Happy Homecoming

RINGWOOD  Here in the spotlight on a stage at St. Catherine of Bologna Parish, Chris Stefanick, a Catholic speaker and author, got caught up one night two weeks ago between two heart-rending personal love stories: one about God and another close to his former home parish of St. Catherine’s.

On Dec. 12, more than 375 people filled the gym of the parish center to listen as Stefanick gave some powerful insights about faith while pacing the stage and cracking jokes during his dynamic presentation, “Reboot! Live!” Founder of a non-profit organization called Real Life Catholic, he talked to Catholics of St. Catherine’s and beyond about what he called “the greatest story ever told”: our love for a God, who loves us even more — to the point of having died for our sins to give us eternal life.

“We are made for God by God,” said 40-year-old Stefanick, youth ministry director for the Diocese of Denver, where he lives with his wife and six children. “The Lord loves us so much that he entered space and time to save us. When we sin, he waits for us in the Eucharist. Any abuses that we suffered or bad choices that we made are only pages in that love story. We know that the last page [our eternal life with God] is the most important part of the story,” he said.

But Stefanick, who has become an internationally known Catholic evangelist, got caught up in another love story that evening when he was warmly welcomed by many audience members of St. Catherine’s. The rural Passaic County faith community helped form his faith as a young man. Standing on the stage at the start of “Reboot! Live!” he got choked up as he looked at the faces in the crowd, which included many people he knew in St. Catherine’s youth ministry in the early 1990s, friends and family, some of whom he had not seen in years. That night, he shook many of their hands, hugged them and spoke to them, as part of this homecoming of sorts.

“I have been able to talk on a stage before a Pope but talking here — man, wow! It takes a village to raise a child,” said Stefanick, who belonged to St. Catherine’s youth ministry from 1991 to 95 and served as a peer minister while a junior and senior in high school. “Thanks for giving me the best place in the world to grow up,” Stefanick told the audience at the end of his presentation — his first at St. Catherine’s as a Catholic speaker.

One audience member, who felt the love for Stefanick that night, was Laura Haftek, youth minister at Our Lady of Consolation Parish, Wayne. She fondly remembered him from the days when she served as St. Catherine’s youth minister. When he first walked into youth group in the early 1990s, Stefanick seemed like “a typical teen, trying to find himself.” Yet, “there was something magnetic about him,” she said.

“Chris had a strong faith that radiated from him. People were drawn to him. He had something that they wanted,” said Haftek, who noted that young people enjoyed gathering around Stefanick, as he played guitar. As a peer minister, he helped organize meetings, dances, shared prayer experiences and presentations by guest speakers and started to find his voice as a speaker and evangelist, while giving retreat talks. “Early on, Chris talked so fast, because he got so excited about sharing his faith. I would tell him to slow down. I wouldn’t say he was an outgoing teen or a shy kid, he just always led by example in a gentle way,” she said.

While in high school, Haftek also had watched Stefanick’s faith grow as he traveled to Denver in 1993 with other youth ministry members for World Youth Day with Pope John Paul II; made his Antioch Weekend, then the Teens Encounter Christ Retreat; and served as a team leader for retreats. Stefanick went on to study at Franciscan University in Steubenville, Ohio, she said.

Haftek told The Beacon about her joy in watching him serve as the keynote speaker at the Diocesan Catechetical Conference at St. Paul Inside the Walls: the Diocesan Center for Evangelization at Bayley-Ellard, Madison on April 22. Over the years, Haftek attended several National Catholic Youth Conferences, where she watched Stefanick give talks to larger and larger audiences — culminating in his appearance as the keynote speaker in Indiana in November at the latest conference, where he talked to 25,000 people.

“This [Stefanick’s success] isn’t a surprise. He is following in Jesus’ footsteps to help lead people to him,” Haftek said. “I feel blessed to see him now and thankful that I was able to see part of this from the beginning.”

Another audience member was Bill Heinzelman, a former St. Catherine’s youth ministry member, who teaches anatomy at Don Bosco Prep, Ramsey. He recalled Stefanick’s early passion for his faith when giving witness talks at retreats.

“Chris would speak from the heart,” said Heinzelman, who reconnected with Stefanick online but had not seen him personally for 20 years until that evening. “Tonight, Chris captured the audience — connecting with people by making it entertaining and speaking the truth with honesty. He is doing great things. I’m proud of where he is,” he said.

For the second half of his talk, Stefanick, who leads Real Life Catholic, multimedia ministry with a TV series on EWTN, outlined the “Five Habits of Holy People” — the title of one of his books. Those habits are: love yourself, pray, share your faith by showing people an authentic witness, cultivate friendships and “reboot” — change your life by turning away from sin, he said.

Before Stefanick’s presentation, Father Pawel Szurek, St. Catherine’s pastor, welcomed the featured speaker, calling him with pride “a son of the parish.”

“We are happy and blessed to have Chris with us tonight. He preaches the Gospel of Jesus, not only by his words, but also by the way he lives his life. Tonight, Chris is here for our spiritual benefit — to help us open our hearts more for God’s action,” Father Szurek said.

Also in the audience that night were Stefanick’s parents, James and Mary of St. Catherine’s, along with other family members. His parents recalled that their son’s faith grew gradually and emphasized that he was a regular teenager playing guitar and earning a Black Belt in martial arts. Yet, he did start a prayer group for teens at a local diner before the school day started at Lakeland Regional High School, Wanaque, they both said.

“I’m proud of Christopher, not because he’s an international speaker, but because he is who he’s always been — very natural and never down, even when things looked bad," Mary Stefanick said.

After his talk, Stefanick spoke to The Beacon about his feeling of being overwhelmed about returning to his former parish.

“I don’t normally get star-struck, but St. Catherine’s helped raise me,” said Stefanick, who gave credit to the “family feeling” of Ringwood and the generosity of the parish’s clergy as he was growing up. “Also, Laura [Haftek] encouraged us in youth ministry to be leaders. There, I found joy in sharing my faith. I also was finding by voice. I’m still finding it,” he said.