Rev. Msgr. Charles E. Pope
Msgr. Charles Pope has a Master of Arts Degree in Moral Theology from Mount St. Mary’ University, Emmitsburg, MD. He was ordained to the priesthood on June 24, 1989 and is currently a pastor in Washington DC. He has conducted a weekly Bible Studies in the U.S. Congress and the White House. He has served on the Priest Council, as an Archdiocesan Consultor, and a member of the Priest Personnel Board and is a Dean. He was named a Monsignor in 2005. He has publishes a daily blog, has written in pastoral journals, and offers a weekly column in Our Sunday Visitor. He has taught numerous catechetical courses both in his parish work, and for the Archdiocese, conducted numerous Priest retreats and also for the faithful. Msgr. Pope immensely enjoys his work as a diocesan priest and a parish pastor.
Dr. Edward Peters
Dr. Edward Peters holds the Edmund Cardinal Szoka Chair at Sacred Heart Major Seminary. He received his civil law degree from the University of Missouri at Columbia and his licentiate and doctoral degrees in canon law from the Catholic University of America. Peters served in diocesan administrative positions for more than ten years and has been teaching graduate level courses in canon law for more than fifteen. His canonical writings have appeared in dozens of popular and professional journals around the world and he has made scores of appearance in Catholic and secular media venues. In 2010 Peters was appointed by Pope Benedict XVI to be the first lay Referendary of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, and in 2012 the same pope appointed him to serve as canonical expert for the XIII° Ordinary General Synod of Bishops addressing the New Evangelization.
Rilene Simpson
Rilene Simpson has spent most of her adult life living as an atheist in a same-sex relationship. She was one of three people profiled in the documentary film Desire of the Everlasting Hills, a story of redemption and conversion to Christ. After returning to the Catholic faith in 2009, Rilene has shared her story at conferences, on radio interviews, and on an EWTN special (airing this summer). Through her compelling story, Rilene helps Catholics understand the complexity around this controversial topic, the truth in the Church's teaching, and the hope and freedom found in the love of Christ.
Deborah Savage, Ph.D.
Deborah Savage is a member of the faculty at the St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota where she teaches philosophy and theology and also serves as the Director of the Masters in Pastoral Ministry Program. She received her Doctorate in Religious Studies from Marquette University in 2005; her degree is in both theology and philosophy.
Dr. Savage is a student of St. Thomas Aquinas with a particular interest in investigating his thought in light of contemporary questions. Her primary research interests are in philosophical and theological anthropology, especially as a foundation for grasping the personhood of men and women, for grounding the meaning of human action, and the metaphysics of creation.. Dr. Savage is a recognized scholar of the work of Karol Wojtyla/John Paul II and has written and presented or published several papers on how his philosophical anthropology informs his body of work as Pope, his understanding of human work, the complementarity of man and woman, and of the dignity and vocation of women.
Dr. Savage is the co-founder of the Siena Symposium for Women, Family, and Culture, an interdisciplinary think tank at UST, organized to respond to John Paul II’s call for a new and explicitly Christian feminism. Her more recent publications include: “The Centrality of Lived Experience in Wojtyla’s Account of the Person,” Philosophical Annals, John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin; “The Nature of Woman in Relation to Man: Genesis 1 and 2 Through the Lens of the Metaphysical Anthropology of St. Thomas Aquinas,” Logos, A Journal of Catholic Thought and Culture, Winter, 2015; “The Genius of Man,” Thinking with Pope Francis: Catholic Women Reflect on Complementarity, Feminism, and the Church, (OSV Publications, February 2015). She is currently at work on a book entitled “Woman and Man” for formal consideration by Catholic University of America Press.
Dr. Janet E. Smith
Janet E. Smith holds the Father Michael J. McGivney Chair of Life Ethics at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit. Her scholarly work is largely in the area of sexual ethics and bioethics. She is best known for her talk “Contraception: Why Not.”
She is the author of Humanae Vitae: A Generation Later, Right to Privacy; the editor of Why Humanae Vitae Was Right: A Reader and with Chris Kaczor coauthored Life Issues, Medical Choices, Questions and Answers for Catholics.
