The 26th Annual Cardinal O’Connor Conference on Life
January 25th, 2025
Life and Dignity:
A Global Commitment
Lila Rose was called Messenger-In-Chief of the pro-life movement by VICE News and the face of the Millennial anti-abortion movement by the Atlantic. Lila is a writer, speaker, and activist who founded and serves as president of Live Action, a human rights organization with the largest online impact among pro-life and pro-abortion groups reaching 40 million per month and over 2.3 billion lifetime video views. Lila has devoted her life to ending abortion and making America a more welcoming place for families. She’s the author of ‘Fighting for Life: Becoming a Force for Change in a Wounded World.’ and hosts the ‘Lila Rose Podcast’.
Our 2025 Keynote Speaker
Lila Rose
Meet Our Panelists
As founder of Alveda King Ministries, Alveda C. King, PhD, uses her God-given talents and abilities to glorify God and uphold the sanctity of life from the womb to the tomb, and beyond. She currently serves as a Board Member and Senior Advisor to Priests for Life, and as Chair of the America First Policy Institute’s Center for the American Dream. She is also a voice for the Silent No More Awareness Campaign, sharing her testimony of two abortions, God’s forgiveness, and healing.
She is a former Georgia State Legislator, and a twice assigned Presidential appointee. While living a “lifetime of serving God and humanity,” she has been honored with many awards, including a (2021) Presidential Lifetime Achievement Award and the Cardinal John O’Connor Pro-Life Hall of Fame Award (2011).
Evangelist King lives in Atlanta, where she is the grateful mother of six and a blessed grandmother.
Founder of Alveda King Ministries
Dr. Alveda C. King, PhD
Jor-El Godsey, President of Heartbeat International, has served the pregnancy help movement since 1991.
He first served as a volunteer at Hope Pregnancy Center in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida – first as a board member, then moving to Board Chair before transitioning to their staff as Executive Administrator.
In 1999, Jor-El became Executive Director of Life Choices in Longmont, Colorado, where he served for seven years before accepting the call to help Heartbeat International meet the diverse and expanding leadership needs as Vice-President.
Jor-El now serves as the President of Heartbeat International, the largest affiliation network of life-affirming pregnancy help outreach efforts in the world, in 90 countries. He leads a staff dedicated to Heartbeat’s core mission to reach and rescue lives at risk for abortion through far-reaching programs that include Option Line and Abortion Pill Rescue Network.
Jor-El met his wife, Karen, at a volunteer training for the Hope Center in Ft. Lauderdale. He and Karen have three adult children and make their home in Columbus, Ohio.
President, Heartbeat International
Jor-El Godsey
Brian Clowes has been the Director of Education and Research at Human Life International since 1995. He is a graduate of West Point, a former A-Team leader for the Army Special Forces (“Green Berets”), and holds a PhD in Civil Engineering and Systems Science. He is the author of several books, including The Facts of Life, The Pro-Life Pastoral Handbook, Catholics for a Free Choice Exposed, and Call to Action or Call to Apostasy: How Dissenters Plan to Remake the Catholic Church in Their Own Image. His Pro-Life Missionary Training Program has been presented to more than 35,000 people in the Southern Hemisphere, and his Facts of Life Library thumb drive has been distributed all over the world.
He has traveled to 70 countries on six continents as a pro-life speaker, educator and trainer, and has investigated many human rights violations committed by the Culture of Death. These include exposing the deliberate injection of sterilizing drugs into unknowing women in many nations from Nigeria to the Philippines.
Brian and his wife of 50 years, Kathy, have seven children and combined have over 80 years of pro-life experience, ranging from rescues to counseling pregnant women and assisting in litigation against abortionists.
Director of Education and Research, Human Life International
Brian Clowes, PhD
Maria is a speaker, activist, writer, and digital content creator. She studies Philosophy and Theology at the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Bogotá, Colombia, and Theology of the Body at the Theology of the Body Institute in Philadelphia. She also holds a diploma in Comprehensive Sexual Education from the Universidad Austral in Argentina.
A former feminist and pro-abortion advocate, Maria Paula experienced a profound conversion at the age of 20, leading her to embrace the Catholic faith. She left her law studies to follow her vocation as a lay missionary, pursuing a theology degree and dedicating her life to sharing the transformative message of the Gospel and Theology of the Body.
She is the founder of Somos Suyos- SOS, a growing ministry in Colombia focused on human dignity, sexuality, and emotional development, with a community of over 200,000 people. Maria Paula organizes retreats, workshops, and conferences, traveling throughout Latin America and the United States to address topics such as gender ideology, abortion, and God's plan for human love.
As a prominent activist in Colombian politics, Maria Paula has delivered impactful interventions in the Congress of the Republic of Colombia and the General Assembly of the Organization of American States, advocating for pro-life and pro-family values. Her work has established her as a leading voice in the defense of human dignity and the sanctity of life.
Maria Paula Aldana
Founder, SOS Ministries
Panel Moderator
TBD
Meet Our Breakout Speakers
Fr. Gregory Pine, O.P. is an instructor of dogmatic and moral theology at the Dominican House of Studies and an Assistant Director of the Thomistic Institute. Born and raised near Philadelphia, PA, he attended the Franciscan University of Steubenville, and entered the Order of Preachers upon graduating. He was ordained a priest in 2016 and holds an doctorate from the University of Fribourg (Switzerland). He is the co-author of Credo: An RCIA Program and Marian Consecration with Aquinas as well as the author of Prudence: Choose Confidently, Live Boldly. His writing also appears in Aleteia, Magnificat, and Ascension’s Catholic Classics series. He is a regular contributor to the podcasts Pints with Aquinas, Catholic Classics, The Thomistic Institute, and Godsplaining.
