Support these great Catholic speakers!
Well, Support a Catholic Speaker Month was designed to last through September, but posts are still popping up around the Internet. I scooped up several speakers to profile myself, so along with the other 95 men and women spreading the Gospel to the ends of the earth, check out these wonderful speakers!
Dave Dinuzzo
(Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
Dave DiNuzzo Sr., Director of Programming for The King’s Men, is a graduate of Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas. Dave received his Master’s Degree in Pastoral Theology with an emphasis in Evangelization and Catechesis from the Augustine Institute in Denver, Colorado in 2011.
After his undergraduate studies, Dave worked as a Catholic lay missionary with FOCUS (Fellowship of Catholic University Students) and then went on to work as Director of Catholic Campus Ministry at the United States Air Force Academy.
In 2008, Dave founded TrueManhood Men’s Ministry in an attempt to capture the essence of manhood, manliness and a man’s responsibility within the family, society, the Church, and in the workplace. Dave has spoken all over the country on a variety of topics directly related to authentic masculinity, namely virtue and the fight against the evils of pornography.
As Program Director for The King’s Men, Dave oversees all existing and new start-up formation and activism group initiatives. Dave is a volunteer firefighter for his local fire company. He is also married and the father of four children.
Invite Dave to speak at your event!
Fr. Joseph Fessio
(San Francisco, California)
Fr. Joseph Fessio, S.J. is the Founder and Editor of Ignatius Press. He has taught both philosophy and theology courses at several schools. Fr. Fessio wrote his dissertation on the ecclesiology of Hans Urs von Balthasar under the direction of Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI. He holds the degrees of B.A. and M.A. from Gonzaga University; M.A. from the Fourvière Jesuit Faculty of Theology in Lyons, France; and Th.D. from the University of Regensburg in Germany.
Invite Fr. Fessio to speak at your event!
Fr. Stan Fortuna
(Bronx, New York)
Fr. Stan Fortuna C.F.R. is one of the eight founding members of the Community of Franciscan Friars of the Renewal (an order established in the Archdiocese of New York under the jurisdiction of John Cardinal O'Connor) and a Roman Catholic priest. Prior to his conversion, Fr. Stan was a professional jazz musician who studied with the legendary "father of improvisational jazz" Lennie Tristano and toured/played in various venues including Birdland, Town Hall and Lincoln Center.
The C.F.R.s adhere to an ascetic lifestyle and live in the heart of the South Bronx ministering to the poverty-stricken. Fr. Stan has been involved with community development and the implementation of various social programs in his neighbourhood of the South Bronx for over two decades when the religious order started in 1987. That same year Fr. Stan established his non-profit company, Francesco Productions (www.francescoproductions.com) mixing music and message. He has independently released over eighteen (18) CD’s in various genres as well as DVDs and books. His latest book, U Got 2 Love (Our Sunday Visitor, paperback, 240 pages) discusses love in modern culture (with the foreword written by Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz), and he recently released his CD “Seraphic Wanderer” which encompasses a mix of musical styles.
With his preaching apostolate, Fr. Stan travels extensively doing talks and concerts around the world with proceeds from bookings and sales going towards his work with poor and impoverished families. He has been invited to speak and do concerts at various World Youth Days appearing before both Pope John Paul II and his successor, Pope Benedict XVI and has appeared on EWTN's programme, "Life on the Rock" numerous times. Fr. Stan has also been written up in myriad publications both secular and Catholic including "The National Catholic Register", "The National Catholic Reporter", "Catholic Digest", "New York Times", "New York Press", "XXL Magazine" and "Bass Guitar Magazine".
Invite Fr. Stan to speak at your event!
Jesse Romero
(Mission Hills, California)
Jesse Romero has a Masters Degree in Catholic Theology from Franciscan University of Steubenville, OH. Before and since then, he has spent his time teaching, speaking, writing, and giving Bible studies and conferences on all matters Catholic. Jesse is also serving at the parish level as the director of religious education at a small but growing parish 40 minutes north of Los Angeles, CA.
