Crowds challenged to new evangelization at 2012 DAEC
DECATUR — Over 1,000 people from throughout the diocese attended the recent two-day Diocesan Adult Enrichment Conference held at the Decatur Conference Center and Hotel. Some 47 organizations, ministries, religious and school supplies stores and other businesses staffed booths in the exhibit area. The biannual conference is coordinated by the diocesan Office for Catechetical Ministries.
Bishop Thomas John Paprocki led Morning Prayer, which began the session both days. Deacons on Sunday were David Erdmann from Blessed Sacrament, Springfield, and Robert Crosby from St. Jerome, Troy, with Father Daren Zehnle, master of ceremonies.
The mixed choir was under the direction of Steve Stack from St. Jerome.
Father Robert Barron, a priest of the Archdiocese of Chicago and rector of Mundelein Seminary, gave the Sunday keynote address, "Proclaiming Christ to a Secular Culture." Father Barron is creator and host of Word on Fire, a series airing regularly on WGN America, Relevant Radio, CatholicTV, EWTN and YouTube. He is also creator and host of Catholicism, a 10-episode television series explaining the Catholic faith, now available on DVD.
Father Barron reminded everyone that the young Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, had been at the Second Vatican Council as a theological expert. He was influenced by Lumen Gentium (Light of the Nations), the document in which the council fathers called for Catholics to be a missionary church, Father Barron said.
"The church doesn't have a mission, the church is a mission," Father Barron said. "Glad tidings is at the center of all of God's promises. People only listen to an excited speaker. We are excited about resurrection."
But some people have a fundamentally poor understanding of God, he said.
"Their perception of God is a fussy, super human being," Father Barron said. "Their logic is 'if God exists, than I cannot be free. In order for man to be good, I've got to eliminate God.'
But "God is not in competition with the world. In the third chapter of Exodus ... the bush on fire, when God comes into the world he illuminates it, but he does not destroy it.
"We've been bad at articulating who God is," he said. "The glory of God is a human being fully alive."
He pointed out that new evangelization calls for new expression — something unique about our time, such as YouTube.
"I do commentaries on YouTube. It has been a huge education for me," said the priest, who has taught at Mundelein for 20 years. He said that use of the Internet allows for interaction with people not easily reached through conventional media.
With new media opportunities to reach people today, he encouraged the audience to get involved. "Now is the time. Seize new methods and use them," he said.