All posts by Michael DiCosola

Deacon Steve Mitchell

NCCL Monday PM Speakers

1:30 – 3:00 pm | Orlando

207: Alpha and the Year of Mercy

Deacon Steve Mitchell, National Director for Alpha in a Catholic Context.

Steve was ordained a Permanent Deacon for the Archdiocese of Detroit, (AOD) in October 2002 after receiving his Masters Degree from Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Pastoral Studies. Deacon Steve leads the team to support parishes to utilize Alpha to respond to the call of the new evangelization. He supports parishes across the country with Alpha and is available to help answer questions, concerns or challenges.

Bishop Richard J. Malone

NCCL Speakers

Tuesday 4:40 – 5:16 pm | Grand Ballroom Foyer

The Joy of Love

Most Reverend Richard J. Malone was ordained a priest in 1972 and ordained a
bishop in 2000. He has served as a pastor, high school teacher, college and seminary
professor and academic dean, and director of the Office of Religious Education and
Secretary of Education for the Archdiocese of Boston. Bishop Malone became the
bishop of the Diocese of Portland, Maine in 2004. In 2012, he became the bishop of
the Diocese of Buffalo. He holds an MA in Biblical Studies from St. John Seminary,
Boston, a ThD from Boston University and a licentiate in sacred theology (STL) from
Weston Jesuit School of Theology, Cambridge.

Mary Ann Ronan

NCCL Monday PM Speakers

1:30 – 3:00 pm | St. John

211: The Future of Adult Faith Formation

Mary Ann Ronan does contract ministry in Adult Faith Formation at St. Thomas More Parish, Glendale, AZ. She has been a PCL since 1977. Her experience in junior high teaching, an Assistant Principal, then Principal and Director of Faith Formation in several parishes, one being twenty-two years at St. Paul Parish Phoenix, AZ. Her experience led her to do retreats, evenings of prayer and spiritual direction. Treasurer (2003-2006) President of the Board of Directors of NCCL (2006-2009). Her love of AFF brought her to work on Seasons of Adult Faith Formation with John Roberto and others. Seasons is designed to provide all faith formation leaders with a deeper understanding of adulthood today, a vision of twenty-first century AFF, tools and processes for designing AFF for all seasons of adulthood.

Beth Mahoney

NCCL Monday AM Speakers

10:45 – 11:45 am | City Terrace 4

105: The Home: First Aid Station for Mercy, Forgiveness and Healing

Beth is the Director of Mission for Holy Cross Family Ministries.

Beth has an extensive background in retreat work and public speaking on topics relating to family prayer, family life and pastoral care concerns. Beth has been a speaker numerous times at the National Catholic Educational Conference, national organizations/diocesan conventions throughout the country and internationally.

Beth is an author with Ave Maria Press.

In 2015 to commemorate the Year of Consecrated Life Beth published an article in Vision Magazine focusing on religious vocations within the family.

Beth is a professional member of the MSA (Mariological Society of America).

Fr. Dave Dwyer, CSP

NCCL Speakers

Monday 8:45 – 10:15 am | Grand Ballroom 5-8

Keynote: Studying Catechetical Processes in Different Universities

Father Dave Dwyer, CSP, is Executive Director of Busted Halo®, the Paulist Fathers’ ministry and media outreach to Catholics in their twenties and thirties. He is the publisher ofBustedHalo.com®, a daily web magazine for young adult spiritual seekers that has been honored with top awards from the Catholic Press Association and the Associated Church Press, and the host of “The Busted Halo® Show with Father Dave Dwyer,” a call-in radio talk show airing five nights a week on SiriusXM radio on which he answers questions about faith and the Church for nearly twenty-five million subscribers (7-10 p.m. Eastern time on The Catholic Channel, ch.129). On the same channel, he co-hosts the weekly show, “Conversation with Cardinal Dolan” with New York Archbishop Timothy Cardinal Dolan, which also airs on EWTN, Salt + Light TV (Canada), and other Catholic television networks.                       

Fr. Dave is also the host of the “Sacraments 101” video series on YouTube and one of the creators of “Young Adult Ministry in a Box” (yaminabox.com), a digital subscription service for parishes wishing to start up ministry to those in their 20s & 30s, now being used in more than fifty dioceses.           

Father Dave is frequently invited to give keynote addresses and workshops at national conferences, diocesan gatherings and other events about evangelization  and reconnecting young adults to the Catholic Church.  He has been the recipient of The Daughters of St. Paul’s Cordero Award and was featured in the book New York Catholics: Faith, Attitude and the Works! alongside Archbishop Fulton Sheen, Dorothy Day, and Regis Philbin.  He has offered commentary on or been profiled byNBC Nightly News, Fox & Friends, CNN, MSNBC, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, ABC News, The Today Show, The History Channel, “Christopher Closeup,” The Washington Times, WCBS-TV and “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.”           

