Concept for youth center grew from founder's own experiences
By Jan Jackson
In
the case of Anthony "Tony" Morris and the Father Bernard Youth Center, payback
is a wonderful thing. Morris, crediting his own success to the one-on-one
experiences with the church he had during his own troubled youth, has created a
safe and beautiful place to give today's kids an even better opportunity than he
had. One year after the FBYC opened, the committee to select Mt. Angel First
Citizen Awards chose Morris for its first Service to Youth award."Tony and the center have made a significant impact on the youth of Mt. Angel and throughout the Northwest," Jerry Lauzon, former Mt. Angel First Citizen and member of the selection committee said.
"The center, under Tony's guidance,
provides a safe place where young people can find themselves and enter into a deeper understanding of how God dwells in their lives. Mt. Angel's Father Bernard Youth Center adds a very special dimension to the life of our community and model for youth
interaction for other communities throughout the country."
Morris, now retired from his construction business so he can devote full time to FBYC, grew up the youngest of nine children in Molalla.
"I was in the sixth grade when I got to come to Mt. Angel for a vocation retreat put on by the monks at the Abbey and I still remember how wonderful it was," Morris said. "Then at 17, in the midst of my wild-oat-sowing years, an old priest got hold of me and put me in charge of seventh and eighth graders. From there, he assigned me to work with a high school youth group and though that was some 34 years ago, I never forgot how I loved it and how it helped me grow.
"Father Bernard, was my spiritual adviser and about seven years ago I was
complaining to him how there weren't retreat opportunities for young people today and how they needed a place where they could come and leave their problems so they
could be better prepared go back out in service. Father Bernard said that if that was the case then I should do something about it. We talked about what I could do and the idea of the retreat center was born."
The FBYC, which is located along the southern edge of the Benedictine Queen of Angels Monastery in Mt. Angel, has nearly 15,000 sq. feet of space in an ideal setting for a youth retreat center. Besides its full-service commercial kitchen and adjoining great room, it has theater-style room that seats 65, three additional meeting rooms for small group discussions, three Reconciliation Chapels and a beautiful St. Anthony's Chapel featuring six 4- by 7-foot icon-etched glass panels that create a breathtaking backdrop for the bronze tabernacle which houses the heart monstrance.
"We offer lodging for retreat participants and mentors in Marmion Hall, located directly across the street," Morris said. "We are offering a special place for prayer and personal growth focused on the
spiritual development of youth and their mentors in a facility the kids themselves helped us design. It is not only working, but we are booked up and taking
reservations now for 2009, and other states are looking at the FBYC as a model. " *,