Dr. McInerny is a passionate speaker and writer on art and beauty, as evidenced in his recent book, "Beauty and Imitation: A Philosophical Reflection on the Arts." When he is not teaching and mentoring his students, McInerny has been writing fiction, nonfiction, drama, and screenplays for years, including his adult fiction novel "The Good Death of Kate Montclair," and his Kingdom of Patria series for middle-grade readers (now available on Amazon).

McInerny's links:
https://danielmcinerny.substack.com
https://www.amazon.com/Way-Beauty-Philosophical-Reflection/dp/1685789854
https://www.amazon.com/Good-Death-Kate-Montclair/dp/1946531464/

💻 Social Media: 
Facebook:   / christendomcollege  
Instagram:   / christendomcollege  
X: https://x.com/ChristendomVA

Learn more about Christendom College at: https://www.christendom.edu

This lecture was part of Christendom College’s Beato Fra Angelico Fine Arts Series, dedicated to showcasing the intersection of faith and art in the Catholic intellectual tradition.

Learn more about Christendom's Political Science and Economics Department at: https://www.christendom.edu/academics/majors-minors/political-science-economics/

Learn more about Christendom's Department of History at: https://www.christendom.edu/academics/majors-minors/history/

Spiotta, who serves as an assistant professor in the Department of English Language and Literature at Christendom, specializes in the works of Shakespeare and Medieval English poetry,

When we hear the word “entertainment,” we may think of the frivolous, the mindless, or the downright offensive. But who among us does not enjoy some form of entertainment? And isn’t it interesting that the foremost theologian of the Catholic Church, St. Thomas Aquinas, considered the right enjoyment of entertainment a part of what it means to live the virtuous life? In this brief talk, Dr. Daniel McInerny will explore the nature of entertainment, its right forms and abuses, and the challenges for Christian believers to developing virtuous entertainment in our time.

Dr. Stanford's lecture is entitled "'Terrificalest Freezing Magics': The Gift of Tolkien's Letters from Father Christmas" and will be a part of Christendom College's annual day-long Christmas at Christendom event for our President's Council benefactors, many of whom will join us in person. We hope you enjoy a glimpse into this special event!

Dr. Sullivan earned her Ph.D. in English from The Catholic University of America and serves as an assistant professor in the Department of English Language and Literature at Christendom College. She specializes in Jane Austen, 19th century British literature, and Epistolary literature. Join us for a Principles Live Lecture with Christendom College literature professor Dr. Kathleen Sullivan. She will help you see how Jane Austen's writings can aid you in growing in the virtue of humility, in particular, through her examination of the character of Elizabeth Bennett in Pride and Prejudice.

Today's Principles Live Lecture will present the Holy Family, referred to in the early Church as the "earthly Trinity," both in Scripture and Tradition. Such a topic is extremely relevant today in light of the increasing attacks on the family. It will conclude with pastoral guidelines for developing a spousal-familial spirituality.

In this Principles Live Lecture, Dr. Cuddeback explains that life is about relationship. One of the most important relationships that we ultimately have are friendships. We are most ultimately called to friendship with God. This, to Dr. Cuddeback, is the main reason to be so interested and so concerned to understand well the nature of friendship. To understand the nature of friendship is really at the heart of understanding why God created us, and will be the key to living in unison with other human persons.

Dr. Sweeney delivers what he calls a warmup or preparation of a class he is offering this fall semester at Christendom College, called, "Atheism and the Death of God." The key words to keep in mind during this lecture are: Eros, Moralism, the phrase "God is dead", Love, Agape, Truth and Joy. He goes into depth of what Pope Benedict XVI's response was to one of the greatest critics of Christianity of all time: Frederick Nietzsche. Nietzsche is famous for his  hatred of Christianity; he calls it a capital crime against life, a religion of the herd, an expression of the will to power of a weak and resentful type of human being who is incapable of true greatness of spirit. Dr. Sweeney particularly focuses on Nietzsche's claim that "Christianity poisoned eros and turned it into a vice or something bad." According to Nietzsche, in his book, Beyond Good and Evil, "Christianity gave Eros poison to drink. He did not die of it, but degenerated into a vice." Dr. Sweeney concludes his lecture on moral truth. He says that, "Moral truth, in its fullness, is never distinct from the love of Christ poured into our hearts. Truth is not an abstraction of an idea out there, distinct from love. It is not rationalism or subjectivism. To choose love is to choose what is true, to choose the truth is to choose love. Christian love requires iron in the soul in the one who seeks to live up to the demands of it." 

In this Principles Live Lecture, he first addresses Aristotle's novel thesis: only the virtuous man can be happy. Secondly, he will delve into Nicomichean Ethics, and conclude with how Aristotle's thought can be reconciled with Christian morality.

