Question of Faith
A weekly question of faith answered by Cleveland Catholics. Fr. Damian Ference, Vicar of Evangelization and Deacon Mike Hayes Director of Young Adult Ministry in the Diocese of Cleveland co-host with frequent guests from the Diocesan Office who join in the conversation. Sponsored by Briefcase Marketing--check them out at https://www.Briefcase.marketing
Question of Faith
Are All Young Adult Conferences the Same?
SPONSOR: Briefcase Marketing
The episode explores the distinctiveness of the Ignite Conference for young adults, highlighting its focus on identity, community, and mission. Through the experiences of the hosts and guests, listeners are encouraged to invite others to join and participate in this transformative journey.
Ignite Conference
February 22, 2005 at St. Ignatius High School
Doors open at 8AM
Eucharistic Procession and Mass at St. Patrick's on Bridge Ave. at 4:30PM
Speakers:
Jackie Angel
Fr. Patrick Schultz
Sr. Mercedes Torres, OP
Episode Highlights
• Discussion on the uniqueness of the Ignite conference for young adults
• Importance of identity in Christ for spiritual growth
• Building a supportive community among young adults
• Emphasis on outreach and mission for living out one's faith
• Overview of the dynamic schedule and key speakers for the conference
• Invitation to attendees to bring others who are seeking a faith community
Church Search: St Columbkille in Parma
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Theology of the Body CLE
St. John Cantius Parish
On today's Question of Faith. Are all young adult conferences the same? Hey everybody, this is Question of Faith. I am Deacon Mike Hayes. I'm the Director of Young Adult Ministry here in the Diocese of Cleveland.
Speaker 2:And I'm Fr Damian Ferencz, the Vicar for Evangelization.
Speaker 3:I'm Joe Vacario and I am the co-founder of Catching Fire Young Adult Ministry and the and the co-founder of Ignite Catholic In-N-Out Conference. Wonderful to have you back, joe. I'm happy to be here. It's been a while.
Speaker 2:I'm so happy to be here, we could edit this out, but isn't it true that since the last time you were on the show, you became engaged?
Speaker 3:Well, I'm actually married now.
Speaker 2:Oh, you're married. I'm't know Congratulations. How's that going?
Speaker 3:It's great Phenomenal. What date did you get married? October 5th, St Faustina's Feast Day.
Speaker 2:Oh.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Wonderful In the wonderful state of South Carolina.
Speaker 3:Yeah, charleston, south Carolina, it's St John the Baptist Cathedral.
Speaker 2:Oh, very cool.
Speaker 3:Beautiful, beautiful.
Speaker 2:Is that where?
Speaker 3:So her family is from Charleston Well, not from Charleston. She's from, originally, columbus, and then her family moved to Charleston area. But there's a whole back story. There was a miracle with her family that occurred at that cathedral on Easter years prior, and so that was a large reason why we went back.
Speaker 1:Very cool, you've got to say a little more about that now.
Speaker 3:So her family. They weren't originally planning to go to Easter Mass at the cathedral that day and Sophia wasn't even there. She was in Ohio at University of Cincinnati, and it just so happened that every part of her family started to went to this mass at the cathedral and it's like 45 minutes away from their home for Easter Mass a few years ago and her dad had a widowmaker heart attack. I don't know if you know anything about that. Well, it's self-descriptive.
Speaker 2:If you have a widowmaker, you're supposed to die.
Speaker 3:You die on the spot. Your heart stops. There's no signs or symptoms. And he did. He just died and everyone was freaking out. He was dead, I think, for seven or eight minutes before they got the AED on the scene brought him back to life. But it was a miracle just because they weren't even originally planning to go to the cathedral for mass, and if they were back at home or anywhere near home they wouldn't have been able to have him resurrected. And then there was a doctor there, apparently on scene, that they still to this day can't find. That helped out a ton. That's very cool on scene.
Speaker 3:That they still to this day can't find that helped out a ton. That's very cool, so, yeah, so it really is a huge reason, I think, why he's here today and why we wanted to get married there. That's a great story. Yeah, I didn't know?
Speaker 2:Yeah, cool, I didn't know that one either. That's great. Yeah, it was incredible, I think you know a guy.
Speaker 2:You know a guy engaged. I just haven't seen you in a while. That's appropriate. That's appropriate Newlyweds, All right. So how about the? So the question of the day is are all young adult conferences the same? Just recently there was the big seek. It was in Utah and in DC. There's a young adult conference, or a few of them, down in Damascus. That happened from time to time. But here you are the co-founder of our own Young Adult Conference and we should say this too. Up until very recently, we did not have a director of young adult ministry in the Diocese of Cleveland. In fact, Deacon Mike Hayes is the first correct.
