Partners Conference 

Every fall, Catholics On Call offers the Partners Conference.  Campus ministers, vocation directors, volunteer directors, and anyone who ministers to young adults have the opportunity to come together to learn and discuss best practices for supporting young adult men and women in their vocational discernment. 

The 2008 Partners Conference took place on September 25 & 26, 2008 at Catholic Theological Union , Chicago

Keynote speaker Thomas Rausch, SJ (Professor of Theology at Loyola Marymount University and author of Being Catholic in a Culture of Choice) gave two talks:

"Young Adult Catholics Today"

"Meeting the Living God: Beyond a Culturally Determined Faith"

To post the recorded talks on the website, we had to devide them in smaller pieces. Click on the following links to hear the podcast:

Tom Rausch, SJ: Young Adult Catholics Today - Part 1
Tom Rausch, SJ: Young Adult Catholics Today - Part 2
Tom Rausch, SJ: Young Adult Catholics Today - Part 3
Tom Rausch, SJ: Young Adult Catholics Today - Part 4

Tom Rausch, SJ: Meeting the Living God - Part 1
Tom Rausch, SJ: Meeting the Living God - Part 2
Tom Rausch, SJ: Meeting the Living God - Part 3
Tom Rausch, SJ: Meeting the Living God - Part 4
Tom Rausch, SJ: Meeting the Living God - Part 5

We are grateful to Tom Rausch for making available the Bibliography he used.

Scroll down on this page to watch a slide show from the conference.

Next years partners conference will be held on September 24/25, 2009 at CTU, Chicago. We are honored to have Bishop Robert Morneau as keynote speaker. He'll talk about how to walk with young adults in their discernment process. Please save the date!

*If you are not a Catholics On Call Partner, and wish to learn more about the Partners Conference and the partnership, contact us at 773.371.5431 or email the associate director, Birgit Oberhofer.

Information from our first Partners Conference 2005

Presenters and their papers:

• Fr. Donald Senior, C.P., New Testament scholar and President of Catholic Theological Union. Topic: Theology of Call. Download Fr. Senior's paper.
• Fr. Jim Bacik, Catholic campus ministry director, University of Toledo, and prominent author. Topic: The Spirituality of Contemporary Young Adults. Respondents: Young adult panel. Download Fr. Bacik's paper.
• Sr. Barbara Bowe, R.S.C.J., New Testament and Christian spirituality scholar. Topic: Principles of Discernment. Respondents: A panel of a campus minister, young adult minister, and vocation director.  Download Professor Bowe's paper.

Slide Show