Vision Statement 

Mission Statement


RC = Roman Catholic
Tm = Toastmasters
CTm = Catholic Tm

Holy Mackerels CTm
of Central Texas
(THE ORIGINAL HOLY MACKERELS CLUB)

Holy Mackerels RCT
of Sample, Ohio

The Holy Mackerels
Saint Blarney's Parish Rockbend, MA

 

 

 The purpose of The Holy Mackerels Roman Catholic Commun­ica­tors® -- including Holy Mack­erel Toastmasters® clubs -- is to provide Cath­olic faith­ful with training and support in com­mu­n­i­ca­tions skill devel­op­ment, to enable our articulate proclamation and defense of the Faith, and to facil­i­tate pro­duc­tive dis­cus­sion within our own faith and with our brothers and sisters throughout the entire human family. See our Vision and Mission Statements.

The Holy Mackerels is an innovation of specific Roman Catholics within the Dio­cese of Austin, Texas, who chartered "THE HOLY MACKERELS: Catholic Toast­masters of Central Texas" within the highly effective personal com­mun­ica­tions and leadership development program of Toast­mast­ers Inter­na­tion­al®, a sec­ular entity respected among people of diverse faiths. The purpose of The Holy Mack­erels is absolutely Roman Catholic and unwaveringly loyal to the Teach­ing Mag­is­ter­ium of the Roman Catholic Church, yet important to all of God's chil­dren seek­ing to meet the challenges of an increasingly ungodly and material world with an articulate voice of reasoning Faith. Accordingly, its membership is open to all persons -- including non-Catholics -- who ac­cept and support the club pur­pose and mission to develop the stated attri­butes among the Catholic mem­bers.

Said mission is to help Catholic laity develop the ability and confidence to per­son­ally and publicly articulate their faith. As The Holy Mackerels was being formed in early 2013, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) called for a "new evangelization" in the then-upcoming Year of Faith. From the USCCB website:

"The New Evangelization calls each of us to deepen our faith, believe in the Gospel message and go forth to proclaim the Gospel. The focus of the New Evangelization calls all Catholics to be evangelized and then go forth to evangelize."
And yet, the "New Evangelization" is not truly "new" -- evident in the words of St. John Chrysostom:
"Christ has left us on this earth so that we may become shining beacons and teachers who know how to instruct; so that we may perform our task as angels, that is, as messengers to [all people] … in order to win them over; so that we may be sown as seed and bear abundant fruit."

Again, the projected beneficiaries of The Holy Mackerels are the partici­pat­ing indi­viduals, the members of any sponsoring parish, diocese or community, the Cath­olic Faith, and the surrounding human family:

Benefits to Individual Catholics:

  • TI is most widely recognized as a system of "speaker develop­ment" clubs, with specific programs for guiding the shyest people toward becom­ing competent public speakers, and competent speakers to become movers, shakers, and entertainers.

  • More than a "speaker development program," TI teaches through both lesson and practice the complete art of communicating, from one-on-one dialogue to the public forum, and how at all levels to be a conscious and effective listener.

  • More than speaking or listening, more than communicating, and even more than the social and economic benefits gained from becom­ing effective communicators, participation in Toastmasters is a re­li­a­ble path of personal performance feedback and con­se­quent growth in merited self-respect and justifiable con­fi­dence.

  • The Holy Mackerels can help individual Catholics become in­formed, articulate, and confident in a world where they are out­num­bered by advocates of other faiths, no faith, and value sys­tems coun­ter­posed to Catholic teaching.
As a Community:

  • At the most basic level, the quality of life in any community rises with the ability of people to communicate and simply get along and resolve misunderstanding. In an organized community (like a parish or diocese) with an active calendar of separate organized groups, ac­tiv­ities, and causes, the entire "engine" simply runs far better as the ability to communicate needs and ideas rises. Other efforts, pro­grams, and organizations within the community pow­er­fully ben­e­fit in several ways:

    • Internally: Toastmasters training and exercises within the con­text of club meetings inevitably translates into advanced pro­fic­iency in the meeting process itself, potentially useful to the pro­duc­tiv­ity of all gatherings in which the Toastmaster par­tici­pates.

    • Outgoing: members and participants within given units of the com­munity, including its central administration and leader­ship, be­come more effective spokespersons for those units.

    • Incoming: a given unit of the community faces more clearly ex­pressed messages from other units and individuals, and a more clear picture of surrounding circumstance, need, and op­por­tu­nity.

    • Circulating: members of all groups within the commu­nity cir­cu­late and interact with one another in a complex variety of ven­ues, chan­nels, times, and places. Technology accelerates rumor and mis­un­der­stand­ing right along with official cor­rec­tions and clar­ifi­cations. The antidote for the misspoken word is the real time pres­ence of informed, articu­late com­mun­ica­tors.

  • The Toastmasters club itself becomes a "think tank" as ideas flour­ish and are shared in the process of members meeting their reg­ul­ar speak­ing program objectives. It is not just about "words," but about sharing ideas of substance and developing audience en­thu­si­asm which is seldom over when the meeting ends.

  • Parishes suffer economically as unemployment rates rise in the com­mun­ity. All elements of individual development listed above bear di­rect­ly on job inter­view skills with positive implications for both job seekers and their respective parishes.
Regarding Faith:

We are called upon to live the faith and proclaim the faith; and we all have hearts pained by our inability to reach those we love, but who just do not get the message of God’s love. If only we had the words to answer those who eloquently mis-portray what Catholics believe; or maybe just the right words for the right questions to clarify what we ourselves miss...  If we just knew how to share ideas...  to com­mun­icate the things of our hearts and souls...  If only the sincere of all faiths could do these things well...

Sometimes it is not enough to stand up and be counted, but to step up and be heard.