Speaker 3:Correct, you are the first. Yes, you are.
Speaker 2:And so he's been collaborating with you and a lot of these other young adult leaders to do new and exciting things, and one of these new and exciting things is a young adult conference that happens every other year, correct? So this is the second one and what makes it different than the others.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's a great question, Father. This whole thing from the very beginning, before Deacon Mike showed up, it was just a coalition of random young adult leaders throughout the diocese that just kind of happened to be together in different areas and happen to know each other. Having Deacon Mike show up on the scene, it just really allowed us to all coalesce onto one specific mission within the diocese, which really helped out a lot. And I think one of the things that really spoke to our hearts was specifically for specifically for Ignite was because there's this like weird split between, once you get out, like college age kids that are, I shouldn't say kids anymore, they're adults.
Speaker 3:With the college age young adults that are there, they are seeking something, I would say a little bit differently. That's why I can they call it seek, you know, and the environment there it's very charismatic, it's highly, highly impactful with great talks and you get a lot of you know, feel the spirit moving sort of deal and it's a lot of fun. But then there's kind of like a little gap because right after that, you know, the next like more, I guess national thing you could go to is like a YCP conference, which is a lot more professionally driven and Young Catholic Professionals is YCP Sure, and they do a really good job bringing faith into the workplace, but it's almost like there needed to be a cross between that.
Speaker 3:But there are some young adults who are not professionals.
Speaker 1:Exactly, they do all kinds of work, yeah.
Speaker 3:And I think that's where this is where I think Ignite for Cleveland really kind of stepped forth was, because it's really that that opportunity to be able to have that cross, in my opinion, between like a professional YCP, where you're able to enact your, your, your, enact your, the gifts of the spirit that our Lord has endowed upon you for your own workplace, in your everyday life, but also really have that influential charismatic conference that you would see at a Sikh and it seems to me, too, that the fact that this is regional, it is for our diocese, although people can come from other dioceses in is a big deal, in the same way that we have Francine Costantini, who is the director of our youth ministry, who hosts CLE 216.
Speaker 2:And, yes, there's life team conferences and there's, you know again, damascus and all this, that are more national. This is regional, although we do have national speakers coming in. We do, but it's a way to rally the troops locally as well. And so do you want to talk a little bit more about what's going to be happening there, deacon Mike?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean Joe's really in charge of the show. So I mean we can have them both go. We'll go back and forth here. Tell us about the pillars that we covered throughout the day, yeah.
Speaker 3:So when we first started praying about how Ignite should look, we really thought about what is really quintessential to becoming a formed Catholic adult in a flourishing community.
Speaker 3:We came down to three different pillars and we feel like the first, most important thing for a young adult is to have their identity. So the first thing is identity their identity in Christ, their purpose in life and how that falls in line with our Lord. I think that's really the driving home factor to your foundation in your Christic life. The next would be you have to find a community to support you. So that second pillar is community, because there are going to be ebbs and flows in life. You're going to want people to hold you accountable, you're going to want people to build off of, and I think with that in particular, it's going to allow you to grow in a more effective way. And then I think, finally, the third pillar is mission, and with that we all know that you can't just stay in your homes and have your own little bubble of friends. We're called to be sent forth and to go on mission and evangelize the rest of the world, and so that's what the three pillars are identity, community and mission.
Speaker 1:We've got three fantabulous speakers who will be coming in to talk about those, so we'll start locally with.
Speaker 3:Father Pat Schultz, so he is a local hero for a lot of people that are here. I mean not as high as Father Damien, as we all know.
Speaker 2:Father Patrick Schultz was in my youth group. Did you know that In Hudson he was one of my teens? Oh, that's hilarious.
Speaker 1:That was the only reason he went. That's awesome.
Speaker 2:See how the Lord's good he knows what you need to draw you in.
Speaker 3:Hey right, Sometimes it's attractive women.
Speaker 2:Did you see that Father Stew movie with Mark Wahlberg?
Speaker 3:Yes, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:That's how he got Mark Wahlberg. It was when he was working behind the counter the meat counter. And that beautiful woman walked in Yep yep, and the Lord used that woman to draw him in, to draw him closer, yeah. So beauty works on men.
Speaker 3:I think it does.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's how Schultz is a priest today Anyway.
Speaker 3:I've known him for a long time. He's great.
Speaker 2:He's a better preacher than I am and I'm glad that you have him there. He's wonderful yeah.
