Conference focuses on message of Mary

Father Donald Calloway's spiritual message is simple: "You cannot do without Mary. Period."

"If you don't have her, you'll find yourself communicating to a different Jesus," said Calloway, headmaster of Marians of the Immaculate Conception in Steubenville, Ohio, Saturday at the second annual "Our Lady of Fatima Conference" at the downtown Salt Lake Hilton.

Calloway also stressed the importance of the rosary as a "spiritual weapon," as well as family prayer.

About 550 Catholics from across the country attended the conference, which director Susan Taylor said is meant to foster "a deeper spirituality. . . . We promote the rosary that the Virgin Mary asked us to pray."

The conference theme, "World Peace and Christian Unity," is based on the message Catholics believe the Virgin Mary gave to children on July, 13, 1917, Taylor said.

Mary requested reparation on first Saturdays, including confession, holy communion, five decades of the rosary, and meditation on the mysteries of the rosary, Taylor said. Catholics believe Mary also showed the children a vision of hell, where the souls of unrepentant sinners go.

Calloway said "those little kids were prophets. . . . We have to listen. If I didn't, I'd be in a very warm place."

Mary is the "blueprint" of the church, Calloway said. "Have you ever met a priest who doesn't have Mary in his life? He's nuts."

Calloway said the church needs to move away from "crayon" Catholicism. Diversity and tolerance is relativism and not the same thing as mercy.

"I wear my wedding ring — I'm married to God — around my neck," he said. "If I take it off, that's a problem. . . . Mary comes from God's heaven . . . to teach us things, black and white things, heaven and hell."

Calloway said accepting homosexuality, the ordination of women or the marriage of priests would be to poison the flock.

"I know I'm going to offend some people here. It pains me as a father . . . but it must be done."

Those who attended the conference, however, applauded Calloway's message of orthodoxy.

Mary asks for "sacrificial love." It's never too late to turn to her, Calloway said. When congregants tell him they fear for their children's souls, his advice is, "Consecrate your children to Mary. . . . You don't have the power. She does."

He said it's important for parents to set an example by reciting the rosary — something that should be a family endeavor.

The rosary can soothe and calm when temptation arises, Calloway said. He used as an example pornography, which he called "the numero uno sin today among men." That temptation normally lasts about 20 minutes, about the same time it takes to recite the rosary.

"That's what our lady teaches us," he said. "You have to have humility to do this."

Bishop George Niederauer of the Catholic Diocese of Salt Lake City delivered the conference mass Saturday. The conference continues all day today.

---

E-mail: dbulkeley@desnews.com