Today's Principles Live Lecture will focus on Machiavelli. Dr. Brutto will explain how, in many ways, Machiavelli's most famous writings still impact our Western society, even today. He briefly introduces us to Niccoló Machiavelli as a man, and follows up with the historical context of his writing. Secondly Dr. Brutto will tell us about what it is in the history of Western thought that Machiavelli is responding to, and lastly, it will conclude with a brief discussion in what Machiavelli's response is to Western thought.

For more information on the Tocqueville Forum, visit here: https://www.tocquevilleforum.com.

Dr. Daniel Toma is behavioral geneticist from Minnesota State University Mankato and is professor in the department of Biology. He is author of the book Vestige of Eden, Image of Eternity.

Dr. Daria Spezzano is an associate professor of Theology at Providence College in Providence Rhode Island. She received her Ph.D in Theology from the University of Notre Dame and her Masters of Liturgical Studies from the Liturgical Institute.  She is the author of The Glory of God's Grace: Deification According to St. Thomas Aquinas. Her writings have been published in Nova et Vetera, Cistercian Studies, and Antiphon.

R.V. Young is Professor of English Emeritus, North Carolina State University and former editor of the quarterly review, Modern Age.  He co-founded and for 25 years co-edited The John Donne Journal.  His books include At War With the Word: Literary Theory and Liberal Education, and Doctrine and Devotion in Seventeenth-Century Poetry: Studies in Donne, Herbert, Crashaw, and Vaughan. In addition to academic work, he has published articles and reviews in such journals as The National Review, The Human Life Review, The Weekly Standard, First Things, and Touchstone, of which he is a contributing editor.

Archduke Imre came to campus with his wife, Her Imperial and Royal Highness Kathleen of Habsburg-Lorraine, for the event. Archduke Imre is the eldest son of Archduke Carl Christian of Austria, and the great-grandson of Blessed Emperor Karl of Austria, who was beatified by Pope Saint John Paul II.

Archduke Imre is noted for his lectures on his great-grandfather, who was the only political leader to support Benedict XV’s peace efforts during World War I.

Dr. Zuckert is an accomplished author and the department chair of political science at the University of Notre Dame. A scholar of political philosophy and theory, American political thought, American constitutional history, and more, Zuckert co-authored and co-produced the public radio series Mr. Adams and Mr. Jefferson: A Nine Part Drama for the Radio, and was the senior advisor for the television series Liberty! And the senior advisor for the PBS series Benjamin Franklin and Alexander Hamilton. He is currently the head of the new Tocqueville Center for the Study of Religion in American Public Life.

Christophe Rico is a linguist (Ph.D. Greek Linguistics, University of Paris-Sorbonne, 1992; Habilitation à Diriger des Recherches, University of Strasbourg, 2012) and belongs to the Faculty of the University of Strasbourg. He teaches ancient Greek at the Polis Institute and at the École Biblique et Archéologique Française de Jérusalem. Since 2001, Professor Rico has been applying the teaching methods commonly used for modern languages to ancient Greek. He has also published a method for learning ancient Greek.

Smith is the author of Humanae Vitae: A Generation Later and of Right to Privacy and the editor of Why Humanae Vitae Was Right: A Reader. Her articles have been published in many academic journals, and she has been a regular columnist for the National Catholic Register and has appeared on Fox News, CNN, and EWTN.

Smith has also served three terms as a consultor to the Pontifical Council on the Family and currently is a member of the Anglican Roman Catholic International Commission. She has received two honorary doctorates and several other awards for scholarship and service. More than two million copies of her talk, “Contraception: Why Not” have been distributed.

A former president of Gonzaga University, Fr. Spitzer spoke at length about our culture’s views on happiness, and laid out a better path to happiness in Christ. Fr. Spitzer encouraged students to not dwell too much on the evils of today’s culture, but instead to look for the good in others and help them to come closer to God.

Lev, who has taught art and architecture courses for the Christendom College Junior Semester in Rome Program for years, is an American-born art historian who currently lives and works in Rome. After earning degrees from the University of Chicago and the University of Bologna, Lev became a denizen of Rome in 1997, giving tours of the city while also teaching art history for Duquesne University. With her dynamic and engaging speaking skills, Lev is now a highly sought tour guide, teacher, and public speaker. She has presented TED talks, and has appeared on ABC’s Nightline and the Today Show.

In addition to numerous articles, Lev is the author of three books, The Tigress of Forli: Renaissance Italy’s Most Courageous and Notorious Countess, Caterina Riario Sforza de’ Medici; Roman Pilgrimage: The Station Churches with George Weigel; and A Body for Glory: Theology of the Body in the Papal Collections with Fr. Jose Granados.

Anderson is the William E. Simon Senior Research Fellow in American Principles and Public Policy at The Heritage Foundation, and the founder and editor of Public Discourse, the online journal of the Witherspoon Institute. He is the author of the just-released book Truth Overruled: The Future of Marriage and Religious Freedom and the co-author with Princeton’s Robert P. George and Sherif Girgis of the book What Is Marriage? Man and Woman: A Defense. Anderson’s research has been cited by two U.S. Supreme Court justices, Justice Samuel Alito and Justice Clarence Thomas, in two U.S. Supreme Court cases.

