RECongress 2011 - Period 3: Friday, March 18, 2011

CONGRESS 2011 WORKSHOPS & LINKS
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Preparation for the sacrament of confirmation is a chance to both orient and renew teens with a knowledge of important catechetical topics like the Trinity, Christology, Scripture, sacraments, morality, social justice and vocation as they experience the graces of this sacrament of Christian initiation. This session examines ways to blend the rich substance of our faith with the ongoing formation of high school-age teens as they progress from rote participants to newly engaged and committed Catholics.

6-02 Re-examining the Four Signs That Mark the Holy Spirit’s Presence in the Church

“One and holy, you have to be kidding!” “Catholic and apostolic – what does that mean?” More times than I can count, I have heard these exclamations from my college students. How can we cling to a belief statement about the nature of the Church as one, holy, catholic and apostolic when there is evidence in the newspapers around the world every week that challenges such a conviction with frightening data to the contrary? This workshop will exploit three key questions regarding the third part of the creedal formula: What does the Church mean? What are the practical implications? What responsibility do ordinary Catholics have for realizing this claim?

This workshop will explore the role that members of the community have in the pastoral implementation of the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults as it is adapted for children of catechetical age. In particular, the session will explore what the rite says about the role of parents, companions and sponsors. The connection between RCIA and religious education will also be explored.

Probably everyone attending Congress has some family member not practicing Catholicism. As increasing numbers leave “the Church,” evangelical atheists militantly try to expose the hypocrisy and “amorality” of religion, especially Catholicism. This invites a renewed articulation of God, including the Trinity, that is worthy of them and God as well.

The Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy of Vatican II offered the local churches many challenges, including a new vision, a new spirit and, subsequently, new practices. We still have a long, long way to go. This workshop identifies the vision, the spirit and the commitment of the Church universal as she prays. It also identifies the challenges remaining, and some strategies – with a note of hope.

Fr. Bill Cieslak, a Capuchin Franciscan from the Detroit Province, is currently Provincial Director of Development for the Capuchin Province of St. Joseph and based in Chicago. He is former President of the Franciscan School of Theology at Berkeley, Calif., where he also was Professor of Liturgy. An author and speaker, Fr. Cieslak has presented at numerous conferences – at the national, diocesan and parish levels.

6-06 Drink to the Thirsty: A Practical Approach to Evangelization and Adult Formation

Discover fresh, practical ways to reach adults, how to plan successful programming, and the wonderful resources that are available to make it all easier. Be prepared to be active in this workshop – sharing and creating together!

Pam Coster has worked in ministry for over 15 years and is currently Executive Director of the Chicago-based Charis Ministries, a Jesuit ministry to those in their 20s and 30s. Before coming to Charis, Coster was President of Avanza Partners, specializing in adult faith formation and leadership development. She was previously Director of Faith Formation at Sts. Faith, Hope and Charity Parish in Winnetka, Ill. Coster is also a member of the boards of Loyola Press and Catholics on Call.

Religious stratification is the vertical ranking of religious groups in terms of their members’ access to wealth, power and prestige. Come find out how groups ranked in colonial times, how they rank now, and how religious stratification has harmed our society. Special attention is given to Catholics’ progress from being religious outsiders to becoming religious insiders.

James Davidson is Emeritus Professor of Sociology at Purdue University in Indiana, where he has taught since 1968. He specializes in studies of American Catholicism and religious stratification. His latest book, with Ralph Pyle, is “Religious Stratification in America.” Davidson is also author or co-author of several other books on American Catholics. He has been President of the Association for the Sociology of Religion, the Religious Research Association, and the North Central Sociological Association.

Are you involved in the sacrament preparation process and need some new ideas? Are you looking to renew your vision of what this process is all about? If so, then come to this workshop! We will explore how this important time of preparation can be full of life and meaning for those we are working with, for ourselves, and for the whole community. We will look at some keys of effective sacrament preparation and experience some engaging activities that can be used in this process. Come and learn how to create an enlivened process of sacrament preparation in your parish or school!

It is not easy being a prophet. Feeling called to prophetic witness in these times is something we might want to consider with some hesitation – but with uncompromising honesty and with no pretense. We will look at our wounded world crying out for prophets: Western society, our home country, and our church. We will ask ourselves what can be, what actually is, and how we might be instruments of healing and transformation. Deep within us lies the potential for the greater good, for the human being all of us are called to be, for the Christ into whose prophetic life we were baptized. What all of this means will be the topic of our reflection together.

