By DIANE GASPER-O’BRIEN
Special to Hays Post
The Catholic Diocese of Salina is made up of more than 35,000 parishioners in 86 parishes across the northern half of Kansas.
With 12 active parishes, Ellis County sits in the middle of the vast, 26,685-square mile diocese that stretches from Manhattan in eastern Kansas to the Colorado border.
So what better location to host a Eucharistic Conference than in the predominantly Catholic county seat of Hays? And what better venue than Fort Hays State University, home of the Comeau Catholic Campus Center?
Led in part by Hays natives Bill Meagher and Father Gale Hammerschmidt, the diocese put on a conference for the ages that brought more than 1,100 people to campus to spend a day and a half with fellow members of their faith.
Meagher, director of youth ministry, religious education, and family life for the diocese, headed up the committee that planned and implemented the conference in just six months.
A member of that committee was Fr. Gale, director of evangelization and communication for the diocese who also serves as chaplain of St. Isidore’s Catholic Student Center at Kansas State University in Manhattan.
“I love the fact that this conference was held in the center of the diocese,” said Fr. Gale, one of the conference emcees. “And I love that it was in my hometown. Hays is the place where I learned about God and first encountered the Catholic Church. I brag about Hays every day of my life.”
A team effort
Meagher was quick to give credit to the entire committee as well as the 50-plus volunteers who helped with various duties leading up to, during and after the conference.
“I definitely thought it was possible to pull this off because of who we had on the planning committee and all the great sponsors and volunteers who stepped up to make it happen,” Meagher said. “It was definitely a team effort.”
Every parish in Hays, as well as other parishes around the diocese, offered volunteer help.
The conference promoted attendees to “prepare to be inspired and transformed” at the conference, “an event to ignite the daft of our entire Catholic diocese.” And that it did.
The highlight of the conference was keynote speaker Bishop Joseph Espaillat from the Archdiocese of New York, who, at 47, is the youngest bishop in the country.
Bishop Gerald “Jerry” Vincke of the Salina Diocese and the other 12,000-plus attendees were inspired by Bishop Joseph’s candidness at the National Catholic Youth Conference (NCYC) in Indianapolis, Indiana, last November.
He had talked of how joyful he was – and how all Catholics should be – living a joyful life.
It was announced at NCYC that Indianapolis also would be the site of the huge National Eucharistic Congress scheduled for this summer.
Bishop Jerry knew there were some people from his diocese who wouldn’t be able to attend the Eucharistic Congress. In an effort to give everyone a chance to participate in such an inspirational event, he consulted Meagher and others, asking if it was possible to hold such a conference in the diocese.
“Bishop Vincke had the idea after praying about what our diocese needed,” Meagher said. “The Holy Spirit put this on his heart, and he wanted to bring this conference to the diocese.”
Bishop Jerry thought it was an ideal way to portray the diocese's mission: "Together, let us be disciples of Jesus on mission."
“I trust Bishop Vincke very much,” Fr. Gale said. “The idea for this conference was perfect, to take what we were doing on a national level and do it on a local level.”
But could all the planning, including finding the right venue, be done in such a short time?
“We kind of went with what the early-church concept – going out with nothing but the clothes on our back and let the Holy Spirit lead you,” Meagher said.
Hays: the perfect location
The committee researched several locations in different cities.
Father Andy Hammeke, chaplain of FHSU’s Catholic Campus Center, indicated he had been wanting to bring a conference of this type to the FHSU students he serves at the campus center. So, he and the CCCC took the lead in hosting the conference.
So, on a cool Friday evening in mid-August, parishioners from all across the diocese and beyond were joined by priests, deacons, seminarians and sisters from two different orders as they made their way to the beautiful Beach/Schmidt Performing Arts Center in FHSU’s Sheridan Hall.
Some came alone, others brought their entire families. And many came early with the intention of finding a good seat in Beach/Schmidt.
They soon found that every seat was a good one in the auditorium that seats about 1,100.
Nonetheless, two members of St. Joseph Parish in Hays were looking forward to the conference so much that they were seated in Beach/Schmidt about an hour before Friday’s opening session.
They said they learned about the upcoming conference from their church bulletin.
“As soon as it said ‘Eucharistic,’ I knew I was going,” Ramona Herman said.
“Since it was in going to be in Hays, I thought, ‘I have to go,’” agreed Adrienne Cargile.
It started with a bang
Fr. Gale, donning a cowboy hat and talking up rural America, gave a colorful introduction of the keynote speaker, known as the Bronx Bishop. Fr. Gale told the audience how grateful he was that Bishop Joseph had made it to Hays at all.
While the planning committee had been keeping an eye on the forecast in Hays, Bishop Joseph was watching the development of a tropical storm that was making its way north out of the Carolinas toward New York.
But he got out of New York in time and arrived in Hays just in the nick of time for the start of the conference.
As it was, both Friday and Saturday turned out unseasonably cool with temperatures in the mid- to low-70s. And Bishop Joseph made it to Hays just in time for his opening session to kick off the weekend.
“I would like to go through the history of our Hays weather and see when the last time it was in the mid-70s in August,” Fr. Gale said. “I have no memory in my lifetime of that. It was a special gift from God to have this kind of weather.”
Some folks even brought jackets and coats to the late-night Eucharistic Adoration under the wide open skies.
The only major change in the schedule came Saturday morning when a rain shower moved the planned rosary from the grotto at Thomas More Prep-Marian to indoors at St. Joseph Church.
Bishop Joseph talked about the four pillars of the National Eucharistic Revival: reinvigorating worship, personal encounter, robust faith formation, and missionary sending.
“The fire has to be from the Eucharist,” he said. “The Eucharist is food for the soul. Nothing will supplant Jesus in the Eucharist.”
He used a baseball analogy in describing the sacraments, saying the center of the baseball (the cork) is baptism, the string around the cork represents the Eucharist, and the leather cover – confirmation.
“The purpose of a baseball is to play ball,” Bishop Joseph said.
It ended with a bang
Following another robust keynote talk from Bishop Joseph, the rest of the day was filled with numerous breakout sessions, finishing with a late afternoon Mass in FHSU’s lush outdoor quad – more beautiful than ever this August, thanks to recent moisture.
“Seeing that many people, you love seeing the diocese connected,” Meagher said. “Unity and community - that’s what the church is all about.”
While the majority of those attending the event at FHSU are current parishioners in the Salina Diocese, anyone was welcome to attend.
Two of those were former Hays residents, Jeff and Tina Wick, who now live in Wamego – which is part of the Archdiocese of Kansas City.
Tina Wick had attended the Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis, and she said the inspirational event was life-changing.
“What I experienced from the Eucharistic Congress, I wanted my husband to have a taste of,” she said. “I think the conference in Hays was phenomenal. It goes to show that people are wanting to continue the fire of the Holy Spirit to touch people’s souls – and to keep this revival going.”
Numerous Facebook posts Saturday night and Sunday showed how the conference had energized many.
It’s an experience that will be talked about for a long time. And that’s the idea.
“I’m really excited to see where the Holy Spirit takes us from here,” Meagher said. “I think He’s working in our diocese and has a plan for us.”
“Often, we see lots of division in our society,” Meagher continued. “This was a special opportunity for people from all over our state to come together, meet each other, talk to each other and, most importantly, worship together as a united group.”