Anderson received his B.A. from Princeton University and received his doctoral degree in political philosophy from the University of Notre Dame. He has made appearances on ABC, CNN, CNBC, MSNBC, and Fox News, including appearance on This Week with George Stephanopoulos and Piers Morgan Live. Anderson’s work has also appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, First Things, and Principles.

A staunch defender of the faith since his conversion in 1967, Marshner first encountered Christendom founder Dr. Warren Carroll when they both worked at the Catholic magazine Triumph, and in 1977 he became one of the five founding faculty members of Christendom College.

Transitioning into an esteemed scholar in the years following, Marshner was named the first chairman of the theology department at Christendom. For the next 38 years, Marshner taught at the college, with his unique gift of making the most complex matters understandable and accessible winning the devotion of generations of students. Marshner retired from teaching in 2015, and has continued to serve Christendom as a scholar-in-residence ever since.

Ahlquist, the president of the American Chesterton Society, focused his lecture on why G.K. Chesterton remains the great defender of both freedom and tradition in the modern world, where both are constantly under assault. Chesterton is one of the most celebrated authors and theologians of the early-twentieth century, whose writings still remain popular today.

An internationally renowned speaker, Ahlquist has given more than six hundred lectures at national and international conferences, at such locations as Yale, Columbia, Cornell, Notre Dame, Oxford, the Vatican Forum in Rome, and the House of Lords in London. Ahlquist has been interviewed by the New York Times, First Things, BBC News and BBC Radio, Breitbart, and The Independent (U.K.). He is a regular columnist for The Catholic Servant, and his articles have appeared in Chronicles, Crisis, St. Austin’s Review, The Oxford Encyclopedia of British Literature, The Great Books Reader, Christian Higher Education, Faith and Reason, and more.

Thomas Hibbs is currently Distinguished Professor of Ethics & Culture and Dean of the Honors College at Baylor University. In addition to teaching a variety of interdisciplinary courses, Hibbs teaches in the fields of medieval philosophy, contemporary virtue ethics, and philosophy and popular culture. Hibbs has written scholarly books on Aquinas, including Dialectic and Narrative in Aquinas: An Interpretation of the Summa Contra Gentiles, and a book on popular culture entitled Shows About Nothing.

Bozell was one of the founders of the post-war American conservative movement and remains one of the most important American Catholic intellectuals of the twentieth century. He was also a close friend of Christendom’s founder, Dr. Warren Carroll. The two worked together on the Catholic journal of opinion Triumph from 1965 to 1975. The journal was dedicated to the task of articulating a vision of Christian society for the modern age, and Dr. Carroll founded Christendom College in order to continue the mission of Triumph through higher education.

Stenzel, who is regarded as one of the country’s most established lecturers on chastity, spoke with candor and insight about today’s culture and its rejection of Catholic teachings on abstinence before marriage. To begin her talk, Stenzel explained the problems inherent in today’s political perception of chastity, revealing the negative view that pervades the current presidential administration.

Stenzel is the founder of Enlighten Communications, Inc., and is the author of the internationally used public school curricula “Abstinence by Choice” and “Building Healthy Relationships.” Winner of multiple awards for her videos on chastity, Stenzel speaks to over 500,000 people every year, and is a frequent guest on Fox News and ABC.

Weigel, who asserts that Christendom College is one of the best liberal arts colleges in America, is a Distinguished Senior Fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, the founding president of the James Madison Foundation, and one of America’s leading public intellectuals.

Weigel is also the author of over twenty books, including: Letters to a Young Catholic; The Cube and the Cathedral: Europe, America, and Politics Without God; Witness to Hope: The Biography of Pope John Paul II; The End and the Beginning; and his most recent work, Evangelical Catholicism: Deep Reform in the 21st-Century Catholic Church. His scholarly works and reputation have earned him eighteen honorary doctorate degrees, as well as the papal cross Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice and the Gloria Artis Gold Medal from the Polish Ministry of Culture.

Prior to serving as attorney general, he served in the Senate of Virginia from August 2002 to January 2010. As a state senator and private attorney, he worked to improve the Commonwealth’s mental health system. In private practice, he served as a court-appointed attorney for individuals in Virginia’s involuntary civil commitment process. After joining the Senate in 2002, he passed legislation that provided for more humane treatment of the mentally ill.

He earned a degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Virginia, a master’s degree in international commerce and policy from George Mason University, and his law degree from the George Mason University School of Law and Economics.

Pearce, an internationally renowned author or editor of over twenty books, including Tolkien: Man or Myth, pulled two quotes from Tolkien together, explaining that the Lord of the Rings must fundamentally be religious and Catholic, and the fact that Tolkien is a Catholic is, by far, “the most important element in his authorship of that work.”

