Laura Osborn: Balancing act

Catholic university graduate juggles multiple roles in parish

Published: August 27, 2023

By Arkansas Catholic Staff

Courtesy of Laura Osborn

During her youth, she sang in the youth choir and was active in CYM, so when she returned home, Osborn wanted to get back involved.

Courtesy of Laura Osborn

During her youth, she sang in the youth choir and was active in CYM, so when she returned home, Osborn wanted to get back involved.

What is one way the Church can reach young adults better?

“I think the church needs to get better about having the hard conversations that face young adults in the secular world today. I think a lot of times the Church has a teaching on something. And it is kind of almost skirted around because it's controversial, and then people get misconceptions about it… I think that young adult faith formation would be better if it were focusing on like these hard issues of today like pregnancy, abortion, transgender and homosexual relationships and all these things that are really, really prevalent, especially with my generation in the secular world.”

LITTLE ROCK

When Laura Osborn graduated from college and returned to Little Rock, she had a goal: parish involvement. Throughout her life, Osborn has been an active parishioner of the Cathedral of St. Andrew in Little Rock. During her youth, she sang in the youth choir and was active in CYM, so when she returned home, Osborn wanted to get back involved.

“The first thing I wanted to get involved in was becoming a Eucharistic minister,” the 23-year-old said. “I'm also a part of the young adult group that we have here. Then the biggest thing was last summer when I got elected to the pastoral council here. That was cool because I was representing the younger crowd in the parish.”

While also seeking her doctorate in biomedical sciences, Osborn has found that serving her parish has helped her build friendships.

“They help with balance because I like to hang out with these people,” she said. “And I can do it at church while we're doing this ministry. So I'm getting two birds with one stone because it can be a lot with work to find time for things.”

Osborn attended Ave Maria University in Florida, but despite being on a Catholic campus, she found it difficult to get involved.

“There were a lot of ministries, so I didn't feel like there was as much of a need for me to do things,” Osborn said. “But here, with things getting restarted after COVID, there had been such a big lack of ministries for those three years. Father Joseph (De Orbegozo, rector) wanted things to be going on, but there weren't many people my age to offer perspective or fill that gap. Seeing that gap exist made me want to fill it whereas previously in my life, I hadn't seen that need for me to step in.”

More stories will appear in our 15 Young Adults Who Inspire Us 2023 Section as they are posted online. Subscribe to Arkansas Catholic’s digital and print publications to read more content like this.