Strong Catholic Families Webinar Series
Families Celebrating the Sacraments:
From Formation to Transformation
The four Catholic organizations comprising the Strong Catholic Families national partnership (NFCYM, NCEA, NCCL and NACFLM) are collaborating together this fall to host a free three-part webinar series for pastoral and ministry leaders and teachers on engaging parents around the sacramental touchstones within a family’s life. Our goal is to inspire leaders to come up with creative and engaging practices and processes that will transform the traditional Sacramental prep process into an integrated and holistic Sacramental Living plan for families that will empower them to live their faith as a Domestic Church between the Sundays.
Register for each session at nfcym.org/sacramental-living-webinar.
All sessions are being recorded and the recording link will be sent to all registered so please register whether or not you can attend the live presentation.
Session 3: New Paradigms in Play / Tuesday, October 17, 2017 at 2:00 pm EDT
Sacramental ministry calls for faith leaders to be committed to a formation and transformation that leads to living out the sacraments within the family and the faith community. This session will reveal successes and new methods and possibilities for embracing the fullness of sacramental living through vibrant sacramental ministry. Moderator: Margaret Matijasevic – NCCL
Session 1: Thirteen: Engagement or Exodus? / Thursday, September 28, 2017 at 2:00 pm EDT
According to research done by Saint Mary’s Press, thirteen is the median age that Catholic youth disaffiliate with their faith and join the rising tide of “nones” in the country. It is also often the age at which many young people are completing their final step of full initiation. What’s the connection and what critical role does the family play within the sacramental dynamic? Primary Presenter: Bob McCarty, D Min
Session 2: A New Way of (Sacramental) Living / Tuesday, October 3, 2017 at 2:00 pm EDT
The exodus of young people from our Church signals the urgency of taking a long, hard look at what we’re doing (or not doing!) in forming their faith, especially their experiences of the Sacraments. If Baptism, Penance, Eucharist, Confirmation and Matrimony aren’t launching our people into lifetimes of sacramental Catholic living, then why not?… and what will? This session explores how our conventional practices of sacramental prep all too often inoculate our people from faith rather than infecting them with it for life! Primary Presenter: Dr. Sean Reynolds – Mustard Seed Consultants
NACFLM NUGGET – October 2017
DID YOU KNOW…
Fall is in the air. Harvest time is here. As we prepare for winter, we need to ask ourselves, what seeds have we planted and how will our family life improve when it comes time to harvest. Have we taken time for each other, to pray, play, and work as a unit? How have we reached out to those who have no families or are disenfranchised?
Veola Martinez Burchett has been the Marriage and Family Life Director for the Catholic Diocese of Salt Lake City for 25 years. She got the job because Bishop Weigand (now retired) and Msgr. Bob Bussen (Fr. Bob), the Vicar General decided she was best for the job. They did give her a choice—she could meet with the Bishop to talk about it Monday at 10 a.m., or Thursday at 3 p.m. At the time she was a full time homemaker with a background in business. After talking it over with her husband, Ken, she decided to try it for a few years. On her first day, Fr. Bob handed her the necessary papers to fill out and told her she was now a member of some organization called the National Association of Catholic Diocesan Family Life Directors and she should find out when and where their next conference was being held.
Through NACFLM Veola learned how to develop and implement programs that previously hadn’t been available in her diocese. Some of her favorites are a) the establishment and training of Bereavement support groups in almost all parishes. And the Annual Marriage Enrichment where she has drawn on her many friendships within NACFLM to give the retreats. Another new program is the Annual Diocesan Respect for the Dignity of Life day where workshops are presented not only on abortion, but anti porn programs, legislative issues pertaining to life issues, end of life issues, etc. She has helped in the training of many NFP teachers and now has an active, professional program available to engaged and married couples through the establishment of Intermountain Fertility Care. She has served on the Utah Marriage Commission for 15 years and helped enact laws that support and strengthen marriage. Veola was also involved and present at the Utah State legislature when they passed one of the first the Safe Haven laws in the nation.
She has served on the Resource Commission, then the conference committee, then 2 terms as Region 13 Rep to the National Board, and now back on the Resource and Formation Commission.
Being the Family Life Director has been challenging, fun, frustrating, painful—all the things involved in family life itself. She is grateful for the many friendships she has found in NACFLM. This is fair warning—in a few years when Ken and she are retired and traveling across country, you may find them on your doorstep. However, there is always a room here in Salt Lake.
She and Ken have been married 40 years. For 35 of those years they have been actively involved with Catholic Engaged Encounter. They have 4 children and 7 grandchildren. She hopes to continue her work here with new Bishop Solis (Veola’s 4th bishop) for a few more years. Bishop Solis has set as one of his priorities marriage and family life and she wants to help grow the program.
Compartir sobre el proceso del V Encuentro
Maria del Mar Muñoz-Visoso
Directora Ejecutiva del Secretariado de Diversidad Cultural en la Iglesia
Conferencia de Obispos Católicos de Estados Unidos (USCCB)
Ministry with Family Training
Resource Guide
This online resource guide provides NACFLM members, other family life parish ministers, and clergy with resources they can use in their local communities to strengthen marriages and families.
Organizational Member Spotlight
Amoris Laetitia Webinar Series
The Pastoral Response in Accompanying Families in Faith.
Next Webinar: Strong Catholic Families
The Strong Catholic Families National Partnership Invites ministry leaders, teachers, school leaders, parents and clergy to join together with others around the globe in a webinar series focusing on the pastoral implementation of Pope Francis’ apostolic exhortation on the family, Amoris Laetitia.
Ave Maria Press Webinar Series
NACFLM is one of the professional organizations supporting Ave Maria Press Webinar Series. Join Ave Maria Press online for a series of free, professional development webinars for parish ministers! Enjoy access to free presentations by experts in every area of parish ministry from the comfort of your home or office. Log in to the live webinars to participate in our question-and-answer sessions or watch the free recordings at your convenience.
