(120) Backing of the Pastor Critical to the Diocesan Men's Conference

Dear faithful Pastor:

            First of all, thank you so much for giving your life to the God, His Church, and to us.  Your work is so important and crucial in being another Christ in bringing us Mass, the sacraments, counseling us, teaching us, overseeing parish groups, and managing the parish, an enterprise just as challenging as running a business enterprise or other organization.  Your duties in running one or two or even three parishes often with a school and other services can be overwhelming while keeping up with the indispensable Liturgy of the Hours.  Through your most noble vocation over your career you will have brought the Lord’s mercy to hundreds if not thousands of souls and help them along the narrow and often difficult road to salvation.  May God reward you richly and use all of the trials, crosses, and frustrations of your crucial job to make you a saint.  Again my deepest gratitude.

            May I ask your help in promoting it through a parish representative and other laymen.  A deacon or associate pastor can also help.  We realize that you cannot do it alone with all of your many responsibilities.  Please permit me to impose upon your time with the following write-up of mine on the importance of the Conference and resources for promoting it.  By now you should have received at least one poster and a packet of brochures for each one of your parishes.  If not please contact Roger Huck by e-mail at huck4816@roadrunner.com or call him at home 740- 984-2234 or his cell at 740-336-9128.

BACKING OF THE PASTOR CRITICAL TO THE DIOCESAN MEN’S CONFERENCE

A poster of the 2013 Charlotte Men's Conference in which two of our past speakers participated.  The poster sums up what the Men’s Day of Renewal is all about.

            It is the role of the father to assume spiritual leadership in the family, but in many if not most cases, the mother assumes that role.  As Danny Abramowicz, 2012 Conference speaker and former All-Pro wide receiver for the New Orleans Saints, says, “The men have dropped the ball”.  If the father takes the spiritual lead, the probability that the children will men witness to each other.  Setting the men on fire means stronger families which in turn means the remain faithful to the Church in later life doubles or triples.  The Church in American may be losing a generation of youth.  The men must become the pillars of the parish, not only the women.  The men must step up.  Thus it is crucial to reach the men and the Diocesan Men’s Day of Renewal plays an important part because the enthusiasm generated is contagious.  The renewal of the parish.

          The Diocesan Men’s Day of Renewal will be held on Saturday March 18 from 9 am to 3:30 pm at St. Stephen’s Church in Caldwell.  The Conference will open with a Holy Hour before the Blessed Sacrament.  The featured speaker is Capt. Guy Gruters, nationally known author and dynamic speaker.  In his morning talk Guy Gruters will reveal how his faith and trust in God carried him through his ordeal as a Prisoner of War in the notorious “Hanoi Hilton” and other camps in North Vietnam for five years.  Since bitterness is self-destructing, he will share in the afternoon talk how he learned to show mercy and forgive his brutal captors who tortured him and deal with people in a business environment.  The participants will discover how they can apply mercy, forgiveness, faith, and trust to their daily lives as sources of strength in difficult times and a means to grow in holiness.  Capt. Gruters is a 4^th Degree member of the Knights of Columbus. 

Drawing from his diverse experience and being a father of seven children, he will also touch on “Leadership and Teamwork in the Family, Church, and the Community”.  He is the author of the book, “Locked Up With God”.

          Bishop Monforton will give a talk and preside at Mass.  Confession with a Penance Service is also offered.  A bag lunch will be served.  This is a hard sell for many men, but the Lord will help us.  If we can mobilize an average of 10 men from every parish in the diocese, this event would be a smashing success! 

          The Ideal. We have found that when the pastor enthusiastically backs the Men’s Conference, participation of the men significantly increases.  The ideal is for the pastor to accompany his men; we need confessors.  This is a great opportunity to become closer to the men and know them better.  This helps parish solidarity as the men also get to know each other better.  For those in the southern end of the diocese, the distance might be great, but that makes the Conference a Lenten sacrifice and gives it a pilgrimage flavor with enjoyable fellowship, discussion about points brought out, and prayer such as the rosary and the Divine Mercy Chaplet.

