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NET Ministries, also simply known as NET USA or NET (National Evangelization Teams) is a Catholic youth missionary organization.
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NET Ministries was founded in the United States and is based in Saint Paul, Minnesota in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. NET's roots go back to the St. Paul Catholic Youth Center (CYC), [1] which offered a variety of programs from 1939 to 1989.
In 1980, NET's founder Mark Berchem, through CYC, organized eighteen high school youth retreats around southern Minnesota. Young adults traveled in a van giving these retreats over a three-week period in January. The following January three teams of youth were sent to Winona, Minnesota, Fargo, North Dakota, and Sioux Falls, South Dakota. In 1981 these missions extended to a full year commitment. In 1982 the acronym NET (standing for National Evangelization Teams) became name of this movement, inspired by Mark 1:17 and Luke 5:4.
These developments were centred around the Catholic Charismatic covenant community 'Christ the Redeemer' (a member of the Sword of the Spirit association of covenant communities) where NET board member Jim Kolar works as coordinator. [2]
In 1988, Michael Kolar was the president of NET and director of the CYC. [3] : 39 In depositions between 1988 and 1991, after being accused of engaging in child sexual abuse, Kolar admitted to having abused young adults at the Catholic Youth Center in St. Paul and elsewhere; after being the subject of a lawsuit by alleged victims, Koler voluntarily left the priesthood. [4]
CYC closed in 1989 and NET was incorporated as a nonprofit corporation under the Archbishop of St. Paul and Minneapolis.
In 1988, NET Ministries expanded to Australia, and to Canada in 1994. NET Australia and NET Canada are now separate organizations. In 2004, NET Uganda started as an offshoot of NET Australia, and NET Canada started a sister organization in Ireland. NET Scotland is currently run through NET USA. [5]
Each year, around 180 young Catholics from ages 18–28 are accepted to be "netters" for the year. After a four-week training, they are divided into around sixteen teams of 8-15 members. Each team is either a "retreat team" or a "discipleship team." Retreat teams travel around the United States in a van with a trailer, conducting retreats and parishes and schools. [6] Discipleship teams are based at a parish or school and stay there the entire year serving the local parish community. [7]
The Association of Free Lutheran Congregations (AFLC) is the sixth largest Lutheran church body in the United States. The AFLC includes congregations from the former Lutheran Free Church in 27 different U.S. states and four Canadian provinces. The AFLC is not an incorporated synod, but a free association. Each local congregation is a separate corporation. Minnesota is the geographic center of the organization, with over 80 congregations and over 12,000 members. There are also numerous congregations in the neighboring states of North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wisconsin. The AFLC headquarters are in Plymouth, Minnesota, where the Association Free Lutheran Bible School and Seminary are also located.
The Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis is a Latin Church ecclesiastical jurisdiction or diocese of the Catholic Church in the United States. It is led by an archbishop who administers the archdiocese from the cities of Saint Paul and Minneapolis. The archbishop has both a cathedral and co-cathedral: the mother church – the Cathedral of Saint Paul in Saint Paul, and the co-cathedral, the Basilica of Saint Mary in Minneapolis.
Life Teen is a Catholic youth ministry organization in the United States.
Joseph Crétin was the first Roman Catholic Bishop of Saint Paul, Minnesota. Cretin Avenue in St. Paul, Cretin-Derham Hall High School, and Cretin Hall at the University of St. Thomas are named for him.
The phrase Catholic youth work covers a wide range of activities carried out with young people, usually in the name of the Catholic Church and with the intention of imparting the Catholic faith to them and inviting them to practice and live out the faith in their lives. Activities in the field range from small scale youth groups attached to parishes or Catholic schools, to large international gatherings, such as World Youth Day. It is a field which has evolved much over recent decades, especially in comparison to more formal methods of education or catechesis within the church. Nearly all dioceses and a great deal of parishes have some form of youth provision running, although a great deal of areas particularly in the developed world are finding youth work both more difficult and rare as the numbers of young people regularly practicing the Catholic faith continue to decline. In contrast, though, the new and exciting developments of recent decades and particularly the influence of the new movements within the Church are ensuring that youth work continues to be an active and fruitful field.
