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Happening ... in the Local Church
 Eric
Lecher |
By Caroline B. Mooney
The
Catholic Moment
LAFAYETTE — Ready to bring diversity to programs in the Local Church, Eric Lecher became the diocesan associate director for youth and young adult formation in August. He finds the job fits in well in a life that has been filled with discernment.
The youngest of 10 children, Lecher attended St. Mary Parish in his hometown of Greensburg, Ind. Growing up, he was involved in youth ministry and served on his high school youth council and retreat team.
In 2002, he entered Franklin College in broadcast journalism. When a childhood condition necessitated open-heart surgery in January 2003, Lecher took it as an opportunity to change the course of his life. He spent the summer working at a CYO camp in Nashville, Ind., and found it to be a blessing.
After some discernment, Lecher became a member of the founding class of Bishop Simon Brute Seminary at Marian University in Indianapolis. He left the seminary after the first year, but stayed at Marian, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in Catholic studies.
“It was nice to stay at the same college with the same professors,” he said. He worked at the CYO camp for five summers and it was there that he met his future wife, Siobhan.
In 2007, Lecher moved to Lafayette and taught freshman introduction to theology and junior morality at Central Catholic Junior-Senior High School. At the same time, he was working part-time at his parish, the Cathedral of St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception, as a youth coordinator.
Two weeks after his marriage in August 2008, he and his wife moved to Dublin, Ireland, to pursue their master’s degrees. This year, Lecher received a master’s in philosophy from Trinity College.
The couple moved back to Lafayette in August when Lecher began his new position, a 29-hour per week job. He also has returned to Central Catholic, teaching three sections of junior morality and apologetics.
“Eric is a very personable and dynamic young man,” said Anne Roat, director of the Pastoral Office for Catechesis. “He brings a new energy to the office of youth and young adult ministry that has been missing in our diocese for a number of years. I am grateful for his experience in youth ministry and in teaching religion in one our Catholic high schools.”
“I am hoping to put together a curriculum for youth ministry,” Lecher said. “I want all our parishes to keep the unique aspects of their current programs. Perhaps we can bring in more people who want to be a part of youth ministry and weren’t finding anything before that appealed to them.
“Some people would say I’m crazy for taking on both these jobs,” he said. “But, both jobs go hand-in-hand in a lot of ways. One part of my job description is serving as a resource for campus ministry, and I already do that at Central Catholic. In many ways, the two jobs are a seamless transition. A lot of things fit in back and forth. Sometimes it feels overwhelming, but it’s equally, if not more, fulfilling. I’ve been here one month, but I got my feet wet relatively quickly.”
His diocesan job focuses on three main areas: youth ministry at the parish level; young adult ministry for parishes; and campus ministry, at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ball State University in Muncie, and at Central Catholic and Guerin Catholic High School, Noblesville.
“Young adult formation is fairly new, and people are focusing on it more,” he said. “A lot of programs are set up for the ministry of youth and high school kids, and adult formation is offered for intellectual and ecclesial formation, but what’s in the middle? As people go off to college, or start a career, we for the longest time didn’t do much — not just our diocese, but in general. It’s a lot of the same concepts, but tuned more age appropriately. There is a huge group of young adults who are no longer students. The diocese has a well-established Frassati Society, and some parishes have ‘Theology on Tap,’ but not all parishes have young adult ministers in place.”
Lecher’s work will involve organization for the National Catholic Youth Conference, to be held Nov. 19-21 in Kansas City, Kan., and the 2011 World Youth Day, to be held in Madrid, Spain.
“It’s great — I’m teaching high school juniors right now and in 2011, most of them will be 18,” he said. “Many of them hadn’t really heard about WYD, but they could go.
“My vision overall is to try and emphasize different aspects of adolescent catechesis — without getting rid of the good groups we have, but adding to those areas,” Lecher said. “I want to have a comprehensive youth ministry program across the diocese to get a lot of people on the same page — for their own benefit. After seeing youth ministry in Ireland and in other dioceses where I’ve experienced retreats and talked to others, I know Lafayette is actually very strong in a lot of areas in comparison to other dioceses of the same size.”
Over the next year, Lecher plans to visit parishes to “gently see where we are. I don’t want to ruin anything that’s going well. I want to make a strong plan for the future, increase the diversity of programs and get a parish youth ministry curriculum out there.
“There are a lot of youth out there who are fired up, but for whatever reason, something is not bringing them in,” he said. “I want to help youth ministers with different strategies, get out and see more programs firsthand, and get to know more of the youth in parishes. I will give whatever advice I can and get things going in areas we need it most.
“Everything I do is what I feel called to do,” Lecher said. “It’s what I care about. I’m open to discerning God’s will for my life. If you’re open to God in prayer, you see the fruits of it a lot easier. I know I’m human and make mistakes; some days are more or less fruitful than others. Because of my life experience, I keep getting affirmed to do the things that I’ve done. Hopefully, I can be a good example along the way.
“I’m still getting used to everything,” Lecher said. “I discern and pray for God to reveal what is best for me in my ministry. When God calls you somewhere, it’s not usually the easiest thing, but that’s the nature of ministry and life in general. The things you truly need to do will never be the easiest decisions, but will be the decisions that, in the end, you are happiest about.”