Men are facing an identity crisis in the world today and they need to do something about it, the speakers at the 27th Columbus Catholic Men’s Conference told a crowd of 2,410 gathered Saturday, Feb. 24 in Kasich Hall at the Ohio Expo Center.

Father Blake Masters, John Edwards and Chris Stefanick stressed the importance of men being leaders in their faith and family lives and Bishop Earl Fernandes emphasized the conference theme, “The Eucharist: Go Deeper” in his homily at the conference-ending Mass.

Afternoon speaker Chris Stefanick gives a rousing presentation to the men at the conference. CT photo by Ken Snow

“This world, as men, has never needed you more or wanted you less,” Stefanick said to laughter, alluding to the cultural condemnation of the word masculinity as inherently toxic in modern-day society.

Early morning snow that blanketed the slippery roads in central Ohio did not deter those who came from 88 parishes in the diocese, the Archdiocese of Cincinnati and the Dioceses of Cleveland, Youngstown, Toledo and Steubenville from attending the annual event. The chairs in the cavernous building were filled with fathers and sons, grandfathers, uncles, relatives, friends and fellow parishioners ranging in age from young boys to the elderly.

An attentive audience listened to the three speakers and was given the opportunity to witness a Eucharistic procession led by Bishop Fernandes, adore Christ in the Blessed Sacrament, go to confession to 49 priests on hand and attend the Mass celebrated by Bishop Fernandes that included nine other priests and seven deacons.

Bishop Earl Fernandes processes to the altar with the Blessed Sacrament for Eucharistic Adoration at the conference. CT photo by Ken Snow

Eucharistic Adoration was available throughout the day in a second-floor room in the hall, as was a second-class relic for veneration of St. Padre Pio, the 20th century Italian priest who suffered the stigmata. Also on hand were 10 vendors and representatives from 52 faith organizations. 

Westerville St. Paul the Apostle Church and its 100-plus volunteers, served as the host parish for the conference. Sunbury St. John Neumann Church provided the music during the day. The men’s schola from Columbus St. Joseph Cathedral, directed by Dr. Richard Fitzgerald, led the singing at Mass. 

The morning speakers, Father Masters and Edwards, encouraged the men to strive to live sacramental lives. Edwards, in particular, recounted the struggles in his life with addiction and how he found reconciliation through faith and the sacraments.

Long lines form for confession during the lunch hour at the conference. CT photo by Ken Snow

Following his talk and the Eucharistic procession and adoration, men formed two lines on each side of the center that stretched hundreds of feet while waiting to seek reconciliation with the Lord through the sacrament of penance after hearing the powerful words of the speakers.

“As I travel, I hear things about confession all the time,” Edwards said. “‘No, I don’t do that. I’m good.’

“I’ll ask why and they’ll say something like, ‘I don’t want God to know what I’ve done,’” he continued, eliciting chuckles from the crowd. “So you’re Adam and Eve, and hiding in the bushes too.

“Don’t play hide and seek with God. He wins.”

He later added, “Fellas, God doesn’t care about what you’ve done. He cares about what you have the potential to do.”

Conference speaker John Edwards makes a point to the men with passion during his presentation. CT photo by Ken Snow

Edwards, 45, knows what it’s like to hide from God. He hid his sins of addictions to drugs, pornography and selfishness from his family and employer for years.

The Catholic convert, who lives in Memphis, Tennessee, is the founder of Pew Ministries Inc., a non-profit with a mission of bring Christ to the person in the pews. Edwards also serves as the co-founder of Virtual Catholic Conference LLC and is a speaker and evangelist who hosts the Just a Guy in the Pew podcast.

In addition, he helps start and revitalize parish men’s ministries across the country. He noted that more than 86 percent of parishes in the United States do not have any spiritual programs strictly for men.

To facilitate the formation of men’s groups in central Ohio, Edwards will return on Saturday, April 13 to present one of his workshops at the Catholic Men’s Ministry leadership summit at Westerville St. Paul the Apostle Church.

