To stimulate the people of God to a
full, conscious, and active participation in liturgical celebrations.

The Southwest Liturgical Conference was born out of a meeting of the 1961 North American Liturgical Conference in Oklahoma City. For two years representatives from Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas worked on plans for a "southwest" gathering, which was held in Dallas in 1963. Following that first Study Week, the planners met in Amarillo to formally establish the Southwest Liturgical Conference, draft a preliminary constitution, and elect the first board of directors. The board also began planning for the 1964 Study Week in San Antonio. Representatives from Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, and Arkansas eventually joined the Conference. After over half a century of work promoting the Liturgy of the Church and the study of the liturgical renewal, the Southwest Liturgical Conference remains committed to the call of the Second Vatican Council, stated in the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, "that all the faithful should be led to that fully conscious, and active participation in liturgical celebrations which is demanded by the very nature of the liturgy." (SC, 14) 

1963 Planning Meeting in Amarillo

Msgr. George Reiffer (Santa Fe), Fr. Joe Mazaika (First President), Msgr. Frank Miesch (Secretary), Msgr. James Comiskey (Host)

By 2025, the SWLC will be the premier Catholic organization responding to the Holy Spirit’s call to foster authentically inclusive celebrations where each person, in a joy-filled self-offering, experiences an encounter with Christ generating personal conversion. These encounters will result in on-going formation, development of new leaders, communal transformation, and unity in diversity.