Livestream night at local parishes offers the faithful an opportunity to hear Bishop Solis, Fr. Mike Schmitz

IC photo/Laura Vallejo

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Bishop Oscar A. Solis addresses the faithful during the Jan. 2 livestream event.

Marie Mischel and Laura Vallejo

SALT LAKE CITY — At least a dozen parishes throughout the Diocese of Salt Lake City hosted gatherings on Jan. 2 to listen to a message from Bishop Oscar A. Solis and a livestream of Father Mike Schmitz’s keynote address at SEEK25, the national Catholic conference that was held Jan. 1-5 at the Salt Palace in Salt Lake City.

The opening Mass of SEEK25 was “a beautiful, beautiful scene,” said Bishop Solis, who celebrated the Mass along with more than 500 priests and bishops.

The more than 15,000 people attending the Mass were gathered “in deep prayer, manifesting that they were filled with joy and enthusiasm,” he added in his livestreamed message on Jan. 2. The Catholics of all ages were “enjoying the fellowship of one another. The Mass is a wonderful, wonderful manifestation of the great love of the people of God.”

The Mass also was “a reflection of the Catholic Church that is alive, vibrant, full of faith, joy and enthusiasm in professing and manifesting their faith in the Lord,” he said.

 The bishop’s hope for the Diocese of Salt Lake City is that local Catholics “evangelize, and for one another to evangelize the evangelizers in order that we become who God calls us to be,” he said.

For Christian believers who encounter God, “grace is so powerful that it cannot be contained but it needs to be shared with one another. That is the spirit of evangelization; that is the reason the Church exists. And most of all, that is who we are – called by God, chosen and sent out to become the missionary disciples of Christ in our world,” he said.

In his address, Fr. Schmitz spoke about the fact that “every sin is an attempt to be happy apart from God.”

The effect of sin is four-fold, he said: It causes a darkening of the intellect, a weakening of the will, an inclination to sin and, finally, death.

However, the Good News proclaims that God sent his Son, and people have the choice to accept salvation, he said. “The good news is we get what we choose: If you want God because of Jesus, you get God. … Are we asking Jesus to save me … or are we asking God to just leave me alone? Because if that’s what we want, I’m afraid that the day will come when we get what we’ve asked for.”

According to reports from the parishes, more than 300 people gathered in locations from Tooele to Park City, Brigham City to St. George to listen to the Jan. 2 presentations. Others listened online; so many that the server hosting the streaming was overwhelmed and crashed briefly.

Parishioners from the Cathedral of the Madeleine and Saint Rose of Lima gathered at the diocesan Pastoral Center for the Jan. 2 event.

The message that choosing worldly things “will make you feel more lonely than choosing God” resonated with Christ the King parishioner Luzelina Alamilla, who joined several other young people from her parish in a classroom in the church to hear the presentations. When she reads her Bible and attends Mass, “I definitely feel closer [to God] than when I used to go out or anything like that. … I feel like this conference really did open my eyes and help me out,” she said.

She also liked Fr. Schmitz’s reminder to not be a slave to sin, and that “I exist because God chose me to be here,” she said. “You can feel very small in a world that has a lot of people … but with God you’re always going to be number one; everyone is going to be number one to him.”

The opportunity to hear a message from Bishop Solis was appreciated by parishioners of Saint Mary of the Assumption in Park City, said the pastor, Father Christopher Gray.

Following the presentation, parishioners approached him to say how much they liked hearing from the bishop, saying, “‘Hey, Father, that was really interesting; I’ve never had that kind of experience with the bishop before,” Fr. Gray said. “I think that it was a hugely successful event, and I hope that we as a diocese will consider doing more things like this.”

At Saint Joseph Parish in Ogden, “the place we were holding it was packed,” said Father Joshua Santos, pastor, adding that participants of all ages came from Huntsville’s St. Florence Mission as well. They began their evening with dinner and socializing, then heard the presentations and afterward had a discussion, he said.

For the parishioners who were unable to go to the conference in person, to be able to see it online was an opportunity to be spiritually with those at the Salt Palace, Fr. Santos said. He expects that those from St. Joseph and St. Florence who participated in the conference, most of whom were young people, to “be a missionary after this, and to be leaders among their peer group. That’s why we’re already making plans of giving them tasks on how they could execute the things that they have learned.”