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"Parents are the first and the most important educators of their own children, and they also possess a fundamental competence in this area; they are educators because they are parents."
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2008 Speaker List
| Rt. Rev. Fr. Constantine-Paul Belisarius entered the Catholic Church on October 29, 1955. He graduated from St. Mary’s College in Marion County, KY, with an A.B. in Philosophy, History and Literature. He entered the New York Province of the Society of Jesus in 1965 to be a member of the Byzantine Assistancy, changing from the Latin to the Melkite Rite in 1982. At Fordham University, he studied Russian Area Studies, Literature and Language (1968-1972), and taught at Regis High School in Manhattan (1972-1974). He took the STB summa cum laude from the Collegium Maximum Faculty of Regis College, Toronto, Ontario, with the concomitant M.Div. degree from St. Mary’s University, Halifax, Nova Scotia in 1978.
He served in Melkite, Ruthenian, and Ukrainian Catholic parishes in Toronto and, after leaving the Society of Jesus, was called to the Middle East by his Melkite Greek Catholic Patriarch, Maximus V of Antioch, for whom he served as secretary in Lebanon. Assigned to the Patriarchal College in Heliopolis, Egypt, in 1982, he served as principal teacher of the English language there until June, 1995, when he returned to the U.S. From 1983 to 1993, he served as Station Padre to the United Nations Treaty Supervision Organization headquartered in Heliopolis.
Father was ordained to the priesthood in 1982 by Patriarch Maximus, who also raised him to Archimandrite of Alexandria in 1998. Father has been a counselor, editor and artist at Seton Home Study School since 1995.
Panel Talk: Catholic Home Schooling: Its Importance and Consequences
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 | Fr. Joseph Mary Brown was born in Bardstown, KY, the third of seven children. He graduated from Christendom College in 1985 with a B.A. in Philosophy. In 1991, he joined the Congregation of St. John (an active-contemplative Community founded in France in 1975) in Laredo, TX, where he did his Novitiate. From there, he was sent to France to continue his formation, and in 1996, he was sent to their house in Peoria, IL.
Ordained in 1997, Father now serves as the Superior of the Community’s English-speaking Novitiate House in Princeville, IL.
Talk Titles: Male and Female: Complementarity and Differences and Hope
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 | Fr. Thomas J. Euteneuer (EYE-ten-our) is president of Human Life International, the world’s largest pro-life organization with affiliate offices and associates in seventy-five countries around the world. In his over 7 years of service to this unique mission, Father has traveled more than 900,000 miles as a pro-life missionary, and visited more than fifty countries.
Father Euteneuer holds a Bachelor’s degree in Philosophy from the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, and a Licentiate degree in Biblical Theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, Italy. He speaks Spanish fluently.
While in college, Fr. Euteneuer participated in the Marine Corps Officer Candidate Program and attended boot camp at Quantico, VA, graduating at the top of his Company. After discerning that the Lord was calling him to the priesthood rather than the military, he entered the seminary. After his ordination in 1988, Father served as a parish priest in five parishes of the Diocese of Palm Beach, FL—as the Bishop’s secretary, vocations director, and spiritual moderator to the Respect Life Office.
Father Euteneuer’s pro-life activity began in the early years of his priesthood with prayer vigils, pilgrimages, pickets at abortion mills, sidewalk counseling and the establishment of a crisis pregnancy center across the street from an abortion mill in 1999.
Since taking office at HLI, Father Euteneuer has spoken to thousands of people all over the world, spreading the Gospel of Life, as well as making many appearances on EWTN and other local, national and international media. He has been featured in Human Events and National Catholic Register, and recently has been awarded the John Cardinal O’Connor Award for Life from Legatus.
Talk Title: Spiritual Strengthening and Protection for Families
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 | Born on January 10, 1941, Fr. Joseph Fessio is a Roman Catholic priest of the Jesuit order. He attended high school at Bellarmine College Preparatory in San Jose, CA.
Before entering the Jesuit novitiate in 1961, he completed undergraduate studies in Civil Engineering at the University of Santa Clara, CA. He earned both his Bachelor’s (1966) and Master’s (1967) degrees in Philosophy from Gonzaga University in Spokane, WA.
Before being ordained on June 10, 1972, he had also earned a Master’s in Theology from his studies in Lyons, France. In 1975, Father Fessio earned his Doctorate in Theology from the University of Regensburg, West Germany. His thesis director was Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI), with whom a lasting friendship was developed that continues to this day.
