All posts by Michael DiCosola

ALLEN HUNT

English Track

11:00 AM – 3:15 PM: English Track: GICC EXHIBIT HALLS C & D

In June 2011, Allen joined the Dynamic Catholic Institute to partner with Matthew Kelly as a best-selling author and communicator of the beauty of the Catholic faith

On January 6, 2008, on the Feast of the Epiphany, Allen converted to Catholicism. This transition represented the culmination of a fifteen year journey in which God began leading Allen home to the Church. In many ways, this transition was effected by the prayers of a group of Dominican sisters at Our Lady of Grace in North Guilford, Connecticut, who have been praying for Allen since he shared lectures with them during the season of Lent in 1992. Much of his journey has been chronicled in his powerful, best-selling book, Confessions of a Mega-Church Pastor: How I Discovered the Hidden Treasures of the Catholic Church.  Allen also has authored Everybody Needs to Forgive Somebody:11 Stories of Real People Who Discovered the Under-rated Power of Grace and Nine Words: A Bible Study to Help You Become the Best-Version-of-Yourself.

Allen stepped aside July 1, 2007, as Senior Pastor at Mount Pisgah, an evangelical Methodist congregation serving more than 15,000 persons each week through all of its ministries in Alpharetta, Georgia. While at Mount Pisgah, Allen helped to develop comprehensive ministries with children and students as well as a Christian school with over 1200 students; a Beacon of Hope pregnancy resource center; and the Summit Counseling Center.  Mount Pisgah became known for its leadership in serving the poor and the forgotten in our culture through ministries with the homeless, those in crisis, and those in need. Mount Pisgah also multiplied its ministry impact with key dynamic ministry partners on each continent of the globe. This powerful combination of ministries made Mount Pisgah one of the largest Methodist congregations in the world. Under Allen’s leadership, Mount Pisgah more than doubled in size.

Prior to full-time ministry, Allen worked in management consulting with Kurt Salmon Associates, an international leader in the textile, apparel, and retail industries. Allen grew up in Brevard, North Carolina, and Lakeland, Florida. He was then educated at Mercer (B.B.A.) and Emory (M.Div.) Universities, before earning a Ph.D. in New Testament and Ancient Christian Origins from Yale University. He has taught and preached in Catholic, Methodist, Baptist, and non-denominational congregations, colleges, and seminaries.

Allen and his wife, Anita, have two daughters, both of whom are now grown. Allen’s home parish is in Atlanta, Georgia.

ADORE! KID TRACK

Adore! Kids Track

June 4, 2016 – 11:00 am – 3:00 pm

The ADORE! Kid Track this year will feature music and activities centering on the theme of MERCY. Prayer and Praise will include live music by composer and performer Jim Wahl and Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. ADORE! Kid Track is open to children ages 5-11 who will have a parent on site during the conference. There is no cost to participate, but online pre-registration is REQUIRED as spaces are limited and admittance is not guaranteed at the door.

TAP HERE TO REGISTER

SCHEDULE

▪ 8:00-9:30 – Check in process open to pre-registered children (Kids cannot be dropped off until 11:00am)
▪ 9:30-10:15 – Check in process open to pre-registered children and children on the waiting list
▪ 10:15-11:00 – Check in process open to pre-registered children, children on the waiting list, and walk-ins
▪ 11:00 – Doors open, drop off begins
▪ 11:30 – Drop off ends, activities Begin
▪ 11:45 – Adoration with Archbishop Gregory
▪ 12:30 – Lunch
▪ 3:00 – Track concludes
▪ 3:00-3:30 – Parents pick up children

REV. FEISER MUÑOZ

Spanish Track

11:00 AM – 3:15 PM: Español: GICC EXHIBIT HALLS A & B

El Padre Feiser Muñoz nació en Colombia en noviembre de 1984 y tiene tres hermanas. Egresó del Colegio Nacional Simón Bolívar, en Garzón, Colombia, en el año 2003 y comenzó sus estudios de filosofía en el Seminario Mayor Castrense de Bogotá, Colombia, en el 2004. En el año 2005, continuó sus estudios de filosofía y teología en el Seminario Conciliar de Bogotá hasta el 2008. Luego, se trasladó a los Estados Unidos donde estudió inglés como segunda lengua en Georgia State University.

Fue ordenado como sacerdote para la Arquidiócesis de Atlanta el 08 de junio de 2013, después de haber completado sus estudios teológicos en el Seminario de St. Vincent en Latrobe, Pennsylvania,  en mayo de ese mismo año.

