"The Vital Difference" conference
  praised by attendees

MERIDEN, CT (07-16-2007) - A conference on "The Vital Difference: Collaboration of Men and Women in the Church" held July 11-13, 2007, at Holy Family Retreat Center, West Hartford, drew resounding praise from the 150 attendees. The conference invited those present to explore complementarity, collaboration and relationship based on Pope John Paul II's theology of the body.

Mother Shaun Vergauwen, FSE, Mother General, opened the conference with "Today's Challenge: What Brings Us Here" which focused on the developments of the past 35 years in light of the Church's call to collaboration today.

Most Reverend J. Michael Miller, CSB, Secretary of the Vatican's Congregation for Catholic Education, and recently appointed by Pope Benedict XVI as coadjutor archbishop of Vancouver, B.C., presented the keynote address on the "Letter to the Bishops on the Collaboration of Men and Women in the Church and in the World" by the then-Cardinal Ratzinger, published on May 31, 2004. Sister Paula Jean Miller, FSE, STD, of the University of St. Thomas, Houston, provided a response to the keynote address. Her lecture was titled "Franciscan Response: the Coincidence of Opposites."

Archbishop J. Michael Miller and Sister Paula Jean Miller.

Other speakers provided insights from their areas of expertise: Genevieve Kineke on "The Authentic Catholic Woman"; Sister Timothy Prokes, FSE, Ph.D, on "True Body in a Virtual Reality Culture"; Mother Miriam Seiferman, FSE, MSN, APRN, and Reverend Kevin Walsh, MA, of the Diocese of Arlington, on "Creative Tension: Roadblocks in Complementarity"; Most Reverend Allen H. Vigneron, Ph.D., Bishop of Oakland, on "Jesus Christ Virgin Spouse of the Church." Most Reverend Paul S. Loverde, STL, JCL, Bishop of Arlington, Very Reverend Douglas Mosey, CSB, President and Rector of Holy Apostles College and Seminary, Cromwell, Connecticut, and Archbishop Miller presented homilies on the Scriptural readings as related to the conference theme.

The Franciscan Sisters of the Eucharist and the Franciscan Brothers of the Eucharist are dedicated to fostering the dignity of the human person and to promoting authentic collaboration in the spirit of St. Francis and St. Clare as an abundant flowering of new life for the Church. Participation in the conference was by invitation of the Franciscan community. Attendees represented local churches from 13 states, Ontario, Jamaica, Rome and the Holy Land.