Speaker 1:And then Jackie Angel is our big national speaker who's coming in.
Speaker 3:Yep. So Jackie, jackie is the speaker that we're going to be having coming in. She is the big dog that's really coming into town. She works with Father Mike Schmitz over at Ascension Presents and, honestly, if you've seen any of her work, it's phenomenal. She and her husband, bobby Angel.
Speaker 2:That's a great name, by the way, Bobby Angel.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, it sounds like a magician, honestly. Yeah, honestly. But if you see any of their work on YouTube, honestly it's phenomenal for young couples, young married, single young, married, young, single young, anything in that area. They do phenomenal work to be able to really just bring your own understanding of what God is calling to you in your own vocation and how you should share that to the rest of the world. Yeah, great, and Sister Mercedes is coming in. I believe the religious order is Sister Mary, mother of the Eucharist, correct, I believe, because I always butcher that.
Speaker 2:Dominican Sisters of Mary, mother of the Eucharist, in Ann Arbor, michigan.
Speaker 3:Yes, yeah, and this is not her first time in Cleveland. She's come before. She actually spoke at Catching Fire previously and she just lit it up. I didn't know much about her prior, but she's phenomenal when she speaks. It just grabs everyone's attention and she'll have a line of young women coming up to her.
Speaker 2:I think she'll have like 10 women join her order. At the end of the day, her name looks like Mercedes like a Mercedes Benz, but it's Mercedes and she's also been to Cleveland to speak to my young people at Tolle Legge Summer Institute. We always bring in some young religious to give a witness on Wednesdays. In fact, I knew Sister Mercedes and I lived with her in Rome. Oh really. So at the Casa Santa Maria, where the American priests live, there are two convents within this big. It's a 400-year-old convent, so it has all these partitions. All the priests live in this one area and then the Dominican sisters live in another area and the guys would fight over who gets to celebrate Mass for them that week. Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2:So it's better than celebrating all the time, you know. So I lived with her for one year there. They rotate the nuns in. Usually they get one or two years at a time, unless they have a job in Rome, and one of them is like the vice chancellor, vice, something or other, for the Angelicum. So she's been there a while.
Speaker 3:But yeah, those Dominican sisters are pretty cool. Yeah, they're, oh, I love them, and Sister Mercedes, she's purifier, so it's perfect for Ignite.
Speaker 2:Those are three outstanding speakers.
Speaker 1:Priests never fight to hear the nuns' confessions because they say it's like getting pelted with marshmallows.
Speaker 2:I don't talk about hearing confessions too much. That's awesome.
Speaker 1:That's awesome. That's awesome, but yeah, and so what's the day going to be like? So those are our three main speakers. They'll be with us throughout the day.
Speaker 2:And wait. Where is it? St Ignatius High School correct, correct, yes. Free parking yes.
Speaker 3:Yeah, different than last time. Yes, indeed, yeah last time we were at the Marriott One Marriott One of our biggest critiques was the parking.
Speaker 2:So yeah, you've remedied it. You listen to your people.
Speaker 1:We listen you know, we listen.
Speaker 2:So what time does it start and what happens?
Speaker 3:So the doors open at 8am. It starts at it's February 22nd.
Speaker 1:We probably should have prefaced that. Yeah, february 22nd at Saginatious High School, which is a Saturday, so all day Saturday?
Speaker 3:essentially yeah, and so the doors open at eight, the conference starts at 9.
Speaker 1:I believe it goes until 8 or 9 pm. Yeah, so we'll have mass at 4.30. So the formal conference will end with a Eucharistic procession. We'll process through the streets and we'll head down to St Pat's on Bridge and that's where we'll have mass, and then they actually have a nice little sort of social hall across the street and we're going to take over sort of the upper level.
Speaker 2:At Ignatius or St Pat's.
Speaker 1:At St Pat's Okay, and that's very rarely used. Like I have this big ballroom, like we opened it up and we're like, wow, this is a nice little hidden gem.
Speaker 2:I had no idea.
Speaker 1:Yeah, lovely little wood floor I mean it was really lovely, like they opened up. They we don't use this much, but if you want to use it, go ahead, do it. So we'll have a little light dinner after Mass and then praise and worship. After that, with Damascus, worship will be in the church after that. Confessions available for folks.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's really a full-day event.
Speaker 1:It's a full day.
Speaker 3:With three talks, breakout sessions, lunch Mass praise and worship confession. Yeah, it's in a procession. Yeah.
Speaker 2:And in my housemate, Father Eric Garris and I, the vocation director of the diocese, plan to be there all day.
Speaker 3:You're celebrating Mass.
