Café Catholica

How to Pray, What to Say, and When to Shut Up

Speaker: Mike Gormley - Coordinator of Evangelization at St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church, National Speaker. 

Michael has been leading evangelization and ministry efforts for the past 10 years, both as a full-time parish staff member and as a speaker and consultant for parishes, dioceses, and Catholic campus ministries. He has his Undergraduate Degrees in both Philosophy and Theology, and a Masters in Arts in Theology and Christian Ministry, from Franciscan University of Steubenville, Ohio. He currently serves as the Coordinator of Evangelization at St Anthony of Padua Catholic Church in The Woodlands. Michael is also the founder and creative director of LayEvangelist.com, and the producer and co-host of a Catholic young adult podcast Catching Foxes, which discusses the collision of faith and culture. He is married to his college sweetheart, Shannon, and they have about 1,000 children and get about 3 hours of sleep a night, which is alright by him

Embracing Authentic Love

Speakers: Mary Caprio- Pastoral Associate at St. Michael the Archangel Catholic Church

Mary Caprio is currently one of the Pastoral Associates at St. Michael the Archangel Catholic Church in charge of Evangelization and Administration.  She also serves as Adjunct Faculty at the University of St. Thomas in theology and is an Associate Fellow for the St. John Paul II Foundation.  Mary is a Certified Fertility Care Practitioner for the Creighton Model System.   Prior to her current position, Mary was a Registered Nurse for over 20 years and worked in the field of HIV/AIDS nursing. 

Mary attended the University of Texas for her undergraduate degree in nursing; Loyola University of Chicago for her Masters in Nursing; Franciscan University of Steubenville for her Masters in Theology and The John Paul Institute in Washington DC for her Masters in Theological Studies with an emphasis on bioethics, marriage, and family.  She obtained her certification in Fertility Care through the Pope Paul VI Institute in 2013.  

The Good News with Cardinal DiNardo

Speaker: Daniel Cardinal DiNardo - Archbishop of Gavleston-Houston

His Eminence Daniel Cardinal DiNardo is the metropolitan archbishop of Galveston-Houston and pastor to its 1.7 million-plus Catholics (and the 6.2 million people within the Archdiocese) and 435 priests in 146 parishes and 59 schools spread over 8,880 square miles. His seats are St. Mary Cathedral Basilica in Galveston and the Co-Cathedral of the Sacred Heart in Houston.

Born in Steubenville, Ohio, and raised with three siblings in Castle Shannon near Pittsburgh, Cardinal DiNardo attended St. Anne grade school and the Jesuit-run Bishop's Latin school before enrolling in St. Paul Seminary and Duquesne University in Pittsburgh. He received his master's degree in philosophy from the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. and degrees of Sacred Theology from both the Pontifical Gregorian University and the Patristic Institute Augustinianum in Rome.

He was ordained to the priesthood for the Diocese of Pittsburgh on July 16, 1977 and served as parish pastor, seminary professor, spiritual director, and in the chancery. From 1984 to 1991, he worked in Rome as a staff member for the Congregation for Bishops, as director of Villa Stritch (the house for American clergy), and as adjunct professor at the Pontifical North American College. In 1991 he returned to Pittsburgh, serving as pastor to several parishes and again in the chancery.

He was appointed coadjutor bishop of Sioux City, Iowa and ordained there as a bishop in October 1997. As his Episcopal motto he adopted: Ave Crux Spes Unica, meaning "Hail the Cross, Our Only Hope." He succeeded retiring Bishop Lawrence Donald Soens of Sioux City in November of 1998.

He was named coadjutor bishop (later coadjutor archbishop) of Galveston-Houston in January 2004 and succeeded Archbishop Joseph Fiorenza on February 28, 2006. On June 29, 2006, he received the pallium from Pope Benedict XVI. He was elevated to the College of Cardinals in November of 2007 at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. As a member of the Sacred College, he served as a Cardinal-Elector in the Papal Conclave of 2013, which saw the election of Pope Francis to the See of Peter. In November of the same year, he was elected by his brother bishops as the Vice-President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) for a three-year term. He currently serves as President of the USCCB, having been elected on November 15, 2016. He is a member of the Pontifical Council for Culture, the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People, the Pontifical Council for the Economy, and is on the Board of Trustees of The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.

Tilling the Rocky Soil - Overcoming Obstacles to Love

Speaker: Rev. Sean Kilcawley - Integrity Restored, Director of Family Life Office Diocese of Lincoln, National Speaker.

Fr. Sean Kilcawley graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1996 with a BS in Middle East Foreign Area Studies. After serving for three years as an Infantry Officer in the U.S. Army he entered St Gregory the Great Seminary in Seward Nebraska as a pre-theologian for the Diocese of Lincoln, NE. Fr. Kilcawley earned a Masters of Divinity and a STB from St Charles Borromeo Seminary in 2005 and then served the diocese of Lincoln for four years as a High School teacher of religion and parochial vicar. In 2013, Fr. Kilcawley completed an STL (summa cum laude) at the John Paul II institute for marriage and family in Rome. He currently serves as Diocesan Director of the Office of Family Life for the Diocese of Lincoln, as well as Program Director/Theological Advisor for Integrity Restored.