What do the dioceses of Anchorage, Atlanta, Charlestown, Dodge City, Los Angeles, Manchester, Ottawa, and Wheeling-Charleston have in common? Well, yes, they all have bishops and lots of Catholics, but what else?
Happily, they all share the distinction of having hosted a Catherine of Siena Institute event since September! They are now on the map—Siena’s map, that is. (The one hanging on the office wall with lots of colored pins in it.) This fall the Institute hosted 23 events for over 2300 participants! That’s a Fall for the records. Consider that Sherry Weddell started this ministry by holding a spiritual gifts discernment seminar 10 years ago for 20 people sitting around a couple of tables and vying for elbow room. Of course, this schedule has meant lots of traveling.
Fr. Michael is discerning whether bi-location should be a job qualification for Institute co-director. He hasn’t quite got the hang of it yet, but he swears (we won’t say what) he’s almost there. Cruising from coast to coast, tripping through time zones, watching the latitudes go by, he’s begun to lose track of where the Sun is supposed to come up and go down.
We can report that Fr. Michaels’s love affair with airport security continues unabated. Forty three cigarette lighters and three dozen fingernail clippers later, his feelings have the mark of constancy. He has experienced as have few others the thoroughness of the TSA, and has accumulated so many frequent flier miles that the entire Western Dominican Province headed to Argentina for Christmas (just kidding).
His brethren in the Seattle priory take it on faith that he is still among the living. Sweeney sightings have been reported, although the slender fellow they describe bears so little resemblance to the jolly friar of old that no one takes these stories too literally.
Sherry also carries herself with the air of a seasoned traveler of late: starry-eyed, mumbling incoherently about concourses and gate numbers, death-grip on her government ID. After two years of living in Colorado Springs, she still gets lost on her way to the grocery store and stands up when they welcome visitors each Sunday at Holy Apostles down the street.
Of course, Fr. Michael and Sherry had plenty of help this fall, since 22 events would have been difficult to cover in three months. We now have 6 teachers who can fully present the Called & Gifted workshop along with 20 in training. 16 of them contributed to make the fall success possible.
Take, for example, Scott Moyer, a senior Institute teacher who heads up the Institute’s San Francisco empire. St Dominic’s Church, where he works as Adult Formation Director, has become a premier example of how a parish can provide formation that takes seriously the call to all Catholics to become apostles to the world. Scott has ambitions of becoming the Institute’s first millionaire, and with the lavish honorariums so characteristic of Catholic compensation, he only needs to teach an additional 3300 workshops.
But back to some other figures. Here are a few more: To date, the Institute has held 164 Called & Gifted workshops for over 15,000 people in 6 countries and has put on live events in 55 dioceses.
All this doesn’t just happen. We must make mention of Mike Dillon, program coordinator of the year, who single-handedly managed to keep the airlines, Post Office, UPS, two phone companies, and several local printers in business this fall while battling bouts of cold, flu, and other forms of contagion that children bring home to dad. Mike manages the Institute office while he’s at it, where Judy Young has joined the staff as bookkeeper and Angela Terazas as administrative assistant.