Young people urged to be bold in proclaiming Christ in a world obsessed with image, even when it's not the popular thing
FARMINGTON HILLS — Teenagers gathered Feb. 1 at Mercy High School in Farmington Hills to hear a simple message: Do not fear.
The theme of the 2026 RISE Detroit conference, sponsored by the Archdiocese of Detroit for local high school students, was “Unafraid,” based on the Scripture passage from Joshua 1:9, in which Moses hands leadership of the Israelites to Joshua.
“Be strong and courageous! Do not fear nor be dismayed, for the Lord, your God, is with you wherever you go,” the Scripture proclaims.
MORE PHOTOS: Teens find faith at RISE Detroit 2026
The daylong conference encouraged teens to be bold in proclaiming their faith, even in an increasingly secular world.
“This year’s theme is ‘Unafraid,’ and it was very important to the organizing committee that young people leave RISE with the overwhelming feeling that they can be bold and unafraid,” said Laura Piccone-Hanchon, associate director for discipleship formation in the Archdiocese of Detroit’s Department of Evangelization and Missionary Discipleship.
“We want teens to be able to show courage despite the possible fear of living their faith out loud, because it’s a natural thing to have fear; it’s human nature,” Piccone-Hanchon told Detroit Catholic. “But if young people — and everyone — put their faith in God, it’s just the best way forward.”
Bishop John M. Quinn, bishop emeritus of the Diocese of Winona-Rochester and a former auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Detroit (2003-08), celebrated Mass with the students.
In his homily, Bishop Quinn drew upon encouraged the teenagers to “run up the down escalator” in life.
Explaining the anecdote, Bishop Quinn recalled a time when his then-6-year-old nephew, Andrew, would ask to go to the mall for his birthday so he could run up the down escalator.
To this day, the bishop said he still asks his nephew about the memory, but today, it's less of a conversation about shenanigans in a shopping mall and more a metaphor about keeping faith in a world that can seem hostile toward religion.
“Whenever I finish our phone call, I ask him, ‘Andrew, are you still going up the down escalator?’ Meaning, now that you’re older, now that you know more about life, are you willing to push against the crowd? Are you willing to stand for truth? Are you willing to take on a cause that may not be popular?”
Bishop Quinn said his nephew is still trying to go against the grain, but it helps to have friends to support one another in living the faith.
Bishop Quinn then reflected on the Gospel reading, in which Jesus gives His disciples the Beatitudes as a way to “turn the world upside down to see it through the eyes of God.”
“The Lord obviously does not care for power,” Bishop Quinn said. “He doesn't care for wealth and riches. He doesn't want to see people dominated and hurt. Instead, his Beatitudes are about the blessed, those who are able to go against the crowd, who can go up the down escalator, who make it part of their day to witness to how God sees this world.”
The theme of “going against the grain” was important for teenagers at RISE to hear, said Xavier Ladasz, a parishioner at Sacred Heart Parish in Detroit and a junior at Detroit Catholic Central High School in Novi.
“I really like how the homily and the keynote speakers have been encouraging us not to be afraid of any criticism we may receive from our peers for living our faith,” Ladasz said. “The keynote speaker we just heard spoke about how God is with us through all the highs and lows, and He’ll be with us all the way. So we don’t need to be afraid of not being accepted by society for professing our faith.”
Chika Anyanwu, a Catholic evangelist from Nigeria now based in California, was the conference's keynote speaker. Anyanwu encouraged the assembly to search for what God has intended for them.
“In the first words of the Gospel of John, some disciples of John the Baptist come up to Jesus, and Jesus asks, ‘What do you seek?’” Anyanwu said. “That question is not just for them, but it is for you and me. Because we are all seeking something, we are searching for something, desiring something.”
Anyanwu turned to the Catechism of the Catholic Church to find what people are seeking in life: a desire to know and love God, the Creator of all of life.
“It is only in God that we will find what we are searching for,” Anyanwu said. “There is a longing, a deep desire in our heart for something. Truly, we know that each one of us desires belonging, for relationships. We have a longing to be seen, to be known, to be loved. And all of that comes from God, because we were created to be known and loved by God. Because God is love.”
Anyanwu asked teens to look to the lives of saints such as St. Carlo Acutis, Blessed Solanus Casey and the Venerable Jan Tyranowski — spiritual mentor and catechist to St. John Paul II — as those who embraced the unique situations and talents God gave them to live out their identity as children of God.
“God, in His goodness and His infinite creativity, created us all different,” Anyanwu said. “He gave us equal dignity. He also gave us a mission and a purpose, and that purpose is not to sit on our phones and watch other people live their lives as we scroll.
“You're not made to watch others; you were made to go out and live. Amen?” Anyanwu added. “You have been given this one beautiful life to live. I want you to leave here and live that life — a life that only you can live.”
Aside from the keynote, the conference also featured times for confession, service projects, games, and small-group sessions in which participants shared about the challenges and triumphs of living their faith as young disciples.
“I’ve had a really good experience at (RISE),” said Madison Walker, a parishioner at Corpus Christi Parish in Detroit and a freshman at Groves High School in Beverly Hills. “I came last year, and honestly, my faith changed. My whole life changed, so I wanted to come here again.”
Walker said having time for praise and worship, Mass, confession and Eucharistic adoration with her peers reaffirmed her faith at a time when she transitioned to a public high school, where speaking about faith isn’t always accepted.
“Conferences like this help you know that you’re not alone,” Walker said. “Going to a public school, it’s really (rare) to see a lot of people with strong faith, so events like these help show you that you are not alone, that you are part of the universal Church.
“A lot of young people might be intimidated to practice their faith or talk about God in public, especially people my age who are always worrying about what others think of us,” Walker added. “But being here, surrounded by such positivity, it makes all the difference.”
