AMDG
Feedback, Evaluation, and
Analysis
Members of the Steering
Committee from left to right Paul Sebastian (Public Relations, Fr. Tim Shannon
(Chaplain & Liaison with the Diocese), Raph Maloney, Roger Huck (Publicity),
Don Cohen (Chair), and Deacon Chuck Schneider (former chair). Not pictured are Jim Hartlage, Jim Birong, Kevin Shutler,
Ron Saling, and Mark Nehrbas. All
promote the conference in their home parish and other churches in their deanery,
help with decision making, and perform other tasks. One member or another will recruit and
coordinate with the speaker along with the Chair.
Paul Sebastian interpreted, analyzed, drew conclusions, and summarized the data that Roger Huck gathered. It shows below that without a doubt the fruits testify that it all was worth the blood, sweat, and tears that we put into this since 2009 (11 conferences). The Steering Committee did a real service to the diocese and the members have become quite efficient in putting these on without excessive effort (the frequency of our meetings are minimal……about three times a year). Roger Huck has provided a great infrastructure for the production and printing of tri-folds, posters, and program brochures, not to mention sending out letters, collecting registrations, and tabulating feedback and attendance, mobilizing the men of his parish to attend, etc. He does the work of two or three men.
The
members of the Steering Committee are tired, perhaps exhausted and burnt out from over ten years of
this, but it’s worth it…….a real service to our diocese that we can rightly be
proud of. The question is this: “Can you
serve the Lord better doing something else?”
Our country and our Church are hurting badly and the men need this. God knows how much our country needs
prayer……the pandemic, racial strife, unemployment, so many forest fires, drug
and alcohol addiction, crime, so many Catholics drifting away from the Church,
abortion, a decline in traditional morality, etc
The feedback for the 2020 Men’s Day of Renewal is our best ever. Most impressive was the two men who commented
on their Confession. One had not been to
confession for over 20 years and the other received his First Communion but
never went to confession in his life.
Over the 11 Conferences that the Steering Committee organized and promoted,
there were many like them. We’re in the
business of saving souls as the Lord’s instruments.
Our diocesan Men’s
Conference is really an evangelistic
tool not only to cradle Catholics.
One man, introducing himself as a non-Catholic, commented: “I was very
pleased with the event. Scott Hahn made
his journey to Catholicism very relatable for me”.
The spontaneous accolades
for Dr. Scott Hahn were excellent……..very captivating, my favorite speaker; really good, more like
him, please; the most educated person of the three Men’s Days I attended (3);
great speaker that shared his amazing story of his faith that will help me to be
a better person and Catholic.
Overall the
men were very satisfied and appreciated the conference……thanks to all who
put it on; great renewal; very good; great job (2), thank you (5); good job,
thanks to all for their work; “keeps getting better every year!!!”; loved
everything, great experience; excellent; best of the three I attended; great
program; excellent program, keep up the
good work; looking forward to next year; I look forward to this retreat; thanks
for your hard work and dedication; most appreciated.
There were several complements for having the
conference at the Basilica of St. Mary…….better access to all; a beautiful
church and better venue; keep the men’s conference there; the beautiful church
adds to the experience; loved being at the Basilica; beautiful.
It seems that several longed
for the rosary this year.
One respondent suggested
that we promote the conference in
neighboring dioceses.
As in the past, the
parishes that had the best attendance had one of our Steering Committee members
in the trenches, selling the conference to their men one on one. This shows that at least one aggressive parish representative in every parish is crucial. We have
failed to recruit a parish representative in most parishes.
Holy Family, Steubenville – 11
The rest of the Steubenville area --with its high concentration of
Catholics and larger parishes-- was very disappointing. Triumph of the Cross had 8. St. Peters only 2.
Our Lady of Mercy, Carrolton - 13
Jim Birong belongs there.
St. Louis, Gallipolis – 14 Paul
Sebastian belongs there.
Basilica of St. Mary, Marietta – 26 Jim
Hartlage and Raph Maloney belong there. (Home
Turf).
St. Bernard, Beverly – 25 That’s
Roger Huck’s parish. He’s amazing.
St. Stephen, Caldwell – 10; Belle Valley had 2; and Fulda also had
2. They did better when they had home
turf in previous years.
St. Mary’s, St. Clairsville – 7
I was gratified that the
parishes of my Nativity of Mary Deanery did much better than previous
years. Far away Ironton came through
with 7 men. St. Paul, Athens had 8 and
Christ the King, Athens had 7. Sacred
Heart, Pomeroy had 4. When Fr. Heinz (an
imposing figure) was pastor at Sacred Heart, he would personally bring a large
contingent of men. Maintaining
communications with the parish representatives and pastors was a help.
More help is needed from our Knights of Columbus councils in
mobilizing their men to come.
The St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology did a good job of
recruiting men from within the diocese and beyond even into West Virginia and
one from near Pittsburgh.
Overall
the Conference should have attracted
more than 236 men with such a nationally and
internationally renowned speaker as Dr. Scott Hahn. True it was about a week before everything
closed down because of the Coronavirus Pandemic. Perhaps that was a factor. Dr. Hahn planned to fly to Rome in the
afternoon for a speaking engagement at the Angelicum, but was forced to cancel
because of the pandemic. He would have
been in the middle of a major hotspot and it would have been difficult to
return. Under normal conditions we attract
about 180 men. At the same time a number
of men brought their sons and that improved the numbers significantly. Boys less than 18 have been admitted free of
charge since 2018 or so.
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