She is serving a third term as a consulter to the Pontifical Council on the Family and serves on two ecumenical commissions. She received an honorary doctorate in Christian Ethics from the Franciscan University of Steubenville, an honorary doctorate from Saint Charles Borromeo Seminary and the Veritas Award from the St. Thomas Aquinas Institute at Ave Maria University.
Robin Teresa Beck
Robin Teresa Beck is an author, speaker, and recovery coach. In February of 2009 she showed up to receive ashes at a Catholic Church. At the time of her arrival she had been actively involved in the gay community for 35 years with no plans to ever leave (plus the likelihood of her becoming Catholic was slim to none). Six months later she recommitted her life to Jesus Christ, joined the Church in April of 2010 and is now on a mission from God to tell the Truth concerning same sex attractions.
Robin resides in Livonia Michigan with her Cocker Spaniel, Ellie Mae. When not at Mass cantering or off on Truth crusades, Robin can be found biking around town on her very cool pink bike with Ellie Mae racing along side of her.
Dennis J. Billy, C.Ss.R.
Dennis J. Billy, C.Ss.R. is an American Redemptorist of the Baltimore Province. He holds an A.B. in English Literature from Dartmouth College (Hanover, N.H.), and M.R.E. and M. Div. degrees from Mt. St. Alphonsus Seminary (Esopus, N.Y.). After his seminary training, he went on to earn a Th.D. in Church History from Harvard Divinity School (Cambridge, Mass.), an M.A. in Medieval Studies from at the University of Toronto in Canada, an M.M.R.Sc. in Moral Theology from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in Belgium, an S.T.D. in Spirituality from The Pontifical University of St. Thomas (Angelicum, Rome), and a D. Min. in Spiritual Direction from the Graduate Theological Foundation (Mishawaka, Ind.). From 1988-2008 he was Professor of the History of Moral Theology and Christian Spirituality at The Alphonsian Academy of The Pontifical Lateran University in Rome. He is presently professor, scholar-in-residence, and holder of The John Cardinal Krol Chair of Moral Theology at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary, Overbrook in Wynnewood, PA. He has authored or edited over 30 books , published over 300 articles in a variety of scholarly and popular journals, and is very active in retreat work and the ministry of spiritual direction.
Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse
Dr. Morse is the founder of the Ruth Institute, an inter-faith organization that addresses the lies of the Sexual Revolution. She has authored or co-authored four books and spoken around the globe on marriage, family and human sexuality. Her newest book is The Sexual Revolution and Its Victims.
She earned her Ph.D. at the University of Rochester and taught economics at Yale and George Mason Universities.
Dr. Morse was named one of the “Catholic Stars of 2013,” on a list that included Pope Francis and Pope Benedict XVI.
Dr. Morse and her husband are parents of an adopted child, a birth child, a goddaughter and were foster parents for San Diego County to eight foster children.
Fr. Paul N. Check
Fr. Paul N. Check was ordained a priest of the Diocese of Bridgeport, CT in 1997. At the direction of Bishop Lori in 2002, he established a Courage chapter in his diocese for which he continues to serve as chaplain. He holds an STB from the Gregorian University and an STL from the University of the Holy Cross, both in Rome. He teaches fundamental moral theology and sexual and medical ethics to seminarians and permanent deacon candidates in the Bridgeport Diocese. Beginning in 1999, he has taught the two-week course in moral theology in the “Gift of Faith” syllabus for Blessed Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta. Father Check graduated from Rice University, TX in 1981 with a BA in history. He served as an officer in the US Marine Corps for nine years prior to entering the seminary. In 2008, he was selected to succeed Fr. John Harvey as the Executive Director of Courage International, at the request of Fr. Harvey and with the approval of Bishop Lori and Cardinal Dolan. He spends much of his time traveling and making presentations to clergy about the Church's teaching about homosexuality and her pastoral response.
Fr. John Riccardo
Fr. John is a priest of the Archdiocese of Detroit. Ordained in 1996, he is currently the pastor at our Lady of Good Counsel in Plymouth, Michigan. In the words of Pope Francis, he is convinced that “Knowing Jesus is the best gift that any person can receive; that we have encountered Him is the best thing that has happened in our lives, and making Him known by our word and deeds is our greatest joy.”