Father Fessio has had a distinguished career as an educator. He taught Philosophy (1966-69) and Systematic and Spiritual Theology at the University of San Francisco (1974-1998). From 1988-91, Father served as editor of 30 Days in the Church and the World, an international Catholic magazine, and became publisher of The Catholic World Report in 1991. Since 1995, he was publisher of Homiletic & Pastoral Review, as well as Catholic Dossier, Catholic Faith (until 2002).
In 1976, Father Fessio founded St. Ignatius Institute and, in 1978, became founder and editor of Ignatius Press. Father has been a solid orthodox voice in Catholic publishing since its founding. In 1995, he co-founded Adoremus: Society for the Renewal of the Sacred Liturgy. Three years later, he founded the Catholic Radio Network and, in 2002, he founded Campion College of San Francisco. That same year he became Chancellor of Ave Maria University in Naples, Florida, and later its Provost. He is currently the University’s Theologian-in-Residence.
Talk Titles: Pope Benedict and the Mass and Pope Benedict and the Motu Proprio: What Does He Hope to Achieve for the Church?
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 | Fr. Robert J. Levis, Ph.D., a priest of the Diocese of Erie, PA since 1948, received his Ph.D. in Religious Education from the Catholic University of America. He served at Gannon University in Erie, PA as Professor and Chair of the Department of Theology, Chair of the Liberal Studies Curriculum, Founder and Chair of the Pontifical Center for Catechetical Studies, where for 19 years, he supervised and instructed candidates for the Master’s Degree in Catechetics. He has also taught catechetical courses at the undergraduate and graduate level at the Franciscan University of Steubenville, OH.
He is a Co-Founder and Vice President of the Confraternity of Catholic Clergy, a national association of priests, seminarians, and deacons. In addition to editing its newsletter, Sapientia, for many years, he sponsored their annual convention at Gannon University for almost 20 years.
When the Catechism of the Catholic Church appeared in 1994, he pioneered the preparation of two widely accepted catechetical programs for use on the computer, one for grade school students, and the other for high school students in fidelity to this official catechism. In 1997, he wrote a popular catechism, Jesus, the Catechism, and Me, a condensed and faithful text in support of the official catechism. He co-edited John Paul II, Catechist, edited the History of Gannon University, has written regularly for the Canadian Challenge, National Catholic Register, Lake Shore Visitor, Catholic Encyclopedia, and many other publications. He has spoken often on theological topics across the States and in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Presently, he co-hosts the EWTN show Web of Faith.
Talk Titles: The Impossibility of Obtaining a Christian Education in the Present Public School System and Deep Faith: Drinking from a Dry Well
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 | Fr. Frank E. Papa, S.O.L.T., J.C.D. spent more than 25 years working with youth before his ordination to the priesthood in 1989. He was Founder and Executive Director of Teens, Incorporated, a recreational character-building organization that expanded into Teen Homes for youth from broken homes.
He earned his Doctorate in Canon Law from the Angelicum in Rome, graduated magna cum laude, studied for an Advocacy Degree at the Sacred Roman Rota, and taught various courses at the Holy Apostles Seminary in Cromwell, CT.
He has been a guest on radio and television shows, and a speaker at State Agencies and Institutions, as well as at regional and national home schooling conferences.
As a priest with extensive backgrounds in Canon Law, marriage preparation, and youth work, Fr. Papa is uniquely qualified to give parents important tips from a Catholic perspective. Recently, he authored the book, Love, Dating, and Marriage: A Marriage Preparation Guide. He is also author of the book Teenage Guide for Confession, as well as the new Seton Teacher’s Manual on the Sacrament of Confirmation.
Panel Talk: Catholic Home Schooling: Its Importance and Consequences
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 | Fr. Paul Scalia was born in Charlottesville, VA in 1970, ordained deacon at St. Peter’s Basilica, Vatican City-State in 1995, and ordained a Diocesan priest on May 18, 1996 at St. Thomas More Cathedral.
After receiving his B.A. from the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, MA, in 1992, Father received his STB from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome in 1995, and his M.A. the following year from the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, also in Rome. He was the founder, editor, and publisher of The Fenwick Review at the College of the Holy Cross.
Father is currently Parochial Vicar at St. Rita’s Catholic Church in Alexandria, VA. He has written articles in Catholic Twin Circle Magazine, Human Life Review, Religion and Liberty and Adoremus Bulletin.
Talk Title: Gut Check: The Place of the Passions in Education
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 | Fr. Thomas Vander Woude was born March 26, 1966 in Mississippi, but grew up in Georgia and Virginia, where he has called Nokesville, Virignia, “home” since high school. He is the eldest of seven sons born to Tom and Mary Ellen Vander Woude; four of his younger brothers were homeschooled.
