ANAHEIM, Calif. (OSV News) — The 2026 LA Religious Education Congress kicked off Feb. 20 with an emphasis on the healing power of mercy and self-forgiveness — and a special message from Pope Leo XIV — as the annual gathering marked its 70th year.
This year’s theme — “Wrapped in Mercy, Hope Renewed!” — was the inspiration for the liturgy, song, worship dance and reflection inside the Anaheim Convention Center Arena.
In his welcome remarks, Archbishop José H. Gomez surprised participants with a message sent by the Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, on behalf of the pope.
‘Open hearts’ to God’s love
“As you gather for these days of prayer, formation, and fellowship, (Pope Leo) trusts that they will provide an opportunity for true spiritual renewal,” read the message. “His Holiness would likewise encourage the young people present to open their hearts to the love of God.”
The message also mentioned the pope’s prayers that RECongress-goers might “discover Jesus’ Eucharistic presence as an unfailing source of comfort and strength in all of life’s circumstances.”
According to organizers, 48 states and several countries, including Australia, New Zealand, Italy, Japan, Spain and the United Kingdom, were represented among this year’s attendees.
Lunar New Year inspiration
The opening ceremony, marked by a cultural fusion of Vietnamese, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean elements inspired by the Feb. 17 kick-off of the Lunar New Year, launched the adult formation workshops taking place through Feb. 22.
On Feb. 19, some 8,000 middle- and high-schoolers participated in RECongress’ annual Youth Day, which featured Mass, prayer opportunities and a lineup of Catholic speakers.
One of the most striking moments of the opening morning ceremony Feb. 20 was a video witness presented on the large video screen from Yolanda Chavez, a volunteer for the LA Archdiocese’s Office of Religious Education, which coordinates the RECongress.
Archdiocesan volunteer faced a deportation notice
Chavez explained in Spanish how she had been living and working in Los Angeles the last 30 years but suddenly faced a deportation notice. Rather than subject her family to further harm as she felt she was considered a threat, she relocated to Mexico.
“The first night, I cried a lot,” Chavez said. “God was in my tears, weeping with me. … I love the God who crossed the border with me. Today, I know God. His name is mercy.”
Sister Rosalia Meza, a Verbum Dei Missionary Fraternity sister, who is senior director of the Office of Religious Education, explained after the video that “as Yolanda shows us, God is always present in our suffering. Mercy is the essence of God’s heart. It wraps us with tender love like a mother kissing her newborn baby for the first time. Mercy is God offering himself to us to lift us from our woundedness.”
Attendee began attending congress in 1964
Among those in the arena was Virginia Medellin, a parishioner at Mary Immaculate Church in Pacoima. As the badge she was wearing indicated, Medellin first started attending the RECongress in 1964 when she was a CCD teacher. In those days, she explained, she marched for the rights of migrant workers with Cesar Chavez.
Today’s aggressive federal deportation policy would lead her to protest on the streets, she said, but growing older, she can “do more with prayer.”
“My heart goes out to” Yolanda Chavez, she told Angelus, the archdiocesan online news outlet. “This is why it is important for me to attend. Things are crushing down all around us, but there is a light in the end. We have to remember how God suffered for us and took his cross. Once we follow him, we have to take our own crosses.”
‘Time of renewal and friendship’
In his own remarks, Archbishop Gomez prayed that the RECongress would be a “time of renewal and friendship” that would bring participants “to an even deeper dedication to your vocation as disciples of Jesus, entrusted with the beautiful duty to teach his Gospel in a way that brings others to a true and living encounter with Our Lord.”
For the congress’s Youth Day, middle-schoolers were invited for the first time in the event’s history. They joined the high school and confirmation students who typically attend the gathering where teens come together for a day of speakers, music, prayer, Mass, adoration, workshops — and playful fun, like past years.
Dayrin Perez, the lead coordinator of youth ministry for the archdiocese, said they targeted this age group after other successful archdiocesan events such as Holy Fire, a major faith formation event for them and because the demographic can often be overlooked.
