{"id":63905,"date":"2025-11-21T16:51:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-21T16:51:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/63905\/"},"modified":"2025-11-21T16:51:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-21T16:51:08","slug":"downey-teen-to-ask-pope-questions-during-digital-encounter-nbc-los-angeles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/63905\/","title":{"rendered":"Downey teen to ask Pope questions during digital encounter \u2013 NBC Los Angeles"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Downey High School senior will get a chance to ask Pope Leo questions on Friday in a digital Q&A during the second day of the National Catholic Youth Conference.<\/p>\n

Ezequiel Ponce, 17, said he was \u201cabsolutely ecstatic\u201d when told he was chosen to participate in the event.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember being in school and just doing my regular thing in class, and I get the email, and my jaw drops,” he told Angelus News, the multimedia news platform of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s the only thing I could think about. I remember telling my parents and they were super excited for me.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Pope Leo will address about 15,000 young people between the ages of 14-18 at the conference, which is being held this year at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.<\/p>\n

In previous years, Pope Francis had sent video messages to conference attendees. This will be the first time a pope will directly engage with youth at NCYC during a live online question period.<\/p>\n

It will be broadcast Friday morning via the Eternal Word Television Network at youtube.com\/@EWTN<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

NCYC leaders narrowed down a slate of 40 teens to select five speakers and three alternates who would ask questions to Leo.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

In looking for a diverse selection of regions and cultural groups, Ponce was chosen along with Mia Smothers, a high school freshman from Maryland; Elise Wing, a high school senior from Iowa; Christopher Pantelakis, a high school junior from Nevada; and Micah Alciso, a high school senior from Hawaii.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

As he prepared for the Q&A, Ponce said he was encouraged by the fact the pope is making the effort to speak to young people.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI honestly have been amazed on how much the pope genuinely wants to engage in dialogue,\u201d Ponce said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause I feel that young people assume that the other generations look down upon us, especially the Gen Z and stuff, because it’s the age of technology and all that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ponce, who is considering becoming a math teacher, is active in youth ministry at his parish, St. Dominic Savio Church in Bellflower, including as head counselor at the church’s summer camp, Camp Savio.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

He currently takes a class at his high school that allows him to teach one period at Doty Middle School in Downey.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Downey High School senior will get a chance to ask Pope Leo questions on Friday in a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":63906,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[48,52,51,47,50,49,32735],"class_list":["post-63905","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-pope-leo-xiv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63905","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63905"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63905\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63906"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}