2011 Pastoral Congress

Intermountain Catholic

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SALT LAKE CITY — The 2011 Pastoral Congress for the Diocese of Salt Lake City will be Sept. 17 at the Skaggs Catholic Center, in Draper.

The Diocesan Pastoral Congress "offers us an opportunity to renew our baptismal commitment to spread the Gospel message," said the Most Rev. John C. Wester, Bishop of Salt Lake City in a letter to participants. "As the Body of Christ, we join together and recommit ourselves to evangelize and catechize the people of Utah."

The day will start at 7 a.m. with on-site registration and a continental breakfast. Bishop Wester will lead a bilingual morning praise at 8:15. The keynote speakers’ morning session will begin at 9 a.m.

The English-language keynote speaker will be the Most Rev. Robert F. Morneau, Auxiliary Bishop of Green Bay, Wisc. His topic will be the same as the Congress’ theme "Receiving God’s Gifts with Gratitude."

Bishop Morneau has served the Diocese of Green Bay as a member of the College of Consultors and the Diocesan Finance Council and as the vicar for priests and the vicar general. He is the author of several books and many of his essays appear in such periodicals as US Catholic, St. Anthony Messenger, America and Emmanuel. In addition to writing, he gives retreats and lectures throughout the United States to lay groups as well as bishops and cardinals. He is considered the U.S. Catholic Church’s premier resource on stewardship, an expression of discipleship through which people gratefully receive God’s gifts, tenderly care for them, generously share them, and humbly return them to God.

Dominican Sister Rosa Monique Peña, vicaress and general councilor for the Adrian Dominican Sisters, which has its motherhouse in Adrian, Mich., is the Spanish-language keynote speaker. Previously, she was director of the Archdiocese of Miami’s Department of Religious Education for almost 20 years.

More than 40 workshops will be offered. Among the guest speakers at the Pastoral Congress will be Ann Huth and Carla Aguilar, and Jim Carper.

Huth and Aguilar are both from Catholic Relief Services, the official overseas relief and development agency of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Huth will give the English-language presentation and Aguilar will give the Spanish-language presentation on For Our Future: Stewardship and Solidarity with Others.

Carper, the director of stewardship at Saint Monica Catholic Community in Santa Monica, Calif., is an authority on Catholic stewardship. His workshop topics will be How to Conduct a Stewardship Invitation Month and The Role of the Parish Stewardship Council.

Among the Spanish-language workshop presenters will be Laura Lopez and Dominican Father Luis Roberto Aguilar Leal.

Lopez is pastoral coordinator of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Indio, Calif. She also is a member of the USCCB’s National Advisory Council. Her workshop topic will be How to Implement Stewardship in a Spanish-speaking Parish.

Fr. Aguilar is assistant director of the Congar Institute for Ministry Development. Last year, Bishop Wester appointed Fr. Aguilar as the acting director of the Diocese of Salt Lake City’s Lay Ecclesial Ministry Formation Program for Spanish-speakers. His topics will be Stewardship in the Church: The Races in the New Testament, and Sharing Our Gifts: Thoughts on Lay Ministry in the United States Today.

For a complete list of workshop presenters or to register, visit www.dioslc.org/ministries/education/pastoral-congress.