A year after it was held simultaneously with the National Federation of Catholic Youth Ministry and at the San Jose Convention Center, the Faith Formation Conference will return to its original format; but not quite!
Recently twenty-five representatives from the Diocese of Monterey, Diocese of San Jose (DSJ), Archdiocese of San Francisco and the Diocese of Oakland gathered for a planning meeting for the newly renamed Santa Clara Faith Formation Conference. The conference will be held November 3-4 at the Santa Clara Convention Center, where it had been held for several years.
Originally when the 2016 conference ended it was announced that the conference would take a year break as DSJ restructured its Office of Parish Services, now known as the Department for Evangelization, to align with the Diocese’s efforts to focus on where Christ is made known: Word, Worship and Witness.
“When talk of the conference came up I stressed that the Diocese of San Jose needs to be at the table,” said Father John Hurley, CSP, DSJ Vicar for Evangelization. “From the Diocese’s standpoint this supports our focus on Word, Worship and Witness.”
Joining San Jose in sponsoring the event is the Diocese of Monterey in collaboration with the Archdiocese of San Francisco and the Dioceses of Stockton and Oakland. This will be the 15th year the Conference has been held.
Full story at The Valley Catholic.
All these conferences, all over the country. All this talk. All this money spent. All this time expended. All these plans made. And what are the fruits? The Church is arguably in worse condition than before the proliferation of faith formation conferences and religious education congresses.
I am afraid these conferences give the impression of the Church doing meaningful things, or they make bishops and chancery staff feel good about themselves, but they result in zilch.
Bp. McGrath presiding over a ‘Faith Formation Conference?’
He is on record stating that the New Testament is not an actual historic account. That was a moment when he showed his true face.
Bishop McGrath, and quite a few other bishops, believe they are experts simply because they are bishops. In reality, if it weren’t for the authority conferred upon them by ordination, hardly anyone would pay any attention to anything they said because they don’t say much that is meaningful. As it is, I don’t pay much attention to what the pope says anymore because he’s shown himself to be severely uninformed, misinformed, illogical and unclear in so much of what he has expressed.
But the New Testament is not an actual historical account. It is certainly based in history, but it is not word for word a history.
Bp. McGrath stated regarding “..the 4 Gospels, these sacred books are not historical accounts of the historical events that they narrate.” (2/18/2004 SJ Mercury News). He went on to call the Gospels mere “theological reflections”.
Dei Verbum #19: “Holy Mother Church has firmly and with absolute constancy held and continues to hold that the 4 Gospels…whose historical character the Church unhesitatingly asserts, faithfully hand on what Jesus Christ while living among men really did and taught.”
The Catholic Church’s actual teaching contradicts completely Bp. McGrath.
But why would anyone defend this error of McGrath?