Speaker 2:Yes, because Bishop is having surgery so he's not able. So his little vicar will take care of it and Father Garris will preach it. So it'll be a good tag team and I'll be the deacon of the words. Nice Three in a booth. There we go. I love it. I love it.
Speaker 1:It's great, always good, yeah, and so you've been working really hard on this, and so what are your expectations?
Speaker 3:I think they're different than last time.
Speaker 3:I think last time we had about 250 people show up and I just wanted to keep our heads above water.
Speaker 3:I think that was my hope just to provide something that would entice our young adults to want to come back later.
Speaker 3:This time I really am. I'm a lot more at peace about it than I was the first to go around, and I think it's largely because we have a great team that you know that is doing some really good stuff and taking a lot of work off our plates. But I think what I really desire, and really what I think is going to come out of it is I really do think there's going to be true, you know, transformation of people's hearts from this one, because I do believe the content that we're putting forward is different than anything people have seen before. And I'm truthfully not one for conferences, I'm not one to go to big events and whatnot but I really do feel that the content we're bringing forward, the speakers that we have, are really going to change some hearts and people are going to walk away not only more formed but really on fire to live it out more effectively in their own lives, and whether that's in the Diocese of Cleveland or wherever they're coming from. I really do think that it's going to.
Speaker 1:This is going to set a spark really for them to take off, and it's not often that young adults get together as a cohort right. No, it's very difficult yeah when I first started studying young adults, I said well, where are places that young adults just naturally gather right? And so what we found was that there were very few places. What do you think the top three are? You probably know this the bar, the bar.
Speaker 2:No Concert hall sporting event Someone's house.
Speaker 1:So all those things are true, but those things are also true across ages. Yeah, that's, true, older people go to sporting events, older people go to bars, all things. But, there are places that, in general, young people are just automatically present at Colleges and universities are obviously the biggest one.
Speaker 3:First right they go figure.
Speaker 1:The second one is the military.
Speaker 3:Yeah, All these young people are's the military.
Speaker 1:You know, all these young people were in the military. What's the third one? It's sad actually.
Speaker 3:Prison.
Speaker 1:Correct, oh really, prison is the third one when you said it was sad.
Speaker 2:that was the good one I was going to say the parishes, but yeah.
Speaker 1:We could only hope, joe, we could only hope.
Speaker 2:Last week I was down at Ashland University one of our seven Newman centers in the diocese and I gave a little talk on the bishop's letter and prophetic call. Mary Kate Lowe was the week before on priesthood and then drew quarters this week at King, like the royalness of our baptism, and I talked to the young people about the Ignite Conference and I encouraged them. I said here's what you need to do Not only sign yourself up, but invite somebody else in and I think that would be great for all our young adult ministries not only to get yourself, but maybe someone who's been disconnected or who has never been invited to something before. Invite them to come, because the worst they could say is no.
Speaker 3:Or I didn't like it and I don't think it's going to happen.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but try it Like this is very important because a lot of people don't participate actively in the life of the church because they've never received an invitation. And if you love someone and you're just or maybe you're learning to love someone, just extend the invitation to it could be a great gift and a great grace that could change someone's life, and it's so easy too.
Speaker 3:It could be a great gift and a great grace that could change someone's life. And it's so easy too. It's such a low-hanging fruit, whereas, like they just have to sit, go there and just listen. They don't have to do anything. They can socialize if they want.
Speaker 2:There's, you know, it's, yeah, I totally agree, who doesn't like to be invited to something, especially by another individual? It's way different. I mean, yeah, we need to use social media and have things online in our parish bulletin, but the personal invite is the way that the Lord worked and it's the most effective way. So invite someone in and the worst they could do is reject you. And if they do come, as Joe says, they'll enjoy it. There'll be something, there'll be community there, there'll be sacraments there, there'll be all sorts of things there. So, and it's fun to do an adventure and we like to be in the presence of each other.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and all your meals are taken care of, so you don't even have to do that. If you want a more extensive dinner, you could feel free to go out, but we'll give you a smaller dinner after Mass, which is great.
Speaker 2:Breakfast and lunch. Anybody going out for beers afterwards? Just asking for a friend.
Speaker 1:I'm happy to take you out for a beer.
Speaker 2:Okay, yeah, there's a couple bars, that's awesome. Anyways, that's great.
Speaker 1:So $65. You can sign up online. It's dioceseofclevelandorg slash ignite and you can register there. Register a friend and Joe, thanks for all your hard work.
Speaker 3:No, thank you. I'm so happy and honored to be here and speaking of marketing and social media.
