CHARLOTTE — More than 200 men attended the 12th annual Catholic Men’s Conference of the Carolinas, and many others followed it online, in a March 5 event that featured Mass, Eucharistic Adoration, and talks by several gifted speakers.
Keith Nester, a Catholic convert who was a pastor in the United Methodist Church for 20 years, was the first speaker at the conference, which was hosted at St. Thomas Aquinas Church.
Another speaker, John Acquaviva, an author, father, and professor of exercise science at Wingate University, talked about sportsmanship and parenting. He hosts “Faith and Sport” on Carolina Catholic Radio Network as well as “The Fitness Doctor,” a TV program on Time Warner Cable in Union County.
“Sport is beautiful,” he said, and it enriches life and lets us “experience the joy of competing to reach a goal together,” where “success and defeat is shared and overcome.”
Playing with values such as loyalty, fairness, self-sacrifice, teamwork, perseverance, respect, honesty, responsibility, forgiveness and discipline make the competition “fun and natural.”
Tim Staples of Catholic Answers also spoke to conference attendees, describing his own conversion story from the Southern Baptist Church to the Catholic faith.
He developed his speech with three basic questions: Why did God create us? What does it mean to be a man? What does it mean to be a father?
He argued that the values in contemporary culture can sometimes demean and degrade the notion of manhood and fatherhood, effectively “destroying the image and notion of the fatherhood of God.”
Ray Guarendi, the last speaker, recounted a series of anecdotes of what his personal life means as a married man with a wife and 10 adopted children. Guarendi is a clinical psychologist, author, professional speaker and national radio and television host. With his trademark humor, Guarendi highlighted discipline as the basis of sound teaching in any family.
The day-long conference included Mass offered by Bishop Peter Jugis. In his homily, the bishop reflected on the conference’s theme, “Quo Vadis” (“Where are you going?”), and how it applies to Catholics this Lent.
Lent is its own journey for us all, he said, and the answer to the question Jesus poses is: “We are going to Easter. We are going to the celebration of our new life in Christ.”
He encouraged men to use the conference as an opportunity to renew their personal relationship with Jesus and strengthen their vocations as husbands, fathers, and above all, as missionary disciples.
Julio Linares,a parishioner of St. Vincent of Paul Church in Charlotte, said it was the first time he had attended the men’s conference and he found it very motivating, because “it helps you a lot to practice the faith with much more intensity.”
Armen Boyajian, another participant, said thanks to the conference, he felt “very rejuvenated spiritually and personally.”
“I would recommend any Catholic – and non-Catholic – men to attend the conference next year,” he said.
— César Hurtado, Reporter. Photos by James Sarkis
More online
At www.catholicmenofthecarolinas.org: Get more information from the 12th annual Catholic Men’s Conference of the Carolinas