Richard Edmund Pates is an American Catholic prelate who served as Bishop of Des Moines from 2008 to 2019 and as an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis from 2000 to 2008.
NET Canada is the Canadian branch of NET Ministries also simply known as NET, an acronym for National Evangelization Teams. NET itself is a Roman Catholic Christian organization dedicated to spreading the Gospel to youth. NET Canada defines itself as committed to following Christ who is its inspiration and Guide. To this end, members of NET are committed to discernment and a moral life in accord with the clear teaching of Scripture and Magisterium of the Roman Catholic Church. NET's mission is to evangelize young Catholics, reaching them through retreats and parish ministry. The goal is to challenge these young Catholics to love Christ and embrace the life of the Church.
The Paulist Fathers, officially named the Missionary Society of Saint Paul the Apostle, abbreviated CSP, is a Catholic society of apostolic life of Pontifical Right for men founded in New York City in 1858 by Isaac Hecker in collaboration with George Deshon, Augustine Hewit, and Francis A. Baker.
David Robert Haas is an American author and composer of contemporary Catholic liturgical music. In 2020, dozens of women accused him of sexual misconduct spanning several decades, and he issued a public apology for harmful behavior.
FOCUS is a Catholic outreach program for American college students founded in 1997 by Curtis Martin and Dr. Edward Sri at Benedictine College.
Robert James Carlson is an American prelate of the Catholic Church. He served as the ninth archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Louis in Missouri from 2009 to 2020.
Mother of God Community is a Catholic and ecumenical charismatic community located in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area of the United States. The Community office and grounds is located in Gaithersburg, Maryland. Under the Canon Law of the Catholic Church, the Community is recognized as a "private association of the faithful" with its governing statutes approved by the Archbishop of Washington. In addition the Community is a member of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal International Service (CHARIS) established in the Vatican by the Holy See. The Community is also a founding member of the Association of Ecclesial Movements and New Communities in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington as well as the North American Network of Charismatic Covenant Communities. Individual members of the Mother of God Community believe they are called to live out the Gospel of Jesus Christ and to grow in the knowledge of God through daily prayer, fellowship, evangelization, and service to the Church. Membership is open to Christians from all walks of life – families, couples, priests, and singles, college students, seminarians, and retired people. There are members and affiliate members, but only about a dozen members actually live in the Community's large residential house.
John Francis Kinney was an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as the ninth bishop of the Diocese of St. Cloud in Minnesota from 1995 to 2013.
Lee Anthony Piché is an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis in Minnesota beginning in 2009, retired from public ministry in 2015, and returned to public ministry in 2023 as vicar for retired priests.
Jesus Youth(JY) is an International Catholic Movement, approved by the Holy See.
The Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity (SOLT) is a Society of Apostolic Life within the Roman Catholic Church. It was founded in 1958 by Father James H. Flanagan, a priest from the United States. The Society maintains missions in various countries, describing itself as Marian-Trinitarian, Catholic, missionary, and family. Membership in the Society includes priests, permanent deacons, religious sisters, religious brothers, and the lay faithful.
Andrew Harmon Cozzens is an American prelate of the Catholic Church who has been serving as Bishop of Crookston since 2021. He previously served as an auxiliary bishop in the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis from 2013 to 2021.
The Sword of the Spirit is an international, ecumenical association of Christian communities within the charismatic movement. As of 2017, the Sword of the Spirit is composed of 82 communities, 45 of which are Catholic. The member communities are composed predominantly of laypersons. The Sword of the Spirit is one of the largest federated networks of communities to come out of the Catholic charismatic renewal.
Saint Paul's Outreach (SPO) is a Catholic missionary organization in the United States which serves college students and young adults. It is a private association of the faithful established in the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis. SPO describes its mission as follows: "to build transformational communities that form missionary disciples for life."
Ralph C. Martin is a professor at Sacred Heart Major Seminary and was involved in the early Catholic charismatic renewal as founder of the Word of God (community) and cofounder of the Sword of the Spirit association of covenant communities.
