Dear St. Catherine Parish Family,
This weekend I will be away at a conference hosted by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops called “The Joy of the Gospel in America." There will be about three thousand people in attendance, including many bishops and priests. The conference will include presentations by several notable speakers who will focus on aspects of the Church’s mission of evangelization. Some of the more well-known speakers include Bishop Robert Barron, Curtis Martin, Carl Anderson, and Jason and Crystalina Evert. Some of you may not be familiar with all these speakers, so I want to take an opportunity to tell you a little about the work that they are doing and offer you some resources to explore.
First, Bishop Robert Barron is a phenomenal teacher and evangelist and is the founder of Word on Fire Ministries. He is using the new media to preach the gospel across the globe. He is probably best known for his excellent YouTube videos. I would highly encourage you to visit his website, wordonfire.org, to explore his resources further.
Next, Curtis Martin is the founder of FOCUS (Fellowship of Catholic University Students). FOCUS has been doing tremendous work on college campuses throughout the country for many years, forming young people to be more faithful Catholics and calling them to live the gospel to the full. The work that they are doing is really exciting, and I would encourage you to visit their website, www.focus.org, to learn more about their ministry and how you might be able to support them.
Carl Anderson is the head of the Knights of Columbus. Many of you are already familiar with the work that the Knights of Columbus do locally, in our parish, but you may not be familiar with the important national and international work that the Knights are doing. You can visit their website, www.kofc.org, for more information about them.
Finally, Jason and Crystalina are involved in the important work of promoting the Church’s teaching on love, marriage, and human sexuality through an organization called the Chastity Project, which helps mainly young people to understand the beauty of God’s plan for their lives. You can find out more about their work at www.chastityproject.com.
Please pray for me this weekend while I am away. I hope to be able to return with some more information and resources about the exiting work of evangelization that is happening in the Church in the United States.
