Diplomatic Corps - Tracy Moran

Great Work in the Great Outdoors

The Apostolate for Family Consecration leads families closer together by leading them closer to God.

Visitors to a rural Bloomingdale, Ohio, campground can splash in the pool, ride horses, and hike through the woods -- on one condition. First they must learn four things: 1) Sin is the cause of all unhappiness; 2) Grace is more powerful than sin; 3) Personal holiness is essential for salvation, but not enough to convert the world; and 4) You give the little holiness you have, as Pope John Paul II has done, to Jesus through Mary, then Mary will fulfill her unique role in Christ's plan of salvation.
Obviously, this is no KOA campground. Rather, it is Catholic Familyland, part of
the Apostolate for Family Consecration's ministry.
"When families come here, they experience true Catholic community for a week," says Jerry Coniker, who founded AFC with wife Gwen in 1975. With 13 children and 33 grandchildren, the Conikers know the myriad joys and struggles of family life.
"The family's greatest challenge today," says Jerry, "is being united in the Faith."
"Materialism is so attractive," he says. "It draws us away from the heart of our Faith. How can we draw our families to really place God first in their lives? Only if we have the formation of the Church will we know what God wants of us."
Jerry, knowing that "no family can be an island," says that when their oldest children became teens, he and Gwen felt called to start a family apostolate "designed to give average parents the tools, organization and community to evangelize their own neighborhoods."
"You can't just pull in and protect your own," he explains. "You have to reach families that live around you."
In 1986, the AFC formally adopted Pope John Paul II's Eucharistic, Marian and family-centered spirituality, and today focuses totally on his priorities in preparation for the year 2000. Families can learn about all these things while visiting the above-mentioned campground at AFC's 850-acre site, where conferences and retreats are also held. Additionally, AFC offers a "Family Wisdom Curriculum" that includes videos and the Family Catechism, which is cross-referenced to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, and has been praised by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, prefect of the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

While AFC is based in Ohio, its work reaches across the country through lay ecclesial teams, consisting of groups of people who commit to five weekly hours of formation, meetings and outreach that is clearly defined and incorporates AFC's theologically-approved resources. And although they have a variety of programs, Gwen emphasizes that AFC's focus is "catechesis and family prayer."
Jerry adds that through AFC, he and Gwen want to bring about the dual-dimension of Pope John Paul II's consecration -- Marian consecration according to St. Louis de Montfort and formation in the truth.
As the new millennium looms, AFC offers a message of hope and joy. "We believe that the graces for victory are here as we count down to the year 2000," Jerry says. "We believe God has providentially given us a pope who has the formula; who's been anointed to bring about the greatest age the world has ever seen -- if we follow him. Totus Tuus is his coat of arms, but he's also saying his priority is for us to go out and evangelize and catechize."
"Most laymen don't realize that as Catholics, we're called to evangelize," Jerry continues. "We're called to draw souls other than just our own children to God. We must be concerned about other families."
"If we're not," he adds, "the people who will be victims of the next persecution, if we allow it to happen through our apathy, will be the Catholics, because right now, we're the only ones standing for the culture of life. The culture of death is closing in."
The Conikers have confronted that culture since 1959, when they fought against abortion and sex ed. "We didn't realize," Jerry says, "that it was a spiritual battle, until we made the de Montfort consecration in 1971." That's when they turned their lives around, sold their home and business and moved to Fatima, Portugal for two years.

Shortly before they returned to the U.S., the Bishop of Fatima told them to use the Fatima message to get people's attention. "But," he said, "don't stay at Fatima. Use it to get to the heart of the Church. The Church is designed to make you holy."
Jerry, who worries that some Catholics are more involved in apparitions than the pope's teachings, believes that if people read the pope's writings and follow his teachings, "our children will grow up in a great age."
"But the problem," he adds, "is so many good people love the pope, but they're not reading him and doing what he's saying. Now's the time. Extraordinary graces are flowing now. If we walk with this Holy Father, we'll see the greatest conversions."