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Catechetics consulting apostolate CALC Inc. launches in Denver
By Nissa LaPoint
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CALC INC.: Catechetics consulting firm Web: www.calcinc.com |
A new catechetics consulting business in Denver launched recently with the mission to help Christians take the leap from a Gospel exegete to a daily practitioner.
Hearts may be on fire for Christ and spiritual leaders may be well-informed on the new evangelization—a term popularized by Blessed John Paul II about a call to reawaken the faith in Christianized countries—but it’s the everyday methods and implementation that founders of CALC Inc. want to teach faithful about in the Denver Archdiocese and across the country.
“We know what the mission of the Church is—it’s evangelization,” said founding principal Barry Metzentine, adjunct professor for the Denver Catechetical School. “But how does that practically happen in the parish setting? I think a lot of parishes struggle with that because of this more ‘siloed’ mentality (within Church operations).”
With business partners Joseph Burns, founding member and professor of the Augustine Institute, and John LaBarbara, vice president of operations at the Fellowship of Catholic University Students (FOCUS) and adjunct professor at the Denver Catholic Biblical School, the three men began the business to not only inform the faithful about the new evangelization but to train them to do the same and offer practical ways to live the faith in their daily lives.
CALC’s approach is divided into two offerings: the Center for Advanced Leadership Consulting—to help develop virtuous leaders who maximize business success—and the Center for Advanced Leadership and Catechetics—to consult leaders within the Church, university campus ministries and Catholic schools about virtue and catechetical formation.
In their personal work experience and involvement with various ministries, the founders said they noticed in others not a lack of love for Christ, but an unfamiliarity with important Vatican and papal documents concerning evangelization and an uncertainty of how to practically implement and instruct others about it.
“We encounter a lack of formation, a lack of training,” Burns said. “We really want to be instrumental in addressing that.”
Not only is their business focused on “training the trainers,” he said, but it is also modeled to consult business leaders about the practical steps they may take to bring their faith into the secular and business world.
“A lot of people want to bring the life of the faith and of Christ into their whole life and struggle with how to practically go about that,” he said.
The founders will draw on many documents in their consultation efforts.
The book “Virtuous Leadership” by Alexandre Havard, Burns said, discusses a key concept they will consult about—how virtue is essential for the business person.
“It’s impossible to be an authentic leader if we don’t have character. Character is based on virtue,” he said. “And if nobody is pointing out the virtues that lead us to be men and women of character, we’re all going to be part of this relativist mush that leads ... to nowhere.”
Metzentine added that when one’s faith life “becomes internal, it will have and does have an impact in the business world.”
Bishop James Conley, apostolic administrator of the Denver Archdiocese, gave his blessing to the business last month.
Through workshops, retreats, presentations and consultations, the founders said they will offer their services for various costs.
For more information about the founders and CALC, visit www.calcinc.com.
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