ARTICLES

Too Much Religion Here

Lay Clubs Spread Faith at Breakfast

By Skip O'Neel

Some lay Catholics in Northern California say they have started something that every Catholic should agree is good news for the Church.

These men and women have formed a loosely knit group called the Catholic Professional and Business Breakfast Club. The clubs, spread over seven cities and five dioceses, offer the faithful a chance to gather once a month for fellowship and a chance to learn more about their faith through speakers each club brings in.

As Father Blaise Berg, secretary for Sacramento bishop William Weigand, put it, "the club's purpose is to give spiritual and bodily nourishment to all those who toil in the workplace on a daily basis. We know it's good to eat breakfast before going to work in the morning. We know it's good to begin one's day with prayer. And it's good to visit with fellow professional Catholics and receive instruction in the Faith. The Catholic Professional and Business Breakfast Club provides the means for these goods to be met. Yet, ultimately, hopefully, the purpose of the club lies in helping its members grow in holiness."

While the clubs in the Bay Area are recent developments, the idea is nearly 15 years old. After moving to Santa Rosa, a semi-retired Fresno-area businessman named Frank Borges began meeting with some men, fellow parishioners, over breakfast. Then one of the group observed that it would be good to gather more area Catholics so they could enjoy the faith and fellowship that was developing between these men. After receiving the blessing of then-Santa Rosa bishop John Steinbock, the men held the first meeting of the Catholic Professional and Business Breakfast Club on the Feast of the Sacred Heart in June 1990. Four years later, another club formed in Marin County.

By 1996, Borges had returned to the Fresno area, where Bishop Steinbock had also relocated. Steinbock encouraged Borges to start a club in Fresno. However, since Borges had been away from the region for some time, he did not feel confident he could start a club there by himself. He decided, he said, "there was only one way to start, and that was to take time out to pray to the Holy Spirit." Borges then approached some old friends, who were enthusiastic about the project, and several months later, in February 1997, the newly formed club held its first breakfast meeting.

A member of the Gallo family heard about the Fresno effort and was so impressed, he asked to start a similar group in Merced, which subsequently held its first meeting in May 1998. By this time, Borges' niece, Katherine, was similarly enthused about the venture, and she started the Modesto/Stockton diocese club in 2001.The most recent additions have been the club in San Jose, which started in October 2002, and the Sacramento club, which was born a month later.

"This sort of effort gives us a chance to hear prominent Catholics bring a message to the San Jose diocese about various issues that are not necessarily addressed through sermons or other lecture offerings within the parish framework," said San Jose club president Phil Gregory. "For example, in April, we had a professor of law at Santa Clara speak on the ethical implications of stem cell research and cloning. That certainly was a fascinating talk, since she gave the Catholic perspective in the overall context of the scientific and political, and even in the context of cults. She compared the perspective of the Catholic Church and the Raelians [the group that claims it has the world's first cloned baby], and she clearly delineated the flaws in the Raelian's viewpoint. It is difficult to find such speakers in the context of a typical parish group."

The Sacramento club's vice president, Deacon Ray Helgeson, agreed. "The direction the club is going in is excellent," he said. "It gives the laity an opportunity to receive good Catholic teaching, while also providing fellowship and the chance to meet other Catholics who are able to come and receive the same type of teaching, the same type of vision. It's something the Church needs today; it needs the laity to have a good foundation in what the Church teaches so people have an opportunity to go out and live that."

While each club has its similarities, each also has its differences, as each operates under its own rules. For instance, in the Fresno club, they do no praying except for a blessing before the meal. In San Jose, a Mass precedes each breakfast. In Sacramento, they pray a truncated version of the morning Liturgy of the Hours. How the clubs choose their speakers also differs. For instance, San Jose chooses its speakers by having two members come up with potential names and then submitting those names to the executive board for approval. Sacramento, on the other hand, has a speakers committee whose job it is to determine whether speaker candidates meet a rigorous list of requirements, from fidelity to the magisterium to proficiency as an orator. Other clubs seem less rigorous in choosing their speakers. Some of the speakers that have appeared at the various clubs include former U.S. ambassador to the Vatican, Ray Flynn; culture of life expert Camille de Blasi; Crisis magazine publisher Deal Hudson; and Curtis Martin, president of the Fellowship of Catholic University Students.

Of course, there are always surprises. During the question and answer period following his talk, the Sacramento club's December speaker, Father Oliver Williams of the University of Notre Dame surprised some people when he recommended America (a liberal journal published by the Jesuits) as reading for those who wanted to know their faith better. He also had good things to say about Microsoft CEO Bill Gates' efforts in Third World countries, despite Gates' support for contraceptive programs. In another Central Valley club, a recent speaker, after giving a well-received speech, said, during the question-and-answer period, that with the growing priest shortage, the Church should allow females and married people into the priesthood.

"Using the club as a forum for such a controversial issue does not cut it for me," said one member. "There is nothing there that pertains to our mission statement involving business and ethics -- not to mention that some of the members became a little irate and rude with one another. That was not the time or the place for the speaker to drop a bomb like that, and it ruined everything good about his speech. Think about it: What will people remember? Not the message he came to share; they'll all remember the bomb and it's resounding explosion at the end."

Other clubs have had problems with speakers, as well. The Fresno club selected the president of Fresno State, Dr. John Welty, who had recently attended a Planned Parenthood dinner, and someone wrote a letter of protest to the club. The Marin club had University of San Francisco president Father Stephen Privett as its speaker, and someone stood outside the meeting holding a protest sign.

One negative comment about the club, though, was actually perceived as a positive. "One fellow said 'There's too much religion going on here,'" said one of the Sacramento club's board members. "I think what he was getting at was that there are some of the aspects of the presentations we've had that were really grounded in the truths of our faith. We can get that at church, we can get that elsewhere, but we often don't. He meant his comment as a criticism, but I took it as a compliment. We do need as much of this as we can get because in many areas it's lacking."

With these few exceptions, however, the feedback on the club has been positive. "They love the speakers, they really enjoy listening to them, and they really look forward to going every month," said Deacon Helgeson of Sacramento. "The Breakfast Club has helped bring people back to the Faith," said Modesto's Katherine Borges. "It has helped reinforce good business principles and ethics, and it's shown people that these need not be mutually exclusive. A lady in my club was a fallen away Catholic, and she did a lot of 'church shopping,' trying to find a place to call home. She attended one of our breakfasts, and this brought her back to church. She's registered in my parish. I've seen other people brought back to faith. I've seen men brought to tears by some of the speeches. People want more from the club; they don't want it just once a month. It's also very educational. It's through the club, for instance, that I learned of [Leo XIII's encyclical] Rerum Novarum. I'd never heard of it before."

"We are getting what I'd call an 'evangelical feedback,'" said San Jose's Gregory. "Someone will say, 'I went, I loved it, and I'm bringing 20 new people to the next club meeting.' There are instances where someone may have personally reacted against what one or more of our speakers have had to say; but even in that context, speakers have had very interesting things to say, and they laid out a new perspective. Like Deal Hudson. Deal had a political component to his discussion. Some of our members have different politics than he does, but they still found his talk fascinating, and everyone agreed he was raising important issues."

Each club has big plans for growth. The goal of the San Jose club is to have members in every parish throughout the diocese. In Sacramento, the objective is to have 1,000 members by their first anniversary. As for Frank Borges, his prayer is that the Holy Spirit enables him to start clubs in southern California. There are tentative plans to place a chapter in Bakersfield, and Doug Sherman with Immaculate Heart Radio is trying to organize one in Reno.

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