Ray Haefele and his wife Irene tuned into a Catholic conference, via Zoom, and found themselves engaged with the speaker: Sister Mary Michael Fox, a nun serving in Nashville.
“She gave a brilliant presentation, had us laughing and crying in the same sentence,” Ray said. “Irene looked at me and said, ‘I think you’ve just found your female speaker.’”
Indeed, they did, with Sister Mary Michael set to be the first female speaker in the 27 year history of the In The Father’s Footsteps Catholic Men’s Conference, scheduled for Feb. 25 at Embassy Suites in Norman.
Sister Mary Michael will join three men in delivering messages designed for this year’s theme: Blessed are the Peacemakers.
A teacher, evangelist and Dominican Sister of Saint Cecilia, Sister Mary Michael runs a retreat house for men in recovery in Nashville and has delivered retreats for priests, deacons and seminarians.
“I grew up with four older brothers and nine nephews, and lots of boys in the neighborhood,” she said. “I have a lot of experience with men, the good the bad and the ugly, as I say to my brothers. So, 950 men in a room, not a problem.”
Haefele, the conference director, had been pondering, and ultimately, searching for a female speaker to add to the speaker lineup for several years. He’s said he’s eager to see the men respond to the sister’s message, a talk titled “Sons of Thunder – Children of God: Moving from Interior Chaos to Interior Peace.”
The rest of the lineup features Jon Leonetti, a best-selling author, radio host and mission leader; Father Dave Pivonka, president of Franciscan University of Steubenville as well as an author and host of “The Wild Goose;” and Robert Rogers, Catholic evangelist. Alexander Schimpf, Ph.D., director of the Marriage and Family Life Ministry in the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City, will lead a breakout luncheon talk, “Building Your Domestic Church.” Pivonka will also lead a young men’s luncheon.
Registration is open at catholicmen.net. Tickets for the full-day event are $69 for adults, $39 for college students and $29 for high school students.
The cost includes breakfast and lunch, the four speakers, the breakout sessions, opportunity for the sacrament of reconciliation and Mass with Archbishop Coakley.
The conference offers the opportunity for a new voice in Sister Mary Michael, who shares the experience of working with the men in recovery, who do landscaping work with her on the 100 acres she manages in Nashville.
“I’m just one 5-foot-6 woman, so there’s a lot of man work that needs to be done here,” she said. “I actually prayed to Saint Joseph to send me a man and he sent me a whole team of them. I share their story on stage. I share the experience of working with these men, who are in sober living, and the face of God I’ve come to see in them, in their particular struggle and in their particular desire to give God another chance in their life.”.
“I’m really looking forward to it,” she said. “To me, it’s an honor. And I do think the fellas I’ve been working with, I have to give them a lot of credit, too. So I’m going to share a little bit of them, because that’s my credibility."