The event began with a bilingual Mass celebrated by retired Bishop Gerald Walsh at St. John the Evangelist Roman Catholic Church in Midtown Manhattan.
At the conference's main venue, Cathedral High School, also in Midtown, Dr. Hosffman Ospino gave the keynote address to the more than 100 participants. Dr. Ospino, a native of Colombia and Associate Professor of Hispanic Ministry and Religious Education Chair, Department of Religious Education and Pastoral Ministry at Boston College, delivered his remarks primarily in English with commentary in Spanish, to serve both linguistic groups in attendance.
“How do we know that God wants the family in our lives? Everything begins at the time of Creation. We all were created in God’s image and likeness," Dr. Ospino said in his presentation, "The Evangelizing Family."
God wants the family to reflect the perfection of the Holy Trinity, with the Trinity as the ultimate model of family life, Dr. Ospino said. The three persons in the Trinity love each other perfectly and infinitely, in a love that is defined by giving, he added.
“I as a spouse need to give myself entirely to my wife. Parents give themselves entirely to their children. In that way we are communicating what we are witnessing in the Trinity," Dr. Ospino said.
Later in his talk, Dr. Ospino focused on current problems that face the family, and as a result, also affect the Church.
"When we abdicate our role as parents to teach our children, how are they going to love? Google? TikTok? Instagram?”
He identified four pillars of an evangelizing family, one that is held together by its love for God and love for each other:
- An evangelizing family prays and celebrates together
- An evangelizing family learns the faith together
- An evangelizing family supports one another
- An evangelizing family serves and advocates together