Disciples Called to Witness

The Year of Faith was kicked with a Synod of the Bishops. As the participating bishops near the conclusion of the Synod, they explained that the New Evangelization “is not a question of finding new strategies as if the Gospel was to be spread like a market product, but rediscovering the ways in which individuals come close to Jesus.”

The Synod issued a strong challenge to the Church in North America:

The Bishops of the synodal Assembly invite you, Christians of North America, to respond with joy to the call to a new evangelization, while they look with gratitude at how your young Christian communities have borne generous fruits of faith, charity and mission. You need to recognize the many expressions of the present culture in the countries of your world which are today far from the Gospel. Conversion is necessary, from which is born a commitment that does not bring you out of your cultures, but in their midst to offer to all the light of faith and the power of life.

Below you will find a video overview of the synod. Look carefully at the image at the 33 second mark and you will notice our own Bishop Kevin Vann.

Bishop Vann Named New Orange Diocese Bishop

Bishop Kevin Vann as we prepared
for our audience with Pope Benedict XVI.

Today, Pope Benedict XVI appointed Bishop Kevin Vann the next bishop of the Orange Diocese in California. Bishop has served as the bishop of the Fort Worth Diocese for the past seven years. While I was not surprised to hear he was leaving (many of us thought he might be appointed to Denver earlier in the year), I am saddened. Bishop Vann has been a great shepherd for our diocese.

I had the opportunity to first meet Bishop Vann personally a few years ago when Stacey and I joined nearly 500 pilgrims to Rome in celebration of the 40th Anniversary of the Fort Worth Diocese. One of the evenings after dinner, a few of us guys were gathered in the hotel lobbying talking when Bishop Vann returned from a visit with some of his former classmates in the city. He sat down and talked to us until midnight, answering all sorts of questions about the faith. As we were all preparing to leave, he asked if we wanted to gather again the next evening. We had all planned to smoke cigars on the balcony so I asked him if he would join us. He did and again we were up until nearly midnight discussing all things Catholic. As a result of those two sessions, Bishop Vann invited the men of Joe Catholic to join him for Mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral. After that visit, we met for a second time and he even wrote about us on his blog.

I was always impressed at how personable he was. He has a gift for remembering names. The last time I saw him was at the celebration of the mass for the feast of St. Josemaria. I was actually leaving out the side door and he called out my name to come talk to him. I had seen him do something similar with another family before the mass. Bishop Vann knew his flock. He will be missed.

Here is his farewell letter and a video of his speech in California.

Baseball - A Catholic Sport?

Ok, so I won't lie, I was looking for an excuse to post about the World Series. I am beside myself because the Texas Rangers are one game away from their first World Series championship.  I have followed the team since 1972 when my Dad took me to the Arlington Stadium to see the Rangers play the Oakland A's who would go on to win the Series that year.

This weekend, one of our Joe Catholic and RCIA catechists brought up the World Series wager between St. Louis Archbishop Robert Carlson and Ft. Worth Bishop Kevin Vann.  The point he made in bringing up the World Series wager was that Catholicism doesn't have to be a stuffy religion about rules and regulations. While there is a place for rules (10 Commandments) and regulations (liturgical rubrics), we also find God in the ordinary corners of our lives.

In honor of the World Series I have collected a few articles written on the subject of Catholicism and Baseball.  If you only have time to read one, start with A Perfect Game.

Catholic Dads - Catholicism and Baseball

Catechist's Journey - Catholicism and Baseball

First Things - A Perfect Game

World Premier: Joe Catholic Media

Ok so the title sounds pretty extravagent. We are excited to post our first Joe Catholic YouTube video. Below you will find a video (approximately 15 minutes long) from the Joe Catholic meeting with Bishop Kevin Vann on July 23, 2011. The video includes a talk entitled "Gut Check," in which I explain how we can use the Joe Catholic logo to check the status of our spiritual game plans. The video also includes portions of Lindon Leners' Saint Talk on St. Maximillian Kolbe. Finally, the video includes our FAQ's of Faith section with Bishop Vann as our guest speaker, addressing the upcoming changes to the English translation of the Roman Missal.