After rediscovering his Catholic roots, Jesse studied and prayed his way back to a fervent on-going practice of the Catholic Faith. Through his experiences with non-Catholics and fallen-away Catholics alike, Jesse is well-versed on all Catholic issues and topics and, as a bilingual speaker, specializes in evangelization, youth events, apologetics seminars, conferences of all sizes and bible studies.
Jesse is available to speak to your group or conference in English or Spanish about the Bible, the Catholic Church, Biblical theology and numerous other Catholic topics.
Jesse holds a B.A. in Liberal Arts from Mount St Mary's College in Los Angeles and he has a Masters Degree in Catholic Theology from Franciscan University of Steubenville in Ohio. As the proud parents of Paul, AnnMarie and Joshua, Jesse and his wife Anita have been happily married for 29 years.
Invite Jesse to speak at your event!
John Michael Talbot
(Berryville, Arkansas)
At the heart of Contemporary Christian music since its beginning, John Michael Talbot has proclaimed the message of Christ to many millions worldwide, and still maintains an active ministry through concert tours, recordings, books, and videos.
He founded, and remains the Spiritual Father and Minister General of the Brothers and Sisters of Charity at Little Portion Hermitage, an integrated monastic community in the Ozark Mountains of Arkansas.
Invite John Michael to speak at your event!
Check out all the other speakers profiled during Catholic Speaker Month!
Support a Catholic Speaker Month 2012 – Vote for your Favorites
First of all, thanks to everyone who helped build our Catholic Speaker list. We ended up with over 250 fantastic speakers! It's great to know there are so many Catholics following in the footsteps of St. Paul, St. Francis Xavier, and Venerable Fulton Sheen by proclaiming the Gospel far and wide. However, since one goal of Catholic Speaker Month is to connect individual bloggers with each speaker, we need to whittle the list down to a much-more-manageable 100.
Hence, the voting. As I explained before, this vote is not meant to gauge a speaker’s relative value. It's not a popularity contest, nor an exercise in celebrity. It's simply a way to promote great Catholic speakers and introduce those you may not have heard of.
The field is much larger than expected. Because of that, voters will be allowed to select their 15 favorite speakers. You can only vote once though, so take your time, read through the whole list, and choose your favorites. I'm sure most of the "big names" will easily make the final 100, so if there's a lesser-known speaker you'd like to feature, don't use all your votes on the household names. After all, this project is partly meant to raise the platforms of speakers who aren't yet well known.
After the voting wraps up on Thursday (8/23), here are the next steps:
— Choose your Speaker (Thursday, August 23)
After the voting, I'll tally the results and list the 100 Catholic speakers with the most votes. The list will go live here at 9:00am ET on Thursday, August 23, and once it does you'll be able to choose one speaker to blog about. Requests will be granted on a first-come, first-serve basis so be sure to check back on Thursday morning.
— Celebrate "Support a Catholic Speaker Month" (September 2012)
After you claim your speaker you'll then have several days to write about him or her. The style is up to you: you might choose a biographical post, perhaps a collection of video or audio clips, or maybe even a full-blown interview. Since the whole month of September will be marked as Catholic Speaker Month 2012, you don't have to post right on September 1, though the earlier, the better. When your post does go live, I'll link to it from the main Catholic Speaker Month page and invite everyone to check it out.
Also, since our goal is to spread the word about these great folks, we need your help. Consider pointing your readers, followers, and fans to this voting page and encouraging them to vote. You might also paste one of the graphics from our Badge Page onto your website, blog, sidebar, social media account, bicycle, unicorn, tractor, or wherever you want. [Badge link code here]
Finally, I want to again thank Matt Warner for giving two thumbs up to Catholic Speaker Month. The idea was all his and he deserves the credit. I'll assume you're one of the 17,000+ people who follow his blog, Fallible Blogma, but if not come join the rest of us.
Now on with the vote!
Voting has now closed. See the results here!