Joseph Pearce, the director of the Center for Faith and Culture at Aquinas College, is the co-editor of the St. Austin Review, and one of the world’s most acclaimed authors. Born in London, England, Pearce was formerly involved with radical politics in his youth, before a discovery of the works of G. K. Chesterton led him to convert to Roman Catholicism in 1989.

Fr. David E. Anderson, a priest of the Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy of Chicago, was born in 1953 in Jamestown, N.Y. Educated at Wadhams Hall and St. Vladimir’s Seminary, where he was a student of Fr. Alexander Schmemann, he was ordained in 1983 and has served as a parish priest for 31 years, the last 15 of which have been at St. Peter’s Church in Ukiah, California. From before his ordination until now, he has been both a teacher and a translator of patristic and Byzantine liturgical texts.

Fr. Anderson reflects on the central expression of Christian life found in the words of Jesus Christ in the institution of the Eucharist.  He also discusses the historical circumstances and religious crisis that formed the differences between the Eastern and Western Church. 

Fr. David E. Anderson, a priest of the Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy of Chicago, was born in 1953 in Jamestown, N.Y. Educated at Wadhams Hall and St. Vladimir’s Seminary, where he was a student of Fr. Alexander Schmemann, he was ordained in 1983 and has served as a parish priest for 31 years, the last 15 of which have been at St. Peter’s Church in Ukiah, California. From before his ordination until now, he has been both a teacher and a translator of patristic and Byzantine liturgical texts.

Fr. David E. Anderson, a priest of the Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy of Chicago, was born in 1953 in Jamestown, N.Y. Educated at Wadhams Hall and St. Vladimir’s Seminary, where he was a student of Fr. Alexander Schmemann, he was ordained in 1983 and has served as a parish priest for 31 years, the last 15 of which have been at St. Peter’s Church in Ukiah, California. From before his ordination until now, he has been both a teacher and a translator of patristic and Byzantine liturgical texts.

Fr. Meconi teaches in the Department of Theological Studies at Saint Louis University, and is the editor of Homiletic and Pastoral Review. . Fr. Meconi is a former president of the Jesuit Philosophical Association, as well as a Fellow at the Augustinian Institute at Villanova University, and serves on the ecclesiastical board of Boston College’s School of Theology and Ministry, as well as the Saint Benedict Institute at Hope College in Holland, MI.

Thierfelder, who received his Masters and Doctoral degrees in Sports Psychology from Boston University, is the author of “Less Than A Minute To Go: The Secret to World-Class Performance in Sport, Business and Everyday Life.” In this book, he draws upon his experiences as an NCAA Division I Coach, Olympian (did not compete due to injury), and a medalist at the 1981 U.S. Track & Field Indoor National Championship.

Professor Fox holds a B.A. from Emory University in Atlanta, and M.A. grin the School of Philosophy at Catholic University of America and a Ph.D in modern European history from City University of New York.

He encouraged the students to live chaste, virtuous, and loving lives. Like the early Christians who lived amongst dark pagan times, the witness of strong loving families will save our culture, he told them.

At the Family Research Council (FRC), Dr. Pat Fagan directs the work of the Marriage And Religion Research Institute (MARRI), a branch of the Council that focuses on studying the effects of the relationship between marriage and religion on society. Fagan has worked for the Free Congress Foundation, assisted Indiana Senator Dan Coats, served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Family and Community Policy at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services under George H. W. Bush, and was a senior fellow at The Heritage Foundation for thirteen years before joining the FRC.

Lane is a Ph.D. candidate in history at the University of Notre Dame. Her dissertation,”Skipping School: Homeschooling and the United States, 1950-2010,” examines nationwide trends in education, family, religion and politics by studying the exponential growth of an unpredictable educational movement. Lane lives in Front Royal with her husband, Christendom history professor Christopher J. Lane, and their two children.

Fr. Maciej Zięba, O.P., was a close associate of Pope John Paul II and a strong activist in Poland’s Solidarity movement in the Communist era. A physicist by training, he became a Dominican priest and a major thinker on the theological dynamics of politics and economics, closely tied to intellectuals like George Weigel, Michael Novak, and of course, John Paul II. From 1991 to the present day he has lectured at the Tertio Millenio Institute for the Free Society’s summer seminar, guiding students from Central Europe and America in a thorough, contextualized reading of John Paul II’s Centesimus Annus — a document he sees as the Church’s definitive statement on social thought. He is in America touring to promote the new English edition of his work on the subject.

Dr. Poterack also emphasized the impact and importance of Johann Sebastian Bach. He spoke of how Bach had been the end of an amazing era of music that has sadly not been returned to by society today.

A profound author of many books, Hahn received his Bachelor of Arts degree with a triple-major in Theology, Philosophy, and Economics from Grove City College, Penn., in 1979, his Masters of Divinity from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in 1982, and his Ph.D. in Biblical Theology from Marquette University in 1995.  He has ten years of youth and pastoral ministry experience in Protestant congregations (in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Massachusetts, Kansas and Virginia) and is a former Professor of Theology at Chesapeake Theological Seminary.  He was ordained in 1982 at Trinity Presbyterian Church in Fairfax, Va.  He entered the Catholic Church at the Easter Vigil, 1986.

