Amy Hamilton
Amy Hamilton has been a social worker, a Fulbright scholar to Indonesia, a Sexuality Research Fellow, and an Assistant Professor. She received her Ph.D. in Linguistics from the University of Texas at Austin in 2004. Her dissertation focused on the life narratives of Christians who had experienced conflicts between their spiritual and sexual identity. She is currently a research associate at the University of Texas at Austin and writes on topics related to marriage, faith, gender, and sexuality.
Amy has also given hope to many through sharing her story of personal transformation in Christ. Formerly lesbian-identified, Amy's own journey with same-sex attraction and identity confusion, combined with her academic knowledge, gives her a voice of unique authority amidst the contentious cultural conversations of the day.
Dr. William Junker
Dr. William Junker is Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in Catholic Studies at the University of St. Thomas. He teaches classes ranging from The Search for Happiness to Dante’s Comedy, and particularly enjoys working through scripture and lyric poetry with his students.
Neal Lozano
Neal serves as the Executive Director of Heart of the Father Ministries bringing the message of Unbound, Freedom in Christ to the church throughout the world. Neal, a committed Roman Catholic, has more than 50 years of experience helping people find freedom in Jesus Christ. He is the author of nine books including the life-changing book Unbound: A Practical Guide to Deliverance, now in 22 languages, and his latest, Unbound Unpacked: The Exorcising Task of the Believer. His passion is that every child of God would find someone equipped to accompany them in their pursuit of freedom from the damage of past wounds and all the works of the devil. Neal holds a Master’s Degree in Religious Education from Villanova University. He taught high school religion, and then founded a Christian community. Neal went on to lead short-term missions trips, an outreach to university students, and city-wide gatherings of Christians in the Philadelphia region. When he isn't traveling, teaching, or ministering, Neal, along with his wife, Janet, loves to spend time with his four sons, their wives, and their children.
Fr. Paul Check
Liturgy and Belief
Lex Orandi, Lex Credendi is a traditional Catholic principle maintaining that the law of prayer is the law of belief. In other words, the way we pray—especially at Mass—expresses and shapes our faith in Jesus Christ and our relationship with Him as His disciples. What is the divine architecture of the Mass, in which we are invited to participate? What grace does Our Lord offer to us when we pray and prepare to receive Him in Holy Communion? With what blessing, understanding and mission do we go forth, when the Mass is ended?
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Fr. Paul Check was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Bridgeport, CT in 1997. In January 2008, he succeeded Fr. John Harvey as the Executive Director of Courage, a role in which he happily served until December 2016. From 2016-2020, Fr. Check was Rector of St. John Fisher Seminary in Stamford, CT. In August 2020, Cardinal Raymond Burke appointed him the Executive Director of the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe, La Crosse, WI.
Heather Voccola
The Universal Call to Holiness: Jesus Meets the Woman at the Well
Real encounter with Jesus does not begin with our personal sanctity or perfection. It happens in the messiness of life. But once we've encountered Him, the Lord calls us to a life of transformation, conversion and evangelization. How can we, as women, best live out this call?
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Heather Voccola serves as Executive Director of Mary and Elizabeth, an apostolate dedicated to the interior renewal of women. She has a Masters in Theology and a certification in direction through Heart of Christ Spiritual Direction. Heather currently teaches priests, religious, seminarians, and laity through Holy Apostles College and Seminary, Avila Institute, and Stella Maris Network. She serves as a supervisor in the spiritual direction program at St. Meinrad Seminary. Currently living a vow of chastity in the world within an intentional community of female missionaries, Heather has two adult daughters from a prior marriage and one son-in-law, and she will forever be grateful for the vocation of marriage and motherhood.
Fr. Tadeusz Pacholczyk
Disordered Inclinations Within the Context of Spiritual Transformation
Fr. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, Ph.D. earned his doctorate in neuroscience from Yale and did post-doctoral work at Harvard. He is a priest of the diocese of Fall River, MA, and serves as Senior Ethicist at The National Catholic Bioethics Center in Philadelphia. Father writes and speaks widely on bioethics and medical ethics. Since 2001, he has given several hundred presentations and invited lectures, and participated in debates and roundtables on contemporary bioethics throughout the U.S., Canada, and Europe.
