The Catholic men’s group known as menALIVE will kick off a Catholic Man Breakfast Series with Archbishop Timothy Costelloe SDB on November 15.
The breakfast will be an opportunity to “get under the hood” of some of the most interesting and successful Catholic men in Perth, Perth co-ordinator, Kim Metcalf told The Record last week.
Archbishop Costelloe was menALIVE’s first choice as the event’s inaugural speaker at Rydges Perth.
Archbishop Costelloe’s recent contributions to public debate on same-sex marriage and child sexual abuse seem to have had a positive effect on registrations.
Mr Metcalf reported that one man had found a flyer for the event in his suit jacket pocket, on the same day as the Archbishop’s thoughts on sex abuse, first published in The Record, were repeated on page one of The West Australian a week later.
“He wanted to show his support and thought, ‘I better ring up and register’.”
“The Archbishop will talk about his personal faith journey; even archbishops have them,” Mr Metcalf said.
“We’re trying to get a little bit under the hood of who he is as a man.”
Mr Metcalf hopes the breakfast will also provide an opportunity for men from different walks of life to network and build friendships.
That has been menALIVE’s experience throughout the country, he said, in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, and in Brisbane, where the first men’s breakfast was launched in 20, where it continues to attract around 200 men.
Future speakers are expected to include well-known Catholic luminaries from law, business, sport and defence.
“It is unique in that the men will talk about their personal faith journey rather than their discipline or area of expertise,” Mr Metcalf said.
Around 60 men from throughout Perth had signed up at the time of speaking to Mr Metcalf.
Several Catholic schools had already committed to sending their male students, including a table of prefects in the case of one school; no mean feat given that, due to scheduling constraints, the event falls right in the middle of exams.
Six seminarians from St Charles’ Seminary have also committed to attend the event.
Tickets to the Catholic Man Breakfast are $50. Men are required to wear a long-sleeved, button-up shirt and dress trousers.
For more information, contact 0414 537 023 or cmbs@menalive.org.au.