The audio and video is a bit raw. While the KC meeting room we were in was nice, it had poor acoustics and even poorer lightening. Nevertheless, Tom Jaconette plowed through all of that to produce our first video. We hope to have more of our own videos in the future.

Joe Catholic Meets With Bishop Vann

This morning, the Joe Catholic men's apostolate met with Bishop Kevin Vann, the bishop of the Ft. Worth diocese. The group visiting the bishop included eighteen men from St. Catherine, who were joined by seminarian James Wilcox, at the morning mass at St. Patrick's cathedral.

After mass, the group joined the bishop in the parish Knight's of Columbus hall. Don Gonzalez led the first discussion called "Gut Check," which was a talk on using the Joe Catholic logo as a means to reflect on the state of our spiritual lives. This brief talk was followed by Saint Talk, led by Lindon Leners. Lindon focused on the life and death of Maximilian Kolbe. Bishop Vann shared that he was present in Rome for St. Maximilian's canonization.

Finally, Bishop Vann spoke on the upcoming changes to the English translation of the Missal. He then allowed the group to ask him general questions about Catholicism. When the group was done asking questions, the bishop joined them for a group photo. After that, Bishop Vann led the group on a tour of the rectory.

Thanks to Tom Jaconette, we soon hope to have videos of the three talks and Q & A posted on the Joe Catholic YouTube channel.  Additionally, the videos will be embedded in upcoming posts detailing the talks. We also hope to post additional photos from the visit.

The History of Joe Catholic

About eight years ago a friend and I tried to form a men's small faith group (patterned after the St. Joseph's Covenant Keepers) in our parish and it failed.  Year after year some guy would come up to me after Mass and ask me when we were going to bring back the "Joseph's group."  I smiled nicely and said "we'll see," knowing well I was not interested in another failure.  A little over two years ago I relented and invited some of the male leaders in our church to discuss revamping the group.  (This idea was founded on John Maxwell's Law of Explosive Growth).  We kicked around format ideas and settled on a new name - Joe Catholic. I got the idea from Joe the Plumber in the recent presidential election. We also liked the name because we wanted to promote that we were just ordinary guys trying to learn our faith.

Joe Catholic now meets the fourth Saturday of each month, bright and early at 7:00AM.  Over forty men have attended at least one gathering and we consistently have fifteen or so at each get together.  We have settled on a three prong format: Catholic Toolbox, Saint Talk and FAQ of Faith.  Each session lasts about 15-20 minutes and they are non-sequential by design.  The Catholic Toolbox is normally a catechetical talk. Saint Talk covers the life of a saint whose feast we will celebrate during the month we are meeting. FAQ of Faith takes an apologetic approach to questions Catholics are often asked by their non-Catholic friends and family. We maintain a casual environment encouraging men to show up late if they have to and leave early when they need.  The bottom line is that we want to help men grow in their Catholic faith.

Last year, Bishop Kevin Vann invited us to the Fort Worth cathedral (St. Patrick) to celebrate mass with him and subsequently to present one of our meetings to him.  He has since taken in an interest in our little group and has asked for another visit.

This blog began as a supplement to the gatherings with resources for deeper study of the topics covered in the gathering. Now, we hope it will be an instrument to promote the apostolate on a wider scale, casting the net into deeper waters.

NOTE ON THE LOGO: The artisan's toolbox represents that we are all working men living ordinary lives.  The green book is the Catechism of the Catholic Church representing that we are loyal to the Church's teachings.  The black book is the Holy Bible to represent that we are men of the Word of God. The Rosary represents that we are men of prayer.  The hammer and rule are representative of traditional symbols of St. Joseph - the original Joe Catholic and our patron saint.