Actualmente, el Padre Feiser es Vicario Parroquial en la Catedral de Christ the King y también presta su servicio a la Misión Hispana de la misma.

FR. CHRISTOPHER KLUSMAN

American Sign Language Track

June 4, 2016 – 11:15 am – 4:30 pm: GICC KENYAN SUITE

Fr. Christopher Klusman is a native of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He studied Education at the University of Wisconsin – Madison, completed a Masters of Divinity degree from Sacred Heart Seminary and School of Theology and was ordained to the priesthood for the Archdiocese of Milwaukee on May 21, 2011.

Currently, Fr. Klusman serves dual roles as part-time chaplain at St. Thomas More High School and Associate Director of Deaf/Hard of Hearing Ministry for the Archdiocese of Milwaukee.   He also has several relatives who are Deaf on both sides of his family.

Fr. Christopher includes reading, watching movies (Star Wars!), and traveling (especially pilgrimages!) among his favorite hobbies.

BISHOP JOSEPH NGUYEN NANG – Bishop of Phat Diem

ATLEC Speakers 2016

Bishop Joseph Nguyen Nang was born in 1953, in Ninh Binh, Viet Nam. He joined his family to move to Saigon in 1954. He entered St. Joseph Seminary in Saigon, then Pontifical Seminary in Da Lat. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1990 for the Diocese of Xuan Loc. He studied in Rome, Italy, 1998, and obtained a doctorate in dogmatic Theology in 2002. He was assigned the rector of Xuan Loc Major Seminary, then named Bishop of Phat Diem on July 25, 2009.

DR. CAROLYN Y. WOO

English Track

11:00 AM – 3:15 PM: English Track: GICC EXHIBIT HALLS C & D

Dr. Carolyn Y. Woo is the CEO & president of Catholic Relief Services. Representing CRS, she was featured in Foreign Policy (May/June 2013) as one of the 500 Most Powerful people on the planet and one of 33 in the category of “a force for good.” Her Catholic News Service monthly column took 1st place in the 2013 Catholic Press Association Awards category of Best Regular Column – Spiritual Life. Before CRS, she was dean of the Mendoza College of Business (University of Notre Dame) which achieved #1 ranking in 2010 & 2011.

She is a married Catholic with two sons.

ARCHBISHOP WILTON D. GREGORY – Archbishop of Atlanta

ATLEC Speakers 2016

8:30 AM – 9:30 AM: MORNING EUCHARISTIC PROCESSION
10:00 AM – 11:00 AM: MORNING BENEDICTION
5:00 PM – 6:30 PM: CLOSING MASS

Born December 7, 1947, in Chicago to Wilton Sr. and Ethel Duncan Gregory, Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory attended St. Carthage Grammar School, where he converted to Catholicism. He attended Quigley Preparatory Seminary South, Niles College (now St. Joseph’s College Seminary) of Loyola University and St. Mary of the Lake Seminary.

He was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Chicago on May 9, 1973. Three years after his ordination he began graduate studies at the Pontifical Liturgical Institute (Sant’ Anselmo) in Rome. There he earned his doctorate in sacred liturgy in 1980.

After having served as an associate pastor of Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parish in Glenview, IL as a member of the faculty of St. Mary of the Lake Seminary in Mundelein and as a master of ceremonies to Cardinals John Cody and Joseph Bernardin, he was ordained an auxiliary bishop of Chicago on December 13, 1983. On February 10, 1994, he was installed as the seventh bishop of the Diocese of Belleville, IL where he served for the next eleven years.

On December 9, 2004, Pope John Paul II appointed Bishop Gregory as the sixth archbishop of the Archdiocese of Atlanta. He was installed on January 17, 2005. Archbishop Gregory has also contributed a leading role in the U.S. church. In November 2001, he was elected president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops following three years as vice president under Bishop Joseph Fiorenza of the Diocese of Galveston-Houston. During his tenure in office, the crisis of sex abuse by Catholic clergy escalated, and under his leadership, the bishops implemented the “Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People.”

He served on the NCCB Executive and Administrative Committees, the Administrative Board, the Committee on Doctrine and the U.S. Catholic Conference Committee on International Policy. He previously served as the chairman of the Bishops’ Committees on Personnel and the Third Millennium/Jubilee Year 2000 from 1998-2001, and Liturgy from 1991-93.

Archbishop Gregory has written extensively on church issues, including pastoral statements on the death penalty and euthanasia/physician-assisted suicide, and has published numerous articles on the subject of liturgy, particularly in the African-American community.

