Pala mission to host Divine Mercy conference

The San Juan Diego Center at the Pala mission will be the site of the 13th annual Divine Mercy conference March 4-5.

The scheduled conference speakers include four priests, one who whom smuggled a photo copy of the diary of Divine Mercy originator Sister Faustina Kowalska out of then-Communist Poland and served as the vice postulator to make her a Catholic saint, one Marian seminarian, and the mother of one of the Marian priests.

"It's preparing people for Lent, basically," said Carol Pallazola, who coordinates the Divine Mercy conference along with her husband, Joseph.

Most parishes also have their own Lenten activities, so holding the conference the weekend before Ash Wednesday prevents schedule conflicts with individual parishes. "We try to get close to Lent without getting into Lent," Pallazola said.

The Divine Mercy devotion calls people to a deeper understanding that God's love is unlimited and available to everyone, even the greatest sinners, and that God's mercy is greater than people's sins. Sister Faustina Kowalska, who died in 1938, kept a diary of the revelations she received about God's mercy.

"We're spreading the word and hoping that people will bring people who have never heard about Divine Mercy," Pallazola said.

The first Divine Mercy conference was held at St. Mary Star of the Sea in Downtown La Jolla. The next eight conferences were held at St. Therese, which is in the Del Cerro area of San Diego, but after the conference outgrew the St. Therese facilities it was moved to the San Juan Diego Center, which can hold an audience of approximately 1,200. Between 600 and 700 attendees have been present at recent conferences.

Pallazola explained that the conference is an outreach on the Divine Mercy devotion. "We're trying to get their attention by getting some well-known speakers," she said.

The scheduled speakers include Fr. Seraphim Michalenko, the Marian priest who was responsible for canonizing St. Faustina; Marian priest and author Fr. Donald Calloway, who was a rebellious teenager before converting to Catholicism and eventually taking holy orders; LaChita Calloway, who will speak with her son about the hope of mothers who pray for their children; Marian seminarian Br. Richard Dolan, who is the college outreach coordinator for the Washington, DC, area; Msgr. Philip Riley, the founder of Helpers of God's Precious Infants; and closing Mass celebrant Fr. Richard Huston, the spiritual advisor for John Paul the Great Catholic University. The Friday night Mass, which does not require conference registration, will be celebrated by Abbot Charles Wright of Prince of Peace Abbey with music from the John Telez Group, and a presentation after that Mass by Fr. Mario Elias from St. Columba Parish will include music by Donna Lee and John Grassadonia.