Father Dave served in campus ministry at the University of Colorado and the University of Texas, and worked with the Archdiocese for the Military Services USA to develop and produce a multi-media young adult peer ministry program called Catholics Seeking Christ. He is popular with young adults because of his dynamic and relevant preaching in person and downloaded as podcasts.  Prior to being ordained a Paulist priest in May 2000, he produced and directed television programs for MTV and Comedy Central, and as an on-air personality for a hit music radio station, he was known to listeners as “Happy Dave.”  He holds a Masters of Divinity from the Catholic University of America and a Bachelor of Science degree in communication from Syracuse University.

Sr. Patricia McCormack, IHM

NCCL Speakers

Monday 7:30 – 9:00 pm | River Terrace 3

Prime the Pump for Parent Evangelization

Patricia M. McCormack, IHM, Ed.D., Director of the IHM Office of Formative Support for Parents and Teachers, Philadelphia, PA, speaks internationally to parents and educators on adult practices that foster the formation-education of children.

Most recently she presented at the 2015 World Meeting of Families (“The Sacred Balancing Act: Busy Lives and Family Spirituality”).

Tim Staples – Evangelization in 2016 and Beyond

NEC Speakers

10:15 – 11:15 AM

Tim Staples is Director of Apologetics and Evangelization here at Catholic Answers, but he was not always Catholic. Tim was raised a Southern Baptist. Although he fell away from the faith of his childhood, Tim came back to faith in Christ during his late teen years through the witness of Christian televangelists. Soon after, Tim joined the Marine Corps.

During his four-year tour, he became involved in ministry with various Assemblies of God communities. Immediately after his tour of duty, Tim enrolled in Jimmy Swaggart Bible College and became a youth minister in an Assembly of God community. During his final year in the Marines, however, Tim met a Marine who really knew his faith and challenged Tim to study Catholicism from Catholic and historical sources. That encounter sparked a two-year search for the truth. Tim was determined to prove Catholicism wrong, but he ended up studying his way to the last place he thought he would ever end up: the Catholic Church!

He converted to Catholicism in 1988 and spent the following six years in formation for the priesthood, earning a degree in philosophy from St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Overbrook, Pennsylvania. He then studied theology on a graduate level at Mount St. Mary’s Seminary in Emmitsburg, Maryland, for two years. Realizing that his calling was not to the priesthood, Tim left the seminary in 1994 and has been working in Catholic apologetics and evangelization ever since.

Kelly Wahlquist – Gather, Nurture, Send: A Systematic Approach to Formation with an Organic Twist

NEC Speakers

11:30 – 1:00 pm

Kelly Wahlquist is a dynamic and inspiring Catholic author and speaker whose gift of weaving personal stories and Scripture together with practical advice allows her audience to enter more fully into what Pope Francis has called us to do—to live the joy of the Gospel with missionary zeal.

She is the Assistant Director for the Archbishop Harry J. Flynn Catechetical Institute in the Archdiocese of St. Paul & Minneapolis, founder of WINE: Women In the New Evangelization, and a contributing writer for CatholicMom.com and The Integrated Catholic Life—an eMagazine about integrating faith, family, and work.

Her book, Created to Relate: God’s Design for Peace and Joy, inspires women to live fully their beautiful God-given gifts to build up the kingdom of God.

Kelly travels the country speaking on the New Evangelization in an effort to encourage all to spread the message of Jesus by living the joy of the Gospel. She resides in Minnesota with her husband, Andy, and their three children.

Father Rafael Capó – Evangelization and Hispanic Ministry

NEC Speakers

2:30 – 3:30 PM

Fr. Rafael Capó, Sch.P. is a religious with the Piarist Fathers (Padres Escolapios), an order dedicated to the education of youth. Born in Puerto Rico, he professed his final vows in the Piarist Order and was ordained a priest in 1996. Fr. Capó is Director of the US Catholic Bishops Southeast Regional Office for Hispanic Ministry and its Southeast Pastoral Institute with headquarters in Miami.

With degrees in Education and Administration and Supervision, he has worked as High School teacher, campus minister, vocations director, and school president. In Mexico and Italy, he ministered to street children and immigrant youth. With a Licentiate degree in Systematic Theology and a Doctorate in Practical Liturgical Theology he has taught Theology at the graduate level. He participates in all major organizations of Hispanic Ministry in the US and serves the bishops and dioceses of USCCB regions V and XIV in the coordination of Hispanic ministry through the SE Regional Office and Pastoral Institute (SEPI).