2017 USCCB Convocation Participants Guidebook and Journal | Page 7

Introduction
will take away fresh insights from participation in a strategic con-
versation about current challenges and opportunities informed by
new research, communications strategies, and successful models.
The hope is that the Convocation can assist participants in
bringing back—to their dioceses, parishes, movements, orga-
nizations, work, and ministries—tools, resources, and renewed
inspiration to apply and advance Evangelii Gaudium and Pope
Francis’s “dream of a ‘missionary option’” for all pastoral activities
and ministries. 3 The Holy Father has called all in the Church to
a “missionary conversion”: “‘Mere administration’ can no lon-
ger be enough. Throughout the world, let us be ‘permanently in
a state of mission.’” 4 The Convocation, then, is framed around
these principles.
While most conferences point toward the speakers onstage as
the experts, the Convocation is different. The experts are the
participants themselves, because they know the local reality of
the Church in their area better than any of the speakers can. The
speakers, then, are meant to be inspirers, motivators, and facili-
tators of conversation who can accompany and guide the experts
(the delegates) to wherever God may be leading them next in
their journey. The attendees and their bishops are the actual
protagonists of the Convocation of Catholic Leaders: they will be
the ones taking the message of missionary discipleship into their
local communities, and together as the Body of Christ, impact
culture and society nationwide.
This guidebook is meant to assist participants in their prepara-
tion for the Convocation as well as in their implementation of
the Convocation afterward. The guidebook can also be helpful
for those not attending the event itself but who will be praying
and collaborating with attendees in various ways, viewing parts
of the Convocation from afar, and/or advancing the fruits of the
Convocation and missionary discipleship.
2