Catholics add to ballpark cheers for Christ during Graham festival

Published: 2006-07-17

BALTIMORE (CNS) -- The loud cheers and cries coming from Oriole Park at Camden Yards the weekend of July 7-9 were not for the Orioles baseball team. They were shouts and songs unto the Lord. About 81,000 people were at the ballpark to attend the Metro Maryland Festival, an evangelical gathering hosted by the Revs. Billy and Franklin Graham to bring people back to the faith or to help them find faith. The three-day extravaganza consisted of nightly messages from the Rev. Franklin Graham and music by Christian rock and country artists. The highlight was an address from 87-year-old Rev. Billy Graham, the famed Southern Baptist preacher. He is the father of the younger Rev. Graham, who is president of the Billy Graham Evangelical Association. Father Erik Arnold, pastor of the Church of the Crucifixion in Glen Burnie, Md., was the Baltimore Archdiocese's liaison to the festival. He and a group of trained counselors attended the event to bring back fallen-away Catholics and to talk about the Catholic Church to those who have no church.

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