Archdiocesan Men’s Conference eager to return March 12

By Peter Finney Jr.
Clarion Herald

When 1,100 men shoe-horned themselves into St. Catherine of Siena Church in March 2020 for the Archdiocese of New Orleans Men’s Conference, no one could have predicted that within the next few days, the world was about to change.

By mid-March 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic had triggered a global economic shutdown that also impacted matters of faith. With public gatherings restricted by health and governmental officials, dioceses across the U.S. canceled the public celebration of Mass for months.

Even though plans were made to resume the men’s conference in Lent 2021 as an in-person event, the rise of COVID variants prompted organizers to cancel the live gathering and promote a video series instead.

Long wait is over

But now, the wait is over, says Christopher O’Neill, director of the Office of Marriage and Family Life. The men’s conference will be held in person at St. Catherine of Siena Church, 105 Bonnabel Blvd. in Metairie, on March 12, and registration is open.

“Our planners are just so ready for this,” O’Neill said. “We’re really looking forward to having everybody there.”

This year’s conference theme is “Sons of the Father.”

It will feature keynote addresses from Dr. Chris Baglow, director of the Science and Religion Initiative at the McGrath Institute at the University of Notre Dame; Aulston Taylor, CEO and president of St. Augustine High School and a business strategist; and Jonathan Reyes, senior vice president for evangelization and faith formation for the Knights of Columbus.

“God calls each of us, in a particular way, to responsibility in the world,” O’Neill said.”We’re called to be like him. We’re called to be fathers ourselves. So we’re sons, brothers and fathers.”

O’Neill said one of the goals of the conference is to have men return to their parishes and stay connected with each other and build their faith through small faith groups. The last 23 months of the pandemic have made those connections more difficult.

However, O’Neill said, some parishes started engaging men using online conferencing platforms to encourage a continuation of men’s ministry.

“The pandemic definitely took the wind out of our sails, for sure,” O’Neill said. “But we also discovered that even during the pandemic, when we couldn’t have large gatherings, we found it possible to have small groups of four, five, six or seven guys together and have a Zoom meeting and work through a program together.”

Regular registration, which costs $45, includes a light breakfast, lunch and a T-shirt. The registration fee is $25 for high school or college students and $20 for seminarians. Registration is available at bit.ly/3GwAWcb.

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