After receiving his BA in History from Christendom College in 1988, Father Vander Woude began his priestly formation at Mount St. Mary’s Seminary in Emmitsburg, MD, and was ordained in 1992 by Bishop Keating.
Currently pastor of Queen of Apostles Parish in Alexandria, VA, his priestly assignments have included being parochial vicar at St. Mary Parish in Alexandria, St. Catherine of Siena Parish in Great Falls, and St. Agnes. He was pastor of St. Elizabeth’s Parish in Colonial Beach and St. Anthony’s Mission in King George, VA before coming to Alexandria.
An avid sportsman, Father Vander Woude has been a member of the diocesan “Earthen Vessels” priests’ basketball team and enjoyed kayaking while living near the Potomac in Colonial Beach.
Talk Title: Sports: Get in the Game!
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 | Originally from Southwest Texas, Fr. Matthew Zuberbueler is a graduate of Christendom College (1992), and attended Mount St. Mary’s Seminary (‘92-‘96). On May 18, 1996, he was ordained in the class of 13 for the Diocese of Arlington. Father has been assigned as Parochial Vicar to St. Timothy’s in Chantilly, VA; Blessed Sacrament in Alexandria, VA; the Cathedral of St. Thomas More, Arlington, VA, and currently serves at the Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish/St. Bridget Mission in Winchester, VA.
Talk Title: Joy: Allowing the Eternal into the Everyday
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 | Deacon Eugene McGuirk has a B.A. from Queens College in New York, an M.A. from the University of California at Santa Barbara, an M.B.A. from Adelphi University, and has partially completed an M.A. in Theology from the Franciscan University of Steubenville in Ohio. Deacon Eugene McGuirk also completed four years of study at Immaculate Conception Seminary in Lloyd Harbor, New York, where he was first in his class, and was ordained to the Diaconate in May, 1988.
Deacon McGuirk served for 11 years at St. Hedwig's Church in Floral Park, NY as the Director of Adult Education, Pre-Cana Conferences, Youth and Pro-Life Activities. He then relocated to Immaculate Conception Church in Forest City, North Carolina, where he served for over three years as Co-Director of the CCD Program and was Director of Pro-Life Activities, where he was known for writing letters to the local newspaper to defend the Faith. His article entitled, “Easter Reflections on the Role of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Salvation History” was published in Reflects, the Journal of the Haitian American Cultural and Educational Foundation. Recently, he presented a paper entitled, “United Christian Charity International: Performing the Works of Mercy for the Culture of Life,” to the Society of Catholic Social Scientists at Ave Maria Law School. Deacon McGuirk and his wife, Catherine, have four children who have all been home schooled over the past eleven years, his eldest graduated from Christendom College in 2003.
Deacon McGuirk and his family reside in Front Royal, VA, and is the Director for Academic Counseling at Seton Home Study School. He also serves on the Board of Directors for United Christian Charity International in Rutherfordton, North Carolina.
Moderator, Panel Talk: Catholic Home Schooling: Its Importance and Consequences
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 | Dr. Mary Kay Clark has taken an active role in educational and political issues for over 30 years. Since 1982, she has been Director of Seton Home Study School. Under her direction for 23 years, Seton Home Study School has grown from 340 students in 1985 to more than 10,000 students currently enrolled in the United States and internationally.
Besides being a frequent speaker at home education and family conferences, Dr. Clark is also a frequent guest on radio and television programs. She has written many articles on home schooling, and has authored the book, Catholic Home Schooling: A Handbook for Parents. Dr. Clark is the mother of seven children, all of whom she educated at home. She and her husband, Bruce, are proud grandparents of 28 little Clarks.
Talk Title: Homeschooling Boys to be Catholic Men
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 | Dr. Ray Guarendi is a father, clinical psychologist, author, public speaker and a radio host. His experience includes school districts, Head Start programs, mental health centers, substance abuse programs, inpatient psychiatric centers, juvenile courts, and a private practice.
Dr. Guarendi has been a regular guest on national radio and television, including Oprah, Joan Rivers, Scott Ross Prime Time, 700 Club, Gordon Elliot, and CBS This Morning. He’s appeared on regional radio and television shows in over 40 states and Canada. He has been the program psychologist for Cleveland’s Morning Exchange, Pittsburgh 2-Day, and AM Indiana. He has written several books, including You’re a Better Parent Than You Think!, now in its twenty-first printing, Back to the Family and his newest book is Discipline That Lasts a Lifetime.