After voting, invite your friends to vote by sharing this link on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, your blog, of wherever you can. Click below for a quick tweet or choose one of the social media sharing icons at the bottom of the post:
I just voted for Support a Catholic Speaker Month 2012 and you should, too! http://bvogt.us/MAm4wt #scsm12 [Click here to tweet this]
Just chose my 15 favorite Catholic speakers. Who are yours? Vote here. http://bvogt.us/MAm4wt #scsm12 [Click here to tweet this]
Support a Catholic Speaker Month 2012 – The Speaker List
UPDATE:
The nomination window is now closed. Check out the final speaker list here!
A few years ago, Matt Warner launched a cool project he called "Support a Catholic Speaker Month". It began with a poll where you could vote for your favorite Catholic speakers. After a few days of voting, the top 100 speakers were determined and then Catholic bloggers were invited to choose one speaker to write about.
It was exciting for three reasons. First, it promoted great Catholic speakers, who are so important to the life of the Church. Second, it introduced many new and unfamiliar names who deserved a bigger platform. Third, it gave bloggers a chance to connect with speakers while building traffic to their own websites.
Before starting, Matt really stressed that the project was not a competition or popularity contest:
"The primary goal...was not to find out who is better than somebody else. It was to raise awareness about the many Catholic Speakers out there and to support them. They are all sharing the same, one Truth. And as talented and effective as the top favorites are at doing what they do, we need many more like them if we’re going to reach everyone."
The voting only existed to get the list down to a manageable size—not to determine each speaker's relative value. And I think everyone got that. With the shared understanding that the whole was designed to promote great Catholic speaking in general, it was a huge success.
Yet that was three years ago. It's 2012, and time for another round— especially since there are many great new speakers out there. So I asked Matt permission to host another Catholic Speaker Month and he gave me a big thumbs-up.
(Did I mention how awesome Matt is? And that you should invite him, Josh Simmons, and I to bring our Digital Church Conference to your diocese or conference? End of shameless promotion.)
So here's how Support a Catholic Speaker Month 2012 will work. There will be four stages:
1. Complete the Speaker List (today through Thursday, August 16)
I used Matt's original list as a starting point, while adding some more on my own, but I'm sure I'm missing people. And that's where I need your help. If there's a major Catholic speaker you just love—someone who has inspired you or whose message just blew you away—comment below and I'll add them to our list.
Unfortunately, we can't highlight every Catholic speaker around, though I wish we could. Our goal is to whittle the final list down to 100 which means there are some limits. You won't be allowed to nominate the following people:
- Pope Benedict XVI - He's brilliant. He's clear. And he's the mouthpiece of Christ. Therefore, he's out. Sorry, Papa.
- Bishops - As Matt said three years ago, "bishops in general are out because they are in a totally other league when it comes to speaking." Most bishops are great speakers, and let's just assume they deserve support twelve months of the year.
- Yourself - This doesn't mean you can't be on the list. It just means you can't nominate yourself. Consider this a fraternal check against pride and ego.
2. Vote for Speakers (Thursday, August 16)
After we finalize our speaking list, we'll open up the voting this Thursday. You'll be allowed to vote *one time* for your top ten fifteen favorite speakers. The polls will stay open for one week.
3. Choose your Speaker (Thursday, August 23)
After the voting, I'll tally the results and list the top 100 Catholic speakers. The list will go live here at 9:00am ET on Thursday, August 23, and once it does you'll be able to choose one speaker to blog about. Requests will be granted on a first-come, first-serve basis so be sure to check back on Thursday morning.
4. Celebrate "Support a Catholic Speaker Month" (September 2012)
After you claim your speaker you'll then have several days to write about him or her. The style is up to you: you might choose a biographical post, perhaps a collection of video or audio clips, or maybe even a full-blown interview.
The whole month of September will be marked as Catholic Speaker Month 2012 so you don't have to post right on September 1—though the earlier, the better. When your post does go live, I'll link to it from the main Catholic Speaker Month page and invite everyone to check it out.