His story and message resonate with men largely because it’s so genuine and real. It’s one of falling from grace and ultimately redeeming himself after his clandestine behavior was exposed in humiliating fashion.

As a young man, Edwards attended Episcopal schools and said he never was that popular except during basketball season (he stands 6 feet 8) because he loved to evangelize about his faith.

In high school, he began working for NAPA Auto Parts, the same company that employed his father for 45 years, and continued there loading trucks while attending the University of Memphis.

Lonely and searching for community, he became involved with some college guys in a fraternity. To fit in, he started drinking and doing drugs. He was introduced to cocaine for the first time and quickly became hooked.

At that point, he stopped going to church and bombed out of school, but he managed to move up at his job and became a successful salesman making $200,000 annually by age 24. He met and married his wife, Angela, became Catholic, and they were blessed with a child. All the while, he was hiding his drinking and drug habit.   

One day, he received a call from his mother. He went to see her and his father at a clinic in Memphis. Edwards learned that she had a heart condition and cancer, which had spread when she opted to be treated for the heart issue while forgoing chemotherapy.

Sadly, his mother passed away. Devastated by her death, Edwards said he went off the rails at that point and told God that he hated him for taking his mom.

That led to more drinking and drugs, which he hid from his wife, who was pregnant with twins. He feared that his habits would be exposed, but he didn’t stop, even though his wife was dealing with a high-risk pregnancy. He also developed a habit of watching pornography.

After returning from a successful business trip to Mississippi, he decided to score some cocaine from his dealer in Memphis to celebrate. But this time, his luck ran out. Drug Enforcement Agency agents pulled up behind his car, found cocaine in his pocket and arrested him on a felony possession charge. 

Edwards was thrown in jail and thought his life was over. The shameful life he had hidden all of these years was finally exposed.

He tried to explain to his wife what had happened. She told him she wouldn’t divorce him because of the vows of marriage she had taken as a Catholic, but she said he couldn’t come home to live with her or the children. And so he went to stay with his father in Mississippi.

At his trial, Edwards pleaded guilty to felony drug possession and was placed on probation. He made the decision to enter a 30-day outpatient rehab that would require his father to drive him four hours a day to the facility for treatment.

While sitting in the rehab facility, his wife walked in unannounced and told him she couldn’t let him go through the rehab alone. She allowed him to return to their home, where one of his three-year-old daughters had asked at one point if her daddy was still alive.

The shame made him want to hide from the world, but one day he found himself going to Mass for the first time in years. Even though he had become Catholic before marriage, he had never taken the faith seriously. Then, at that Mass, the priest invited him to receive Communion.

“He just looks at me and says, ‘This is the body of Christ.’ And he laid (the host) in my hands and it was like lightning shot all through my body. It’s the first time I ever believed it was Him.”

After Mass, the priest led Edwards to the confessional, where he poured out his sins. The priest told him to return to confession every Friday.

“It saved my life,” Edwards said.

The sacraments strengthened him enough to take the lead in forming a parish men’s ministry. At the first get-together, many of the men realized while sharing their own stories that they were experiencing the same issues as other men.

“Every man in that room stood up that day and talked about how broken they were,” Edwards recalled. “That’s the day God showed me the power of vulnerability in a man’s life.”

He found strength in a passage from the Second Letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians: “My grace is sufficient for you. For my power is made perfect in weakness.”

At Saturday’s conference, he cautioned the men to become vulnerable and not to go through life without acknowledging weaknesses. He told them that the Evil One will have no power over them after going to confession.

“The most manly thing you could do is to be honest with God and the people in your life about where you are,” Edwards said.

The men’s group back home, which has been meeting for the past eight years, was the launching point for his ministry of helping others who might be struggling or need support.

“I want to go around the country to start many more groups where men can be real, where they can take off the masks or whatever they can to come to the mercy of God,” he said.

