look at our organization and its complications 12 years later, you’re going to see in that original paper exactly all the elements of what we have evolved into.” Decades may pass and revisions may be made, but some things are timeless.
Ten years after the original statutes were written, in August 1989 then-Bishop of Arlington, the Most Rev. John R. Keating, gave the statutes three-year approval under Church law — thus erecting Youth Apostles as a juridical body in the Catholic Church. After those three years, in 1992 he granted the statutes permanent approval.
From the first, the vision of Youth Apostles has been that within the same community, there would be clerics, lay consecrated, and married members, all committed to God, the Church, the community, and to each other — sharing the same ministries, and following the same vision, spirituality, and apostolic thrust.
In late summer 1986, the first lifetime Full Member commitments were made, and they were in keeping with that vision: Eduardo Azcarate, a married lay member, and Peter Nassetta, the first consecrated Full Member, made them. In late May 1989, with the ordinations of consecrated Full Members Peter Nassetta and Jack Peterson to the priesthood, the initial vision conceived 10 years earlier was realized.
And in August 1987, another Youth Apostles tradition began: the annual beach trip to North Carolina’s Outer Banks. A vacation, yes, but also something that captures the essence of the community in a variety of ways. From the first, it has been an event in which lay and consecrated members of Youth Apostles took part together — and also the wives and children of married Full Members. And it always has included prayer, not to mention that with the ordination of members to the priesthood, it also has incorporated daily Mass. One of the most noteworthy of those trips was in 1995, when approaching Hurricane Felix forced the evacuation of the area and the participants’ beach time was abruptly ended a bit early!