Conference draws cathedral ministers from across the U.S. to Salt Lake diocese

Intermountain Catholic

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Monsignor M. Francis Mannion (left center), who was rector of the Cathedral of the Madeleine as it underwent a $9.7 million renovation from 1991 to 1993, conducts a tour on Jan. 8 for Cathedral Ministry Conference participants. IC photo/Jenn Sparks

SALT LAKE CITY — Almost 100 people from 37 dioceses across the United States – and one in Canada – attended the four-day Cathedral Ministry Conference in Salt Lake City Jan. 7-10. The biennial conference offers workshops and keynote speakers, but participants said the chance to meet others who share their same concerns was the most valuable part of the conference.

"They want to see how different cathedrals do their ministry," said Monsignor Joseph M. Mayo, rector of the Cathedral of the Madeleine, which hosted the conference for the first time in its history. For example, during a workshop he presented on the sacraments, the discussion turned to quinceañeras, and a participant from the southern U.S. had never heard of this coming-of-age ceremony for Hispanic girls, Msgr. Mayo said.

Among those at the conference was Monsignor Robert T. Ritchie, rector of St. Patrick’s Cathedral in the Archdiocese of New York City. This was the third time he has attended this particular conference, and "It’s a good interchange of ideas and meeting people who do the same thing I do back home," he said. "We all have the same problems – money, upkeep, roofs, all of those things."

Among the workshops he was looking forward to was "Ten Secrets of Highly Successful Cathedral Websites," presented by Maria Laughlin of St. James Cathedral in the Archdiocese of Seattle.

"We just created a new website and we’re pretty happy with it, but we always have some little problems so I want to hear what other people have to say," Msgr. Ritchie said.

For Terri Merkley, who is the receptionist at St. John’s Cathedral in Boise, Idaho, one of the conference’s highlights was the keynote presentation by Father Michael G. Ryan, which discussed the multiple roles cathedrals can play.

"He just had lots of ideas on what a cathedral should be, on how it could be," Merkley said. "It was very inspirational."

She also enjoyed talking with staff from other cathedrals, she said. "There’s something unique about the cathedrals because they’re in downtown areas."

About 50 percent of the people she deals with daily are not cathedral parishioners, they’re visitors or transients looking for assistance, she said. "It’s a unique ministry that they don’t have out in the suburbs, so to be able to talk to somebody else who works in one of those downtown churches, which are often the cathedrals, to me was what I was excited about."

Likewise, Father Glenn Dion, rector of the Holy Rosary Cathedral in Vancouver, British Columbia, said he enjoyed Fr. Ryan’s presentation and also the chance to network. One aspect of Fr. Ryan’s keynote that also was a topic of discussion, Fr. Dion said, was that cathedrals can be "a pulpit that has a bite to it" and "we hope the bishops see that as part of the ministry of the cathedral."

The conference provided a chance to "bring information back to our own cathedral, to possibly implement there," said Barb Foss of the Cathedral of Saint Andrew in Grand Rapids, Mich., adding that she was particularly interested in the workshop on fundraising.

Msgr. Mayo said organizers were pleased with the conference, particularly because many of those who attended were there for the first time. "This is exactly the convention that they aspire to because they get ideas about what other cathedrals are doing, which of course is the purpose of the convention," he said. "They want to see how different cathedrals do it."