Just as St. Paul wrote plenty of epistles in his era, he would have made good use of today's electronic forms of Internet communication, believes Lisa Hendey, one of nearly 200 workshop speakers slated for the Religious Education Congress at the Anaheim Convention Center March 18-21.

Fr. Frank Desiderio, CSP

"I think St. Paul would have been a blogger and user of social networking sites," said Hendey, who writes a blog on her website, CatholicMom.com, and has a podcast on catholicmoments.com.

A parishioner at St. Anthony of Padua Church in Fresno, where she is the parish website's webmaster, Hendey will present two workshops at Congress: "E Abundance: Faith Formation for the Facebook Generation (Age 5 to 105)" on March 19 and "Incredible iAbundance: Catechizing Adults with New Media Technologies" on March 21.

She will focus on ways churches can expand their communication to parishioners utilizing free online publishing tools like Blogger and WordPress as well as Internet streaming video programs such as Ustream and Justin.tv.

"Social networking is a fact of life that's here to stay," said Hendey, who will be among presenters at a March 10 communications workshop for priests at the Fresno diocesan pastoral center highlighting ways to employ new media in parishes. She noted a recent Kaiser Foundation study on media use by youth showed that 75 percent of students in grades 7-12 have an online social networking profile.

"This is the future of our church [representing] a new mission field," said Hendey. Educating families about ways to access online Catholic resources, such as the Vatican's U-Tube channel and LifeTeen's Facebook page, helps strengthen faith formation in the home.

Hendey, the married mother of two teenage sons and author of "The Handbook for Catholic Moms," says harried family members living in the digital age need to create spaces in their day to connect and communicate with each other.

"We're so busy with so many different activities, which can cause disintegration" in family relationships, said Hendey.

Healing hurts
Improving relationships and helping people forgive one another is the topic of Paulist Father Frank Desiderio's Congress March 20 workshop: "Letting Go of a Grudge."

Lisa Hendey

"One of the reasons I got into forgiveness work is because there is so much rancor in families, particularly around things like divorce [with] the jilted spouse not being able to get past that pain in their life to be able to move on," said Father Desiderio, former president of Paulist Productions who executive-produced more than 25 hours of television documentaries and movies.

His latest film, "The Big Question, A Film About Forgiveness" --- from which he will show clips during his March 20 workshop --- launched him into a new ministry leading forgiveness retreats and seminars. "If the question is, 'Why Forgive?' the answer is, because it's good for your body, mind and spirit," said Father Desiderio, who spent four years executive producing the award-winning documentary.

"The Big Question" tells stories of people who have overcome great hurts, examines the scientific evidence of why forgiveness is good for people and interviews some of the world's greatest spiritual teachers, such as Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Sister Helen Prejean, Rev. Joseph Lowery and The Venerable Thich Nhat Hanh.

"Forgiveness is the antidote to anger, which can be very self-destructive when it turns into rage," said Father Desiderio. "People can become obsessed with revenge thoughts and their spiritual life shuts down and the rest of their life can start to shut down. My definition of forgiveness is the cessation of revenge thoughts."

In his workshop, Father Desiderio takes participants through a five-step process that provides a practical method to "Let Go" of past hurts and resentments. "I want people to get beyond feeling victimized. Rather than being a victim, one can become a victor through forgiveness. The job of forgiveness is to heal hurts," said Father Desiderio, whose blog on forgiveness can be found at www.ForgivenessRetreats.org.

Helping children recover from hurts begins with helping them identify what they're feeling when they've been hurt and being able to express that hurt, says the Paulist priest. Another important life skill, he added, is learning how to apologize and how to accept an apology graciously.

"At the end of reconciliation, both people can walk away feeling like the relationship has been restored. We're not about retribution, but restoration," said Father Desiderio.

Surviving loss
Coping with life's many losses: including the death of loved ones, job loss, foreclosure and disability, is the theme of Anglican Father Richard Gilbert's two workshops at this year's Congress.

He will speak on "When Grief Comes to the Workplace" March 20 and "Grief and our Older Adults" on March 21. Older adults, the largest group in many parishes, says the priest, tend to feel forgotten, marginalized and often overwhelmed by the many losses in their lives.

And, he adds, many young and middle-aged adults are coping with stressors such as underemployment, job losses and home foreclosures. "The church has an ethical, moral responsibility to raise issues such as joblessness, job outsourcing overseas, low wages and lack of medical benefits, said Father Gilbert, the Illinois-based director of the World Pastoral Care Center and adjunct faculty member at the Benedictine University and Mercy College who speaks internationally on bereavement issues.

"Anything that rips through our hearts is a profound spiritual issue," added the Anglican priest, who has 25 years experience as a hospital chaplain and bereavement counselor.

"We have to revisit church as a community. We have to get people connected. And," says Father Gilbert, "We've got to learn how to build bridges despite disagreements."