2015 Speakers
Tim Staples
Catholic Answers
About
Tim Staples is the Director of Apologetics and Evangelization 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.
For more info, go to: http://www.catholic.com
Fr. Wade Menezes
Missionary
Fr. Wade L. J. Menezes, CPM is a member of the Fathers of Mercy, a missionary preaching Religious Congregation based in Auburn, Kentucky. Ordained a priest during the Great Jubilee Year 2000, he received his Bachelor of Arts Degree in Catholic Thought from the Oratory of St. Philip Neri in Toronto, Canada and his dual Master of Arts and Master of Divinity Degrees in Theology from Holy Apostles Seminary in Cromwell, Connecticut. His secular college degrees are in journalism and communications.
Fr. Wade is currently the Assistant General and has served as Director of Vocations and Director of Seminarians for the Fathers of Mercy. Fr. Wade has also served as the Chaplain-in-Residence at the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament of Our Lady of the Angels Monastery in Hanceville, Alabama. While at the Shrine, Fr. Wade was a daily Mass celebrant, homilist, and confessor; he also gave spiritual conferences on specialized points of Catholic Christian doctrine to the many pilgrims who visit the Shrine. Both the Monastery and Shrine are affiliated with EWTN, the Eternal Word Television Network.
Fr. Wade has been a contributing writer for The National Catholic Register, Our Sunday Visitor, Catholic Twin Circle, Catholic Faith and Family, The Wanderer, Pastoral Life, The Catholic Faith, Lay Witness and Christian Ranchman publications. Several homiletic series of his have appeared in Homiletic and Pastoral Review, an international journal for Priests. Fr. Wade has also been a guest on various episodes of EWTN’s “Mother Angelica Live” and “Life on the Rock” programs during which he discussed such topics as the sanctification of marriage and family life, vocations, and the Sacred Liturgy. He has also hosted several televised series for EWTN, which have covered such topics as the necessity of the spiritual life, the Four Last Things, the Ten Commandments of Catholic Family Life, and the Gospel of Life vs. the Culture of Death. He is also the host of the EWTN segment series “The Crux of the Matter” and “The Wonders of His Mercy”. His many theological and doctrinal presentations have been featured on EWTN Radio, Ave Maria Radio, Guadalupe Radio Network, Covenant Network Radio, Catholic Broadcasting Northwest, and Voice of Virtue International. He is the host of EWTN Global Catholic Radio’s “Open Line Tuesday”.
Fr. Frank A. Pavone
National Director
Fr. Frank Pavone is one of the most prominent pro‐life leaders in the world. Originally from New York, he was ordained in 1988 by Cardinal John O’Connor. In 1993 he requested permission to devote his entire life and ministry to ending abortion. Since then, he has served fulltime in pro‐life leadership with his bishop’s permission. He is the National Director of Priests for Life, the largest pro‐life ministry in the Catholic Church.
He is also the President of the National Pro‐life Religious Council, and the National Pastoral Director of the Silent No More Awareness Campaign and of Rachel’s Vineyard, the world’s largest ministry of healing after abortion. He travels throughout the country, to an average of four states every week, preaching and teaching against abortion. He produces programs regularly for religious and secular radio and television networks. He was asked by Mother Teresa to speak in India on the life issues and has addressed the pro‐life caucus of the United States House of Representatives. The Vatican appointed him to the Pontifical Academy for Life and to the Pontifical Council for the Family, which coordinates the pro‐life activities of the Catholic Church. He was present at the bedside of Terri Schiavo as she was dying and was an outspoken advocate for her life. He was invited by members of the Class of 2009 at Notre Dame to lead an alternate commencement ceremony for those students who refused to attend the ceremony in which President Obama was honored. Fr. Frank was invited by members of Congress to preach at the prayer service they had in the Capitol just prior to the vote on health care reform. He received the “Proudly Pro‐life Award” by the National Right to Life Committee, and numerous other pro‐life awards and honorary doctorates. His work has been praised by Presidents, Popes, and countless citizens. He is the author of four books, Ending Abortion, Not Just Fighting It; Pro‐life Reflections for Every Day; Abolishing Abortion, and Proclaiming the Message of Life. Norma McCorvey, the “Jane Roe” of the Supreme Court’s Roe vs. Wade abortion decision, called Fr. Frank “the catalyst that brought me into the Catholic Church.”
For more information see PriestsforLife.com
Fr. Joseph Mary Wolfe, MFVA
EWTN Chaplain
Fr. Joseph Mary, MFVA, was born and raised in eastern Iowa. In 1979 he obtained an undergraduate degree in Electronic Engineering from DeVry Institute in Chicago. After college, he worked as an engineer for General Electric Medical Systems for five years.
In January of 1985 he came to work as an engineer for EWTN. On May 2, 1987 he entered the Franciscan Missionaries of the Eternal Word becoming one of its founding members.
Ordained to the priesthood on June 11, 1993, Fr. Joseph was the Community Servant for seven years and currently serves as the EWTN Chaplain and Administrator of the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament in Hanceville, Alabama. He has produced a television series about farmers in Iowa titled Faith in the Heartland; the EWTN Family Prayers which air before the televised Mass; the Rosary for Life; and The Church Universal series about lay movements in the Church.
For more info, go to: http://www.franciscanmissionaries.com
