In the 12 years since its conception, LA’s Christian Service 4LIFE gathering has wandered between several venues, including downtown LA’s Microsoft Theater, the Shrine Auditorium, and even Dodger Stadium.
Now, it appears to have found its home.
For several hours on Oct. 28, the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels was closed to the public while more than 3,000 high school and middle school students from as far as Santa Barbara and Lancaster had its campus to themselves. The day’s program included open conversations with Catholic celebrities, Eucharistic adoration, confession opportunities, and even a magic show.
The objective: to inspire students to respect life from conception to natural death, and get them to think about the purpose of their own lives. It’s a goal organizers say can’t be accomplished through screens.
“A lot of kids are struggling,” said Carol Golbranson, the event’s executive director. “I think COVID made it a lot worse with the isolation and all the issues we already know about.”
Christian Service 4LIFE moved to the cathedral in 2023 after Archbishop José H. Gomez asked organizers to bring it to “his house.” Golbranson believes it’s important for students to know “they’re part of something big, and it’s shared with thousands of others.”
“One of our messages is, ‘Get off your phone, look up, look around you,’ ” Golbranson said. “See Jesus in the face of your neighbors and others and try to figure out someone you can help.”
In other words, a reminder that the “fight for life” still has to be waged in person.
Between sessions, students mingled in the Cathedral Plaza while visiting exhibitor booths. Priests stationed around the plaza listened to more than 100 confessions from students.
Among those hearing confessions was Auxiliary Bishop Matt Elshoff, who also led the joint group in Eucharistic adoration inside the cathedral. Later, he was among the kids, eating Domino’s pizza while listening to guest speaker Lila Rose describe the experiences that led her to found Live Action, a nonprofit that has used undercover videos and testimonies to expose disturbing practices used by abortion providers, and save unborn babies and their mothers from abortion.
She also walked through the scientific and religious reasons why abortion is murder. But the ultimate goal of the pro-life movement, Rose told them, is healing.
“You’re in high school, in California, in the United States,” said Rose. “There’s a lot of trauma. There’s a lot of brokenness. There are a lot of questions: What is life? What am I going to do with my life? What are we called to do in the one life that we’ve been given?”
“God will tell us enough, give us enough direction for the next right step, which is always going to be connected to love.”
The event’s other big-name speaker, 36-year-old actor David Henrie, had a love story of his own to share.
Known for his role on Disney Channel’s “Wizards of Waverly Place” during the 2000s, Henrie recounted how empty he felt, despite having fame and money.
“I was exhausted with the world,” Henrie said. “I needed something spiritual.”
A few years after finding his answer in a return to Catholicism 13 years ago, Henrie was asked to help host Christian Service 4LIFE in 2014. That’s where he met former Miss Delaware and fellow co-host Maria Cahill.
“I met her at this event 10 years ago, so this is a very special place for me to be,” said Henrie, pointing to Maria, now his wife, with their three small children in the corner.
Campus minister Melinda Evangelista brought nearly 40 students from San Gabriel Mission High School, the all-girls school’s entire sophomore class. She sees a desire in them to deepen their faith, but also to understand the truth.
“A lot of girls ask questions, especially when it comes to social issues, the right to life,” Evangelista said.
Evangelista, who’s worked in campus ministry for 25 years, sees self-esteem and anxiety problems on the rise among students.
“As a campus minister, as a teacher, as a Catholic, I tell them: ‘You are loved, you belong, you have value. I’m out here for your salvation,’ ” said Evangelista.
Among students, the day’s Q&A session with Rose, Henrie, Benioff and “My Saint, My Hero” founder Amy D’Ambra seemed to be the day’s high point. Many of the students’ questions, which were either written or asked from a microphone, touched on spiritual issues such as how to discern thoughts or what to read about Catholic theology.
When asked by a student about balancing family and work with a faith life, Henrie surprised the crowd by answering that he was struggling with that very problem after a year of frequent travel and filming.
“The balancing of it all is really tough, actually,” said Henrie, who asked students for prayers and said he has a spiritual director helping him.
“It’s something that I really struggle with because, as a husband and father, I am motivated to work very hard and to push myself to the limit. And that takes me away from my family a lot.”
Rose suggested looking for career options that allow flexibility to put family first, saying she sets strict limits to her daily work hours. As if to prove her point, Rose had to leave the panel a few minutes early to pick up her young son from school.
“It can be tricky, depending on the career you choose. Pray, discern it, so that you can put your motherhood first,” Rose answered a female high-schooler. “That can be tough with some jobs and easier with others.”
Jamie Shull, a sophomore at San Gabriel Mission High School, said it was “inspiring” to hear that kind of sincerity.
“It is a concern I have that when I’m older, I’m not going to be able to balance them all,” said Shull. “And to hear David [Henrie] be honest and say ‘Yeah, I am struggling, but I’m trying my best,’ that really wowed me.”
