Over 350 Archdiocesan Men’s Conference attendees urged to evangelize

By Tim Montgomery For The Catholic Spirit

More than 350 men from across the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis gathered for Mass, speakers, songs and prayers March 18 at the first Archdiocesan Men’s Conference since 2019.

Many voiced their support for Archbishop Bernard Hebda’s post-Synod pastoral letter released in November, “You Will be My Witnesses: Gathered and Sent from the Upper Room.”

The Catholic Watchmen movement sponsored the day at All Saints in Lakeville, said Deacon Gordon Bird, a conference organizer and Catholic Watchmen leader. “It’s in step with what we’ve been trying to do for a long time in this crisis of spirit — to promote authentic fatherhood and encourage men to step up more,” he said.

The conference’s theme, Men of Faith Walking Together — Raising the Bar, and its focus on men as small group leaders of their families, dovetailed with the archbishop’s pastoral letter which, among other initiatives, supports families as the primary small group. The letter also called for, and has spurred creation of, Synod Evangelization Teams from each parish to “begin the process of creating or growing small group ministries that fosters personal relationships, builds community, and provides formation to help parishioners grow as joyful missionary disciples of Christ.”

Archbishop Hebda celebrated the Mass. His homily centered on the humility needed to realize God’s gifts. Humility is the door through which virtues enter people’s lives, the archbishop said.

Likening the archdiocese’s revitalization efforts through small group evangelization to the tale of a magnificent monastery in Germany, the archbishop told how the monastery flourished for a thousand years until it was suppressed, separated from the Church, and reduced to a building with two monks and a cow. The two monks were committed in their humility to rebuild, the Lord blessed them, and the monastery was restored over time.

“We have the opportunity, brothers, to do amazing things when we put our gifts at the service of the Lord,” the archbishop concluded.

Devin Schadt, co-founder of Fathers of St. Joseph, a Pennsylvania-based apostolate that works for the renewal of authentic fatherhood, gave the keynote address. His daughter Anna Marie, one of five children, was left dependent on a wheelchair for mobility after a delay in medical treatment left her with brain damage, Schadt said. In that situation and others, he has been confronted with his own challenges as a father, he said.

“I hate giving talks,” Schadt began, “because I don’t know your setbacks, your challenges. But I can be a messenger of hope.” Great lives are built with small actions, and sometimes taking little steps is better than waiting for that one big thing before acting, he said.

Using statistics to paint a picture of the importance of fatherhood in America, he said only 1% of the U.S. population consists of Catholic men who attend Mass and pray daily.

This was a wonderful event. It’s a big enough fight out there as it is without us doing anything. As we’re getting downstream, we’ve got kids, grandkids and great-grandkids coming up. You want to do something for them — you want to make sure they have their faith, because society isn’t providing that.

“Spiritual fatherhood is a summons to sacrificial duty,” Schadt said. If the Church is to be renewed, the family must be restored, beginning with the father, he said. Yet how many men are in a state of mortal sin and unable to transmit grace, he asked, citing divorce and preoccupations with pornography.

“Hell is loneliness and isolation,” Schadt said. “The devil leaves us alone with ourselves, and we are tormented.”

Don’t be tempted to think God is against people in their trials and tribulations, Schadt said. “The devil is against you and wants you to ... forget yourself and your spirituality,” he said.

Little steps in life can include rising at dawn and praying in a dedicated spot. “Give yourself to God — just tell him where you’re at,” Schadt said. “He knows, but he wants to talk with you about it.”

Auxiliary Bishop Joseph Williams addressed the men and connected the archdiocese’s priority of cultivating small-group parish ministries with the need to strengthen families. “The primordial small group is the family, and this small group leader is the father,” he said, giving the example of how his physician father attended Mass on a daily basis. Bishop Williams also advocated for more than wordless witness. “The Church exists to evangelize, but most of us are asleep to that vocation,” he said.

Deacon Joseph Michalak, director of the Office of Synod Evangelization, followed with some thoughts on the importance of fraternal care — making places where men can support each other. “We love talking about ‘March Madness’ and politics on the surface, but most of us don’t have that place where we can open up and talk about what’s troubling us,” he said.

Deacon Bird said the men’s conference is a place men can be in community to walk and pray together, energize and equip each other in body and soul.

“We were all being fed in unique ways, spiritually fed — and that was the purpose,” he said.