WASHINGTON (June 5, 2000) -- A youth and young adult program will be part of Encuentro 2000: Many Faces in God's House, the U.S. bishops' national meeting slated for July 6-9, in Los Angeles, to highlight the multi-cultural Church.

The program will include breakout sessions designed especially for youth 13-18 and young adults 19-25.

The sessions will convene participants to explore the Encuentro 2000 themes as they affect their peers and to participate in the overall program of general assemblies, liturgies, music and prayer experiences.

Emcees for the program include Jesse Manibusan, a singer, songwriter, guitarist, teller of humorous tales, husband and father. Mr. Manibusan, who will emcee the Thursday and Friday sessions, is known for sharing from the heart the love of Christ and the call to live out one's baptismal commitment in every aspect of life. He holds a master's degree in multicultural ministries from the Franciscan School of Theology in Berkeley, California, and is a familiar presence at diocesan conferences and parish missions and retreats throughout the country.

Brian Keith Johnson will emcee the Saturday sessions. He currently serves as the Diocesan Director of Youth Ministry for the Diocese of Galveston-Houston, Texas. He has been a keynote speaker, workshop presenter, retreat master and revivalist in over 36 cities throughout the country. Now in his 15th year in youth ministry, Mr. Johnson is committed to developing model programs for young people that will improve cultural relationships, speak to social justice issues, create indigenous leadership, and give hope for a better tomorrow.

Huellas, a group from the Diocese of Orlando, Florida, will perform pop contemporary Christian music to a Caribbean beat, Thursday night. The musicians and singers perform throughout Florida and use music to touch hearts with a message of hope.

Program sessions will encourage participants to hear one another's stories from both personal and cultural perspectives, to identify what makes it difficult to see Christ in others, to relate to others who are unlike themselves, to build community, and to act on their faith.

Session leaders include

• Georgiana Sanchez, a Chumash and O'odham storyteller and nationally published writer. She teaches American Indian studies at California State University–Long Beach.
  
• Reinardo (Rey) Malavé, Coordinator of Hispanic Youth and Young Adult Ministry in the Orlando Diocese. He has coordinated mission trips for young people to Mexico and the Dominican Republic and is president of La Red, a national organization for Hispanic youth ministers.
  
• Mary Annette Mandley-Turner, Executive Director of Multicultural Ministry in the Archdiocese of Louisville, Kentucky. She is a prolific writer and presenter; producer and hostess of Connection Point, a live radio program about the African American Catholic Community. She participated in the South African Women's Dialogue and is the co-founder of the National African American Catholic Youth Ministry Network.
  
• Colette A. Kennett, co-founder of "BRIDGES," a program for racial harmony. She has worked with the Catholic Youth Organization (CYO) in the Diocese of Belleville, Illinois, for 20 years. She has done mission immersions in Haiti and Guatemala and was a delegate to the 1998 Latin American Youth Congress in Chile.
  
• Michael Youngblood, a catechetical formation consultant for the Religious Education Office of the Diocese of Cleveland, Ohio. Mr. Youngblood has worked as a campus minister and as a youth specialist with the diocesan youth ministry and CYO office. He is also the chairperson of the National African American Catholic Youth Ministry Network.
  
• Alicia Marill, D. Min., founder of Amor en Accion, a lay missionary community in the Archdiocese of Miami. Dr. Marill is involved in mission and social justice work in the Dominican Republic and Haiti. She came to Miami as a refugee from Cuba in 1962. She holds a master of arts degree in religious studies, an advanced theological studies certificate from Barry University, and a doctor of ministry in cross cultural studies from Catholic Theological Union in Chicago.
  
• Arturo Chavez, who has developed an innovative organization in San Antonio, Texas, called JOVEN, (Juvenile Outreach and Vocational/Educational Network), which reaches out to Mexican American youth at risk of school failure, gang involvement and substance abuse.
  
• Bernardo Reyes, youth minister at St. Leander's Parish in San Leandro, California. Mr. Reyes gives retreat workshops and presentations in the Diocese of Oakland, California.
  
• Alicia Bondanella, Youth and Young Adult Coordinator for the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD). Ms. Bonadella administers a CCHD internship program and provides outreach to college campuses. She lives with other young adults in a lay Catholic community in which they pray together and share meals, expenses and common life experiences.

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