The halls of Maria High School, 6727 S. California Ave., bustled with Catholics networking, learning and sharing during Parish Leadership Day Feb. 26. A record crowd of more than 1,600 attended the daylong series of talks and workshops held annually for people involved in parish ministries. “It’s nice to meet people from all the other parishes,” said Bill Burns from Prince of Peace Parish in Lake Villa. “It’s nice to be exposed to what other parishes are doing.” Burns is in charge of the parish’s website and said he received some good comments and suggestions that he can take back to his ministry. Mary LeCompte serves on the parish council of Divine Providence Parish in Westchester and said the workshops she attended had informed speakers who showed “a lot of passion in what they were saying, which was refreshing.” LeCompte said she particularly enjoyed hearing Cardinal George speak. “He’s so inspiring,” she said. “He’s not afraid to answer a question head on.” The theme for this year’s Parish Leadership Day was “Our Church: Ever Ancient, Ever New.” The event was sponsored by the archdiocesan Office for Councils and included sessions in Spanish and Polish as well as English. Sessions were numerous and covered a variety of topics including immigration, what Catholics believe, why we have parish pastoral councils and domestic violence. As always, one of the day’s highlights was the question-andanswer session with Cardinal George. Because of the size of the crowd, the session was split into two parts over lunchtime. Some examples of the questions the cardinal answered during this session included money in the church, parish mergers and same-sex unions. (Video of the cardinal’s session will soon be available on the Catholic Chicago Channel at www.youtube.com/CatholicChicago.) During an afternoon session, Elsie Radtke from the archdiocese’s Family Ministries Office led a session about ministering to Catholics who are divorced or who are getting a divorce. She stressed the importance of reaching out to couples in troubled marriages before they get to the point of filing for a divorce. “You want to try to help them come back to the marriage and work on it if they can,” she said. She recommended adding petitions for couples struggling in their marriages to the prayers of the faithful at Mass. Couples who end up divorced “never asked for this” and never thought they would be divorced, she said. Radtke told the group to be mindful of the pain felt by a person going through a divorce. “It’s not until the divorce decree is signed that they realize what is going on and the pain can begin,” said Radtke. She also said that if there are children involved, the parents must become effective co-parents and “heroes” to their children and families, not putting down or criticizing the other parent. Parish Leadership Day ended with Mass with Cardinal George and other priests and deacons. Spiritan Missionary Father Freddy Washington delivered the homily to a packed crowd in Maria’s High School’s auditorium.