The Direction of the Church

[Dbaba]

I attended the LA Religious Education Congress this past weekend.

I found the Speakers very interesting and the Keynote speaker was excellent.

I did hear a central theme throughout the Congress lectures.

Did anyone else attend? What were your thoughts?

Why was there no Catholic Answers or EWTN representation there?

 

[Joe_5859]

I attended the LA Religious Education Congress this past weekend.

I found the Speakers very interesting and the Keynote speaker was excellent.

I did hear a central theme throughout the Congress lectures.

Did anyone else attend? What were your thoughts?

Why was there no Catholic Answers or EWTN representation there?

The LA Religious Ed Congress is generally not very welcoming of apostolates like Catholic Answers and EWTN.

Who gave the keynote?

I have not attended that conference in particular, but I have been to many that are similar. One needs to be very careful. The quality of the presentations vary from presenter to presenter, but I don’t find that it gives an accurate presentation of the direction the Church is moving in. Most often, the problem is not what the presenters say, it’s what they do not say.

For example, I have been to workshops on Catholic spirituality at such conferences that do not even once mention Jesus, the Saints, the Sacraments, the Bible, or the Universal Call to Holiness. Sadly, that’s not an exaggeration. They may not say anything that’s explicitly heretical, but to attempt to teach Catholic spirituality without mention of these things is horrendous.

A far better conference to attend would be the St. John Bosco Conference. The difference is palpable. Until you atttend both types of conferences, it’s hard to p(name removed by moderator)oint exactly what is missing from conferences like the LA one.

 

[Corki]

Why was there no Catholic Answers or EWTN representation there?

This is the same event, if I am remembering correctly, that resulted in postings one year of Cardinal Mahoney trying to consecrate tortilla chips. Every year, it seems, the congress inspires new internet photo postings.

(Seriously, I don’t mean to sound uncharitable but the LA congress is not known for its faithfulness or orthodoxy although I am sure many of the Speakers were good.)

 

[CDNowak]

I doubt EWTN is welcome, based on disputes between Mother Angelica and the Cardinal.

Personally, given the reputation of said conference, you would have to pay me a significant amount of money (mid 5 figures would do it) to attend that.

 

[Joe_5859]

I just checked and it looks like Mitch Albom gave the keynote. I’m sure he’s a very inspirational speaker and has a lot of good things to say, but he’s not even Catholic.

I think this is a huge problem. I have no problem listening to those with opposing views. There is a great deal we can learn from our brothers and sisters of other faiths. But to have the keynote presentation of a major Catholic educational conference be anyone but Catholic typifies what is wrong with catechesis in the U.S. today and reveals why we have the problems we have.

These conferences should be about equipping catechists and Catholic school teachers to pass on the Catholic faith to all those to whom they have been entrusted with this awesome responsibility. We cannot (and should not) expect a non-Catholic to understand what this means for us Catholics.

 

[milimac]

There were quite 188 speakers. I recognized the names of a few:
Allen Jr., John
Haas, David
Haugen, Marty
Jansen, Val Limar
Kelly, Matthew
Pacholczyk, Rev. Tadeusz
Senior, Rev. Donald
Wallis, Jim

I’m curious what sessions you attended and what you enjoyed about it. Hopefully out of the 188, you were able to hear something that brought you closer to Christ and his Church. It sounds a like there may be at least some tares among the wheat at the LA conference:

youtube.com/user/RealCatholicTV#p/a/u/0/XjVR-69dIUI

 

[Joe_5859]

There were quite 188 speakers. I recognized the names of a few:
Allen Jr., John
Haas, David
Haugen, Marty
Jansen, Val Limar
Kelly, Matthew
Pacholczyk, Rev. Tadeusz
Senior, Rev. Donald
Wallis, Jim

I’m curious what sessions you attended and what you enjoyed about it. Hopefully out of the 188, you were able to hear something that brought you closer to Christ and his Church. It sounds a like there may be at least some tares among the wheat at the LA conference:

youtube.com/user/RealCatholicTV#p/a/u/0/XjVR-69dIUI

Here’s the full list of speakers for those interested:

recongress.org/2010/speakers.htm

It’s most of the usual suspects that make the rounds at all these types of conferences. I have seen presentations by more speakers on that list than I care to admit.

I should point out that there were a few pretty good ones on there. Mark Hart, for example. He does the teen version of Cavin’s Great Adventure Bible Study. I’ve heard good things about Matthew Kelly, but I’ve never seen him speak or read any of his books. Dr. Walsh has some interesting stuff to say about the current climate of the media and it’s impact on kids (even if it doesn’t fully factor in the faith dimension).

There were more than a few names that I’d definitely want to avoid, though.

