Her roster: Meaty theology & dancing nuns

AS THE director of content and programming for the World Meeting of Families, Mary Beth Yount is responsible for planning the speakers at the World Meeting's congress (the 4-day pre-Pope gathering at the Convention Center) as well as the lineup at the Festival of Families and the papal mass on the Parkway.

Yount, a mother of four from Media who is an assistant professor of theology at Neumann University, recently spoke with Stephanie Farr about her big gets for the congress, some of the criticisms that organizers have faced and how she got a group of nuns to host a dance party.

This is the first time the World Meeting of Families has been held in the U.S. Is there anything that makes it uniquely American?

I don't know if I'd say uniquely American, but this is the first time there has been such a focus on interfaith representatives presenting at the congress. I think given our theme, "Love is Our Mission: The Family Fully Alive," we were able to emphasize openness in a nice way.

Among the speakers are a Baptist pastor, a Mormon elder and a Muslim woman. Why was it important to represent other faiths?

We can all grow in our relationships. We wanted to open this to as much input as possible so that we could increase the perspectives and the practical strategies that were being conveyed to our participants.

There's a panel on the evolution of marriage in the U.S. over the last 250 years. Is the evolving definition of family reflected in the rest of the World Meeting's content or is there more of a traditional-family bent to the programming?

We aren't even attempting to define family. We're talking about families and we are talking about relationships and we are talking about how to grow in those relationships. That can impact you in the household, your community or your global family.

When people come to this event, what they're hearing about are strategies for growing in relationships and how to build things like good communication skills, healthy household finances and support structures for families struggling with disabilities.

Who was your big get, as far as speakers go?

Oh, my gosh, there were so many. Really, so many of our presenters are high-profile, like Cardinal [Peter] Turkson. People might recognize his name, because he had a strong contribution to the controversial encyclical that just came out by Pope Francis on climate change.

Seems to me that the keynote on Friday, with Cardinal Sean Patrick O'Malley, of Boston, and Pastor Rick Warren, author of the "The Purpose Driven Life," will be a big draw.

It will be. That one is going to be awesome. Theirs is the joy of the gospel of life, and they worked together on this talk. They're looking at families and the struggles that families sometimes go through with suffering and sadness - but yet we learn through the Beatitudes and other parts of scriptures how we can still live a life of daring faith and contagious joy.

From the feedback you've heard so far, what topics are people most surprised to see on the agenda?

There's a session on divorce. A lot of people have been surprised that we would discuss divorce.

Then, of course, some people have been surprised and pleased that we have somebody who experiences same-sex attraction talking about his experiences with that.

The World Meeting has taken some heat because that's the only session that focuses on LGBT concerns, and it is led by a celibate man and his mother. What do you say to the critics?

There's been just as much, "I can't believe you have a session on that!"

Undoubtedly, the best title to a session is the one given by Archbishop Socrates B. Villegas called "One Ring to Rule Them All: The Covenant of Marriage." Do you expect a lot of people to show up to that session dressed as hobbits and elves?

That could be. It would be really fun if people did.

I understand there will be people roaming around the Convention Center dressed as saints. Is this true?

Yeah, that was something that we were planning on and something we're still working on. We've had some glitches, but hopefully it will still happen.

I may be most excited for the "Swing with the Sisters" dance party with nuns during the Youth Congress. Tell me all about this - please!

It will be really fun. We have a sister who is organizing this for us, and she is very enthusiastic.

We have had so many sisters willing to join with the young people in this activity. It's amazing, and we've had the same experience with "Bowling with Bishops."

Someone reported on it and the next day we got calls from all these bishops who wanted to bring their bowling balls. They didn't realize it was Wii bowling.