SALT LAKE CITY — Saturday, June 15, the Catholic Diocese of Salt Lake City, through the Office of Stewardship and Development, is preparing to celebrate a "Diocesan Stewardship Day" at Saint Vincent de Paul Catholic Church.
The event will have Spanish and English sessions.
The Most Reverend John C. Wester, Bishop of Salt Lake City, will lead the Morning Prayer and offer opening remarks. Both will be bilingual.
Martin Alcocer, a Cathedral of the Madeleine parishioner, helped organize the Spanish sessions. Presenters will be Father Martin Diaz, pastor of Saint Therese of the Child Jesus Parish, and Father Marco Tulio, administrator of San Felipe Parish in Wendover, with the themes of "Stewardship Treasurers" and "Living our Faith with Commitment."
"We are very happy and excited because both sessions are very important and interesting. I think they will very much encourage the attendees," said Alcocer.
Alcocer mentioned that this type of event is very good for the community because many Spanish-speaking Catholics in Utah are migrants and "back in our home countries our elders used to be in charge of reminding us and reinforcing in us the importance of our faith, and to be in solidarity with our church all the time," said Alcocer, adding that when migrants arrive in the United States they lose that aspect of faith development.
"Sometimes we don’t take seriously our responsibilities and our role as faithful Catholics," said Alcocer. "Our Bishop has told us to live always our faith, knowing that we all are part of a community, not only as a person who just goes to Mass once a week, and the rest of the week they don’t do anything more. The bishop calls us to be community and to work together."
Christine Sharer, also a Cathedral parishioner, helped organize the English part of the stewardship day. Among the topics are "Gift Discernment," "Lay Witness Talk," "Stewardship of Treasure" and "Stewardship Themes in Luke’s Gospel."
"We will have a series of lay witnesses who are going to do lay witness talks," said Sharer, who is also one of the speakers, with Fr. Martin Diaz and Deacon Mike Bulson. "We will also discuss the theme for stewardship for next year, which is around Saint Francis’ spirituality, as well as the quote from St. Francis’ prayer ‘It is in giving that we receive,’ and we’ll talk about how that theme could be carried out in the parish," said Sharer.
All Catholics should participate in the day because "our Bishop has a very long-range vision for stewardship, and I think his intent, over time, is that every parish in the diocese will be using stewardship language, will be having stewardship activities and will be exploring the spirituality of stewardship," Sharer said. "I also think that part of the bishop’s vision is that we should become stewardship dioceses over the time."
Other dioceses in the United States call themselves stewardship dioceses "and [they] have extraordinary growth in vocations and participation in the creation of extraordinarily exciting ministries in their communities, and I think that’s the vision that our Bishop has for the future.... This is the beginning," she said.
Registration deadline for the Diocesan Stewardship Day is June 1. Register and pay online at www.dioslc.org/stewardship or mail checks, payable to "the Office of Stewardship and Development," to 27 C St., Salt Lake City, UT. The $15 fee includes lunch and materials. For information, call Sandy Growe at 801-328-8641 ext. 366.
What: Diocesan Stewardship Day
When: Saturday, June 15, 10 a.m. – 3 p.m.
Where: St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church’s Holy Family Hall and Benvegnu Center, 1375 E. Spring Lane, SLC
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