Cover
story Regular travel between Rome and remote center
By PATRICIA LEFEVERE
Special Report Writer Bloomingdale, Ohio
In one month this summer three curia cardinals, a few Vatican
officials and a number of U.S. bishops and clergy made their way to this
campground, home to Catholic Familyland.
So many prelates have arrived, in fact, that one visitor suspected
the angels had established an air link between the Aventine hills and the
Alleghenies (see main story).
Among the visitors were Cardinals Francis Arinze, president of the
Pontifical Council for Inter-Religious Dialogue; Jose Sanchez, prefect emeritus
of the Congregation for the Clergy; Alfonso Lopez Trujillo, president of the
Pontifical Council for the Family; Archbishop John Foley of Philadelphia, now
president of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications; and Msgr. Peter
Elliott, secretary for the Pontifical Council for the Family.
There were bishops aplenty too -- James McHugh of Camden, N.J., a
consultor on the Pontifical Council for the Family and a member of the U.S.
Bishops' Pro-Life Committee; Gilbert Sheldon of Steubenville, Ohio; Joseph
Madera of the U.S. military vicariate; Juan Fremiot Torres Oliver of Ponce,
Puerto Rico; and Jose de Jesus Martinez Zepeda of Mexico City.
In addition, more than a dozen cardinals have endorsed the
Apostolate for Family Consecration, which runs Catholic Familyland, or have
contributed to its catechism and its state-of-the-art evangelizing materials.
The late Mother Teresa was the apostolate's top champion. She met
founder Jerome Coniker in 1976 when the apostolate was in its infancy. Taking
Coniker aside while he was in a reception line, she encouraged his campaign to
consecrate families to Christ through Mary in union with St. Joseph.
Today the apostolate has an eight-tape series of conversations
with the nun, recorded in Kenosha, Wis., Washington and Rome. Segments of her
teachings are on all 72 "Holy Hour" videos produced by the apostolate.
Recently, when the apostolate offered -- via cable television -- a free book by
Coniker on Mother Teresa, Spiritual Seeds, more than 1,000 persons
dialed its 40-line, 1-800-FOR-MARY number in the first 24 hours.
In recent months the apostolate has enhanced its outreach to
Hispanic Catholics, offering more books, tapes and videos in Spanish and
inaugurating its first bilingual conference in mid-August.
During that conference, Lopez-Trujillo challenged families to
communicate the Good News in a way that is "effervescent, like beer, sparkling
like spumante or champagne." The cardinal urged families to organize
politically against same-sex unions and to confront legislators on issues of
abortion, partial-birth abortion and the destruction of embryos.
Both the cardinal and his secretary, Msgr. Peter Elliott of
Australia, refused NCR's requests for interviews.
Earlier this year the cardinal told a Rome conference that fear of
parenthood was greatly curbing population growth in a number of lands.
"The world's populations, like the Titanic, are slowly navigating
toward the iceberg of demographic winter, out of fear of maternity and
paternity," he said at an April 4 gathering. He pointed to Brazil, where he
said there are 160 million Brazilians today, whereas there ought to be 210
million according to some estimates.
"It did not happen that way, because 40 percent of Brazilian women
of a fertile age have been sterilized. And this has prevented the births of 50
million new human beings," he said. At Catholic Familyland Lopez Trujillo
indicated that the Pontifical Council for the Family will take up issues of
population and the environment when it convenes its Oct. 3-5 World Gathering of
Families in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Pope John Paul II will say an outdoor Mass
at the conference Oct. 5.
Elliott, in a speech before Hispanic families here, outlined the
teaching role of parents, whose deeds, he said, often serve as "implicit,
silent catechesis."
While parents should avoid "overkill" with teenagers on matters of
faith and morals, they should invite, encourage and explain to them -- never
forcing or bribing them into the confessional, Elliott said.
But he also warned parents not to exaggerate a child's innocence.
"There's little to be gained from a catechesis that is strong on
self-affirmation" but "weak on moral truths, the commandments and sin." Such an
approach "will only produce those spoiled, selfish brats who are a blight on
our society whether the brat is 5, 15 or 50 years old."
While parents listened to the cardinal and his secretary, their
children learned to pray the rosary. The youngsters also gathered near a
campfire watching a dramatized version of the Passion by actor Doug Barry.
During their stay, kids frolicked in the St. John Bosco Pool and
slid down the 200-foot-long St. Denis Water Slide.
During youth religious programs, teachers divided young people by
age: "Saints Under Construction," ages 4-9; "Totally Yours Youth," named after
the apostolate's motto "totus tuus," ages 10-12; and "Destiny
Generation" for those 13 and older.
In tents, classrooms, on the grass or in the chapel, kids heard
about guardian angels, saints, sin and God's mercy and were continuously urged
to go to confession.
National Catholic Reporter, October 3,
1997
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