Napa Institute conference to fortify Catholics for the ‘Next America’

Apr 6, 2011 / 23:53 pm

Mother Assumpta Long, O.P., has invited Catholics to register for the inaugural Napa Institute conference to help participants respond to atheism, secularism, materialism and lukewarmness in the United States.

“I encourage you to register soon because this event should not be missed!” said Mother Assumpta, the superior of the Michigan-based Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist.

The conference, titled “Catholics in the Next America,” will take place in Napa Valley at the Meritage Resort & Spa from July 28-30.

“We need to bring together serious Catholics to begin to network and discuss our faith because we continue to slip into a more secular society here in America,” explained Tim Busch, the Catholic businessman and philanthropist who helped start the Napa Institute. “As Catholics, we are challenged in our ability to influence the course of American culture.”

The Napa Institute will help Catholics meet that challenge by increasing their understanding of Catholic teaching and by helping them find their voice alongside their Catholic peers, he added.

Speakers at the event include Cardinal Roger Mahony, Archbishop José H. Gomez of Los Angeles, Bishop Jaime Soto of Sacramento and Fr. Robert J. Spitzer, S.J., of the Magis Institute. Commentator George Weigel and Prof. Timothy Gray of the Augustine Institute will also speak at the event.

Bishop Salvatore J. Cordileone of Oakland will celebrate a Solemn Pontifical Mass in the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite for conference participants.

Mother Assumpta explained that attendees will be “empowered to defend their faith” through “solid teaching” from Scripture, Sacred Tradition, the lives of the saints, the Catechism, current scientific discoveries and philosophical insights.

The conference will also feature “reverent liturgical celebrations,” Eucharistic adoration and frequent chances for confession and personal prayer.

Attendees will have the opportunity for fellowship with bishops, priests, religious and “serious lay Catholics” during the various social events of the conference.

Mother Assumpta explained that each day of the conference will a have different themes: “Charity in Truth,” “Why Faith Makes Sense” and “The Cost of Discipleship.”

The third day of the conference examines the final theme. Mother Assumpta Long will present a talk on religious life and martyrdom. She will examine two aspects of the “red martyrdom” that are shared by religious life. It features both a love that wants to give everything to Jesus Christ and a decision in life which “makes absolutely no sense apart from faith in God.”

She will also discuss how these aspects of martyrdom have a broader implication for the Christian life.

More information on the conference is at available at the institute’s website www.napa-institute.org.