Several Catholic educators experienced a trip of a lifetime recently after they attended an international conference that focused on building up the faith through presentations from inspirational speakers.
Six employees from Holy Trinity Catholic School Division attended the Anaheim, California-based Religious Education Congress, a four-day event that the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles has held since 1967. The conference is considered the largest gathering of Catholics in the United States, with roughly 400,000 people attending.
The theme this year was “be loved.”
The group from Moose Jaw — nicknamed “The Anaheim Angels” — included Chantelle Burch, Lisa Busta, Monique Byers, Carter Davis, Jason Fisher and Casey Yeomans.
Busta, Fisher and Davis spoke about their trip during the recent board meeting.
“It was a trip of a lifetime. It’s one where I would go back as many times as I could … ,” said Davis, vice-principal at St. Agnes. “I walked into the building and the attitudes and the passion and the excitement (were) contagious.”
He attended presentations by Rev. Richard Leonard, Rev. Tony Ricard and educator Terry Hershey and took away the messages that churches should be engaging, kids should be seen as the Church’s present, communicating with stories is important, teachers should meet students where they are instead of attempting to change them, and if kids enjoy singing or writing, they should pray using those channels.
“The Mass we went to on a Sunday was electrifying. It was two hours long (and) it was singing the whole time … and it was in different languages too,” Davis added.
Other ideas that stuck with the attendees included churches need to be noisy with kids; churches should pray and not just talk about it; parishes should stop stressing about what services look like — don’t worry if a candle goes out — and focus on what they’re saying; people should always greet kids with love; and people should thank those who care for them.
“So many people have prayed for us … (and) we need to show and tell them that we have answered their prayers through our words and actions,” said Busta, the division chaplain.
This was Busta’s third time attending and she still acquired something new. She felt called to research St. Benedict because of the volume of images that were there of him, while she learned that taking care of oneself in ministry is important because even Jesus experienced burnout and took regular retreats.
Another speaker was Rev. Gregory Boyle, the founder of Homeboy Industries, the largest gang rehabilitation and re-entry program in the world, continued Busta. It has operated for 30 years and has been a beacon of hope in Los Angeles by providing training and support to former gang members and ex-convicts.
Some of his messages included that goodness and welcoming are two principles by which people should live; behaviour does not touch your goodness, nor does it change God’s mind about you; and change is necessary so “woke culture” is not entirely against the Catholic faith.
Busta recalled a story that Boyle told about how he forced two rival gang members to work together. One was later shot, while the other asked if he could donate blood because of the friendship they had developed — only to learn the former rival had died.
“Man, what a story. It was heartfelt,” she added.
Fisher, the vice-principal of Sacred Heart, said four quotes that stuck with him were “Behaviour does not change goodness,” “God is OK with mess,” “With God, it is not where you start but where you finish,” and “universal church, not uniform church.”
Fisher noted that he sometimes struggles to convince teachers to volunteer their classes to run school masses because they don’t want to mess up or are nervous. However, he pointed out that if people’s hearts are in the right place — if the intent is there — then missteps don’t matter.
The next Holy Trinity board meeting is Monday, April 8.
