Catholic Review

Inspiring the Archdiocese of Baltimore

Bishop Adam J. Parker blesses climbers who will use the ropes challenge course at Monsignor O'Dwyer Retreat House in Sparks, Md., on its dedication day April 3, 2022. (Ann M. Augherton/Special to the Catholic Review)

O’Dwyer Retreat House dedicates ropes challenge course


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Catholic Review Filed Under: Feature, Local News, News, Video

SPARKS – If you see a boat suspended high up in the woods surrounding the Monsignor O’Dwyer Retreat House in northern Baltimore County, it’s not due to some freak weather event. 

The boat is an intentional part of the new ropes challenge course at the youth retreat center, hoping to inspire participants to make “fishers of men” by evangelizing others.

Auxiliary Bishop Adam J. Parker blessed the new course April 3 and took one of the first rides down the 750-foot zip line, one of three zip lines on the property; the other two lines run 300 feet each. The day also included about a dozen students and faculty from Mount St. Joseph High School in Baltimore and a few others putting the course through its paces for the first time. 

Phil Howard, director of the O’Dwyer Retreat House, said in remarks before the blessing that Mount St. Joseph was chosen because it was the first school to use the facility when it opened in October 1963, and has come for retreats every year since, including during the coronavirus pandemic, when most other schools canceled off-campus activities.

A climber gets ready to test the zip line at the Monsignor O’Dwyer Retreat House in northern Baltimore County. (Ann M. Augherton/Special to the Catholic Review)

John Smyth, chairman of the retreat house’s board, said the project was two years in the planning, with almost a year to get the permits for construction. The high- and low-ropes structure is 30 feet tall. On the support pillars along the way, small, blue mailboxes are attached so that retreat leaders can leave inspirational quotes or Scripture passages for retreatants to find while doing the activity.

O’Dwyer – named for its founder, pioneering youth minister Monsignor Clare O’Dwyer – provides space for retreats, parish and school meetings, and other gatherings. It will offer five summer day camps for incoming first- through fifth-graders this summer between June and August.

The course and the zip lines are on the back nine acres of the property; the center also has another nine acres that include a retreat house, living spaces for overnight retreats, a cottage, plenty of room to wander, a pool and an outdoor meeting area. 

The site includes the cross from the Mass that St. John Paul II celebrated at Oriole Park at Camden Yards in 1995. A second phase of the “ropes and rosaries plan” calls for development of a rosary garden and prayer space around the huge, white cross, Smyth said.

He noted that the whole structure is built around a Catholic theme, while emphasizing courage, trust and overcoming obstacles in practicing the faith. The board realized a few years ago that it was losing some schools and organizations that were going elsewhere for retreats because they had more outdoor activities and more challenging options. 

The project is built with safety in mind, including wires onto which climbers clip a special apparatus that allows them to stay attached to the course, even if they fall. Each participant also wears a helmet and climbing harness.

Phil Howard, director of the Monsignor O’Dwyer Retreat House in Sparks, Md., and trainer Emily Blankenship demonstrate how to launch from the ropes challenge course onto one of two 300-foot zip lines on the course April 3, 2022. (Ann M. Augherton/Special to the Catholic Review)

Outfitted in a climbing harness and helmet as blessed the course, Bishop Parker prayed for the safety of all those who use it. “May the trust that we build within one another be reflective of the trust we have for you, our Savior, our Creator. … May we be willing after gathering here to go out to make disciples and make your name known to the world.”

The first adventurers were put to the test by Emily Balnkenship, an outside contractor who is a ropes course trainer. Howard and O’Dwyer Facilities Manager John McCarty completed certification as trainers and leaders for the ropes course at the end of March. “We climbed over, under, and through everything. I could barely move the next day,” Howard said.

Clay Bonham, director of campus ministry at Mount St. Joseph, appreciated the new course on its dedication day. As he waited at the far end of the long zip line, he said the school hopes to engage its sophomore class in a retreat that includes the new challenges. He is planning to have a leadership group of rising seniors check out the course in June.

“I love that you can tie in courage in the faith with overcoming obstacles. It has a lot of potential,” he said.

The pathway to the ropes course and zip lines and the space below is covered with a soft, thick bed of mulch. Ten dump truck loads – 250 cubic yards – were delivered and spread just a few days before the blessing and opening.

The project cost $200,000, according to Howard, with donations coming from The Knott Foundation and other private donors.

Email Christopher Gunty at editor@CatholicReview.org

For more information, visit https://msgrodwyer.org

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