Hahn explained that just as human love and relationships lead to a sacrament—Matrimony—so too does our love and relationship with God lead to a sacrament—the Eucharist. He noted that it was Blessed Pope John Paul who first called for the new evangelization to be based on the Eucharist and, citing a paper by Francis Cardinal George of Chicago, said, “all evangelizers proclaim Christ, but Catholic evangelizers proclaim a Eucharistic Christ.”

An exceptionally popular speaker and teacher, Dr. Scott Hahn has delivered numerous talks nationally and internationally on a wide variety of topics related to Scripture and the Catholic faith.  Over 500 of these talks have been produced in audio and video formats by St. Joseph Communications.  These talks have been effective in helping thousands of Protestants and fallen-away Catholics to embrace the Catholic faith.

Fr. Wauck is an American priest of Opus Dei. A native of Chicago, he studied Renaissance history and literature at Harvard University and philosophy at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome, where he has lived for the last nineteen years. He teaches a course on literature and Christian faith at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross (in 2005, this course was aired as a 13-part television series, called Mirror of the Soul on EWTN) and organizes an international seminar entitled Poetics and Christianity. He has written for many publications, including The American Scholar, The Christian Science Monitor, and The New Criterion, and appeared frequently as a television commentator on matters dealing with the Catholic Church.

Dr. Veryser graduated from the University of Detroit, where he received his undergraduate degree in Philosophy and Economics and two Master of Arts degrees in Economics and Religious Studies.  He is the author of the book Our Economic Crisis: Sources and Solutions, as well as numerous other articles that have been published in such magazines as The Detroit News, and Intercollegiate Review.

Dr. Seggy Acosta is a Catholic stress and pain specialist in private practice with S.T.R.E.S.S. CENTRE INC., located at 601 Jefferson Davis Hwy., suite 101, Fredericksburg, Virginia 22401. She believes in the integration of her Catholic Faith into psychotherapy. She does individual, couple, and family therapy. In addition, she treats all types of pain conditions using non-pharmacological approaches to healing.

She received her doctorate from the University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland with a Ph.D. in Stress Management and sub-specialty in Pain Management. Her Master’s of Science in Nursing (M.S.N.) degree with a specialty in Psychiatric-Mental Health was at Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C. She received her undergraduate studies from the University of Sto. Tomas, Manila, Philippines with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (B.S.N.) degree.

Cardinal Arinze was ordained a priest in 1958 and was consecrated bishop in 1965. In 1979 his brother bishops elected him president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria, a position he held until 1984, when Pope John Paul II asked him to serve as president for the Secretariat for Non-Christians (now the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue). One year later, he was appointed Cardinal by Pope John Paul and, in 1999, he received a gold medallion from the International Council of Christians and Jews for his “outstanding achievements in inter-faith relations”.

From 2002-2008, he served as Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments. Cardinal Arinze remains active as a highly-sought speaker and catechizer, being featured in programs and events that cover Pope John Paul II’s encyclicals and apostolic letters, Vatican II, and many other topics. He is also the author of several books and has been a frequent guest on Christendom’s campus.

Michael Brown is an assistant professor in the Philosophy department at Christendom College. Graduating from Christendom College with a Bachelor’s in English, he went on to receive both his M.A. and Ph.D. in Philosophy from the Catholic University of America. Michael Brown is in charge of various events and activities that take place on campus.

Before a crowd of about 400 college students, faculty, staff, and guests, Cuccinelli, who plans on running for the Governorship of Virginia next year, encouraged all present to be active in the political process and to be Catholic leaders in all areas, but particularly in the areas of science, media, and politics.

Archbishop Vigano was ordained a priest in 1968. He earned a doctorate in utroque iure (both canon and civil law). He entered the diplomatic service of the Holy See in 1973, and worked at the papal diplomatic missions in Iraq and Great Britain. From 1978 to 1989, he held posts at the Secretariat of State. He was named Special Envoy and Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the Council of Europe in Strasbourg in 1989. He is fluent in Italian, French, Spanish and English.

Kennedy is a world-renowned expert on the French Revolution and author of many celebrated works on it, including A Cultural History of the French Revolution.

Hanssen, an associate professor of history at the University of Dallas, received her doctorate from Rice University in Houston, Texas. She was the 2010-2011 Garwood Fellow at the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University, where she prepared her forthcoming book on The Education of Henry Adams and the role of education in maintaining cultural identity in America.