6-10 Sing As Christ Inspires Your Song: Renewing the Mission of Sung Prayer (Workshop closed)

Come and re-ignite the passion of our vocation as ministers of music – whether we are directors, choir members, cantors, instrumentalists, or most importantly, singing members of the praying assembly. We will take an honest inventory of our vocation. We will sing through new songs, hymns, psalms and acclamations with an eye toward renewing our sometimes “tired” ministry, recharging our ministerial stance to sing and offer our ministry and mission as a surrender to Christ, his Gospel, and our deeper call to discipleship. Come prepared to sing, be challenged, and together we will find new hope to sing a truly inspired song for God’s people.

In this workshop, lay ministers tell their story of both the joys and the struggles of serving in parishes and other pastoral settings today. Their stories become the text of our reflection and analysis when we place their stories in conversation with the tradition of theology, ministry and even parable.

Dr. Michael Horan is Chair of the Department of Theological Studies at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, where he teaches pastoral theology and ministry. He has ministered to youth and young adults on high school and college campuses in New York and Washington, D.C., and is a well-known presenter. Dr. Horan is author of two works and a contributing author of the school series “Blest Are We.” He has worked with the Los Angeles Archdiocese’s Office of Parish Life for several years.

This workshop is for young adults seeking to discern God’s will, and for those involved in vocations ministry. Fr. Christopher Jamison will describe the Compass program that helps women and men discern together whether or not God is calling them to religious life or priesthood. Founded in 2004, Compass now has two centers in Britain with a third under discussion for Ireland.

6-13 Finding the Common Story with Gangs, Peace and Being Catholic (Workshop closed)

There is an ongoing connection between gangs in Central America and gangs in the United States. What does it mean to be a Catholic and someone who works for peace? Catholic Relief Services staff will share the powerful stories of building peace with gang-affected youth – a pathway to restore dignity and life in Latin America, and bring to light how we, as Catholics, can build peace in our own communities and world.

Rick Jones, based in San Salvador, El Salvador, is currently Deputy Regional Director for Global Solidarity and Justice in Latin America and the Caribbean for Catholic Relief Services. During the past 20 years Jones has worked on peace building, human rights and development programs in Latin America, and has even made official appearances before the U.S. Agency for International Development Symposium and the U.S. Senate’s Committee on Foreign Relations.

6-14 Contemplating the Gospel: Ignatius of Loyola’s Method of Healing the Heart

Experience and learn Ignatius of Loyola’s way of praying with Scripture. St. Ignatius believed that by using the gift of our imagination to contemplate the Gospel, our hearts will experience God’s love that heals and forgives. Experience a method of prayer that will help you pay attention to Jesus in the Gospels, allowing God to set your heart on fire and renew the life of your ministry. Applied in different settings, from parish religious education classes to liturgical services inside prisons, this method of meditating on the Gospel is a powerful way to grow in friendship and in love with Jesus.

Fr. Michael Kennedy has been a priest for over 33 years, working with the poor and disenfranchised in California, Mexico, Central America and South America. He is also author of five books that present a prayer method used in homes, schools and detention facilities. Currently, as Director of the Jesuit Restorative Justice Initiative and as Co-Chaplain at Barry J. Nidorf Juvenile Hall in Sylmar, Calif., Fr. Kennedy works with incarcerated youth and gives retreats in state prisons in collaboration with Homeboy Industries.

Chaplain Javier Stauring is Co-Director of the Office of Restorative Justice for the Los Angeles Archdiocese. In this capacity, he supervises the Catholic Detention Ministry programs inside juvenile halls and probation camps in Los Angeles, Ventura and Santa Barbara counties. Stauring oversees three other restorative justice programs and also serves as Policy Director of Faith Communities for Family and Children, an interfaith coalition of religious leaders in Los Angeles.

Many of us think that direct experiences of God are rare, or are only the province of the saints and mystics. We will look at six common paths to God and at common, everyday experiences – incompletion, exaltation, clarity, desires for holiness, desires to follow, vulnerability – and see how they can open us up to the presence of God in our daily lives. Practical, helpful and real examples will be used.

Fr. James Martin is the Culture Editor for America magazine and award-winning author of “Mi Vida con los Santos” and a new book, “The Jesuit Guide to Almost Everything.” Fr. Martin, a Jesuit priest, is a frequent commentator on religious affairs in national and international media, has written for The New York Times and Wall Street Journal and has appeared on all major networks and CNN, BBC and Radio Vatican.

This workshop presents a dialogue with a seasoned pastor, a Director of Religious Education/Pastoral Associate and the participants. Fr. Norman Langenbrunner and Jeanne Hunt will offer responses to the everyday dilemmas in parish ministry – fewer priests, fewer people in the pews, less money, ethnic diversity, and how these relate to the Church’s mission of evangelization. Five models of church will be featured: ethnic, urban, mega, conservative and rural consolidated.

