Denver Catholic

14 I CATHOLIC LIFE AUGUST 28, 2013 I DENVER CATHOLIC REGISTER SLATTERY & COMPANY Robert F. Connor, Sr., Chairman • Robert F. Connor, Jr., President Providing Exceptional Service Since 1919 slatteryandcompany.com PLUMBING • HEATING • AIR CONDITIONING Missionary of 'digital continent' to speak at men's conference SETH DEMOOR, founder of the Catholic website One Billion Stories, interviews Father Jim Crisman, director of Priestly Vocations for the Denver Archdiocese, in 2009. Commercial, Residential / Prompt 24 hour service Emergency needs command our total commitment! 181 Vallejo Street September 11 September 13-15 September 20-22 September 27-29 October 1 October 4-6 303-744-6311 Day of Prayer: 9:30 a.m. - 2:30 p.m. Weekend Retreat (Women) Weekend Retreat (Men) Vietnamese Retreat (Men & Women) Day of Prayer: 9:30 a.m. - 2:30 p.m. Singles' Retreat (Men & Women) 4801 North Highway 67, P.O. Box 185, Sedalia, CO 80135 Phone: 303-688-4198 ext. 122 (information/reservations) Website: www.sacredheartretreat.org Immaculate heart of mary "For even the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve others..." Mark 10:45 Thank you for your continued dedication and service to our Parish Deacon Jerome Durnford Deacon Taylor Elder Deacon Leo Oehrle (retired) DENVER CATHOLIC REGISTER FILE PHOTO BY JAMES BACA BY VERONICA AMBUUL COLORADO CATHOLIC HERALD COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.—For Seth DeMoor, being able to talk about the Catholic faith in college helped him to stay in it. "In high school, my friends were Catholic. We went snowboarding together, we did all these great activities together, but we never brought up the faith—ever," DeMoor told Bishop Michael Sheridan during an interview for his radio show, "Bishop Sheridan Presents." As a result, DeMoor—a native of Buena Vista, Colo., who will be one of the speakers at the Rocky Mountain Catholic Men's Conference on Sept. 14— graduated from high school a lukewarm Catholic at best, he recalled. But when he moved to the University of Colorado in Boulder and started attending St. Thomas Aquinas Parish near the campus, that all changed, DeMoor said. "I started meeting other young Catholics who were not afraid to share the faith with me, not afraid to share how God was working in their lives and why they were excited to be Catholic," he said. "It was over coffee in the morning, just hanging out, talking about Church doctrine or the saints." One story that he heard in particular captured DeMoor's imagination. The pastor at St. Thomas Aquinas, Father Peter Mussett, had recounted how he had gone from a fallen-away Catholic college student to a priest. "His story … is slightly miraculous, in my opinion," DeMoor said. "I was just blown away by how someone near my age could go from really being off the deep end to a priest." Father Mussett's story and others sparked DeMoor's idea ROCKY MOUNTAIN CATHOLIC MEN'S CONFERENCE WHEN: Sept. 14 WHERE: Pikes Peak Center, 190 S. Cascade Ave., Colorado Springs. WHAT: Theme: "Impact!" Five men, five stories, five ways they are impacting their communities and the community of faith. WHO: Speakers include popular evangelist Jesse Romero, Catholics Come Home founder Tom Peterson, Focus on the Family radio theater director Paul McCusker, OneBillionStories.com founder Seth DeMoor and former undercover policeman Rob McIntyre. TICKETS: Go to www.rmcmc. org or call 719-866-6496. See more at: www.colorado catholicherald.com to travel around the country videotaping the faith stories of Catholics young and old and make them available online. Thus the One Billion Stories website was born. "I told myself, these stories are too good, too inspiring for just me to hear," DeMoor said. "Somehow, they need to be captured with a camera and put somewhere for others to listen to." DeMoor also said that he was deeply affected by Pope Benedict XVI's 2009 message for World Communications Day, in which he called on young people to use their skill in communications technology in the service of the new evangelization. "It falls, in particular, to young people, who have an almost spontaneous affinity for the new means of communication, to take on the responsibility for the evangelization of this 'digital continent,'" Pope Benedict wrote. So, in December 2009, shortly after graduating from college, DeMoor embarked on a 2,400-mile bicycle trip from Florida to Colorado, taking little other than his video camera, laptop computer and some camping gear. The first few nights after departing from Orlando, he camped outside. But DeMoor had a strategy for meeting people who might be willing to offer him lodging. He would attend weekday Masses at local parishes, where people's curiosity would be piqued by his backpack and his bike parked out in front of church. He would strike up conversations with Mass-goers, who would point him to people they thought he should talk to. "I would basically show up at parishes and people would tell me where to go to get the interviews," DeMoor said. By the end of the 90-day trip, DeMoor estimates that he had interviewed roughly 200 people and uploaded a new video to the One Billion Stories website every day except one. During the three-month journey, DeMoor was also able to evangelize young people by speaking at Catholic middle schools and high schools. Since then, DeMoor has settled in the Denver suburbs, married and is now a father, but One Billion Stories is still going strong. DeMoor presented a workshop on video production to media professionals at the Catholic Media Conference in Denver in June. He and his associates at One Billion Stories, whom he refers to as "video missionaries," also traveled to Rio de Janiero last month for World Youth Day, to provide complete video coverage of the event.

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