Ministry confab attracts faithful

More than 1,000 catechists, Catholic School teachers, Directors of Religious Education and volunteers from a number of parishes attended the Centennial Jubilee Ministry Conference held at the American Bank Center on Jan. 14.

“It was successful as far as enhancing faith formation for attendees and providing resources through exhibits,” Margaret Alarilla, Director of Evangelization for the Diocese of Corpus Christi said.

“Three-hundred attendees were from schools, but the rest of the 700+ were from parishes. There were also 38 exhibitors, many who were directly linked with ministry work,” Jaime Reyna, co-coordinator of the Ministry Conference and Diocesan Youth Minister, said.

Reyna said that he was “blown away” by the winners of the diocesan wide Vocation Essay contest. The vocation essays were read to the audience after the lunch break and Reyna said they “re-energized everyone in the conference about their faith and how the youth view the Church and the priest’s ministry.”

Bishop Wm. Michael Mulvey and Helen Osman, Secretary for Communications at the Unites States Conference of Catholic Bishops, were the keynote speakers at the event.

“We must be leaven and yeast in a confused world,” Bishop Mulvey said in his morning keynote address. “Faith is not just about us. Never before has our society undergone such a transformational change. There is a social shift of diversity we find in our communities today that surpasses anything we’ve had in our past…these changes can be positive, but brings challenges.”

Bishop Mulvey reiterated what Pope Benedict XVI said in his Encyclical letter on charity, “We are not a religion of the book, a codified group of sayings, because that book is the book of the words of life. We are a church, a religion of Jesus Christ. These are His words. They must come off that page and into our hearts. We must become that Word.”

Bishop Mulvey spoke about “The New Evangelization,” outlined by Pope Benedict XVI for the Synod of Bishops. He spoke of the profound secularization in our society. “God is no longer challenged…but…is just dismissed in our classroom, in our schools.”

Bishop Mulvey cautioned against being desensitized by the secular culture. He said that Christ is with us today.

“He is alive. His word is a living word. Alive through each baptized Christian and those who are gathered together in His name. Be empty in the presence of the Word of God. Give Him room to abide in us,” Bishop Mulvey said.

Osman afternoon keynote address focused on the “new digital continent” created by today’s social media, such as Facebook and Twitter.

“We are in a paradigm shift in the way people communicate. The Holy Father calls us to be missionaries and explorers in the new media,” Osman said.

“In Pope Benedict XVI’s World Day of Communication message he said that new technologies are not only changing the way we communicate, but communication itself, so much so that it could be said that we are living in a vast cultural transformation. A new way of learning and thinking, which presents unprecedented opportunities,” Osman said.

She said, like evangelists throughout history, we must go where the people are; we must become “digital missionaries” in the “digital continent” spawned by the ever-evolving technology.