At Camp Yawgoog, Boy Scouts of all ages are reverent

ROCKVILLE – Boy Scouts from across Rhode Island and several groups from other states gathered at the tiny St. John Bosco Chapel in the woods at Camp Yawgoog on Sunday to celebrate “Scout is Reverent Sunday” with Bishop Thomas J. Tobin.

The scouts and their scoutmasters, all dressed in their Boy Scout best, attended Mass like they do every Sunday, and as many do daily. The annual event celebrates the portion of the Boy Scout oath that mentions reverence toward God as a Boy Scout obligation. The oath reads: “He is reverent toward God. He is faithful in his religious duties and respects the convictions of others in matters of custom and religion.”

Laurel St. Pierre, a member of the Catholic Committee on Scouting for the Diocese, said that the traditions of Catholicism and Boy Scouting “go hand in hand.”

“The ideals and the beliefs are pretty much the same – honesty and reverence to God is something that, as well as the Catholic religion, Scouting is a big part of,” she added.

Part of her committee’s responsibility is to teach Boy and Girl Scouts about the parallels between the Church’s symbolism and Scouting’s symbolism – the sign of peace during Mass as compared to the Boy Scout handshake, for example. “It shows a brotherhood between the Boy Scouts scouting program and the Church,” she said.

Dave Anderson, the Scout Executive for the Narragansett Council said that because the Boy Scouts do not operate their individual programs, issuing charters to other organizations instead, they depend heavily on the Catholic Church in Rhode Island to keep scouting viable. “The Catholic Church is quite frankly our largest sponsor in the Council.” The relationship between scouting and the Church is unique and special, he said. “One of the neat things is that it attracts boys perhaps from other faiths to join the troop and exposes them to the Church for the first time.”

Don McKendall, the Scoutmaster for Troop 5 from North Kingstown, asks each of his scouts to attend daily Mass at Camp Yawgoog. “By coming every day they think about God at least once a day, minimum, and hopefully that has some positive results,” he said. His troop was one of several that received a patch denoting their commitment to daily Mass attendance. “Our troop since 1998 has come every day to Mass at Camp Yawgoog,” he said.

Neil Mercier, 16, a student at Prout and a member of Troop 5, is currently working on his Eagle project, one of the last steps to achieving the coveted rank of Eagle Scout. For his project he is planning to erect a flag pole at the site of the new St. Bernard Church in North Kingstown, which he has attended for most of his life. “I’ve been involved with the Church since I moved to Rhode Island... I’ve always liked St. Bernard’s so I wanted to help out in some way,” he said.

This was Bishop Tobin’s first visit to the camp and he said it was a “great joy and privilege.” He complimented the Scouts on their commitment to their faith: “It’s so good and so important that even in settings like this that you remember your religious obligations, you remember the obligations of your faith and spend this time a few moments apart with the Lord.”

Bishop Tobin added, “I’m always very impressed by... the presence of so many people involved in scouting,” confessing that in his youth he only made it to the rank of Cub Scout.