Since 1996, Hittinger is the incumbent of the William K. Warren Chair of Catholic Studies at the University of Tulsa, where he is also a research professor in the School of Law.  Specializing in issues of philosophy, theology, and law, he is a former Christendom College professor and has taught at Fordham University and at the Catholic University of America, among other schools.  His books and articles have appeared in the University of Notre Dame Press, Oxford University Press, Columbia University Press, Fordham University Press, the Review of Metaphysics, the Review of Politics, and several law journals.

Born in Louisiana, Fr. Brett grew up with a Catholic background. He was ordained a priest in 1991. Father Brett Brannen is the author of two books about the priesthood: To Save a Thousand Souls and A Priest in the Family.

Father Scalia is a native of Virginia and grew up in the Diocese of Arlington. He attended the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts.  He then studied theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University and the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, both in Rome.  Since his ordination in 1996 he has served as parochial vicar at Saint Bernadette, Saint Patrick, and Saint Rita parishes.  He served as pastor of Saint John the Beloved until 2012, when he was appointed the Bishop’s Delegate for Clergy.  He has written for various publications and is a regular contributor to the Arlington Catholic Herald and Encourage and Teach on the diocesan website.  He is also a frequent speaker for the Institute of Catholic Culture in Front Royal.

A professor at Providence College, Esolen explained that society has reduced love to sex, and sex to hygiene—a reduction that has occurred due to a skewed view of what it is to know something.

Esolen proposed the virtue of purity as the answer to society’s current misunderstanding of love and sex. He observed that while abstinence is defined by absence and refraining, purity is “an essential light radiating from the core of the holy.”

At ICEL, Msgr. Wadsworth has worked to prepare the English translations of Latin liturgical books and texts in accord with the directives of the Holy See. He is a priest of the Archdiocese of Westminster, England, and has taken a leading role in his country in promoting the worthy celebration of the liturgy in both the ordinary and extraordinary forms of the Roman Rite.

A professor at Pepperdine University, Nicolosi is the founder of Act One, an organization that seeks to nurture the next generation of Christian artists and media pioneers. She was a theological consultant for The Passion of the Christ and she co-edited Behind the Screen: Hollywood Insiders on Faith and Culture. Her latest screenwriting project is Mary, Mother of the Christ, which stars Al Pacino and Peter O’Toole and will be released in 2012 by MGM.

He discussed the Pope’s formation as a young man in Poland and his journey to the priesthood. John Paul II attended a clandestine seminary due to the Nazi occupation of Poland. Archbishop Sapieha, who ran the seminary, left a lasting impression of what it meant to be a priest.

George Weigel, a Distinguished Senior Fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, is a Catholic theologian and one of America’s leading public intellectuals. Weigel is the author of over twenty books, including: Letters to a Young Catholic; The Cube and the Cathedral: Europe, America, and Politics Without God; Witness to Hope: The Biography of Pope John Paul II; and his most recent work on Pope John Paul II, The End and the Beginning. He is a frequent guest on television and radio and is the Vatican analyst for NBC News. His weekly column, “The Catholic Difference,” is syndicated to sixty newspapers around the United States. His scholarly work and his journalism are regularly translated into the major European languages. Weigel is a long time friend of Christendom College and a member of its Advisory Board.

Bodoh explained how many pro-lifers have great ambitions and want to really go out in the world and make a difference, yet they aren’t the ones who are getting up on Saturday mornings and praying in front of the clinics—they go hand-in-hand, he explained.

In his lecture, Mack reveals how Shakespeare uses one of his most famous plays to cause the audience to examine their own conscience. In the play itself, Hamlet uses a play,The Mousetrap, to cause the villain, Claudius, to examine his conscience.

Mack is an Associate Professor of English and the Dean of the Undergraduate Program at The Catholic University of America. He received his Ph.D. from Columbia University. His research interests include Shakespeare, sixteenth and seventeenth-century English poetry, and Renaissance literary theory. In 2005, CUA Press published Mack’s book, Sidney’s Poetics: Imitating Creation. He is currently working on a book on Shakespeare.

A member of the Pontifical Academy of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome, Dewan studied philosophy at the University of Toronto, the University of Paris, and the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies. He has taught at the University of Ottawa, Saint Mary’s University, the University of Toronto, Université Laval of Québec, and the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. He is author of three books: Form and Being: Studies in Thomistic Metaphysics; St. Thomas and Form as Something Divine in Things; and Wisdom, Law, and Virtue: Essays in Thomistic Ethics.

His talk entitled “Why Be Catholic?” exposed the common fallacies in the Protestant system that he discovered during his journey from evangelicalism to Catholicism.

Guarendi, a father of 10, is host for the radio show The Doctor Is In, which is featured on Ave Maria and EWTN Radio. He has been a regular guest on national radio and television, including Oprah, 700 Club, and CBS This Morning. He is the author of several books, including Discipline That Lasts a Lifetime, You’re a Better Parent Than You Think!, now in its twenty-fifth printing, and his newest book, Good Discipline, Great Teens.