“People say that you can’t change -- and they’re right,” he continued. “But you can do all things through Christ who strengthens you. We’re all bellowed sons, but we’re also called to be faithful friends of God. …

“God doesn’t care about what you’ve done. He cares about what you have the potential to do. … What he cares about is when you haven’t repented because it has the potential to separate you from God forever. … 

“We have to get over this notion that it’s punishment or anything else. Go lay down your burdens. Go lay down your pain. Go get your mercy. It’s the most important thing you can do today other than receiving the Eucharist.” 

Father Burke Masters, chaplain for the Chicago Cubs and a priest from the Diocese of Joliet, Illinois, delivers the first keynote address at the conference. CT photo by Ken Snow

Father Masters, 57, wearing a Cubs jacket in rival Cincinnati Reds territory, shared a conversion story that is similar to Edwards’ in some aspects but different in other ways, most notably his spiritual journey from being an unchurched Protestant as a young boy to a Catholic priest.

A significant portion of Father Masters’ life has been linked with baseball and he used metaphors from the sport to describe his experience.

As Major League Baseball players participate in spring training in Florida and Arizona to prepare for the 2024 season, “they go back to the basics,” Father Masters said. “They’re practicing bunting, running, hitting, fielding as if they were just starting over like Little Leaguers. Their goals may be to make the all-star team, winning the World Series and ultimately individually make it to the Hall of Fame.

“Very similar to us as Catholics, right? Every year we go back to the basics of prayer, fasting, almsgiving. And we are preparing for this long season ahead, if you will. … And our ultimate goal, of course, is to be in God’s heavenly Hall of Fame to be with the Lord Jesus for all eternity. … You and I are called to be holy. You and I are called to be saints.”

Father Masters grew up in the Chicago area, the youngest of three boys. His mother was Baptist and his father was raised in the United Church of Christ. He said the family prayed before bed, but that was the extent of their spiritual life.

His life started to change when his parents decided to send him to a Catholic high school, where he encountered priests and religious sisters for the first time. He also experienced the beauty of the Mass there.

At first, he couldn’t understand why the students so reverently received what he perceived as a small piece of bread. As a junior, he went on a retreat and a visiting priest inadvertently gave him Holy Communion at Mass.

“That moment, that accident, changed my life,” he said. “It was so powerful that I knew instinctively that this is the body of Christ.”

He went home to tell his parents that he wanted to become Catholic. After taking religious instructions during his junior and senior years, he was baptized and received his first official Holy Communion in May 1985.

A standout baseball player in high school, Masters received a scholarship to play for Mississippi State University, where he experienced success on the diamond as an infielder and played on a team that reached the College World Series.

While in college, he said he learned an important lesson that today he calls “relationship, identity and mission.”

“We start with a relationship with God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit,” he explained. “From there, He reveals to us our identity as a beloved child of God, and then we have a mission, in that order. But so often we get it backwards.

“We start with our mission. From there, we get our identity and then if we have time we fit in a relationship with God. So, when I ask a man who are you, how do men normally respond? Their career, right? What’s the problem with that? Do you ever have a bad day at work? Do you ever switch jobs? Do you ever retire?

“Have you ever seen a professional athlete when they retire? They spiral out of control. It’s because they don’t know who they are. They’ve so identified themselves with their career. Now that their career is done, they’re saying, ‘Who am I?’ And they start to grasp for things in this world.

“And we know nothing in this world can fill that infinite void in our hearts. Only God can, and so I learned this the hard way. My mission was to be a baseball player. My identity was I’m a baseball player. And when I had time, I fit in a relationship with God.”

After college, Father Masters had a brief stint playing in the minor leagues. He then went to work as an actuary but didn’t like sitting at a desk and decided to pursue a career in sports, taking a job with a minor league baseball team in the Chicago area while doing everything from sweeping the grandstands to wearing the mascot’s costume. His new goal was to one day become the general manager of the Cubs.

After a few years, he landed a job with the MLB’s Miami Marlins and also began dating a young Catholic woman who took him for the first time in his life to Eucharistic Adoration, where she taught him how to pray and listen to the Lord. About three months later, he began to hear an inner voice in his heart calling him to become a priest.