 

[Dbaba]

Thank You for your response.

I did attended Mark Hart’s talk which I enjoyed. "How to evangelize in the age of technology and short attention span Topic(s): Catechesis/Evangelization
The Gospel According to TiVo: Plugging Faith into a Wireless Culture(*)

Matthew Kelly was excellent. Topic(s): Spirituality
One Dynamic Catholic
What traits people who do most of the ministries in our Parish’s share.

The talk on Social Justice was eye opening.
I am going to need to learn and discern more on this topic.
Rev. Bryan Massingale
Topic(s): Morality
Caritas in Veritate: Pope Benedict on Social and Economic Justice(*)

Reclaiming Catholicism - Thomas Groome- was just OK. Not much to chew on.

I could see that the speakers were all on the more progressive end of the spectrum.

 

[Dbaba]

There were quite 188 speakers. I recognized the names of a few:
Allen Jr., John
Haas, David
Haugen, Marty
Jansen, Val Limar
Kelly, Matthew
Pacholczyk, Rev. Tadeusz
Senior, Rev. Donald
Wallis, Jim

I’m curious what sessions you attended and what you enjoyed about it. Hopefully out of the 188, you were able to hear something that brought you closer to Christ and his Church. It sounds a like there may be at least some tares among the wheat at the LA conference:

youtube.com/user/RealCatholicTV#p/a/u/0/XjVR-69dIUI

Thank you for the link.

I must say that the sessions I attended were not at all what the You-Tube video described.

I could see the progressive attitude of the congress, but to say it was anti-Catholic is a bit unfair.
I do feel it was worth my time and to be in the company of fellow Catholics is always a gift.

This was my first time attending the Congress and I did feel a bit “confused” at times.

The lecture by CNN Catholic/Vatican corespondent: John Allen was quite thought provoking.

He has a new book “The Future Church” which is eye-opening to say the least.
The demographics of the church are changing. This is just fact.
The church may look and feel very different in the near future.

God Bless

 

[Corki]

The talk on Social Justice was eye opening.
I am going to need to learn and discern more on this topic.
Rev. Bryan Massingale
Topic(s): Morality
Caritas in Veritate: Pope Benedict on Social and Economic Justice(*)

I thought that name was familiar. He was one of the priests that got in hot water for publically dissenting from the Church’s teaching on traditional marriage back when Wisconsin was trying to pass a defense of marriage law. He publically criticized the statement of Archbishop Dolan regarding marriage. I hope that’s not the direction he was predicting for the Church.

 

[CDNowak]

The lecture by CNN Catholic/Vatican corespondent: John Allen was quite thought provoking.

He has a new book “The Future Church” which is eye-opening to say the least.
The demographics of the church are changing. This is just fact.
The church may look and feel very different in the near future.

God Bless

John Allen has a good reputation, despite the fact he is one of the major writers for the NCReporter. Likewise Fr Tad is an excellent bioethicist. Others… not so much…

 

[CD_Michels]

I heard Matthew Kelly speak at the national FOCUS convention back in 2005. The two keynote speakers at the conference were Scott Hahn and Matthew Kelly. In my opinion Matthew Kelly was the better speaker (equal in content to Dr. Hahn, but you don’t need a theology degree to understand him.)

 

[Dbaba]

I agree with you that Matthew Kelly has excellent information that you can apply right away!

 

[CalCatholic]

I was at the Congress this year and took mostly scripture classes. My favorite presenter was Rev. Donald Senior. One class was called ‘Paul and the Ministry of Reconciliation’ and the other, ‘In the Year of Luke’s Gospel: Themes for Spirituality, Teaching & Preaching.’ Both classes were enlightening and uplifting. Despite being a renowned Catholic scholar and the President (and faculty member) at the Catholic Theology Union in Chicago, Father Senior is a very spiritual man, which comes across in his presentations. So if you attend Congress next year, take one of his classes if you get a chance.

 

[milimac]

I was at the Congress this year and took mostly scripture classes. My favorite presenter was Rev. Donald Senior. One class was called ‘Paul and the Ministry of Reconciliation’ and the other, ‘In the Year of Luke’s Gospel: Themes for Spirituality, Teaching & Preaching.’ Both classes were enlightening and uplifting. Despite being a renowned Catholic scholar and the President (and faculty member) at the Catholic Theology Union in Chicago, Father Senior is a very spiritual man, which comes across in his presentations. So if you attend Congress next year, take one of his classes if you get a chance.

Thanks for this feedback. I noticed that Fr. Senior has some programs %between%with “Now You Know Media”. I get their mailings and was curious about ordering them. I have Fr. Alfred Cioffi’s talks on “Church Teaching, Science, and the Beginning of Human Life” by the same group and found them very good.