Professor Mary Stanford received her Master of Theological Studies degree from the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family in Washington, DC.  A married homeschooling mother of six children, Professor Stanford occasionally moonlights as an adjunct instructor for the Theology Department of Christendom College, and has spoken in dioceses around the country on the topics of marriage, femininity, contraception, and Christian anthropology.

Hanna, CEO of Hanna Capital in Atlanta, Ga., and author of the best seller What Your Money Means, told students that his efforts to acquire the papyri for the Vatican were the beginning of “a defense of the Faith” for him.

Voss is the President of Ethikos, an ethics consulting group, and an Associate Professor at Georgia State University. A gifted public speaker and award-winning teacher, his clients include the FBI Labs, General Electric Energy, British Petroleum, the Home Depot, Visa, the Federal Railroad Administration, and many others.

Delegate Bob Marshall (R), representing Virginia’s 13th District since 1991, addressed students and reinforced Obenshain’s charge to be active in politics while sharing a number of personal experiences in politics.

Obenshain remarked that truly conservative colleges like Christendom were a rarity and was enthused by what she experienced on campus. She encouraged students to run for office, citing a need for good conservative men and women, now more than ever.

Conroy made her first trip to Calcutta to work with Blessed Teresa and the Missionaries of Charity in 1986. In 1987, at the request of Blessed Teresa herself, Conroy stayed in the Order’s convent in the South Bronx, New York, in contemplation of the religious life. While Conroy did not enter the Order, she calls her stay there “the most profoundly meaningful experience of my life.”

Conroy has made numerous television appearances for local as well as worldwide audiences. On EWTN’s global television network, she hosted a 5 part mini-series of shows which began airing in June of 2008 and again in February 2009 and March 2010, called “Speaking of Saints.”

Dr. Kurt Poterack is the Director of the Christendom College Choir and is the Schola Gregoriana Coordinator, Beato Fra Angelico Fine Arts Program. Specializing in Gregorian and Renaissance polyphony, he received both his M.A and Ph.D. from Michigan State University.

Widmer served as a Pontifical Swiss Guard from 1986-1988, protecting Pope John Paul II. He is a co-founder of the SEVEN Fund, a non-profit organization that seeks to encourage entrepreneurship in impoverished regions of the world. Holding numerous degrees from Switzerland and the U.S., Widmer is also an author who recently contributed two chapters to the book In the River They Swim: Essays from Around the World on Enterprise Solutions to Poverty. He has written articles featured in various business and general interest media including the Financial Times, Bloomberg News, Sky TV, and Catholic Digest.

She summarizes the essence of femininity by discussing the “3 Cs”—care, conversation, and community.

 Professor Stanford explains how women should use their natural God-endowed gifts as strengths, rather than allow them to become weaknesses.

Professor Stanford received her Master of Theological Studies degree from the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family in Washington, DC.  A married homeschooling mother of six children, Mary occasionally moonlights as an adjunct instructor for the Theology Department of Christendom College, and has spoken in dioceses around the country on the topics of marriage, femininity, contraception, and Christian anthropology.

Fr. Robert Barron, a prominent theologian and podcasting priest, is one of the world’s great and most innovative teachers of Catholicism. His global media ministry called Word on Fire has a simple but revolutionary mission—to evangelize the culture. His numerous books and essays serve as critical educational and inspirational tools for seminarians, priests, parishioners and young people worldwide.

Barron highlights problems within American culture as well its redeemable strengths. Problems which the Church encounters in communicating with American culture include an Hobbesian individualism, the notion of freedom as choice, and the privatization of religion.

Father 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 currently serves as the Superior of the Community’s English-speaking Novitiate House in Princeville, IL.

Andy Day is the Southeast Regional Director for FOCUS, the Fellowship Of Catholic University Students, one of the fastest growing programs in the Catholic Church. Andy graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Economics from Christendom College. As a campus missionary with FOCUS, Andy served at Seton Hall University before establishing the southeast region, where he leads evangelization efforts on 21 college campuses who serve nearly 3,000 college students. Andy has spoken across the country on topics such as leadership, outreach, and evangelization training.

Rev. Cessario is a professor at St. John’s Monastery in Boston and a fellow of the Pontifical Academy of Saint Thomas Aquinas. In addition to numerous articles and reviews, he has authored, coauthored, or edited several books, including The Moral Virtues and Theological Ethics and Introduction to Moral Theology.

His lecture aimed “to defend a controversial thesis by Benedictine monk Dom Jean Lecercq: that every authentic Christian approach of knowledge remains monastic in character,” he said.

Rev. Cessario explained that by studying the liberal arts in a monastic-like society such as Christendom, the love of truth is infused into everyday life. This link to monasticism has been all but lost in modern western society, making places like Christendom rare.

Shaw is author or coauthor of 20 books and a contributor to and/or editor of several others. His most recent book is Nothing To Hide: Secrecy, Communication, and Communion in the Catholic Church.

