Diocesan Pastoral Congress offers day of personal and professional faith development

Friday, Sep. 25, 2015

DRAPER — The 2015 Diocese of Salt Lake City Pastoral Congress on Sept. 19 gave Utah Catholics a chance to gather at the Skaggs Catholic Center for a day of faith-filled opportunities for inspiration and education.

Among the almost 600 people who attended were many diocesan catechists who were fulfilling their ongoing education requirement.

“As a catechist, you need to feel rejuvenated and to start fresh every year, and this is a way to start the year,” said Rose Berry, who is in her fourth year teaching religious education at Saint Mary Parish in West Haven. 

Berry appreciated the “Sowing the Seeds of Faith: Praying with Children in the Classroom Setting” workshop presented by Lisa M. Orchen because it included information such as making a gratitude journal, “that I could not only incorporate at home but I could incorporate in my CCD class,” she said.

Berry’s fellow CCD teacher, Colleen Pike, said she looks forward to the Pastoral Congress every year for inspiration in her personal faith journey as well as in her teaching ministry. This year, she particularly liked the “joyful presentation” by Father Kenneth Vialpando, pastor of Saint Joseph Parish in Ogden, she said, “because he walks the talk. I’m not even in his parish, but I’ve seen the things he’s done and I wanted to be there [because of] his joy and spirituality.” 

Like Berry, Pike enjoyed Orchen’s workshop, which gave tips such has how to do prayer in the classroom “good catechesis comes out of a prayerful environment,” she said. 

For Bart Chadaz of Santa Ana Mission in Tremonton, the presentation on stewardship by Father Martin Diaz, pastor of the Cathedral of the Madeleine, was a highlight of day, “and if I come next year I’m going to do more on working on development in the parish,” he said.

The Pastoral Congress, which had tracks in both English and Spanish, was attended by about 580 people, said Susan Northway, director of the diocesan Office of Religious Education, which organized the event.

Many of the workshops were so well attended that “they had to get extra chairs in several classrooms,” Northway said, adding that she also received much positive feedback about the two keynote presenters – Dr. Jennie Weiss Block, OP, D. Min. for the English-speaking group and Dominican Father Jorge Presmanes for the Spanish-speaking contingent. 

Block began her talk by speaking of the 2010 Haitian earthquake, in which many of her friends were killed. She had been scheduled to be in Haiti at the time of the earthquake, but her plans changed.

“You may be wondering where grim topics like natural disasters, massive destruction and untimely deaths fit into a talk on God’s mercy, but bear with me, for I hope what I will share in our time together will speak eloquently of the mysterious ways God’s deep and abiding mercy finds expression in even the worst of circumstances and suffering,” said Block, who for the past eight years has worked as chief of staff and chief advisor to Dr. Paul Farmer, co-founder of Partners In Health. During that time, she had a three-year assignment at the United Nations Office of the Special Envoy to Haiti.

Block introduced her audience to some of the children at Zanmi Beni (“Blessed Friends”), a home for orphaned and abandoned children in Haiti. About half of the 64 children at Zanmi Beni are disabled; all were left homeless after the earthquake, Block said. 

Using Zanmi Beni as an example, Block discussed how Catholics are called to accompany others, offer hospitality, and give hope.

“Accompaniment, hospitality and hope can be concrete expressions of God’s love and mercy,” Block said, but added that these “often require self-sacrifice and discipline, and a willingness to put one’s self aside.”  

“The daily acts of accompaniment and hospitality – walking with, entering into, listening with the ears of our hearts, sharing what we have, pay attention to details, collaborating, waiting, weeping or celebrating, sharing a meal, making a bed for a guest,  – are ordinary acts that reveal the extraordinary love of the God,” she said.