Download the 2012 ACT Brochure and Participant Registration Form

Download the Team Application
Team Qualifications
Download the Team Volunteer Reference Form.pdf

July 22-26, 2012

Do you have questions about your Catholic faith?

Do your friends challenge you about your faith?

Do you wonder why being a good person isn't good enough?

ACT is the place for you!

When he visited the United States of America, Pope Benedict XVI said, "Young people have a right to hear clearly the Church's teaching and, most importantly, to be inspired by the coherence and beauty of the Christian message, so that they in turn can instill in their peers a deep love of Christ and his Church" (Address to the Bishops, November 26, 2011).

Advanced Catholic Training (ACT) seeks to enact these words of the Holy Father by focusing, in a retreat setting, on the Sacred Liturgy, the Sacraments, Christian Morality, and Church Outreach.

With sessions led by Priests, seminarians, Sisters, and lay teachers, ACT is mixed with a variety of activities from active teaching sessions with lively discussions, opportunities each day for several methods of prayer (including Confession, Holy Mass, Eucharistic Adoration, personal prayer and the Rosary), and social times throughout each day.

It was Saint Augustine who said, "I believe, in order to understand; and I understand, the better to believe" (Sermon 43.7.9). This spiritual axiom lies at the heart and method of ACT as we seek to help our participants understand such questions as:

• Why do I have to go to Mass on Sundays and holy days?
• Why do Catholics baptize babies?
• What's wrong with cohabitation?
• Why is "the pill" contrary to the natural moral law?
• What can I do, as a teenager, to serve the Church?
• Why are Catholic Bibles bigger than Protestant Bibles?

As we explore these questions and many more, we seek to answer the call of the Blessed Pope John II for a new evangelization through teaching grounded in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, group dynamics, and simple fun.

Held on the campus of Benedictine University in Springfield, Illinois, ACT seeks to lead its participants into a deeper understanding of the basic, yet most important, truths of the Catholic faith. It will help participants answer questions from their peers and others about Catholicism and will give you the opportunity to grow deeper in your relationship with Jesus Christ.

Please contact us for more information or to arrange a presentation.