Since being ordained a priest for the Cincinnati Archdiocese, Fr. Norman Langenbrunner has served as a high school teacher, associate pastor and pastor, and as a marriage tribunal judge. He currently preaches parish missions and retreats across the country, and has presented at the Ohio Directors of Religious Education Conference. Fr. Langenbrunner is also a contributor to St. Anthony Messenger Press.

Jeanne Hunt is Director of Product Development at St. Anthony Messenger Press in Cincinnati. She has served as a parish Director of Religious Education and as the Director of Family Life for the Cincinnati Archdiocese. She presents many workshops for catechists and teachers on religious education and preaches parish missions and retreats on faith formation. Hunt is author of “Choir Prayers,” “Handing on the Faith: When You are a Single Parent,” and her most recent, “Celebrating the Saints and Seasons.”

In education and pastoral ministries, the time when it’s hardest to hold firm and trust is when we face suffering and pain, disease and death. It’s time to look at fresh and contemporary responses to these ancient questions.

Jesuit priest Fr. Richard Leonard is Director of the Catholic Office for Film & Broadcasting based in Melbourne, Australia. As a Visiting Professor, he has taught at the Gregorian University, at the University of California, Los Angeles, and at both the University of Melbourne and the Jesuit Theological College in Australia. Fr. Leonard has authored “Movies That Matter,” “Preaching to the Converted,” “The Mystical Gaze of the Cinema,” and his most recent, “Where the Hell is God?”

Before we can respond effectively to the multicultural growth of our communities, we first need to recognize what’s going on. All pastoral situations that involve cultural groups interacting with one another may be viewed through the prism of the three cultural lenses: the unicultural, the multicultural and the intercultural. This workshop provides a fresh approach for evaluating and assessing cultural situations so pastoral leaders may develop pastoral strategies.

Liberation theologies developed as faith reflections from the poor and oppressed as they sought to challenge injustice. They exploded on the scene in the 1970s and ’80s ... but where are they now? This workshop looks briefly at their origin and purpose, and then presents the new developments that are occurring in one of the most creative and challenging movements in Catholic theology.

Chapter 8 of the Vatican II document Lumen Gentium builds on foundational teachings about Mary in the Scriptures and in Catholic tradition to present the Catholic Church’s most comprehensive conciliar reflection on Mary. As we draw nearer to the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council, this presentation will examine the four defined Catholic dogmas on Mary as a broad overview of Catholic teachings on Mary, the treatment of Mary in the Council and its influence on subsequent church teaching, and the implications of these teachings for contemporary Catholic faith.

Dr. Timothy Matovina is Professor of Theology and the William and Anna Jean Cushwa Director of the Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana. He has offered presentations and workshops on U.S. Catholicism and various theological topics for dioceses, pastoral institutes and ministry formation programs throughout the county.

6-21 Helping Youth Deal with Tragedy: A Pastoral Challenge (Workshop closed)

Young people experience tragedy of all sorts: personal, family, community and global. It’s easy for pastoral leaders to feel powerless and overwhelmed. The pastoral challenge is to enable young people to cope with the various crises, grieve when necessary, and find a sense of hope. This session will provide an “anatomy of a crisis,” identify some signs, and offer practical pastoral responses including skills for recognition, response and referral.

St. Mark’s Gospel has traditionally been the ugly duckling of the Gospels, with poor grammar and awkward wordiness. More recently, though, he has also been recognized as being amazingly clever in the way he put his Gospel together – inspired, even. This session is for daring souls who would like to go a bit deeper in Bible study, examining Mark’s method for interrupting a story with a seemingly irrelevant interlude that, upon inspection, becomes the key for understanding the whole sequence. Bring your Bibles!

Jim McGill will review the history of the U.S. bishops’ 1980 document, “Called and Gifted: The American Catholic Laity,” linking it back to Vatican II and forward to the U.S. bishops’ documents “Called and Gifted for the Third Millennium” (1995) and “Co-Workers in the Vineyard of the Lord” (2005). The emphasis will be on the four seminal “calls and gifts” named in the 1980 document: adulthood, holiness, ministry and community. The document was a watershed in how American bishops viewed the the laity’s role in the Roman Catholic Church in the United States and a reminder to the laity to respond to these “calls” as part of a baptismal vocation.

