Conference marches on after a quarter century

As she looked back on the 25th Midwest Catholic Family Conference, where about 2,500 people assembled during the weekend of Aug. 1-3 at Wichita’s Century II Convention Center and the Hyatt Regency, MCFC Director Kathleen Timmermeyer marveled at how what sometimes resembled human improvisation seemed to exhibit fingerprints of divine providence. 

Fr. Larry Richards had been scheduled as one of the event’s headliners and was slated to celebrate the opening Mass, deliver the homily, provide the conference’s only Friday evening talk, and speak again on the morning of event’s second day. However, as multiple air travel delays conspired to keep Fr. Richards from reaching Wichita, conference organizers noted that Kansas City, Kansas, Archbishop Emeritus Joseph Naumann was arriving earlier than previously anticipated. 

And that was how the archbishop ended up at the podium for the conference’s opening talk. 

After the conference, Timmermeyer said her mother mentioned something. “Her friend, who attended all three days, said Friday night’s talk from Archbishop Naumann was her favorite,” she said. “Yes, it was impromptu, but it was also providential. That person needed to hear his talk, and that’s a God thing. I told God in prayer ‘This is your project. You make it work. We’ll just be your instruments.’”

The air travel snags that prevented Fr. Richards from reaching Wichita originated from weather issues on the Eastern Seaboard, Timmermeyer notes. As a diocesan priest who had planned to depart the conference on Saturday morning and return to his parish in Erie, Pennsylvania, for the weekend’s Masses, Fr. Richards saw the writing on the wall on Friday as one delay piled atop another while he waited in an Atlanta airport.

“Fr. Richards was very disappointed and said nothing like this had ever happened with him,” Timmermeyer said. “He offered to do a streaming presentation or a recorded one, but our conference Spiritual Director, Fr. Andrew Walsh, pointed out that the abbot also would be attending.”

That would be Abbot Fr. Benedict Thomas Neenan, OSB, abbot of Conception Abbey near St. Joseph, Missouri, who was traveling with Fr. Paul Sheller, also of Conception Abbey. Fr. Sheller was scheduled to present a talk on confession on Saturday afternoon, and Fr. Neenan was happy to step into the unexpectedly open Saturday morning time slot. 

“His talk fit perfectly, it was titled ‘From Cloister to Kitchen Table: Bringing Benedictine Peace Into Family Life,’” Timmermeyer said. “That gives me chills because it feels like ‘Okay, Lord, you obviously wanted that to happen, right?’’

One aspect of the conference that went as planned was the special display near the entrance to the convention hall: An old-style army Jeep, complete with Mass supplies alongside a full-size cutout of the famous photo of a vested Venerable Emil Kapaun. “The Jeep was very popular,” Fr. Walsh said.

Along with being the location for numerous presentations, the convention hall was also the site of all three of the weekend’s Masses, which along with the outdoor Eucharistic procession and Benediction, constituted Fr. Walsh’s favorite part of the conference. 

“The liturgies have been beautiful,” he said. “We were blessed to have both Archbishop Naumann and Bishop Kemme this year.”

Biblical dysfunction

Archbishop Emeritus Naumann opened his homily by affirming the conference. 

“What a great tradition that you have here in Wichita,” he said. “May you keep it going for another 25 years and more.”

During the portion of his homily that focused on that day’s readings, Archbishop Naumann noted that the gospel from the 14th chapter of Matthew provided a powerful example of a very dysfunctional family. The Tetrarch Herod imprisoned St. John the Baptist for voicing disapproval of his intimate relations with Herodias, the wife of his brother, Philip. The situation degenerated further when Herod lauded the indecent dance performed by Herodias’ daughter, Salome, and vowed to give the girl whatever she wanted, the archbishop noted. Herodias coached Salome to request the head of John the Baptist on a platter, and Herod complied.

“The gospel describes a very unhealthy and morally corrupt family,” the archbishop observed. “Herod is living with his own brother’s wife. He’s aroused by a provocative dance with this young girl, and makes a foolish oath to her. Attempting to please her jealous and enraged mother, she asks for the execution of a holy and innocent man. Herod knows that to murder John the Baptist is wrong, but to impress his guests and please his partner in adultery and incest, Herod complies with this gruesome request.”

Archbishop Naumann went on.

“What a family,” he said. “Herod is involved with adultery, incest, lust for a teenage girl, and for killing an innocent, holy man. Herodias is involved with adultery, incest, jealous rage, and demanding the execution of an innocent, holy man whose only crime was speaking the truth. Salome has grown up in a morally and emotionally confused family, making her susceptible to her own list of sins.”

Sadly the archbishop assessed, it was not difficult to recognize similarities between the morally debased culture of Herod’s court and the broader, 21st-century United States. “Our popular culture mocks chastity and devalues the importance of the marriage bond,” he said. 

Archbishop Naumann noted that many children had been emotionally and morally wounded by growing up in homes absent one of their biological parents in the years since societal standards began to change regarding human sexuality.

“I came of age in the 1960s during the birth of the Sexual Revolution, and 60 years later, we see the disastrous consequences of the confusion of authentic love with the pursuit of sexual pleasure free of any commitment,” Archbishop Naumann said. “Our culture today believes that the Creator made some kind of huge mistake at the beginning by linking sexual intimacy with the ability to be co-creators of new human life.”

