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166 C H A P T E R F I V E Teens Encounter Christ Pioneer in Young Adult Weekend Experiences I’m getting old and my back is starting to bend, but I decided a long time ago that I’d rather wear out than rust out. —Dorothy Gereke, aka Sister Mary Concetta, RSM, aka “Mama TEC,” cofounder of Teens Encounter Christ, May 25, 2010 TEC came about after a group of Cursillo men came to me and said they wanted a retreat for their sons that was based on Cursillo. You see, the old style of retreats for youth just wasn’t working, and we needed something new and dynamic for the Catholic youth of the 1960s that was more than priests just lecturing to the youth. —Father Matt Fedewa, cofounder of Teens Encounter Christ, June 18, 2010 Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains only a single grain; but if it does die, it produces a rich harvest. —John 12:24 Meeting Dorothy and Father Matt It is a humid and warm summer day in Festus, Missouri, when I finally meet Dorothy Gereke, one of the cofounders of Teens Encounter Christ (TEC), in person, after many long distance phone conversations. Ever the gracious hostess, she insists “Never mind, let’s talk now!” when I unintentionally wake her from a late-afternoon nap at the Drury Inn, where we were staying. Dorothy, formerly known as Sister Mary Concetta of the Detroit-based Sisters of Mercy (1957–68), is now in her late eighties. Today, Dorothy is “a little bit slower than I used to be,” largely because of circulation problems in her legs, which require her to wear support hose so that she can walk. Dorothy dislikes the hose, which take a long time to put on and are tight, but she sighs and says that it is necessary to wear them so that she can walk and “to do the work that I do for the Lord.” Dorothy’s spirit and determination make her appear younger than Teens Encounter Christ 167 her age, and her easy laugh, sparkling eyes, and warm demeanor make it easy to see why she is affectionately called “Mama TEC” by her admirers in the movement. While our phone conversations that led up to our Missouri meeting had convinced me that Dorothy was indeed a spirited and spunky Catholic woman, spending time with her in person is another thing. This former nun is blessed with a keen intelligence and wit, and has more energy than most twenty-year-olds I know. A cradle Catholic, she has maintained a rigorous prayer life for over seven decades. Dorothy continues to attend daily mass and maintains a busy travel schedule, flying around the country to give talks at Catholic organizations such as the National Federation of Catholic Youth Ministry (NFCYM) and to attend TEC weekends as an honorary guest as part of her “ministry of presence.” Our Missouri meeting marks the start of her five-week tour of the Midwest and West. Dorothy is eager to meet Catholic youth, the adults who mentor them and share in their journey, and to see her friends and family in Iowa. She chuckles and smiles when I express my surprise at her hectic schedule, given her advanced age, saying: “A friend of mine just the other day looked at my schedule and said, ‘Wow! I’m tired just looking at it! Looks like you are, too!” For much of her adult life, Dorothy has channeled her deep Catholic faith and considerable organizational skills as a former hospital administrator , and has worked alongside TEC cofounder, friend, and collaborator Father Matt Fedewa, a now-retired diocesan priest and educator in the Diocese of Lansing, Michigan, to usher in one of the most significant and long-standing religious movements for Christian youth in the last century . TEC, cofounded by Father Matt and Sister Concetta in Battle Creek, Michigan, in 1965, was at its inception an intentional departure from other Catholic youth retreats. From the start, TEC took its participants, teenagers and young adults aged seventeen to twenty-four, seriously as individuals and as members of a cultural group with its own concerns and needs. Most other youth-oriented retreats of the time which “talked down to youth,” according to Father Matt and Dorothy. In this way, the early TECs were analogous to the first Mallorquín CdCs, which branched off of the hierarchically run retreats held...

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