          For example, Fr. Walter Heinz, pastor emeritus of Sacred Heart Pomeroy was an imposing figure.  According to one of the men of the parish, he simply told the guys: “It’s all paid for and we’re going”.  They did.  It was hard to tell him, no.  He heard confessions while there and returned in time for his Saturday evening Mass. 

We cannot expect the already busy and overworked pastor to constantly promote the Diocesan Men’s Day of Renewal.  We are grateful that many promote the Conference as bulletin blurbs, the brochure as a bulletin insert, including a prayer for its success in the Offertory Petitions at daily and Sunday Mass, give plugs from the pulpit after Sunday Mass, etc.  The pastor cannot do it alone; he needs the help of the laity.  However there is much the pastor can do with little effort on his part.

Useful Resources. The pastor can utilize our Conference Blog at http://diosteubmen.blogspot.com.  This year the series (updated over time) will begin with Blog #111 – Overview; and continue with 112) Ad Form; 113) Diocesan Press Release #1; 114) Possible Short Bulletin Announcements; 115) Promotion Ideas; 116) Functions & Crucial Importance of the Parish Rep; 117) Sign Up Sheet; 118) Sample Bulletin Insert; 119) Diocesan Press Release #2; 122) Example of an After Mass Talk By a Layman; 123) Possible Pulpit Announcements; 124) Diocesan Press Release #3 125) Catholic Newspaper Press Release; 126) Secular Press Release; 127) Our Ad in the Program Pamphlet; and 128) Highlights of the 2017 Men's Conference. 

The bottom of the home page of the diocesan website at www.diosteub.org has a link to the brochure and Additional Information.  You should have received by now a poster and a packet of brochures for each of your parishes.  If not, please inform me.  For your convenience you will find attached 1) the Conference brochure with a 2) registration forms, 3) Additional Information, 4) Sample Bulletin Announcements, 5) Promotion Ideas, and 6) Functions of the Parish Representative.

There are also interesting articles on men’s spirituality at diosteubmen.blogspot.com, along with summaries of past talks, and other information.  After the Conference and throughout the year, articles will be added to help the men keep in good spiritual shape.  Clergy, Religious, and knowledgeable layman are invited to submit articles.  

Many if not most men will hardly notice the brochure as a bulletin insert, poster, bulletin blurbs, etc. although they are indeed important and helpful.  What they can’t miss is the one-on-one personal selling by their peers, i.e., talking it up.  The most effective form of advertising or promotion is word of mouth.  Most effective is the witness of men who have gone to a previous Conference.  What is needed is a little “arm twisting” figuratively.  And of course there’s Facebook, Twitter, texting, and the old fashioned phone calling.

The Parish Representative is crucial.  As in any organization, the executive must delegate as much as possible.  The key is to ask one or two good men to be parish representatives.  If one of them is a knight, he could have access to the local council of the Knights of Columbus.  Their main job is to promote the Conference, mainly by one-on-one personal selling, register the men, and organize them to go together in the parish van, car pool or bus.  He also helps the pastor to utilize the resources mentioned in the previous paragraph as submitting blurbs and an insert for the Sunday bulletin.  The parish rep can try to talk to each man in the parish before and after Mass or Stations of the Cross or other devotions, during fish fries, at parish or Knights of Columbus meetings, and other activities.  Please send the names, e-mail address, and phone number of the chosen parish representative(s) to both “Don Coen - Chair Diocesan Men's Day of Renewal” donandmargcoen@yahoo.com and to me at paulrsebastian@yahoo.com.

The deacon may be the parish representative as in the case of St. Paul’s and Christ the King in Athens.  Or the deacon may supervise the promotional efforts of  two or three laymen.

Men may register individually or the parish representative may collect the registration forms with payment and send them to Roger Huck; %Men’s Day of Renewal, P.O. Box 54; Beverly, OH 45715.  This would save considerable time waiting at the door on the morning of the Conference.  Checks for the Registration cost of $25.00 per person are to be made payable to the Diocese of Steubenville with “Men's Day of Renewal” written on the memo line of the check.   If any man would like to go, but can’t afford it, we’ll find a way.

Once the Conference is over, the clergy and religious of the diocese are invited to submit for the Conference Blog at http://diosteubmen.blogspot.com articles or copies of homilies that are particularly appropriate for men’s spirituality.