Kateri Coffee House offers fellowship and a place to discuss difficult topics

Sparta’s St. Kateri Tekakwitha Parish in February started offering a mid-month Kateri Coffee House, which addresses informative and challenging topics facing people, especially youths.

The coffee and conversation group is a collaborative effort between Matthew Piwko, who currently runs the program, and Cheryl Wallace, who is the parish director of Religious Education.

“She was the one who put the idea in front of me first,” Piwko says of Wallace. “Father Tom Fallone and another parishioner had done something called Theology on Tap. Someone created this idea of gathering in a coffeehouse-style to play music, build community, and talk about things that are meaningful topics in the church that are not getting as much airtime as they should.”

Inspiration received, Piwko and Wallace have adapted that idea.

“It was like revamping a previously successful idea,” Piwko said, who also added that the Kateri Coffee House model is geared towards the youth, but it is open to all. “Ultimately, it would allow us to dialogue about hot topics in the faith, so the tagline is ‘Hot coffee, hot topics.’ ”

Kateri Coffee House was kicked off in February, and both Saturday, two-hour meetings had a double-digit number of attendees. The first half hour is a game-playing and chat session, followed by an hour of discussion. After a brief opening or witness talk, attendees break up into small groups and discuss thoughts and issues that relate to the topic, and then return and talk about it as a full group. The final 20 to 30 minutes features an open mic music session for those who would like to play music.

Topics discussed thus far are human sexuality (chastity, pornography, and same-sex marriage) as well as evangelization. Wallace and St. Kateri Parish pastor, Father Vidal Roberto Gonzales, Jr., spoke briefly at the first gathering.

“We wanted to talk about the Church teachings around these issues and let people speak to their experience of these issues,” Piwko said. “It’s a little bit of a risky maneuver — you don’t want to alienate anyone — but ultimately, I just felt it was very important that airtime is given to these issues, so we can stand strong in the teachings of the Church in the Catechism.”

Piwko added, “The goal is to start a conversation about difficult-to-discuss issues. We started with human sexuality because that contains a set of issues that I hear few people dialoguing about. People seem especially afraid to talk about issues around same-sex unions. People seem afraid to proclaim the truth of the Church’s teaching about that. We do not want anyone to judge, and we do not condemn — just like our Lord — but the goal is to start a conversation around these hot topic issues and give people the confidence to start a conversation. We would love to see more lay folks who are comfortable talking about these truths at home and with their friends. Dialoguing is a great act of love.”