Archbishop Gregory has been awarded nine honorary doctoral degrees.  He received the Great Preacher Award from Saint Louis University in 2002; Doctorate of Humanities from Lewis University in Romeoville, IL in 2002-2003; Sword of Loyola from Loyola University of Chicago in 2004; Doctorate of Humane Letters from Spring Hill College in Mobile, AL in 2005; Doctorate of Humane Letters from Xavier University in Cincinnati, OH; Doctorate of Humane Letters from McKendree College in Lebanon, IL; Doctorate of Humanities from Fontbonne University in St. Louis, MO; Honorary Law Degree from Notre Dame University in 2012; and the Chicago Catholic Theological Union Honorary Doctorate from Saint Louis University in 2013.

In 2006, he joined an illustrious group of preachers with his induction into the Martin Luther King Board of Preachers at Morehouse College, Atlanta. At the National Pastoral Life Center in Washington, D.C., in June 2006, Archbishop Gregory was honored with the Cardinal Bernardin Award given by the Catholic Common Ground Initiative.

FRANCISCO “PACHO” BERMEO

Spanish Track

11:00 AM – 3:15 PM: Español: GICC EXHIBIT HALLS A & B

Francisco nació en Bogotá, Colombia; está casado y tiene una hija joven. Él y su esposa están dedicados de tiempo completo al servicio del Reino de Dios.

A los 13 años de edad, Pacho comenzó su experiencia espiritual en la Renovación Carismática Católica, sirviendo en diferentes áreas en su propia ciudad, región y país; y también en América Latina.

Estudió Filosofía en la Universidad “Minuto de Dios” en Bogotá y Teología en la “Pontificia Universidad Javeriana”. Completó una Licenciatura en Pastoral Bíblica dictada por el Centro Bíblico Pastoral para América Latina (CEBIPAL) CELAM.

Se ha desempeñado como orador en varios eventos en su tierra natal y en diferentes ciudades de los Estados Unidos, México, Puerto Rico, Cuba, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Panamá, Venezuela, Ecuador, Perú, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina, Paraguay, Inglaterra e Israel.

FR. DONALD CALLOWAY

English Track

11:00 AM – 3:15 PM: English Track: GICC EXHIBIT HALLS C & D

Fr. Donald Calloway, MIC, a convert to Catholicism, is a member of the Congregation of Marian Fathers of the Immaculate Conception. Before his conversion to Catholicism, he was a high school dropout who had been kicked out of a foreign country, institutionalized twice and thrown in jail multiple times. After his radical conversion he earned a B.A. in Philosophy and Theology from the Franciscan University of Steubenville, OH, M.Div. and S.T.B. degrees from the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, DC,
and an S.T.L. in Mariology from the International Marian Research Institute in Dayton, Ohio.

Fr. Calloway has written many academic articles and is the editor of two books:

The Immaculate Conception in the Life of the Church (Marian Press, 2004) and The Virgin Mary and Theology of the Body (Marian Press, 2005).

He is also the author of Purest of All Lilies: The Virgin Mary in the Spirituality of St. Faustina (Marian Press, 2008) and the Catholic bestsellers No Turning Back: A Witness to Mercy (Marian Press, 2010), and Under the Mantle: Marian Thoughts from a 21stCentury Priest (Marian Press, 2013).

Fr. Calloway’s latest book is titled Marian Gems: Daily Wisdom on Our Lady.

JOHN ALLEN JR.

English Track

11:00 AM – 3:15 PM: English Track: GICC EXHIBIT HALLS C & D

Allen grew up in Kansas. Both his grade school and his high school, Thomas More Prep-Marian, were in Hays, Kansas, and run by the Capuchin Franciscans. Allen graduated from high school in 1983. He received a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from Fort Hays State University and a master’s degree in religious studies from the University of Kansas. For several years, Allen taught journalism and oversaw the student-run newspaper, The Knight, at Notre Dame High School in Sherman Oaks, California. On November 5, 2011, the University of St. Michael’s College in Toronto, Ontario. awarded him an honorary degree of Doctor of Sacred Letters (D.S.Litt.).

During the coverage of the death of Pope John Paul II, Allen frequently appeared on CNN. He then became the Vatican analyst for CNN and NPR. He also delivers lectures discussing Vatican issues and his latest works.

In 2014, Allen took up a position as associate editor with the Boston Globe, and helped to launch its new website, Crux (website).
Allen’s former paper, the National Catholic Reporter, is associated with “liberal” or dissident authors writing about the Catholic Church, although the neoconservative George Weigel has also praised him.

Allen and his wife Shannon live in Denver, Colorado.