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More Than 4,000 Attend Ministry Conference in Dallas
By Cathy Harasta
Source: Catholic News Service
Published: Saturday, October 31, 2009
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DALLAS (CNS)—From strategies for coping with tragedies to reconciling the predicament of being truly Catholic and politically engaged in America, the University of Dallas Ministry Conference offered numerous insights and programs at the Dallas Convention Center Oct. 23-24.

More than 4,000 attended the third annual conference to enrich their grasp of ministering to members of the Catholic Church.

The conference, co-sponsored by the Diocese of Dallas and the Diocese of Fort Worth, offered numerous topics and workshops pertaining to the central theme, "Walking Together in Faith."

Participants included priests and women religious; school administrators and teachers; and catechists and ministers in areas such as youth, music and grief counseling.
From the outset, the atmosphere celebrated the strength and harmony possible when ministries support one another.

In his Oct. 23 keynote address, Archbishop Donald W. Wuerl of Washington emphasized the importance of recalling Jesus as the eternal word, the Son sent by God to be his voice.

He called on conference participants to rejoice in the church and said Pope Benedict XVI's visit to the U.S. last year served to encourage evangelization, catechesis and education.

"Catechists, career and volunteer, are essential teachers of the faith," Archbishop Wuerl said. "The catechist, through his/her words and deeds, bears witness to Jesus, tells the story of Jesus, lives the story of Jesus."

CNN senior Vatican analyst John L. Allen Jr. examined U.S. Catholics' political predicaments in his Oct. 24 keynote talk, "Square Peg, Round Hole: Catholics and Politics in America."

He outlined how the church in the U.S. reflects overall national trends, citing parallels between findings in Bill Bishop's landmark book "The Big Sort: Why the Clustering of Like-Minded America Is Tearing Us Apart" and aspects of American Catholic demographics.

"Increasingly, we have become strangers to one another," Allen said. "The gated community is a metaphor for an entire way of life."

But he struck hopeful notes in praising U.S. bishops' initiatives for unifying Catholics active in different areas of the life issues and in his assertion that young Catholics offer hope and inspiration.

Biblical scholar Angeline Hubert presented a workshop on making time for a true Sabbath. Citing the Gospels, traditional Jewish Sabbath observances and historical mandates about the Sabbath, she took her audience through the fundamental aspects of the "sacred day of rest and renewal."

Hubert proposed ways to practice "holy leisure" in the light of busy 21st-century lifestyles. She asked audience members whether they or their cell phones were in control. She also challenged conference participants to examine their priorities and then list how much real time they had spent in the previous week on the aspects they had enumerated as nearest and dearest to their hearts.

Matthew Ogilvie's presentation illuminated the ways Catholics today relate to the Second Vatican Council.

"The church is not a club for its members," said Ogilvie, a former University of Dallas professor now teaching in his native Australia. "It is a sign for the world. We have a vocation to be this visible sign."

More specialized workshops addressed music, suffering and grief. Several presentations discussed aspects of youth ministry, including Sheree Havlik's "Teens Standing Strong in a Sex-crazed World" and Mary Lee Becker's session on engaging the curiosity of young people in grades six through eight.

Amy Florian, a liturgy and bereavement consultant from Chicago, presented sessions on her talks, "Where Is God in All This?" and "Help! What Do I Say?"

She explained how the Old Testament's law of retribution is a basis for the human tendency to interpret personal or collective tragedies and natural disasters as payback for sins.

"Anytime something bad happened to Israel, they interpreted it as being God's punishment for their sins," said Florian, whose husband died at age 25 in a car crash, leaving her a young widow and single mother of a 7-month-old son more than 20 years ago. "The biblical tradition supports the law of retribution."

But she went on to elucidate the law's flaws, including its greatest contradiction. "Jesus had a life of suffering," Florian said. "Jesus tells us that the law of retribution doesn't work."

In her second presentation, she offered advice on what to do and say to the grief-stricken at a wake, and what not to do or say. For example, she explained that telling a mourner, "I'm so sorry," does not cut it because it implies that the person expressing sympathy did something wrong and feels the need to apologize.

Florian suggested her listeners take a mourner's hands in both of their own, introduce themselves in case the mourner is seeing them out of context and fails to place them, and ask the mourner to share a recollection of the person who has died.

Other sessions included the increasing interest in eucharistic adoration; faith and science; God's many calls to paths of holiness; and projections for the church of tomorrow.

In the homily at the closing Mass, Bishop Kevin J. Farrell of Dallas gave thanks to God for the "great gift" of the two days devoted to God's word and the work of evangelization. Bishop Farrell referred to the Scriptures' messages of salvation.

"Amid the many challenges that each one of us faces as we return to our parishes, as we return to our ministries and to our work of evangelization, we know that we are accompanied by Jesus Christ," Bishop Farrell said.

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