National newsmakers to speak at Men of the Immaculata Conference

Three dynamic speakers, including gifted preacher and author Father Larry Richards of the Diocese of Erie and pro-life activist Mark Houck, will headline the 2024 Men of the Immaculata Conference in Baton Rouge on Feb. 17, 2024. 

The gathering of approximately 1,000 men will take place at St. George Church, 7808 St. George Dr., Baton Rouge, from 7:30 a.m. to 2:35 p.m.  

Over the course of the three-year Eucharistic Revival, past conferences have focused on the Eucharistic Lord. Last year’s conference helped men prepare to receive the Eucharist, and organizers say this year’s event, titled “Behold the Lamb of God,” will focus on beholding and receiving Jesus in the Eucharist. 

“A lot of these men coming to the conference are really good guys,” said Warren Dazzio, conference chairman. “Our goal is to charge them up so that they go and bring Christ into their parishes, bring Christ to their families.  

“We do a blitzkrieg,” Dazzio said. “We hit them hard for one day and then they’ve got to go back, and our hope is that it would encourage them to get more active in their parishes. We want to make sure that we’re charging them up so that they can go out and make a difference in their communities, their families, and their parishes.” 

Speaker Father Larry Richards, author of Be a Man! Becoming the Man God Created You to Be (2009 Ignatius Press) and founder and president of the Reason for Our Hope Foundation, will be important to the conference’s tactical goals. 

“He's very direct, and I like that very much about a speaker,” Dazzio said. “He's not going to beat around the bush. He's going to say, ‘Guys, we gotta get in gear and save our families and save our culture and save our world. And it starts by us being holy men and women.’” 

Mark Houck, radio show host, father of seven, and co-founder of The King’s Men apostolate, will also motivate attendees.  

Houck made headlines when he was arrested and indicted in 2022 on federal charges related to shoving an escort outside of a Planned Parenthood abortion clinic in Philadelphia. Houck maintains he intervened because the counselor verbally abused and pushed his 12-year-old son. An armed FBI SWAT team later raided Houck’s home and arrested him at gunpoint on charges of violating the Federal Freedom of Access to Clinic Act. 

“The night before his trial, Houck spent the whole night before the Eucharist,” said Dazzio. “His attorney said, ‘You can’t do that. You have to be fresh for the trial.’ (Houck) said, ‘No I’m spending the night before the Eucharist.’ He thought he might get a handful of people joining him. But he had 40-50 people joining him before the Eucharist for the night.” 

In January of 2023, a jury unanimously acquitted Houck of all charges. 


Top right photo:  Bishop Michael G. Duca led eucharistic adoration at the 2023 Men of the Immaculata Conference. File photos by Richard Meek
Photo above: Approximately 1,000 men from around the state and out of state attend the MOTI conferences. 

The event’s only local speaker this year will be Deacon Michael Parker, deacon and business administrator of Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary in St. Amant and Baton Rouge director of Vagabond Missions, which brings the Gospel to inner city teens in the in the Diocese of Baton Rouge.

“One of our desires is to start reaching out to a younger audience and get some of the younger guys too,” Dazzio said. “Deacon Parker is a perfect fit. He’s just a phenomenal speaker. He’s involved with the younger people and is in their midst.” 

The conference will also include Mass celebrated by Bishop Michael G. Duca and priests of the diocese, Eucharistic Adoration, the praying of the rosary (with relics of Sts. Francis and Clare of Assisi being present for men to touch their rosaries to), and the sacrament of reconciliation available throughout the day. 

Chef John Folse, also a gifted speaker, will talk to attendees before they eat the meal he will have prepared for lunch. In addition to being a restaurant owner and widely published cookbook author, Folse has a storied past that includes making international headlines in 1988 by opening “Lafitte’s Landing East” in Moscow during the presidential summit between Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev. In 1989, he became the first non-Italian chef to create the Vatican State Dinner in Rome.  

Organizers say the biggest highlight of the Immaculata Conference is seeing a fire of faith enkindled in men who come from out of state as well as from across Louisiana. 
“The cool thing to see is we get generations of men,” said Dazzio. “We’ll get four generations of them, and they’ll say, ‘We’ve been coming to this now for several years.’” 

Conversions also happen at the conferences, said Johnny Dunaway, vice chairman of the event. Dunaway was doing a real estate appraisal in the Central area when someone approached him because he recognized the MOTI bumper sticker on Dunaway’s truck. The man told his conversion story, which edified Dunaway. 

“He said, ‘I had a conversion two years ago. They were praying and singing and reciting the rosary and the Holy Spirit came over me and it has changed the way I live – the way I am a father, a husband, my reverence at Mass and Scripture,’” Dunaway said. 

“It’s an effort to pull together something as big as this conference,” Dunaway added. “Yet, to know it is bearing fruit gives us the energy to keep going.” 

For more information and to register for the conference, visit catholicmenbr.com. 

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The 2023 MOTI conference featured a eucharistic procession in honor of the national  Eucharistic Revival.