Shaw has published thousands of magazine and newspaper articles, columns, and reviews in U.S. and foreign periodicals. He is: a contributing editor of Our Sunday Visitor national Catholic newspaper; a columnist for Catholic Exchange, Inside Catholic, and several diocesan newspapers; American correspondent of Palabra, a newsmagazine published in Madrid; and a contributor to several encyclopedias. Currently, he is serving his third five-year term as a consultor of the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Social Communications. He is a member of the faculties of the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, Rome, and the Catholic Distance University, Hamilton, Va.

Olivia Gans Turner is the director of American Victims of Abortion (AVA), founded in 1985 as an outreach of the National Right to Life Committee. In 1981, while a college student, Mrs. Turner underwent a suction aspiration abortion 12 weeks into her pregnancy.  After suffering an acute emotional reaction to her abortion for almost two years, Mrs. Turner helped organize one of the nation’s first pro-life peer-to-peer post-abortion support groups in the New York City area.  Mrs. Turner became AVA director in 1985, and since that time has spoken on post-abortion syndrome and other abortion-related issues throughout the United States and around the world.  In addition, Mrs. Turner serves as president of the Virginia Society for Human Life, the state affiliate to the National Right to Life Committee.

Mrs. Turner has regularly appeared on such national news prorgrams as Nightline, Good Morning America, NBC’s Today Show, and Fox News Channel.

In 1968, he entered politics and became a legislative assistant to Edward Biester, the Republican congressman from Pennsylvania’s 8th congressional district. From 1971 to 1975, Wolf served as an assistant to the Secretary of the Interior, Rogers Morton.

Now, Frank Wolf is an American Republican legislator who represented Virginia’s 10th congressional district in the United States House of Representatives from January 1981 to January 2015.

His lecture focused both on Paul’s conversion and his understanding of Christ. Quoting scripture, Hahn said, “‘Though he was in the form of God, he did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped’ … a better translation would read, ‘He did not count equality with God something to be exploited for personal advantage.’”

An exceptionally popular author, speaker, and teacher, Hahn has delivered numerous talks nationally and internationally on a wide variety of topics related to Scripture and the Catholic faith.

Velasco realized the importance of her Christendom education in her job as manager of a computer network: “I didn’t think I could go into finance. I had a lot of confidence in my writing, and I expected to make a career out of it. But when I applied for a consulting position, they asked for a writing sample. They couldn’t find any errors, so they decided to hire me.” She also advised students to ask questions and develop their own opinions and positions, closing by stating, “Direct your passion into your work, don’t simply go through the motions. If you do this, results will follow.”

The talk delved into the richness of John Paul II’s often-complex philosophy, highlighting the late pontiff’s emphasis on the importance of the human person.

Fedoryka, currently active at the Center for Personalist Anthropology and Ethics, explained that the gift of God’s love or human love could only be received if a person possesses himself. If he is clinging to a vice such as lust or gluttony, he cannot receive the gift.

“I regard myself as immensely privileged to have been able to devote so many of my 75 years to the creation, guidance, and maintenance of this college and I know that under my splendid successor, Timothy O’Donnell, this College will remain unchanged throughout the next thirty years, halfway through the twenty-first century.”

Before founding Christendom, Carroll dreamed for years of a college or university that would change the world, he said.

Prior to his priestly ordination, Father Mode underwent formation at Mount Saint Mary’s Seminary in Emmitsburg, Md. He joined the United States Navy Reserve in 2005 and was assigned to active duty in 2007. Over the course of his career so far, Father Mode has served on two aircraft carriers, including the USS Harry S. Truman, and numerous deployments, including to the Persian Gulf and Afghanistan. He was also assigned to the U.S. Coast Guard Academy where he helped to form future leaders of the military. Father Mode actively supports lay ministry in naval church communities through direct supervision of, and communication with, lay leaders, providing information and encouragement to meet challenges.

Currently assigned to the aircraft carrier USS George Washington, Father Mode went to the Philippines in the aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan, bringing relief to survivors. The storm, which struck in early November, left more than 6,000 dead and nearly 1,800 missing. In the Easter edition of SALUTE, the AMS’s quarterly news magazine, Father Mode recounts hand-delivering spiritual supplies, including wine, hosts, rosaries, and liturgical books, to a parish in the devastated town of Guiuan, where the church and attached rectory were reduced to rubble, leaving the faithful to attend Mass outdoors.

The talk took a look at the character of Benedict XVI, some of the challenges he faces, and some personal thoughts on the principal themes of his pontificate.

“The rapid election of the closest intellectual associate of John Paul II, which Cardinal Ratzinger had been for more than 22 years, seemed to me to be a resounding affirmation of the Pontificate of John Paul the Great and his accomplishments,” Weigel, a Senior Fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, said. “The cardinals saw John Paul as a model of the Petrine office.”

“This also was a ringing endorsement of Cardinal Ratzinger,” he said. “Three times Ratzinger asked to resign and three times John Paul II said, ‘I can’t do this without you.’”