Over 2,000 to attend Archdiocesan Youth Conference July 25-27

HOUSTON – It will be a weekend of faith and fun for over 2,000 high school teens, who will attend the Archdiocesan Youth Conference (AYC) from July 25-27 at the Hilton Americas Hotel in downtown Houston. 

There will be music, talks, games, Mass, Confession, and activities, allowing teens to engage with peers in a festive, large-scale setting. Attendees will be led in praise and worship by popular local musicians, The Abraham Salas Band, and they will be inspired by national speakers Gian Gamboa, Katie Prejean McGrady, and Sr. Nicole Trahan, FMI. 

The “Bayou Village” opens the weekend at 3:00 p.m. on Friday afternoon, welcoming attendees to a hotel ballroom set up with inflatable balloons, vendors and creative spaces for youth to loosen up and mingle with different parish groups in attendance.  

“This year’s conference will focus on the Jubilee Year theme, ‘Pilgrims of Hope.’ Throughout the weekend, our young people will be inspired and motivated to become Pilgrims of Hope, that is, light-bearers, carrying Christ’s joy into a wounded world,” said Tim Colbert, Director for the Office of Adolescent Catechesis and Evangelization. 

AYC also offers youth the room to ask serious questions about Catholicism and to learn how to live out the faith outside of regular weekly catechism classes. 

The annual local conference is a unique moment for youth groups from the 146 parishes across the Archdiocese to come together in unity and celebrate the faith. Youth who are unable to travel to other conferences out of state can attend Texas’ largest diocesan youth conference to continue learning and growing as lifelong disciples. 

Media who are interested in covering the event should contact the names listed on the front of this release to make prior arrangements. Media must be escorted since many of the participants are minors, and appropriate protocol needs to be followed.