1,300 middle-schoolers participating
The response was a success as 1,300 middle-schoolers signed up, maxing out the number organizers could fit into the space, Perez said. Nearly 8,000 high-schoolers also attended Youth Day, bringing the overall event attendance to nearly 10,000.
As the middle-school day kicked off, there was a lot of dancing. Catholic speaker and performer Joe Melendrez hyped up the youth with call-and-response chants — “Ain’t no party like a Jesus party!” — dancing to routines on video screens, and playing interactive games that got kids running around, making friends, high-fiving and dancing on chairs.
The lights were turned off several times, revealing glow-in-the-dark rings and other “merch” handed out that day. Rafael Cabezas Jr. and his band took the stage to perform several sing-along hits, including “Life is a Highway” and “Happy.”
Moments of serious reflection
But the middle-school session also offered moments of serious reflection. Melendrez spoke about how God found him during a retreat when he was a teenager in San Antonio, while young people in the crowd told their stories of surviving injuries, loss and being born.
“God has a plan, a mission, and a calling on your life, and you’re exactly where you’re supposed to be right now,” Melendrez said.
During his homily for the middle-schoolers’ Mass, Auxiliary Bishop Marc V. Trudeau talked about the word “sacrifice” and how, with Jesus’ help, Catholics can do more than simply give things up for Lent.
Jesus and ‘sacrifice of love’
“My prayer for all of you is that you join with Jesus in that sacrifice of love,” Trudeau said. “It’s Jesus in us who is called the sacrifice for the world. We are the world. And today, make our families holy. We need our schools holy, our classrooms holy. We make our communities holy.”
On the high school side, organizers divided the group into two tracks to give them a more manageable experience, Perez said.
The high-schoolers experienced Mass, adoration, music, workshops, speakers and more as part of their day. The workshops focused on many of the challenges young people are experiencing in the world.
‘How Do We Embrace Our Cross’
In her workshop — “Stuff Happens: How Do We Embrace Our Cross?” — Mary Bielski detailed to the teens how God meets them in their suffering, but also how the devil’s lies can reconfigure a situation into unhealthy trauma. Katherine Angulo Valenzuela implored the crowd to use their God-given skills to help their communities in her workshop, “How Does Service to Others Impact Our Relationship with Jesus?”
Joel Stepanek had participants play a “mind reading” game and had the crowd decipher real vs. AI photos before launching into the meat of his workshop, “For God’s Glory: Living Real Faith in a Digital World.”
“The goal of living our faith in a digital age where things are increasingly fake and it’s difficult to tell reality from a digital reality is living grounded in our identity as rooted in God,” Stepanek said. “Because a person who walks in faith knows who they are before God and before others and before themselves.”
Teens and challenges they face
Many teens attending Youth Day reflected on what challenges they face and how God is helping them carry their crosses.
“Basically, it’s everything,” said Alejandra Quintero, 15, a parishioner at St. Thomas Aquinas Church in Ojai. “Everything comes with challenges with new things. It’s really a test with youth to keep that relationship with God, where they can be involved and love God, and also keep faith as they’re going through the new challenges.”
In the Mass to cap the day for the second group of high-schoolers, Auxiliary Bishop Brian Nunes emphasized that while gifts and feelings of love are great, the true sign of love is a choice that Jesus made first.
Best image for love is ‘a cross’
“Chocolate is great, but it’s not an image of love,” Nunes said. “Flowers smell great, but they’re not love. In fact, anytime we get something that’s shaped like a heart, we start going down the wrong road away from love. Because a heart symbolizes a feeling. The best image for love is not a heart. What could it be? It would be a cross.
“Jesus tells us in the Gospel to pick up our cross. He gives us the best image of what love should look like.”
Tom Hoffarth writes for Angelus, the online news outlet of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. Contributing to this story was Mike Cisneros, associate editor of Angelus. This story was first published by Angelus and distributed in partnership with OSV News.