Sister Mary Faustina, SsEW
The Spiritual Fruitfulness of Living as Daughters of God
Women have a specific call and mission within the Church to be spiritual mothers. This call and ability flows from the reality that they daughters of God. Far from limiting their fruitfulness, their sufferings can be sources of grace and encouragement for others. This talk with focus on this truth and highlight how living out one’s vocation to holiness brings about joy in this life and eternal happiness in the next.
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Sister Mary Faustina, SsEW is a member of the Sister Servants of the Eternal Word. Sister grew up in Kentucky and joined the community in 2011. She made her final vows in 2019 and currently serves the community as vocation director.
Fr. Thomas J. Loya
Going Back to ’SCHL’—Retrieving the Sacramental, Catholic, Human, Liturgical Worldview
How the art, architecture, liturgy and ascetical spirituality of the Church provides the integrated blueprint for all of life.
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Fr. Thomas J Loya, is currently the pastor of Annunciation of the Mother of God Byzantine Catholic Parish in Homer Glen, IL. He is also the host of two radio programs; “Light of the East” which can be heard in more than 60 cities across the United States on several Catholic radio networks including EWTN Radio as well as “Beyond the Veil,” heard on Ave Maria radio. Fr. Loya completed his studies for the priesthood in both Pennsylvania and Rome where he attended the North American College earning an STB from the Angelicum University. He was ordained in 1982. Fr. Loya has served the Church in youth and young adult ministry and as an artist and design consultant. He has directed many retreats and has been a guest speaker at several conventions including World Youth Day 2002. Using his background in art, counseling, and Eastern Catholic spirituality, Fr. Loya applies the principles of The Theology of the Body to an understanding of all aspects of the human experience.
Fr. Stephen Boyle, O. Praem
Behold the Amazing Gift (cf. 1Jn 3:1)
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A native of Springfield, Minnesota, Fr. Stephen Boyle was ordained a priest of St. Michael's Norbertine Abbey in California in 1990, having studied Philosophy and Theology at the Angelicum in Rome. In view of a teaching apostolate, he obtained a Mathematics degree from U.C. Irvine, while coaching sports at St. Michael’s Prep and helping in parishes on the weekends. In 2000 he was sent back to Rome to work at the Norbertine Generalate where he had lived as seminarian. Before returning to his home abbey in 2019, he obtained a License in Spirituality from the Angelicum.
Fr. Philip G. Bochanski
Father Philip Bochanski, a native of suburban Philadelphia, received the degrees of Master of Divinity, and Master of Arts in Theology, from Saint Charles Borromeo Seminary, and was ordained a priest of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia in 1999. In addition to several parish assignments, he served as a high school religion teacher, chaplain to cloistered nuns, and a spiritual director for seminarians.
In 2009, Father Bochanski began serving as chaplain for the Philadelphia chapter of Courage International, an apostolate founded in 1980 to provide pastoral care for men and women who experience same sex attractions and who have made a commitment to living chastely. He was appointed associate director of the worldwide apostolate in 2015, and served as executive director of Courage International from January 2017 to June 2023.
Father Bochanski served for several years as a consultant to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, for both its Subcommittee for the Promotion and Defense of Marriage, and its Institute for the Catechism. In December 2019, Pope Francis awarded him the Cross Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice†, a medal given “in recognition of sustained and exceptional service to the Church and to the Pope.”
In June 2023, Father Bochanski returned to his home Archdiocese of Philadelphia, and was appointed Vicar General and Moderator of the Curia. In this role, he advises and assists the Archbishop in the pastoral and temporal administration of the archdiocese, its offices, and its 214 parishes. He serves ex officio as a member of the administrative board of the Pennsylvania Catholic Conference, as vice-chair of the Board of Trustees of Saint Charles Borromeo Seminary, and as chair or member of numerous archdiocesan committees, boards and corporations.
Father Bochanski is the author of six books, five sets of audio lectures, and numerous articles and book chapters, on various topics including church history, spirituality, evangelization and pastoral care.