How often do the Catholic men of the archdiocese and the Caribbean get a chance to come together in an environment that is in every respect, masculine? How often do they get the opportunity to reflect on the aspects of their lives that make them the men they are? How often are they able to make resolutions which will help them to become better fathers, husbands, sons, brothers, boyfriends and priests?

This year, the Companions of the Transfigured Christ (CTC), more commonly known by many as GANG, a group renowned for their work with men across the region has boldly taken the step to “go where no man has gone before”.

As the archdiocese shifted its focus onto the family, the CTC community has remained steadfast in focussing on one of the most critical elements of any family – the man. They kicked off the year, which also coincidentally marks their tenth anniversary of community, by hosting a Caribbean Conference for men from January 15 to 17 at Emmaus Centre, Arima.

Entitled “In Praise of Man, Jesus – Man of Power, God of Love” the conference was facilitated by renowned author, psychologist and priest, Fr William Jarema, or “Fr Bill” as the participants came to know him. Fr Bill was supported by some members of his community from the Mercy Center in Colorado, USA.

Prior to the event, there was a bit of a buzz in many circles with many priests encouraging men from their parishes to attend. In fact the conference saw one priest in particular, Fr Neil Rodriguez CSSp, there for the entire weekend, not as a spiritual director or a chaplain but as a participant.

Curaçao participants with Fr Bill at men’s conference st Emmaus Centre.

“But I’m a man too!!!” said an obviously excited Fr Neil as he readied himself for the conference with an extremely diverse scope of participants. The age range was from 17 to 70 with participants of all walks of life coming from as far as Curaçao, Aruba, Grenada, St Vincent and St Lucia.

A truly inspiring part of the conference was to see at the beginning of the conference, at the beginning of each session and even before meals, men singing praises to God, a practice not always viewed as masculine.

“I really liked how the sessions were not that intense but still really powerful” were the words of one participant reflecting the view of most.

During the sessions, Fr Bill gradually built up an entire framework to help the men understand themselves and aspects of their masculinity. He began by explaining certain facts of a man’s psycho-sexuality and contrasted that with a woman’s. He also went a great depth into the influences of one’s father and mother. “Your father’s influence forms your bucket and the fluid poured into it comes from your mother and they are both important,” was one analogy he made.

He also went on to show how not only your parents can shape your life but also how their parents and their relatives have a significant part to play.

“I was surprised at how much time we had to spend reflecting and sharing…It really opened my eyes to a lot of things about me that I didn’t even realise,” said another participant.

In fact, the time allocated to personal reflection, sharing as well as group and individual activities was more than the time spent actually sitting down listening to the talks.

One activity that had participants particularly hyped up was when they were asked to go off and draw their family tree, highlighting certain elements of their family history. Participants could have been seen in every corner of Emmaus, even those from overseas, on the phone with some relative trying to find information for the activity.

Fr Bill got even more “stripes” on his sleeve when both Msgrs Jason Gordon and Robert Llanos, who celebrated the opening and closing Masses respectively, both admitted that they too were influenced by Fr Bill’s work and even went on to quote some of his teachings in their homilies.

In the end, the men present came to understand that many of the problems that society faces stem from a lack of proper fathering and they were able to make resolutions on how to become better men, to be fathers or even second chance fathers to the next generation.

At the end of the conference, the leader of the CTC Community, Kyle Dardaine, affirmed his community’s commitment to not leaving this event to hang in the air as a one-off event but to build on what was done during the conference and to use it to anoint a new generation of men for God. – Christophe Cole