As 200 Catholic teen-agers and young adults attending the Ignite Your Torch Youth Conference filled Bellarmine University’s Amy Cralle Theater last week, their enthusiasm for their faith and especially the pro-life cause was almost palpable. Signs reading “We love the pope” were posted on the stage podium and stuck to the backs of their T-shirts.

The theater was abuzz as the crowd — as if in anticipation of a celebrity — awaited a presentation by Tom Grenchik, executive director of the Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

As he took the stage, Grenchik declared the pro-life movement to be on firm ground.

“I am encouraged because of you,” he told them. “There is energy behind the movement.”

Ignite Your Torch, sponsored by the St. Martin de Porres Third Order Dominican Community, is an annual youth conference designed to educate young Catholics about their faith. It was held this year at Bellarmine University July 26 to 29 and featured nearly two dozen leaders, speakers and musicians.

Speakers and presenters included David Hajduk, a speaker and author on the late Pope John Paul II’s “Theology of the Body”; Christine Wohar, executive director of FrassatiUSA; Father of Mercy Chris Crotty; Dominican Fathers Giles Dimock, Bill Garrott and Stephen-Dominic Hayes; and Dominican Brother James Brent.

Grenchik, who spoke the evening of July 27, said that the energy behind the pro-life movement may be aimed in many different directions — from quiet prayer to public action, such as marching in the annual March for Life in Washington, D.C., in January.

But those who fight against abortion, he said, must be in “radical solidarity” with women.

“If we are going to fight pro-choice (legislation), we’re going to have to be courageously pro-woman,” he said, quoting excerpts from speeches by the late Pope John Paul II. “That’s the only honest response of us as pro-lifers.”

Grenchik defined radical solidarity as “an extreme outpouring of yourself and your talents and resources for the good of another.”

“Jesus gave us the perfect example of that kind of love,” he said. “He demanded that kind of radical solidarity of his followers.”

In fact, Grenchik said, he demanded the most from those who thought they were leading “righteous lives.” Blatant sinners, Grenchik said, were forgiven.

“Jesus is really holding us to sins of omission,” he said. “The challenge is to honestly look where we are holding back in our own lives.

“The greatest challenge of a Christian today is the struggle against the culture of death we live in,” he said. Among those at-risk in this culture, he said are the unborn, aged, imprisoned, mentally ill and others who are vulnerable.

“We can’t just proclaim what is right and wrong,” he added.

Like the good Samaritan in the Gospel of Luke, the faithful must take a risk and get personally involved.

The Good Samaritan “didn’t just write a check,” he said. “He entered into a personal relationship with that victim. Pray for women and a spirit of mercy. We don’t know what they’re walking in.”

Following his talk, Grenchik opened the floor discussion and got a bit of advice and several suggestions from the young people and adult volunteers.

One person issued a challenge to Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz, newly appointed archbishop of Louisville, calling on him to exorcise a local facility that performs abortions.

Father James Bromwich, a priest of the Archdiocese of Louisville and a speaker at the conference, called on the U.S. bishops to be more vocal about people in the same position as the late Terry Shiavo.

Jerry Durbin, an adult member of St. Athanasius Church, called on the Archdiocese of Louisville to become a stronger voice in the pro-life movement. “We need a voice coming from the archdiocese,” he said. “We need to hear from the archdiocese that this is what being Catholic is all about.”

Other suggestions included increased media coverage and better pro-life education in Catholic high schools. One student suggested a youth conference similar to Ignite Your Torch that focuses on pro-life issues.