Every year, around 40,000 Catholics gather in southern California for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles’ Religious Education Congress. Workshops and worships services lead by prominent Catholic leaders and writers create a collective atmosphere of prayer, learning and discernment.
Staff from the California Catholic Conference (CCC) attend to promote membership in the Catholic Legislative Network (Booth #281) and our prison chaplain activities (Booth #248).
This year, using social media, you can also join in a conversation about current public policy issues even though you might not be able to make the trek to the Anaheim Convention Center to attend the Congress.
On Saturday morning (March 17 at 10:15), CCC Executive Director, Edward “Ned” Dolejsi will be featured on a Facebook Live broadcast from our booth at the Congress. Beginning Friday, Network subscribers will be able to submit questions for the Mr. Dolejsi by visiting www.PollEV.com/cacathconf.
The online poll will also engage in other discussions throughout the weekend on topics such as parish social justice activities, immigration and the death penalty. Next week, we will publish a schedule of questions for the weekend.
We are planning another Facebook Live broadcast just after noon on Saturday with Karen Clifton, executive director of Catholics Mobilizing Network for Ending the Use of the Death Penalty. The interview will take place during a lunchtime protest that shines a spotlight on the need to end the use of the death penalty and promote restorative justice.
“RE Congress” starts Thursday with a day devoted to young people, with youth groups from around the state attending. Participants to the three days of workshops literally come from around the world to attend the event.
Special liturgies are also a hallmark of the gathering such as one highlighting care for the earth with Cardinal Luis Tagle as the celebrant and a restorative justice Mass with Monterey Bishop Richard Garcia as the celebrant.
Watch for a complete schedule in next week’s edition of Public Policy Insights.