The theme for the 27th annual Columbus Catholic Men’s Conference is “The Eucharist – Go Deeper.” Conference organizers invite men of the diocese to “fall in love with Jesus through the Eucharist and experience a love and strength like no other as you walk with confidence on the path to sainthood.”
The conference will take place from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 24, with Eucharistic Adoration beginning at 6 a.m., in Kasich Hall of the Ohio Expo Center (state fairgrounds). Chris Stefanick, John Edwards and Father Burke Masters will be featured speakers.
The program also will include Mass at 2 p.m. with Bishop Earl Fernandes as the celebrant, plus displays by faith-based organizations, an opportunity to receive the sacrament of reconciliation, and breakfast and lunch.
Stefanick is an internationally acclaimed author, speaker and television host who has spoken several times in the Diocese of Columbus and has devoted his life to inspiring people to live a bold, contagious faith. His live seminars reach more than 85,000 people per year, and his television program, videos and radio spots reach millions more.
He is the author of the Chosen Confirmation program, which has formed more than 500,000 teens. A graduate of Franciscan University of Steubenville, he also is founder and president of Real Life Catholic, a nonprofit that is the headquarters for his various initiatives.
Edwards left the auto parts business after 23 years to follow his heart into ministry in the Catholic Church. He runs Pew Ministries Inc., a Catholic nonprofit he founded with a mission of bringing the person of Jesus Christ to the person in the pew. He also is a co-founder and partner of Virtual Catholic Conferences LLC, hosts the “Just a Guy in the Pew” podcast and helps start and revitalize parish men’s ministries across the nation.
Father Masters is pastor of St. Isaac Jogues Church in Hinsdale, Illinois. He is known as “The Baseball Priest” because he has served as chaplain for the Chicago Cubs since 2015, a period that includes the 2016 team that won the Cubs’ only World Series championship in the past 115 years.
Father Masters played in the 1990 College World Series with Mississippi State University. After graduation, he became an insurance actuary and was ticket manager for the Kane County Cougars minor league baseball team in suburban Chicago. He became a Catholic in 1985, began seminary studies in 1997 and was ordained a priest in 2000.
He was vocations director of the Diocese of Joliet, Illinois, from 2006-2018 and became its adult formation director in 2018. He also co-founded a series of sports camps the diocese conducts for young people each summer.
Registration for the conference is $45 for adults, $30 for students and complimentary for seminarians and members of the clergy. For more information, go to www.catholicmensministry.com/2024conference.