600 attend Men's Fellowship Conference

'Answering the Call' was this crowd of 600 at Men's Conference at Hoban High

An estimated 600 attended the :"Answer the Call" conference of the Men's Fellowship of Northeast Ohio at Hoban High School on Saturday,. It was probably the best-attended conference of the fellowship so far.

They listened to a half dozen speakers, sang at least that many hymns, prayed the Rosary, stood in many long confession lines to receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation, had a box lunch, renewed acquaintances and met new friends.

Each of the speakers said they hoped the 600 would remember the day and go out and join with others in what several speakers called a battle for morality. Former Notre Dame coach Jerry Faust brought the 300 men to their feet when he urged them to talk to legislators to stop the evil of abortion. Faust stood in one of the confession lines and went to the 7 a,.m. Mass at Sacred Heart Church on Grant Street before coming to the conference. Faust talked about the need for prayer and love and dwelt on a favorite theme that making good men is more important than making good ballplayers.

Danny Abramavoich, former NFL wide receiver and host of the new “Crossing the Goal Show” on EWTN, bounded back and forth on the stage to pound home his message that secularism is replacing God. Then he rattled off statistics on the $55 billion annual pornography business, co-ed living in college dorms, the 60 percent who believe abortion should be legal and on and on. “When God is not in the equation, look out,” he warned,

“This is spiritual warfare out there,” he said. “We have to change.” Three things are needed, he said; 1, :Prayer 2. The Eucharist 3. Confession.

A similar message was given earlier by Bishop George Murry of the Youngstown Diocese, who is secretary of the U.S. Bishops Conference. “We must be about the business of transforming our world,” he said. The bishop talked about the meaning of words but said that more powerful than any are “Words from the altar that change the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ.”

Fr. Philip Chavez told the men “You are called to be leaders.” Every man should lead and the older man need to encourage younger men, he said. A verse from the Bible summed up his message: “Come follow me and I will make you fishers of men.”

Fr, Michael Gurnick, vocations director of the Cleveland Diocese, spoke on Reconciliation and Fr. Leo Wherlin, vocations director of the Youngstown Diocese, spoke about “answering the call” of vocations like the call to Samuel in the Bible who said “Speak Lord for your servant is listening.”

The Most Rev. Richard J. Lennon, Bishop of the Cleveland Diocese, was celebrant for the closing Mass.

The next conference will be March 20, 2010 at Hoban High and will be held jointly with the new Men’s Fellowship of the Youngstown Diocese.

There were 25 parishioners from St. Paul. They were John Amedo, David Clute, Bob Considine, Eric Dadich, Michael Dadich, Adam Dadich, Joe Dadich, Rudy Didonato, Joe Eckman, Mickey Eritano, Joe Hefferan, David Kline, Ray Kline, Ken Krummel, Mickey L. Dadich, Harry Liggett, Russ Livigni, John Mastrojohn, Ron McAvoy, Hank Richard, George Roberts, John Turlik, John Wilson, John Withrow and Nick Zeno

Click on the headline to see an albunm of photos from the conference.