© 2024
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
An update has been released for the Android version of the WAMC App that addresses performance issues. Please check the Google Play Store to download and update to the latest version.

Thousands Of Catholics Attend Conference In Lake Placid

About 4,000 Catholics gathered in Lake Placid this past weekend to reinforce their faith and hear how they can bring more individuals into the church.
The Inspire: Called to Love vocations summit of the Diocese of Ogdensburg brought six speakers, including four bishops, from the U.S. and Canada to talk about Catholicism in the age of social media and how that and individual parishioners can increase interest in the church.  

Speakers included Auxiliary Bishop of Los Angeles Robert Barron, Archbishop of Gatineau, Quebec Paul-Andre Durocher, and Catholic theologian George Weigel.  

The Diocese of Burlington includes all of Vermont.  Bishop Christopher Coyne’s breakout sessions focused on spirituality and vocations. He says the goal of Inspire is to spread the faith, reinforce the faithful and help people understand that they are more than just a parish.  “The purpose of something like this, and my approach to the talk I gave, was to inspire the people that were in the room to feel good about their faith, to think differently about what we do and to inspire us to live as disciples and good examples of Catholic community so as to attract others and to have people desire to want to become part of our church.”

Reverend William Muench is a retired priest who rode a parish bus from Sacketts Harbor to Lake Placid for the summit.  He says Inspire helps Catholics understand the broadness of the church and their values as Catholics.  “Certainly it is in a unique opportunity. We've got a message. So we spread the message within our own parish and we also feel that that message is so valuable that it can reach out and maybe touch the lives of others.”

Brother Pier Giorgio Pacelli of the Monastery of Our Lady of Mount Carmel is studying to be a Carmelite priest at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.  He was wearing the traditional brown habit of his order with a white mantle.  He calls Inspire a special occasion as the church looks to its future.   “Well you know we're moving into a different sort of period of history in the Catholic Church and we don't necessarily take for granted the same things that we used to in terms of family connections to our faith. And then to really inspire people to come to believe that faith is something that you have to find for yourself and to share that with others and to really be truly self inspired to live your faith and to live your faith well in this 21st century.”

During the lunch break James and Colleen Akey were outside the Olympic Center talking with other Catholics.   “It helps us who believe. It does inspire us. The theme is vocations, getting people to respond to the call to serve in the church in whatever capacity.  But it also, because of that, I think can help draw people into the fold. If God is calling them we can maybe facilitate that.”

Colleen: “There's a breakout session for the youth. They've made an effort to kind of meet everybody at their level and it's just a beautiful and brilliant plan to hold this and to draw people from all over the diocese. And I think it's like your multi-vitamin you know. You may be faithful but it doesn't hurt to get a little boost. It has been inspiring.

St. Joseph’s and St. Patrick’s Church is in Utica, NY.  Roseann Witowski is the chair of the vocations committee at the merged church.   “I think all religions are having their problems now. We've got a very secular society. One of the things that Bishop Barron did say in his talk today is 80 percent of the Catholics don't even go to Mass on Sundays. So we have to have people to start going back to church. It's all starts with prayer and going to church.”

The Inspire: Called to Love Summit ended with a celebration of Catholic Mass in the 1980 Olympic Arena.
 

Related Content