Talk Titles: Pacifying the Preschooler and Taming the Tough Teens
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 | Ann G. Martin, M.D. is Assistant Professor of Medicine, Division of Dermatology at Washington University.
Dr. Martin is a home schooling mother of seven children and a part-time practicing physician. Her oldest two children are now attending medical school, and her next two boys are midshipmen at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis. She currently home schools her three youngest children.
Talk Title: Essential Study Skills: The Path to Success
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 | Dr. Catherine (“Katie”) Moran received her B.A. degree with majors in Biology, Chemistry and Speech/Hearing Therapy from Kent State University, and her MS.Ed. (Masters of Science in Education) and Ph.D. in Education from Breyer State University.
She has eighteen years of experience home schooling her 5 children, including one son who is a dyslexic and had ADHD. She and her husband, David, adopted two of their children (a brother and sister) from Ukraine several years ago.
She is president of the Catholic Home School Network of America (CHSNA); member of the Round Table, a national organization of Catholic Home Schooling leaders; founder and past leader of the Ohio Educators’ Catholic Home Schooling Network, and a member of the CHSNA delegation to Rome on behalf of Catholic Home Education, which visited with Pope John Paul II in 1995 and 1997.
Dr. Moran is a secular Franciscan, and served as prefect of her fraternity for three years. She is presently secretary-treasurer of the Blue Army of Our Lady of Fatima, and speaker of its Byzantine Chapter of Warren, Ohio.
She has been a keynote speaker at many conferences and retreats, and is a steadfast promoter of Mary-like modesty.
Talk Titles: Unsure About the Whys of Home Schooling? Here’s How to Get Started! (A 20-minute talk for Beginners) and Home Schooling Tips for the Overwhelmed Mom: Keeping Your Children on Track
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 | Dr. Jonathan Reyes is the President of the Augustine Institute. Before this he served as the Vice President for Academic Affairs of Christendom College where he oversaw one of the most rigorous academic programs in the country, which includes 84 credits of a core curriculum in the Liberal Arts. He was also chiefly responsible for the successful re-accreditation of Christendom College with the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. He received an MA in history from the University of Michigan, and a PhD in history from the University of Notre Dame.
Dr. Reyes has spoken on college campuses, at parishes and at conferences across the country. He has given academic lectures and has appeared on two series on EWTN. Dr. Reyes and his wife have 6 children between the ages of 11 and 7 months; three of them are currently being homeschooled.
Talk Titles: A Rising Generation: Preparing Youth for the Renewal of Catholic Culture and Greatness of Thought and Life: Equipping Youth for Leadership In the New Evangelization
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 | Dr. Alice von Hildebrand is an internationally renowned lecturer, philosopher, and author, who currently works as a host on Mother Angelica’s EWTN television network, and has lectured widely in Western Europe, Canada, the U.S., Venezuela, Colombia, and Mexico.
She is a Professor Emerita of Philosophy at Hunter College of the City University of New York, where she taught for over thirty years. She served as a trustee for the Franciscan University of Steubenville, OH, from 1987 to 1999. She has taught at catechetical institutes in Arlington, VA, and Dunwoodie, NY, as well as Thomas More College in Rome and the Franciscan University of Steubenville, where she received the Doctor Honoris Causa.
Dr. von Hildebrand has written many widely-acclaimed books from a traditional Catholic perspective, including The Soul of a Lion: Life of Dietrich von Hildebrand, a loving biography of her deceased husband; By Love Refined: Letters to a Young Bride; By Grief Refined: Letters to a Widow, and The Privilege to be a Woman.
Talk Title: Man and Woman: A Divine Invention
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 | Mrs. Laura M. Berquist, a home schooling mother of six, is founder and director of Mother of Divine Grace School, a home study program currently serving 2400 students. Mrs. Berquist is the author of Designing Your Own Classical Curriculum and editor of The Harp and Laurel Wreath: Poetry and Dictation for the Classical Curriculum. Based on the philosophy of the classical Trivium—grammar, logic, and rhetoric—she has developed a modern classical home school curriculum for grades K-12 that strengthens character and intellect, and reinforces virtue.
Mrs. Berquist is a graduate of Thomas Aquinas College in Santa Paula, CA. She has home schooled her six children for the last 22 years. Four of them have graduated from college (of whom two are married); one is attending college, and the youngest is still being home schooled.
