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The closest thing I ever came to Scouting is eating the occasional Thin Mint cookie. Other than that, the bulk of what I learned about Scouting comes from research I did when writing about four Catholic Eagle Scouts in 2006.

Catholic scouting is almost as old as Scouting, which turns 100 this month.

And then there’s the Scouting Mass I covered in Scottsdale last month. It was in honor of the 100th anniversary of the Boy Scouts of America. As you’ll read in the Feb. 4 issue of The Catholic Sun, the Mass showed the clear link between Catholicism and Scouting.

Youth who attend the upcoming Catholic Scouts retreat will further explore that link. There two other Scout/faith events coming up:

• Feb. 7: Interfaith Recognition Service for Scouts at Ss. Simon and Jude Cathedral
• Feb. 7 or Feb. 14: Parishes with chartered Scouting troops may observe Scout Sunday at Mass

And while the scouting organization turns 100 this month, there’s still plenty of new stuff to highlight:

• The co-ed Venturing program for high schoolers is now 10 years old. The Diocese of Phoenix charters Venture Crew 2009. Members serve Bishop Olmsted alongside Scouting activities. Crew 2009 is open to any Catholic youth in our Diocese ages 14 – 20.  E-mail dphx100@yahoo.com for more information.
• A Rosary Series of patches launched late last year. It’s available to all Catholic youth and adults.
• Catholic Scouts can also follow the Footsteps of the American Saints. Five more patches, including Blessed Junipero Serra, who was instrumental in the California missions, were scheduled to be available last month.
• The Scouting organization wants to make sure its members think globally too. Check out the International Awareness Recognition.

If the Scouting article or this blogpost made you want to learn more about Scouting, check out Adventure Base 100 this fall. The traveling, hands-on base camp will stop in Phoenix Oct. 23-24,26-27 as part of the Scouting centennial.

Here’s a quick look at Scouting numbers for the diocese:

These youth belong to almost as many parish-chartered Cub Scout troops (32) as Boy Scout troops(35).

By the way, I didn’t neglect interviewing Boy Scouts for the 100th anniversary article. There just wasn’t room to print their comments, so I’m putting them here:

Thirteen-year-old Ryan Berry is a Life Scout with Troop 15, based at St. Gabriel the Archangel Parish in Cave Creek where Fr. O’Rourke is pastor. Berry is working toward earning the next and highest rank, Eagle Scout.

“I’ve gained a lot of leadership experience and learned to cope with others,” he said of his six years in Scouting. Plus weekly meetings at the parish have helped him keep his “duty to God” at the forefront.

Several other troop members agreed.

A young Boy Scout holds his "Scouting is Youth Ministry" patch earned by attending the Jan. 23 Scouting Mass.

Alex Wisthoff, a Scout with Troop 340 at St. Thomas the Apostle Parish, added six merit badges to his collection last month. He worked on the three citizenship badges with fellow Scouts.

He also earned an electricity badge, “because the badge was cool,” Wisthoff said, a swimming badge and a family life badge. That required charting chores for 90 days and completing family projects.

Fr. Dennis O’Rourke, VF, pastor of St. Gabriel the Archangel Parish in Cave Creek and chaplain for the Phoenix Diocesan Catholic Committee on Scouting, made time to share some thoughts on Scouting too. Not all of it made it to print. He talked about earning religious emblems as a youth and getting to meet his bishop as a result. He also shared his hope for Catholic-based troops:

My hope is that the Scouts feel some connection to the parish, and the parish feels some connection to those youth.  If the Scouts are present to the community in various ways, other than occasional trash detail, then, they become an honorable part of the parish, and valued by the community members.