He pointed to Pope Paul VI’s landmark 1968 encyclical Humanae Vitae as a warning about the moral decadence that would accompany widespread use of contraceptives. Moreover, the archbishop noted, developed countries, including the United States, faced daunting demographic realities created by the dwindling number of children, while the material abundance on which many justified contraception was not yielding happiness. 

“Our culture is a striking proof that material wealth does not equate to happiness,” Archbishop Naumann said.

He noted that “Christ Our Hope” was the conference theme, and contrasted that with the secular outlook. “In the culture, the state of the family is not very hopeful,” the archbishop said. “Yet for the Christian, we are never without reason for hope. Our belief in the God, the Creator of the cosmos – who loves us even after the rebellion of our first parents that fractured our human condition, even after our own betrayals of the relationship – still treasures us as made in his divine image.”

Archbishop Naumann said he saw hope in young people, and noted many social scientists considered Generation Z to be the most religious generation in decades. He went on to note that the Holy Family offered a perfect example to pursue. 

“The heart of the Holy Family, unlike Herod the tetrarch’s, was not dysfunctional, but truly holy and happy,” Archbishop Naumann said. “We pray that our families may be united to Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, the Holy Family striving to recreate in our homes the love, faith, and joy that characterized their lives. We give thanks to God today, who revealed himself by entering into our human family and thus consecrated the beauty and importance of family life. We ask for Mary’s intercession that the love of her son Jesus may penetrate our hearts, and the power of the Holy Spirit will empower us to renew and strengthen our society and culture, one marriage, one family at a time.”

Stewardship vs. materialism

Diocese of Wichita Bishop Carl A. Kemme prefaced his homily by thanking conference leaders, organizers, volunteers, and attendees, past and present. “Thank you for 25 years of dedication, hard work, and leadership,” he said. “The Diocese of Wichita and its surrounding areas have indeed been blessed by the mission of this conference. For 25 years – a quarter of a century – Roman Catholics have treated themselves to quality speakers, significant break-out sessions, faith formation, divine liturgies, confession, and adoration while building relationships with one another.”

Those are means to help attendees grow in holiness and discipleship to not only keep the faith, but thrive in it, he considered. 

The day’s scriptures challenge Catholics to confront the culture’s obsession with materialism, Bishop Kemme reflected. “Modernity – which in many ways, has lost its way – has told us the lie that the more we have, the happier we will be,” he said. “It is a lie from the Evil One, and it is incredible how many in our culture believe it.”

In the first reading, he noted, Qoheleth, the wise man in the book of Ecclesiastes, dismissed such materialism, especially in the context of worldly pursuits and possessions. “Qoheleth goes on to say, ‘What profit comes to a man from all the toil and anxiety of heart with which he has labored under the sun?’” the bishop said. “What is the profit in all of that? What is the purpose? He said ‘This is vanity. It is futility, emptiness, and transience.’”

In the second reading from Colossians, Bishop Kemme said St. Paul wrote urged disciples of Christ to focus on what is above, not what is earthly. “Therefore, he says, ‘Put to death these earthly things like immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and the greed that is idolatry,” the bishop said. “That greed is rampant in the culture in which we live, and it is idolatry: putting things above people, putting our possessions above the Lord.”

The gospel reading, from Luke 12:13-21, involved a rich man whose bountiful harvest exceeded his ability to store it. “Would that he had thought he could give away all that he had stored, but he conceived a different notion,” Bishop Kemme said. “That he should tear down those store buildings and build larger ones to store his abundance, so that, as the parable said, he could ‘rest, eat, drink, and be merry for years to come.’

“Jesus calls the man in the parable a fool, for the story tells us that that very night his life would be demanded of him, and to whom, then, would all these worldly things belong?” he said. “My friends, material things cannot and will not ever bring us what our hearts truly look for, which is a right and holy relationship with God and with each other.”

Although material things are not inherently bad, Bishop Kemme indicated, they must not constitute a life’s goal. “Instead, material possessions are to be seen as tools, as means to an end, to be used for our well-being, yes, but also to be shared for others,” he said. “Everything we have – our health, our wealth, however great or blessed might be your mind, your heart, your talents, your time, your treasures, all these things God allows you to have, but not exclusively. They are entrusted to you for the good of God’s kingdom.”

Therefore, the bishop reasoned, the antidote to the idolatry of greed and the obsession with material goods is the stewardship way of life.

“For 40 years now, our diocese has been preaching, teaching, and encouraging each of us to live according to God’s plan to live as authentic and honest stewards of all that is entrusted to us,” he said. “Stewardship is a conversion of heart and mind and way of life.”

Bishop Kemme went on to cite the Diocese of Wichita’s definition of Stewardship. “It is the grateful response, of a Christian disciple who recognizes and receives God’s gifts and endeavors to share them for love of God and neighbor,” he said. “It’s a beautiful and impactful definition of stewardship. So when you think of all that you have, your time, your talent, and all your treasure, please know and believe that these are blessings given to you by God’s design and love.”

A stewardship way of life attests to a powerful freedom, while the world’s accumulation of possessions is actually slavery, Bishop Kemme reflected. “Stewardship is a true freedom to live in this passing world, knowing that our true treasure is not here, but in Heaven,” he said.