Talk Title: Central Importance of Order in Teaching, Learning & Living
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 | Mrs. Rebecca Dussault, 2006 Winter Olympic skier and Colorado native, found an early love for endurance athletics. She was raised with two siblings in the mountain town of Gunnison, Colorado, where athletics and adventure were a staple of community life. As a cradle Catholic, Rebecca was imbued with a love for the Faith through attending Catholic conferences and joining her future husband’s family as a homeschool student in their home. Graduating in 1999 from Saint Michael’s Homeschool Academy, Rebecca was able to pursue many of her true interests, including elite athletics throughout her school years. She traveled extensively, domestically and abroad, as she began to foster an incredible ski racing career which took her to the Olympic Games.
By the end of her teenage years, she had competed many times at the highest level of her sport. However, the moral struggle she encountered within the “ski world” was enough to cause her to question the course her life was on. Would she continue to rise through the ranks to become one of the world’s best, or would she give it all up to follow a convicting call from Christ to abandon it and chase after an imperishable crown? In the end she was able to choose both and set a new benchmark as an elite athlete by having her family travel with her to every race and training camp, displaying an uncompromising dedication to her vocation as wife and mother. She has appeared with her family on EWTN’s Life on the Rock and has been written about extensively in many Catholic publications across the nation. Rebecca inspires teens and adults to take the pure (not peer) path and follow Christ.
She and her family currently reside in the mountains of Colorado where they are raising their two boys, ages 6 and 1. She educates them daily in “Hail Mary Homeschool.”
Talk Title: Sport and Divine Providence
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 | Mr. Michael L. Kalscheur is a Certified Financial Planner (CFP®) with over 13 years of experience in personal planning and institutional consulting. His firm, Joseph and Williams, is an independent financial planning firm in Indianapolis, Indiana. Mr. Kalscheur’s planning covers all aspects of a family’s finances, including goal setting, budgeting, retirement planning, estate and tax planning and risk management. However, as a homeschooling father of seven (ages 12, 11, 9, 7, 5, 3 and 22 months), he has also become an expert on college planning. Mr. Kalscheur has spoken at several state and local conferences on topics of saving and paying for college, as well as family finances for homeschoolers.
Mr. Kalscheur is the current Board secretary for the Perry Township (in Indianapolis), and is the treasurer for the Perry Township GOP Club. Mr. Kalscheur and his wife, Amy, are active in their parish’s marriage preparation program; he is also involved in the local Knights of Columbus (children’s program director), Boy Scouts, Little Flowers and Holy Family Home Educators (treasurer), who sponsors the Indianapolis Catholic Homeschool Conference.
Talk Title: Homeschooling on a Single Income
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 | Prof. Brendan McGuire is a visiting lecturer in History at Christendom College, in Front Royal Virginia. He has a B.A. from Christendom College, a M.A. from Saint Louis University, and is a Ph.D. Candidate at Saint Louis University.
While Prof. McGuire’s area of expertise is Medieval Europe in general, he has a particular interest in the Crusades and Byzantine-Latin relations. He is currently teaching the Ancient Biblical World, Early Modern Europe, Late Antique and Medieval Europe, and Reconquista and Crusade. He has presented papers at various professional conferences including the Midwest Medieval History Conference, The international Congress on Medieval Studies, and the Crusades Studies Forum. Also Prof. McGuire is active in the Society for the Study of the Crusades and the Latin East Medieval Academy of America.
When not enjoying the fellowship with the other members of the Christendom College Faculty or his enthusiastic students Prof. McGuire enjoys following baseball, football, hockey and basketball, playing racquetball, chess and the bagpipes.
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 | Mrs. Virginia “Ginny” Seuffert (SOO-fert), a native New Yorker and mother of twelve, currently resides in Illinois with her husband.
While in New York, Mrs. Seuffert lectured, debated, and wrote a number of articles for the Pro-Life movement. After moving to Illinois, she became a founding member of the Network of Illinois Catholic Home Educators, helped establish the “Round Table” (a Catholic home school leadership discussion group), and became a founder and officer of the Catholic Home School Network of America.
Mrs. Seuffert has appeared on EWTN, and has spoken at numerous Catholic family conferences throughout the U.S. and Canada. She is the author of various articles on home education, particularly stressing the teaching of virtues and discipline. Mrs. Seuffert wrote the chapter on “Home Management” in Dr. Mary Kay Clark’s book, Catholic Home Schooling: A Parent’s Guide.
Talk Titles: Finishing the Race: Home Schooling Through High School and Surviving Siblings: Home Schooling Different Ages and Different Grades at the Same Time
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Speaker biographies and photos used with permission.
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