Fr. Robert Barron to speak at ministry conference in SLC

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SALT LAKE CITY — Father Robert Barron, known for his Word on Fire ministry, will be the closing keynote speaker during the Cathedral Ministry Conference, which will be held in Salt Lake City in January.

The public is invited to Fr. Barron’s address; there will be a separate admission fee for those who wish to attend only his presentation.

Fr. Barron’s talk, "Proclaiming Christ to a Secular Culture," will focus on how to "express the faith in a way that people today would find compelling, when there are so many objections and so much secularism and indifference," he said, adding that he will base his presentation on Pope John Paul II’s description of the new evangelization as being "new in its ardor, expression and methods."

New media such as YouTube are excellent ways to evangelize, said Fr. Barron, who was recently appointed rector-president of Mundelein Seminary/University of St. Mary of the Lake. He regularly posts video and commentary on the Internet, and "I get so many comments from people that are negative, secularists, rationalists, people that hate religion, but I like that because it means that I’m getting outside the walls of the church and then I can engage people, I can respond to them, I can have a counter-question. These are people that otherwise I would never have reached and I reach them through the Internet. Most of my viewers on the YouTube videos are men in their 20s and 30s and what I love about that is that’s a group the Church doesn’t reach very well."

A cathedral is a prime location for evangelization, not only because it’s the bishop’s church but also because many of those who attend Mass and other events there are visitors or travelers, Fr. Barron said.

Monsignor Joseph M. Mayo, rector of the Cathedral of the Madeleine, agreed.

"The cathedral has 3,000 to 4,000 people pass through it on Sundays, but not all of them are parishioners," Msgr. Mayo said. "We’re everybody in Utah’s parish. The cathedral is an icon of the Catholic Church in Utah, and ... people expect a cathedral to be a better church than all the other churches."

Learning just how to do things better is the reason for those involved in cathedral ministry to attend the biennial conference, Msgr. Mayo said. They also share best practices. For example, Saint Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City is under renovation inside and out right now, and the rector will attend the conference. "He’s spending $180 million right now – the whole place is surrounded in scaffolding," Msgr. Mayo said. "I just want to talk to him about it: ‘Where did you get the money? Who’s helping you? How is this being organized?’"

This is the first year that the conference, which was started in 1998, will be hosted by the Cathedral of the Madeleine.

"The cathedral is a bright star in North America, as someone said, because of our choir school and the beauty of the cathedral," Msgr. Mayo said. "It’s one of the most beautiful cathedrals in the west because of its art – its windows and decoration – and its music."

The Madeleine Choir School is the only boy/girl choir school in the United States, Msgr. Mayo pointed out. "They are a huge draw. People amazed that we have this. They really help to enhance the liturgy of the church and a cathedral should be about good liturgy."

Another of the conference’s keynote speakers will be Sister Patricia Wittberg, a Sister of Charity of Cincinnati, Ohio. She will address "From Generation to Generation: Passing on our Faith."

People who grew up in different time periods think about Catholicism differently, Sr. Patricia said. "They have different expectations of religion, different hungers."

Her talk, she said, is "mostly a plea for understanding." She also plans to address how to reach out to those – especially young people and women – who no longer go to church.

This in the first generation of the Catholic Church in the United States where men in their 20s are more likely to be devout than women of that age, Sr. Patricia said.

"You have to understand the spiritual hungers, the physical hungers, the things that these people are missing, and then you offer it," she said. "The most important thing that we can do is to figure out how to reach them before they get too far away. And there are ways to do that."

The 2013 Cathedral Ministry Conference will be Jan. 7-10 at the Salt Lake Marriott Downtown at City Creek. For information or to register, visit www.cathedralministry.org.

Tickets for Fr. Barron’s closing keynote address on Jan. 10 at 9 a.m. will be available separately for $7.50 in advance or $10 at the door. For information, contact Laurel Dokos, Cathedral of the Madeleine, 801-328-8941.