The Great Lakes Catholic Men’s Conference reached the quarter-century mark with this year’s event at the Holmes Student Center on the campus of Northern Illinois University in DeKalb. The conference, which draws hundreds of men each year, grew out of efforts by a group of men from Holy Family Parish in Rockford who came home inspired from a conference at Steubenville, Ohio.

 

The event’s first venue, a parish school gym, held 300. Now it fills the Duke Ellington Ballroom at NIU.

 

This year’s speakers include:

 

â–º Dan DeMatte of Columbus, Ohio, executive director of the Damascus Catholic Mission Camp, whose talk included juggling fire.

 

â–º Eric Groth, president and CEO of ODB Films.

 

â–º Kevin Matthews, Chicago radio broadcaster.

 

â–º Father Burke Masters, Catholic chaplain for the Chicago Cubs.

 

Wayne Messmer reprised his role as conference emcee, and Father Max Striedl, pastor of St. Mary Parish in Huntley, led Adoration and Benediction, as well as encouraging the men to make confession a  part of their lives.

 

Bishop David Malloy offered Mass.