Jim McGill is a Professor at the Catholic Biblical School in the School of Ministry at the University of Dallas in Irving, Texas. He has taught adult religious education courses in parish, diocesan and university programs for the past 40 years in California, Kansas, Louisiana and Texas. McGill has been a speaker at the University of Dallas Ministry Conference in 2009 and the University of Dallas Tschoepe Homiletic Conference in 2006, 2007 and 2008.

The first cases of AIDS were recognized 30 years ago in 1981. Today, many people living with HIV still face fear, isolation and discrimination. Join Fr. Chris Ponnet and Dr. Elizabeth Crabb Breen to explore ways to reach out and embrace those infected and affected by HIV, especially in our Latino and African-American communities, and to learn the facts about HIV in order to dispel the myths and overcome the fears.

In 1999, Fr. Chris Ponnet, a priest for the Los Angeles Archdiocese, was appointed by Cardinal Roger Mahony as his Liaison and Director for the Office of Catholic HIV/AIDS Ministry. Fr. Ponnet also serves as Pastor at St. Camillus Center for Pastoral Care in Los Angeles. He is a board-certified Chaplain and Director of Pastoral Care at LAC+USC Medical Center in Los Angeles, where he works with persons infected or affected with HIV/AIDS.

Dr. Elizabeth Crabb Breen is an immunologist with more than 20 years of experience in HIV/AIDS research at the University of California, Los Angeles, where she is Associate Professor at the David Geffen School of Medicine. Dr. Breen has also served on the Los Angeles Archdiocese AIDS Education Task Force/Human Sexuality Committee since 1989, and speaks frequently about the immune system, HIV infection, and AIDS.

6-25 Sacrament Preparation: Our Opportunity to Evangelize Marginal Households

Most parish leaders have wondered, “What’s the point of forming children for the sacraments when the families are not active in Catholic faith?” If you have, then you are asking the right question. Participate in this exploration and conversation on how to reach parents and families with an evangelizing catechesis during the periods of sacrament preparation (baptism through confirmation). Let’s consider how such processes can foster conversion! Bring your ideas!

Tom Quinlan is currently in his 10th year as Director of the Religious Education Office for the Diocese of Joliet, Ill. He has served as a parish catechetical leader and on the governance board of the National Conference for Catechetical Leadership (2006-10). Quinlan has presented at both national and diocesan catechetical gatherings. He has written pieces for the Center for Ministry Development, and his articles have appeared in Today’s Parish and Catechist magazine.

Drawing upon their common artistry and life in the spirit, three women of faith-filled music weave a vivid tapestry in song and story. Come and gather for this rare collaboration by Janèt Sullivan Whitaker, ValLimar Jansen and Sarah Hart.

Janèt Sullivan Whitaker is a singer, teacher and composer, with music published by OCP. A master cantor and catechist, for 10 years she has served as a musician catechist for the One Bread, One Body Conference at St. Meinrad Archabbey in Indiana. She currently serves as Director of Music for St. Joan of Arc Parish in San Ramon, Calif.

ValLimar Jansen is a highly regarded singer, composer and recording artist. She has served as a college/university professor, a leader of worship and prayer and a workshop presenter at conferences across the United States and abroad. In 2007 she performed at the Agora papal event in Loreto, Italy, for over 300,000 people. Jansen was nominated for a 2010 Unity Award, for Female Vocalist of the Year, and selected to serve as the first solo female MC of the 2011 National Catholic Youth Conference.

Sarah Hart is a recording artist with Spirit and Song in Portland, Ore., as well as a staff songwriter for EMI Christian Music Group in Nashville, Tenn. Her songs have been recorded by numerous artists and her music has appeared in film and TV. She also works closely as a voice over artist and composer for the Tom Tichenor Children’s Theater in Nashville. Hart’s passion for women’s ministry has prompted her to write two retreats for women, which she takes to parishes across the country.

Why do men not invest in church, or even spirituality, the way that women do? Is there something wrong with them? Is there something wrong with the message? Is there anything we can do about it? What have we learned in 25 years of international men’s work that could help us all?

Our job as parents is indeed challenging at times. It is difficult to be consistent in our decisions. However, it is one of the greatest gifts we give our children. If we are wishy washy, we give our children no foundation upon which to build their decisions. Our limits give our children the security and boundaries they so need in this world! Char Wenc will give a wide range of techniques and skills to say “no” with respect and love. It takes courage with God’s grace. This session is high energy, humorous and practical. Its goal is to empower and encourage parents through their parenting journey.

2011 RECongress Period 6

Religious Education Congress
March 19, 2011
3:00 - 4:30 pm

2011 RECongress Period 6

Religious Education Congress March 19, 2011 3:00 - 4:30 pm

Religious Education Congress
March 19, 2011
3:00 - 4:30 pm