The Catholic New World: Navy Pier celebration delights thousands

Stewart, an Augustus Tolton Scholar at Catholic Theological Union and a parishioner at St. Thaddeus, sat just in front of the main exhibition hall at Navy Pier Nov. 1, passing out bags for handouts and offering directions.

“I see everybody,” said Stewart, one of the multitude of volunteers who welcomed nearly 19,000 people to the first-ever Catholic Festival of Faith Oct. 30-Nov. 2. “The fellowship is so nice. It’s just good to have the fellowship.”

Festival organizers wanted to put the best face of the Catholic Church on display during the event—both for Catholics who too often only see others who look like themselves or work on the same issues, and for the whole Chicago metropolitan area.

The face on display was black, white, Native American and Asian. Liturgies and prayers were conducted in a multitude of languages, and presenters offered more than 200 sessions on everything from encouraging teens to chastity to coping with mental illness to finding Christ in the movies.

And the face on display was happy, said Vincentian Father Joseph C. Geders, director of the Department of Evangelization, Catechesis and Worship for the Archdiocese.

“I remember seeing happy people,” said Geders, the event’s main coordinator, on Nov. 3. “People were happy to be there. And I saw a little bit of everybody—not only the Tier I Catholics, who are already very involved, but also Tier II and III Catholics who might be a little more on the fringe.”

Altogether, an estimated 17,200 people were registered over the four days, Geders said.

At Youth Day Oct. 30, high school students reclined on the floor of the Grand Ballroom and listened to Cardinal George’s homily. Three days later, more than 2,000 people clapped and swayed to Gospel music during the recessional of the closing Mass.

In between, there was techno-rock, mariachi and classical music. Chicago personality Wayne Messmer performed a one-man play about Blessed Damien of Molokai, and those who attended could hear Cardinal George talk about “God’s Forgiveness Made Visible: The

Sacrament of Penance” in a workshop, and then go to confession in the Eucharistic Adoration chapel.

The cardinal also attended a breakfast for more than 600 parish leaders in the Pier’s Grand Ballroom hosted by the archdiocesan Office for Councils.

In between, they could stop in the exhibition hall and order a Trappist casket or buy a child’s first Bible as a baptism or First Communion gift.

Father Bryan Massingale, who gave the first keynote speech the morning of Oct. 31, set the tone right away. Massingale, a moral theology professor at St. Francis Seminary in Milwaukee, said Catholics must understand who they are as a church before they can understand their mission to the world.

“The church is the Body of Christ, a people of every race, language and way of life, gathered by God to give glory and praise by becoming one body, one spirit in Christ for the life of the world,” Massingale said.

That means that no one gets to choose who else is part of the Body of Christ, he said, because we are all called by God. God, Massingale said, is like his father, putting together lunch by cleaning out the refrigerator, throwing everything into one pot—spaghetti and mashed potatoes, kidney beans and fried chicken—and heating it up.

“We are a huge pot into which God has poured every type of human being,’ Massingale said, speaking to a first-day crowd made up mostly of Catholic school teachers and catechists. “God just went into the refrigerator and threw it all together and stirred it up and that’s the Catholic Church. Our level of holiness ranges from saint to struggling to scoundrel. … But the church, the Body of Christ, knows no boundaries, no exclusions. There can be no ‘no vacancy’ or ‘no welcome’ sign over the doors of any of our churches.”

The church often falls far short of the goal, Massingale said. After all, if he ever wants to be the only African-American in the room, he heads for a Catholic function, he said.

But if Catholics start living the Gospel message of radical love and equality, they could transform the world.

“We Catholics could be such a powerful force for good,” he said. “The world needs our witness. As Catholics, we are everywhere. We could change this place. If we left these doors and went out on Navy Pier and started being Catholic, Chicago wouldn’t know what hit it. … There’s just a little problem. We Catholics don’t often believe our own message. We are in the world, and the world is in us.”

Massingale’s message was repeated in many ways, in many forms, over the course of the weekend, from Jesuit Father J. Glenn Murray talking about the need to participate in liturgy, to sing one another’s music, to Holy Angels Parish pastor Father Robert Miller’s discussion of the need to see affordable housing as a moral value to St. Pius V School Principal Nancy Cullinan Nasko suggesting ways parishes and schools can support Latino families.

Brooklyn, N.Y., Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio discussed the challenges that new waves of immigration pose for American parishes.

“Everybody can have their own Mass time, but how do we bring them together?” asked Bishop DiMarzio, who presented the key points of “Welcoming the Stranger Among Us: Unity in Diversity,” the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ 2000 statement on diversity. The statement calls Catholics to seek conversion, communion, solidarity, and a new evangelization when newcomers arrive.

“Migration, by definition, is about a change, and as a newcomer comes into our presence, into our churches, we also have to change,” said Bishop DiMarzio.

DiMarzio was far from the only prelate who traveled to the festival. Milwaukee Archbishop Timothy Dolan offered a workshop on Catholic Leadership, and Archbishop John B. Pham Minh Man of Vietnam spoke about “Family and Faith.” Archbishops from Poland and the Philippines also participated.

Special events included the annual Asian Gala and Hispanic Ministries Noche de Gala, along with a special charismatic prayer meeting and an evening of Chicago-themed entertainment hosted by comedian Tim Kazurinsky.

Catholic radio host Jeff Cavins offered the Nov. 1 keynote, telling his personal story of leaving the church and becoming an ordained Protestant minister, only to return to the church and to teach its people over the airwaves. His experuience resonated with many particpants, said Geders.

“Several people approached me and said they had left the church for whatever reason and were now returning,” he said. “That’s what this was all about, the new evangelization, holding Jesus up for the world to see. It seems to have worked.”

Harvard Law School Professor Mary Ann Glendon was to offer the Nov. 2 keynote, on the “Hour of the Laity,” but she could not attend because of a sudden illness. Archdiocesan Vice Chancellor Mary Hallan FioRito read Glendon’s speech. (Her talk will be reprinted in full in the next issue of The Catholic New World.)

Many of the events at the festival—from the catechetical sessions for teachers to the gala banquets—have gone on in the past, but this is the first time they have come together, Cardinal George said in his Nov. 2 homily.

“The idea was to do together what do separately,” he said, adding that, “We can get lost in the boxes.” The archdiocese came together, he said, “so that we can see again our basis for unity, which is our faith in Jesus Christ.”

Chicago Auxiliary Bishop Gustavo Garcia-Siller took up the same theme a day earlier, when he celebrated the Nov. 1 All Saints’ Day Mass.

“The church is well represented here in this assembly. We have all colors, all languages all ways of life,” Garcia said. “Our celebration helps us to take the past, to know where we’re at, to know where we’re going. … Not only are we the children of God, but it is many. It is a multitude. We are just one portion of that multitude. We are just a portion of those who have been washed by the blood of Christ.”

Contributing: Jennifer Sladek