The Speaker List
With all that said, here's our list of Catholic speakers. Comment below and tell me who we're missing:
UPDATE:
The nomination window is now closed. Check out the final speaker list here!
- Al Kresta
- Alan Keyes
- Anne Marie Cribbin
- Barbara Elliott
- Barbara McGuigan
- Barbara Nicolosi
- Becky Eldredge
- Bert Ghezzi
- Bill Donaghy
- Bill Moyer
- Bob Perron
- Bob Rice
- Bob Lefnesky
- Bob McCarty
- Brad Farmer
- Brad Henning
- Brandon Vogt
- Brenda Sharman
- Brent Stubbs
- Brian Patrick
- Bryan Cones
- Chris Padgett
- Chris Roach
- Chris Stefanick
- Christina King
- Christopher Kaczor
- Christopher West
- Colleen Hammond
- Collin Raye
- Crystalina Evert
- Curtis Martin
- Dale Ahlquist
- Dale Recinella
- Damon Owens
- Danielle Bean
- Dan Harms
- Danny Abramowicz
- Dave DiNuzzo
- Dave Dumaine
- Dave Durand
- David Haas
- Dawn Eden
- Deacon Harold Burke-Sivers
- Deacon Ralph Poyo
- Deacon Sabatino Carnazzo
- Devin Rose
- DJ Bill Lage
- Dom Philip Anderson
- Donna-Maria Cooper O'Boyle
- Dr. Alice Von Hildebrand
- Dr. Angela Franks
- Dr. Bill Donohue
- Dr. Brant Pitre
- Dr. Celia Sirois
- Dr. Colleen Mast
- Dr. David Franks
- Dr. Denis McNamara
- Dr. Edward Sri
- Dr. Greer Gordon
- Dr. Helen Alvaré
- Dr. Janet Smith
- Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse
- Dr. John Bergsma
- Dr. John Cuddebeck
- Dr. Kevin Vost
- Dr. Marcellino D'Ambrosio
- Dr. Margarett Schlientz
- Dr. Mark Miravalle
- Dr. Mary Healy
- Dr. Meg Meeeker
- Dr. Megan McKenna
- Dr. Michael Barber
- Dr. Michael Carotta
- Dr. Paul Camarata
- Dr. Peter Kreeft
- Dr. Pia de Solenni
- Dr. Ralph Martin
- Dr. Ray Guarendi
- Dr. Richard Fitzgibbons
- Dr. Robert George
- Dr. Scott Hahn
- Dr. Taylor Marshall
- Dr. Thomas Reese
- Dr. Tim Gray
- Drew Mariani
- E. J. Dionne
- Elizabeth Scalia
- Ennie Hickman
- Eduardo Verastegui
- Fr. Andrew Apostoli
- Fr. Benedict Crole
- Fr. Benedict Groeschel
- Fr. Clement Machado
- Fr. Dave Dwyer
- Fr. Dave Pivonka
- Fr. Donald Calloway
- Fr. Dwight Longenecker
- Fr. Ed Fride
- Fr. Emmerich Vogt
- Fr. Frank Pavone
- Fr. Gregory Boyle
- Fr. James Martin
- Fr. James Wehner
- Fr. Jay Finelli
- Fr. Joe Kempf
- Fr. John Bartunek
- Fr. John Cusick
- Fr. John Heagle
- Fr. John Riccardo
- Fr. John Zuhlsdorf
- Fr. Jonathan Morris
- Fr. Joseph Fessio
- Fr. Kazimierz Chwalek
- Fr. Larry Richards
- Fr. Leo Patalinghug
- Fr. Michael Crosby
- Fr. Michael Gaitley
- Fr. Michael Scanlan
- Fr. Michael Schmitz
- Fr. Mitch Pacwa
- Fr. Nathan Cromly
- Fr. Paul Check
- Fr. Paul Scalia
- Fr. Peter Damian Fehlner
- Fr. Peter John Cameron
- Fr. Richard Fragomeni
- Fr. Richard Rohr
- Fr. Robert Barron
- Fr. Robert Sirico
- Fr. Robert Spitzer
- Fr. Roderick Vonhogen
- Fr. Stan Fortuna
- Fr. Tad Pacholczyk
- Fr. Terry Donahue
- Fr. Tony Ricard
- Fr. Wade Menezes
- Fr. William Casey
- Garry Wills
- Gary Zimak
- George Weigel
- Gene Monterastelli
- Gina Loehr
- Gloria Purvis
- Greg and Jennifer Willits
- Greg Wasinski
- Gus Lloyd
- Hallie Lord
- Heather Khym
- Heather KIng
- Hector Antonio Molina Jr.
