DBYC 2020 - (March 20 - 22) 

This year will be the 43rd Annual DBYC (Diocese of Biloxi Youth Convention) held at the Gulf Coast Coliseum which invites all the parishes to come together with their youth groups to celebrate the faith through community, mass, keynote speakers, and worship.  The Diocesan Spirit Movers (10^th – 12^th grade peer ministry team) are the force behind planning the skits, theme, decorations, and act as the Masters of Ceremonies.  Target age group for DBYC is 9^th – 12^th grade.

Started in 1977, the goals have been to encourage community within our entire diocese.  In many ways, if our young people don’t travel outside their own town or visit other churches they may not realize that other young people excited about their Catholic faith exist nearby. 

We have a welcome ceremony on Friday evening where each parish introduces themselves to our Bishop (in a fun way) and then present the bishop with a gift from their parish.  We usually close Friday with a concert or keynote speaker.  Saturday is a day filled with fellowship, guest speakers and service activities throughout the day.  For lunch, we even invite our young people to dine with our seminarians and other religious to discuss religious vocations.  We close Saturday night with Adoration/XLT and Reconciliation.  We invite all the priests in our diocese to participate in the Reconciliation service.  On Sunday morning Mass is led by our Bishop before we dismiss.  Later that afternoon (between 2pm and 5pm) we have a Youth Rally for our 6^th-8^th grade youth in each parish where they have a keynote speaker and praise and worship opportunities.

We constantly gather feedback from our Spirit Movers and parishes to grow the DBYC into something relevant to our young people while staying rooted in the catechesis of the Catholic church.  We’ve invited our Knights of Columbus, Sisters of Mercy, and other religious orders and groups to set up tables and have opportunities to engage the young people of our diocese to invite them to take part.

Contact our office with how to register your parish youth group and cost details!

Facebook live page from conference: https://www.facebook.com/BiloxiCYO/

"I came into the Diocesan Youth Conference expecting nothing more than a boring teen camp retreat. I didn’t realize at the time how impactful it was going to be. I am in the 11^th grade and had never been to Adoration before so I had no idea what I was about to experience. Adoration was honestly the greatest experience of my life because it felt like it truly opened my heart to God. I was happy to find out there was also Confession available at that point in the convention. I sadly hadn’t had my heart open for the lord for a long time with making bad decisions and following the wrong crowd. I had not been to Confession since the 6^th grade when I attended Nativity and this weekend was only my second time. So, with that long period of being lost away from the path of God, you couldn’t understand how eye opening this was for me. I can’t wait to do it all again next year with all the amazing people I was there with. I very much recommend the Diocesan Youth Conference to anyone who hasn’t been because I really believe it could have such a positive impact on everyone like it did for me."

- Dylan, St. Mary's in Woolmarket. DBYC 2018