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Speaker 1:Let's take a look at the readings for a presentation of the Lord this coming week. There are animals in the gospel which always gets my attention turtle, doves and pigeons in the gospel which is the sacrifice of a poor person.
Speaker 3:Correct.
Speaker 1:From the book of Leviticus. And so Mary and Joseph bring this offering once they present Jesus in the temple, the offering that only poor people could give the least of what they can do. And yet Simeon still is able to recognize Jesus as the sign of God, even though he appears to be a poor person of no means whatsoever. And so Simeon can recognize Jesus even through all of that. Can we recognize Jesus in the smallest of things?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think from this passage, in particular with Simeon, the fact that his whole life he had been waiting just to see the Christ child, or the Christ in whatever form he was going to come. He, I think, shows such a beauty of reverence to our Lord and the Holy Family and I think it inspires us to think about when we see Christ, whether it's in the tabernacle or at Mass or even in other people, like how do we display ourselves, how do we prostrate ourselves to Christ and to others, because I think it's just such a good image for us and how we should display ourselves.
Speaker 1:We like to talk about my deacon, friend and classmate, Deacon Mark Temeco your high school classmate who recently said that he was lighting candles before mass and he stopped at the altar and he bowed and he lit one candle. And then he bowed and lit the other candle and he turned around. There was an older gentleman in the front row and he appeared to be crying and so he walked over to him and he said I'm sorry, sir, is everything okay? And he said yeah, just no one has such reverence at the altar anymore. I was just really moved by that.
Speaker 2:Thank, you, that's beautiful, isn't that nice, that's awesome. Sometimes, nice, that's awesome. Sometimes, little acts of piety and reverence go a long way, absolutely Indeed. So I was thinking of this simple act of sacrifice, which isn't so simple, but the word sacrifice comes from two Latin words, meaning to make holy. And love is sacrificial by nature. And it starts with the Lord. He loves us so much he gives himself to us. The Father gives us a son, the son gives us himself on the cross and the Eucharist, and that our lives make sense when we receive that sacrifice of the Father and then offer up our hearts as a sacrifice back. And so sometimes, you know, when we think of sacrifice, it takes on a pejorative tone and really I try to always frame it in terms of an act of self-giving love, making oneself a gift for others. And once that happens, then you can say Lord, now you let your servant go in peace, like I've received what I'm made for and I've given what I'm made for, like my heart's finally at rest. I think there's something beautiful there, amen.
Speaker 1:So presentation of the Lord. We'll put those readings in the show notes. Ignite Conference, february 22nd Starts at 8 o'clock. Ignatius High School, lovely venue.
Speaker 2:Not St Colmcille Parish, not St Colmcille Parish, which is our church search for this week. Father Damien reminding me that we didn't do church search. I did that subtly Always. Good, I'm learning.
Speaker 1:So, joe, that's your home parish actually. So tell us a little bit about what you like about St Colmico.
Speaker 3:Well, it's one of many parishes in Parma, so we were very blessed to have so many different parishes there. I grew up at St Colmico pretty much my entire life, but the two things I love there the most one I love our two priests there, father Spicer and Father Anthony Sousa. I think they're phenomenal. They're great shepherds for the parish. And then two, I would say, is the culture, the people that are there. They're very welcoming. You're seeing new faces each and every day. They're really changing in such a profound way. I was recently on a committee there and just over the last few years you can just see how the people that are flowing through the doors are just coming with a new spirit. They're coming more alive and they're walking away just more enlivened than they ever have before. Very nice.
Speaker 2:I was at Father Bill Buhall's father's funeral at St Charles, borneo Parish this past Saturday at 1230, and Father Pat Spicer who's a former student of mine, believe it or not, was sitting behind me and the offertory hymn was Our Lady of Knock. So I'm sitting next to Father Carlin, irish, blind Irish, anderson Irish and Spicer, irish, behind me, and those guys were singing their hearts out. It was really lovely. One of them was even hitting harmonies, so yeah, and the nice thing too.
Speaker 2:You say about the priests there. They're both great priests, but they're so different from each other.
Speaker 3:They are Extremely, which is just wonderful.
Speaker 2:It's the one body, many parts thing. It's just wonderful, so cool. Thank you for being on the show again.
Speaker 3:Joe. Oh, thank you guys for having me.
Speaker 1:Ignite Conference, february 22nd, st Ignatius High School, starts at 8 o'clock, eucharistic procession will lead us to Mass at 4.30, and we'll wrap up the day with praise and worship by Damascus Worship. We'll have this and we'll have a whole lot more next time here on Question of Faith.
