TexLaMex April 2005, Page 3

Father John Korcsmar went to Los Angeles with some leaders from Austin Interfaith.  The workshop was sponsored by the Center for Community Change in Washington, DC.  The six or seven groups that were invited are all community organizations or CBO's that are working on school reform in public schools.

One of the presenters, Dr. Charles Payne, listed a number of reasons why school reform doesn't work.  One of the most important reasons is that very often there is not enough trust among and even within the different groups: parents, teachers, principals, and administrators.  That is indeed quite a comment, but probably true.  Perhaps it is also food for thought among members of religious communities.

 Brother Joel Giallanza, the Vicar for Religious for the Diocese of Austin, arranged a day of recollection for the religious of the diocese.  Bishop Gregory Aymond attended the entire day, and Brother Paul Bednarczak, who works as the executive director of the national conference for religious vocations was the speaker.

Paul said many good and interesting things, but only a few are included here.  He mentioned that we need to develop a concrete Catholic identity.  There are five things we as religious need to do to promote vocations:

• Pray.  Of course religious pray, but we need to be seen and perceived as people of prayer. 
• Evangelize.  Young people need to hear our motivation is the Gospel. 
• Experience.  Young people need an experience of community and religious life.  They deal in the specific and concrete. 
• Mentor.  Young people need to see the values of religious life in other people, just as we did. 
• Invite.  We need to specifically invite young people to think about religious life.  Many do not think that they are worthy and need a specific invitation.

Brother Richard Critz and Father John Korcsmar went to San Antonio to make the house visit at the Brother Charles Andersen Residence.  The hospitality at the house and at all of San Antonio was wonderful.  All of San Antonio had a Fiesta all Week long.  There were banners and parades in the streets! 

While we were there, it was also  Brother Donald Blauvelt's birthday.  He put on his own wonderful meal.  He fried up some spinach-fed chicken (I think that's why it said "Popeye's"), fried some potatoes from France, used his New Orleans recipe for beans and rice, and--for the pièce de résistance--he baked an ice cream cake from 31 flavors.  He did all this without spending much time in the kitchen!! 

While we were there, we were able to hear how Mario Guzman's English keeps improving.  Besides studying English all day, he is also auditing a course on Mariology.  He also does some work at St. Timothy's Parish. 

The house there is not only a house of formation for Holy Cross religious, but it is also a place where there is a program of accompaniment for young lay men as they work or study. 

After the visit, Brother Richard thanked the men for their time and congratulated them on their hospitality, work, and sense of community.  Father John--like the younger Mr. Grace--told them that they "are all doing very well!"

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