He entered seminary in 1997 and never looked back, saying the breakup was difficult but that he’d never felt happier. Ironically, a friend later asked him if he could start dating Father Masters’ former girlfriend. The two of them ended up marrying and the priest celebrated their wedding and baptized their children.

At the end of Father Masters’ first year in seminary, his mother was diagnosed with lung cancer. He went home to help and in July 1998 she collapsed and died in her son’s arms. He was angry at God but later learned at her wake that she had told others while her son was in college that she wouldn’t be surprised if he became a priest one day.

“I believe God has called me from being a Protestant baseball player to a Catholic priest to help Catholics realize the key is that you have in the Church the gift that you have in the sacraments, especially in the Eucharist,” he said. 

“Who cares who wins a World Series or a Super Bowl? I mean, we care, but in the big picture, what does it really mean? What really matters is a relationship with Christ. What really matters is preparing ourselves for eternity.”

Ordained in 2002, Father Masters has served as a parochial vicar, vocations director and director of evangelization for the Diocese of Joliet. He recently became pastor of St. Isaac Jogues Church in Hinsdale, Illinois, while continuing to serve as a chaplain for the Cubs.

On Sunday mornings when the Cubs are playing at home during the season, he celebrates Mass at Wrigley Field.

“You might have a $20 million ballplayer sitting next to somebody who sells popcorn at the game,” he said. “In God’s eyes, is there any difference? He doesn’t care how much money we make. He doesn’t care about our job titles. Those details are important, but ultimately we’re all the same.”

Father Masters did realize a lifelong dream to be on a major league field in 2016 while the Cubs were in spring training. Then-manager Joe Maddon, who led the franchise to its first World Series title since 1908 later that year, asked Father Masters if he wanted to suit up in uniform for a practice.

The next day, he was on the field with the Cubs players. Standing in the outfield, tears started to run down his face.

“I went back to that seven-year-old boy who said I’m going to be on that field someday and it was like God was saying this was your dream to be a major league baseball player but now you’re living my dream as a priest,” said Masters, who authored a book, “Grand Slam for God,” that came out in August. He also offers a daily scripture reflection on a YouTube channel and a written blog.

“My experience with God is we cannot outdo God’s generosity,” Father Masters said. “He multiplies it, purifies it and gives it back to us in ways that we never thought possible. It’s the same thing that happens at every Mass.

“I want to encourage you and challenge you to be generous with the gifts that God has given. These gifts are not meant for you alone. They’re meant for the greater good of society.”

Bishop Earl Fernandes speaks to the men during his homily at Mass. CT photo by Ken Snow

At the closing Mass, Bishop Fernandes reflected on the conference’s “The Eucharist: Go Deeper” theme. In July, a three-year National Eucharistic Revival initiated by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops will culminate in a National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis.

“In our first reading today (Deuteronomy 26:16-19), you’ve heard the Lord through Moses inviting people to go deeper to observe the laws and statutes with their whole heart and with all their strength,” the bishop said. “And God promised His blessings if they would heed His voice and hearken to His commandments.

“But do we do it? We who have been given the gift of faith through baptism, we who have been sealed with the Holy Spirit at confirmation. We will have time and time again been nourished with the Holy Eucharist, we who have been forgiven our sins and strengthened in reconciliation.

“Do we actually hearken to the Lord’s voice and keep His commandments and observe the statutes and decrees with our whole heart and strength? Do we go deeper, living lives consistent with the Eucharistic mystery?”

Bishop Earl Fernandes concelebrates the Mass at the conference. CT photo by Ken Snow  

After Mass, speakers for next year’s conference, which will take place on Saturday, Feb. 22, were announced as Deacon Harold Burke-Sivers, a well-known speaker and evangelist; Dr. Ray Guarendi, a popular Catholic psychologist, speaker and EWTN radio host; and Mark Hartfiel, vice president of Paradisus Dei (Paradise of God), a worldwide apostolate dedicated to marriage and family life.