FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MEDIA ADVISORY
Catholic PRWire

STEUBENVILLE, OH (June 26, 2012) - "Imagine if your life was at risk to celebrate Mass. Think about the early priests, those men who gave their lives for the service of the Church. They weren't being priests to be safe or comfortable; they were being priests because of a conviction of the grace that comes to us in the sacrament of the Eucharist," said Father Dave Pivonka, TOR, in his homily at a Mass offered during Franciscan University of Steubenville's 37th annual Priests, Deacons, and Seminarians Retreat, held from June 18-22.

"Scripture says, 'Be careful of storing up things for yourself.' A danger sometimes is our reputation and our status, that we want to store them up," he continued. "Tragically, often we compare our reputations to other brothers who are priests. But the spirit of competition in the priesthood is straight from hell."

The former director of post-novitiate formation for his religious community, Father Pivonka currently is the director of Franciscan Pathways, an evangelistic/preaching outreach of the Franciscan Friars TOR.

Emphasizing that today, much of the world's perception of the priesthood is based on recent scandals in the Church, Father Pivonka said that people often ask, "Why would anybody be a priest?"

His response: "Because of the love and the grace of Jesus Christ our Savior, and to be able to share that with the world." He said that embracing the true spirit of the priesthood is an "opportunity for us to reclaim what is rightfully ours, apart from status and reputation."

The retreat featured nationally acclaimed speakers including Franciscan University theology professors Dr. Scott Hahn and Dr. John Bergsma; author and Conception Seminary School of Theology professor Father Pablo Gadenz; author Kimberly Hahn; and New Evangelization Ministries founder Deacon Ralph Poyo. The retreat also welcomed back scripture scholar Father Francis Martin, a long-time conference speaker and friend of Franciscan University, who received the Dei Verbum Award.

Father Pivonka presented the award on behalf of Franciscan University to honor Father Martin for his tireless efforts in teaching the Word of God, instructing the laity, and caring for his brother priests, deacons and seminarians.

"It's a very special joy for me to receive the award from Steubenville. Steubenville's been a large part of my life—not just in giving talks, but being with so many priests who really want to serve the Lord," said Father Martin in his speech following the presentation.

He gave several talks that week, focusing on how priests are truly entrusted to the Word of God.

"Let that Word turn to fire in your bones like it did to Jeremiah, and the Lord will love to do that for us," he said. "Why? Because it is our principal duty. The people of God either live by the Word of God or they don't live. It's that important."

The healing power of confession was the theme of one of Scott Hahn's talks, focusing on the power of the sacrament for clergy and lay people alike.

Discussing the fall of Adam and Eve, he explained that when God asked them "Where are you?" after they ate the fruit, he was not asking for geographical coordinates but rather "their relationship to him and their relationship to each other;" he wanted to help them.

"We can approach confession in terms of our own feeling of guilt, like in a courtroom, or in terms of debt," said Hahn, "but I am convinced that the best way to approach this is to see that God loves Adam more than Adam loves himself; he wants to forgive [Adam and Eve] both more than they want him to forgive them."

After sharing the story of his first confession after his conversion to Catholicism, Hahn said that not only do people need to know the facts about the faith, but they must experience it with their hearts as well.

Faith and reason must go hand in hand, most importantly because God is a God of reason, explained Bergsma in a talk titled "Jesus as Divine Wisdom."

"One of the central claims of our faith is the fact of the reasonableness of God, and his creation," he said.

Delving into the beginning of John's Gospel, Bergsma explained that in writing "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and Word was God," it goes beyond just the logos, and continues into a profound love for God's people.

"We have a message of hope for a world that is at loss in a sea of irrationality. But let's not just take confidence, let's take wonder," he said. "Let's ponder the fact that the divine reason displayed in the macroscopic and in the microscopic is a Person. A Person who makes that same banquet available to us through the sacrament."

To be a witness is to be a martyr, said Father Pablo Gadenz, explaining that the martyr "is the one who witnesses to the point of shedding his blood. We want to ...