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The 2012 National Conference Planning Task Force is pleased to announce our speakers for the 2012 National Conference in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, May 19-22, 2012. The task force has worked very hard to bring national speakers to our conversation about our theme: Reconciling Journey: A Time to Mourn, a Time to Dance. Dates and times will be forthcoming!
C. Vanessa White, D.Min.
Assistant Professor of Spirituality
Director of the Augustus Tolton Pastoral Ministry Program
Catholic Theological Union
Dr. C. Vanessa White is Assistant Professor of Spirituality and the Director of the Augustus Tolton Pastoral Ministry Program, a theological and pastoral ministry formation program for African American Catholics who are pursuing graduate study in preparation for ministerial leadership at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago. She is a member of the summer faculty and Coordinator of Spiritual Formation at Xavier University of Louisiana's Institute for Black Catholic Studies and adjunct faculty at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles where she teaches in the African American Ministries Certificate Program.
Dr. White is co-editor of the book (with Cecilia Moore and Paul Marshall, SM), Songs of the Heart and Meditations of the Soul (St. Anthony Messenger Press 2006), - a book of prayers for Black Catholics and contributing author in the book Liturgy and Justice: To Worship God in Spirit and Truth (Liturgical Press, 2002). Her writings have focused on African American Spirituality and issues of discernment.
She holds professional memberships in the Society for the Study of Christian Spirituality, The American Academy of Religion, The National Consortium of Black Women in Ministry, the Black Catholic Theological Symposium and the National Association of Lay Ministry. She is a proud member of the Knights of Peter Claver, Ladies Auxiliary as well as a member of the Secular Franciscan Order. She is a member of the board of directors of U. S. Catholic Bishop's Commission on Certification and Accreditation and the Advisory board for St. Anthony Messenger Press.
More information: C. Vanessa White, D.Min. - Published Works (PDF)
Jean deBlois, CSJ, Ph.D.
Professor of Systematic Theology
Director of the Master of Arts in Health Care Mission Program
Aquinas Institute of Theology
Dr. Jean deBlois, CSJ, is Professor of Systematic Theology and Director of Master of Arts in Health Care Mission Program at Aquinas Institute of Theology. She received her Ph.D. in Moral Theology and Medical Ethics at Catholic University of America. A sister of St. Joseph of Carondelet, Sr. Jean was a registered nurse working in critical care in her former life. She worked in the first paramedic base station west of the Mississippi and supervised a critical care unit where firemen were trained to be paramedics and where we supervised paramedics in the field.
As Director of the Master of Arts in Health Care Mission program at Aquinas Sr. Jean helps to ensure that the program provides a firm and useable grounding in the Catholic theological tradition for leaders at all levels in Catholic health ministry to help them insure the future of Catholic health care as a ministry of the Church. Recent publications include: Health Care Ethics: A Catholic Theological Analysis (with Benedict M. Ashley and Kevin D. O’Rourke (fifth edition, Georgetown University Press, 2006)
Sr. Jean also serves as sponsor liaison to Ascension Health for the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet. She has also served on the Board of Directors of the NACC. She is particularly interested in end of life decision making, the effects of advancing technologies on the delivery of health care, professional ethics and the relevance of Catholic social teaching to Catholic health care today. Other interests include environmental ethics and the future of Mother Earth and lay leadership and sponsorship in Catholic health care and other ministries of the church.
More information: Jean deBlois, CSJ, Ph.D. Published Works (PDF)
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Most Rev. Blase J. Cupich, S.T.D.
Bishop of Spokane
Bishop Blase Joseph Cupich is the current Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Spokane, Washington. He was installed as the sixth bishop of the Spokane Diocese on September 3, 2010 after serving for 12 years as the Bishop of Rapid City, South Dakota. He has an S.T.D. in Sacramental Theology from the Catholic University of America.
Within the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Bishop Cupich currently serves as Chair of the Bishops' Committee on the Protection for Children and Young People and is a member of the Ad Hoc Committee on Scripture Translation. He has served as a member of the Committee on the Liturgy, the Communications Committee and the Ad Hoc Committee to Oversee the Use of the Catechism. He is also a member of the Board of the Catholic Extension Society and the Catholic Mutual Relief Society. He has served on the Board of Trustees of St. Paul Seminary, as the Episcopal Advisor of the Serra Club, and a member of the Board of Directors of the National Pastoral Life Center.
Bishop Cupich has been involved in the Emerging Models of Pastoral Leadership Project as well as the 2011 Collegeville National Symposium on Lay Ecclesial Ministry. Recent publications include “Power in the Present: Hope for the Future” (America, March 23, 2009) and “The Emerging Models of Pastoral Leadership Project: The Theological, Sacramental and Ecclesial Context” (National Ministry Summit, May 15, 2008).
More information: Most Rev. Blase J. Cupich, S.T.D. Published Works (PDF)
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John Dear, SJ, M.Div.
Priest, pastor, peacemaker, organizer, retreat leader, author/editor
John Dear is an internationally known voice for peace and nonviolence. A Jesuit priest, he is the author/editor of 25 books, including his autobiography,
A Persistent Peace (Loyola Press, 2008). In 2008, John was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
From 1998 until December 2000, he served as the executive director of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, the largest interfaith peace organization in the United States. After the September 11th, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center, John served as a Red Cross Chaplain, and became one of the coordinators of the chaplain program at the Family Assistance Center. He worked with some 1,500 family members who lost loved ones, as well as hundreds of firefighters and police officers, while at the same time, he spoke out against the U.S. bombing of Afghanistan.
From 2002-2004, he served as pastor of several parishes in northeastern New Mexico. He co-founded Pax Christi New Mexico and works on a nonviolent campaign to disarm Los Alamos. These days, he lectures and also writes a weekly column for the “National Catholic Reporter”.
John’s peacework has taken him to El Salvador, where he lived and worked in a refugee camp in 1985; to Guatemala, Nicaragua, Haiti, the Middle East, Colombia, and the Philippines; to Northern Ireland where he lived and worked at a human rights center for a year; and to Iraq, where he led a delegation of Nobel Peace Prize winners to witness the effects of the deadly sanctions on Iraqi children. He has run a shelter for the homeless in Washington, DC; taught theology at Fordham University; and served as Executive Director of the Sacred Heart Center, a community center for disenfranchised women and children in Richmond, Virginia.
More information: John Dear, SJ, M.Div. Published Works (PDF)
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