Sunday, March 21, 1999
Ditka coaches 10,000 Catholics
'Iron Mike' shares tender insights
BY JULIE IRWIN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
It was a familiar Mike Ditka who strode onto a stage at Firstar Center Saturday, with his headset on and a bag of football jokes, to the cheers of about 10,000 men. But he warned the crowd that they didn't know him, and then he proved it.
The Football Hall of Famer and coach of the New Orleans Saints choked up as he recounted his deepening faith. The man known for his four-lettered tirades from the sidelines described his struggle to stop cursing. He read aloud from the Bible amid stories about former NFL coaches Tom Landry and Vince Lombardi.
“Hell comes when the person we are comes face to face with the person we ought to be. Are you the person you ought to be?” he told the men gathered for the fifth annual Answer the Call Catholic Men's Conference. “I ask myself every day, "Am I the person God wants me to be?'”
Mr. Ditka was one of a roster of speakers drawn from all corners of the Roman Catholic faith. Dr. Bernard Nathanson, a former abortion provider turned anti-abortion activist, told the group about performing an abortion on his own girlfriend, and his later conversion.
The Rev. Michael Pfleger, a pastor from Chicago who led a boycott against the Jerry Springer show, urged the men to become involved in their communities. And Adm. Jeremiah Denton told of the role that faith has played throughout his life, from his days as a Vietnam POW to his tenure as a U.S. senator.
The Catholic Men's Fellowship sponsors the annual conference and promotes men's groups in Catholic churches throughout the area. The crowd was a mix of newcomers and returnees, all happy to spend a weekend of the NCAA basketball tournament far from their television sets.
“We get so overwhelmed with the day-to-day activities that we need to take time out and evaluate where we are,” said Renard Zellars, 36, a mechanical engineer and member of St. Mark Church in Evanston. “So often people wonder why we have such chaos in our communities, and it's because men won't take a stand.”
The day closed with a Mass celebrated by the Most Rev. Daniel E. Pilarczyk, archbishop of Cincinnati. More than 3,000 men went to confession in rooms set up on the center's second floor, organizers said.
“We're kind of amazed, to be honest,” said co-founder Declan O'Sullivan, who estimated only half that many went to confession last year, the first year it was offered. “Catholics go to communion, but Catholics who go to confession, that's a big step.”
The annual conference will continue through at least next year. From its start in Cincinnati it has spread to other U.S. cities, including Baltimore, Chicago and Los Angeles.
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