- Henry Libersat
- Immaculee Ilibagiza
- Jack Jezreel
- Jackie Francois
- Jake Khym
- Jason Angelette
- Jason Evert
- Jason Jones
- Jeannie Hannemann
- Jeff Cavins
- Jeff Young
- Jennifer Fulwiler
- Jesse Manibusan
- Jesse Romero
- Jim Beckman
- Jim Blackburn
- Jim Burnham
- Jim Sedlak
- Jim Stenson
- Jimmy Akin
- Joe McClane
- Joe Paprocki
- John Allen, Jr.
- John Martignoni
- John Michael Talbot
- John Salza
- Johnette Benkovic
- Joia Farmer
- Jon Leonetti
- Joseph Bottum
- Joseph Pearce
- Judy McDonald
- Justin Fatica
- Karl Keating
- Karlo Broussard
- Kate Wicker
- Kathleen McCarthy
- Kathryn Jean Lopez
- Keith Strohm
- Kevin Clarke
- Kevin Lowry
- Kimberly Hahn
- Kyle Heimann
- Leah Darrow
- Lino Rulli
- Lisa Hendey
- Marcel LeJeune
- Marcus Grodi
- Margaret Steinfels
- Marge Fenelon
- Mark Hart
- Mark Houck
- Mark P. Shea
- Marquerite Peeters
- Mary Ann Glendon
- Mary Bielski
- Mary Sharon More
- Matt Smith
- Matt Swaim
- Matthew Bunson
- Matthew Fradd
- Matthew Kelly
- Matthew Pinto
- Matthew Warner
- Michael Coren
- Michael Cumbie
- Michael Patin
- Michael Voris
- Mike Aquilina
- Mike Patin
- Mike Theisen
- Monica Ashour
- Mother Miriam of the Lamb of God
- Msgr. Arhutr Calkins
- Msgr. Charles Pope
- Msgr. James Moroney
- Msgr. Richard Soseman
- Pam Stenzel
- Pat Gohn
- Paul George
- Patrick Coffin
- Patrick Madrid
- Patrick Novecosky
- Patrick Smith
- Patty Schneier
- Peter Herbeck
- Peter Steinfels
- Phillip Chavez
- Randy Hain
- Raymond Arroyo
- Raymond de Souza
- Regina Doman
- Regis Flaherty
- Rich Donnely
- Richard Lane
- Rose Sweet
- Russ Ford
- Sarah Reinhard
- Sean Forrest
- Sean Reynolds
- Sherry Weddell
- Simcha Fisher
- Sonja Corbitt
- Sr. Anne Flanagan
- Sr. Fran Ferder
- Sr. Helen Prejean
- Sr. Helena Burns
- Sr. Kathryn James Hermes
- Sr. Marie-Paul Curley
- Stephanie Wood
- Steve Angrisano
- Steve Ray
- Steven Kellmeyer
- Tammy Evevard
- Tarek Saab
- Teresa Tomeo
- Thomas Cahill
- Thomas Howard
- Thomas Peters
- Thomas Smith
- Tim Staples
- Todd Lemieux
- Tom Peterson
- Tony Esolen
- Tony Melendez
- Woodeene Koenig-Bricker
Which favorite Catholic speakers am I missing?
