DREs, youth ministers hold fall meeting

By KENNY KEANE, Globe staff reporter
August 21, 2003

In preparation for the upcoming school year, the directors of religious education (DREs) and youth ministers in the Sioux City Diocese were recently offered the opportunity to interact with each other, compare notes and gather information.

A total of 45 people attended the annual fall meeting on Aug. 16, held this year at Buena Vista University in Storm Lake.

The group gathered at 8:30 in the morning with the first hour used as an orientation for the new DREs and youth ministers, while the others spent the time socializing. At 10 a.m., following opening prayer by Dr. Stephan Davis, diocesan director of youth/intergenerational ministry, Storm Lake St. Mary's pastor Father Bruce Lawler delivered his presentation on the children's catechumenate.

"He just really did a wonderful job presenting that," said Linda Anderson, director of catechesis for the diocese. "I had asked him to do a piece on this because I knew he was a supporter of using this process for bringing children into the church. This is the type of process that the bishop wants used.

"The children's catechumenate is for kids past the age of reason - that being the age of 7 - who have either not been baptized or maybe have been baptized, have had little or no catechesis or have not made their first Communion, and they want to come into the church. Father Lawler provided us with an excellent background on the history of that and how to do it."

He then asked Julie Walding, pastoral minister at Sacred Heart Church in Sioux City, to share some comments from her experience with the children's catechumenate. Others who worked with the process were also invited to share their thoughts, and Anderson said she brought many books that are either good reference points or materials for people to use.

After some time for questions, the morning session ended, and at noon the group had lunch, which Anderson said was excellent. Then at 1 p.m. Kevin Vickery, diocesan superintendent of schools, and Cary Brown, pastoral minister at Storm Lake St. Mary's, presented VIRTUS, the child safe environment program adopted by the diocese in response to the Dallas Charter.

"We thought this would be a wonderful opportunity for people who are going to have to promote their volunteer catechists, youth ministers or others to get this training," Anderson said. "These people there obviously had to have this training at some point."

The gathering ended at 4 p.m. with closing prayer and commissioning.

Sheryl Price, the new DRE for the Webster County Team Parishes, said just meeting everyone and getting to know more people throughout the diocese was beneficial.

"So many people from outlying areas introduced themselves," she said. "They have what they call AMORE meetings, where groups of DREs meet in certain places. The woman from Manning and others were very friendly in inviting me to their AMORE meeting. I felt very welcomed and accepted and just happy to be part of a Christian environment."

The DRE for Our Lady of Good Counsel Church in Holstein, Joyce Galvin, said it's always good to start the year with new information.

"It's just nice to gather with the other DREs and share ideas and even problems," said Galvin, a member of the diocesan religious education board. "Just to know that I'm not the only one who still needs more teachers before we start class in two weeks is kind of reassuring."