Fr. Gregory Pine, O.P.
Sr. Patricia Ebegbulem, SSL, is the 2023 recipient of the Human Dignity Award from the Sisters Anti-Trafficking Awards for lifetime achievement in addressing exploitation. She has established and runs a shelter for victims of human trafficking, organized support services for survivors of sex trafficking, runs mass awareness programs in high-risk areas and schools, and is a national leader on addressing human trafficking in Nigeria.
Sister Patricia Ebegbulem, SSL
Lisa Washington is the Director of Love Life, a national pro-life organization focused on ending abortion and supporting families in crisis. With over 20 years of experience in communications and leadership, she is dedicated to mobilizing and equipping the Church to take a stand for life. Through Love Life, Lisa leads efforts to recruit and activate evangelical churches to get involved in the abortion and orphan crisis, fostering a culture of life through prayer, action, and outreach. A native New Yorker and devoted follower of Christ, Lisa is married to her loving husband, Brian. Together, they are committed to advancing the pro-life movement and protecting the sanctity of life.
Lisa Washington
Father Stephen Fields, S.J., is a Professor of Philosophy of Religion and Systematic Theology at Georgetown University. He joined the faculty in 1993 and was ordained a Jesuit priest in 1986. Fr. Fields holds a Ph.D. in Philosophy from Yale University and a B.A. in English from the University of Oxford, along with degrees from the Weston Jesuit School of Theology, Fordham University, and Loyola College.
An expert in philosophical theology and Christian thought, he has authored Analogies of Transcendence (2016), Being as Symbol (2000), and several scholarly articles. He teaches courses on Christian thought, John Henry Newman, Thomas Aquinas, Christian mysticism, the Catholic vision of love, and Natural Law.
Father Stephen Fields, SJ
After graduating from the US Naval Academy, Sr. Maris Stella had a profound experience of God’s love and knew she was being called to lay down her life that others might live. She was captivated by the Lord's invitation to become a Sister of Life and to live as Bride of Christ and a mother of souls. She entered the Sisters of Life in 2006, and professed her final vows in 2014. She has served in the Sisters' mission to vulnerable pregnant women, accompanied those suffering after abortion, and served in the community's mission of evangelization to college students; she currently lives in the Bronx, NY, and serves as the community's vicar general and local superior of St. Frances de Chantal Convent.. The Sisters of Life are a religious community of women founded in 1991 by John Cardinal O’Connor who take a fourth vow to protect and enhance the sacredness of human life. Immersed in Eucharistic prayer within a vibrant community life, their missions include caring for vulnerable pregnant women and their unborn children; inviting those wounded by abortion into the healing mercy of Jesus; fostering a Culture of Life through evangelization; retreat works; spiritual accompaniment of college students; and upholding the beauty of marriage and family life.
Sr. Maris Stella, SV
Andrew S. Kubick, Ph.D., M.A. is Research Fellow in Bioethics and Medical Conscience at the Religious Freedom Institute. He is also a Personal Consultations Ethicist at the National Catholic Bioethics Center and Adjunct Instructor of Bioethics at the University of Mary.
Dr. Kubick holds a Ph.D. in Bioethics from the Pontifical Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum and completed a Post-Doctoral Ethics Fellowship at the National Catholic Bioethics Center. He holds a Master’s degree and Post-Master’s Certificate, both in Theology, from Holy Apostles College and Seminary. His work has been published in The Catholic Journal on Religious Freedom and Health Care, Dignitas, Ethics & Medics, National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly, National Catholic Register, Public Discourse, and St. John Paul II Journal of Bioethics. He is the author of the book Transplanting the Womb: A Catholic Bioethical Analysis. He has presented scholarly work at the annual conferences of the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the Catholic Medical Association, the Center for Bioethics & Human Dignity, and the Fellowship of Catholic Scholars.
With a passion for education, Dr. Kubick has developed bioethics and religious freedom curricula for secondary, undergraduate, and graduate-level students as well as for adult learners.
Andrew S. Kubick, Ph.D., M.A.
John A. Di Camillo, PhD, BeL, is an ethicist and the Personal Consultations Director at The National Catholic Bioethics Center (NCBC). He manages NCBC’s 24/7 free ethics consultation service for individuals, which includes training, mentorship, and supervision of Personal Consultations Fellows and Interns. He fields hundreds of phone and email consultations each year while reviewing hundreds more prepared by fellows and interns. He applies Catholic moral theology to science and medicine through writing, speaking, advising Catholic hospital ethics committees as an outside expert, counseling bishops and dioceses, conducting moral analyses of collaborative arrangements between Catholic and non-Catholic health care organizations, and analyzing employer health benefits for alignment with Catholic moral teaching. His topics of focus have included sexual and gender identity, maternal-fetal vital conflicts, determination of death and organ donation, reproductive technologies, and cooperation with evil.
Dr. Di Camillo has taught at middle school, high school, undergraduate, and graduate levels across disciplines including Italian language and culture, Church history, science, biomedical ethics, philosophy, and moral theology. He speaks fluent Italian and co-translated Personalist Bioethics, a seminal work authored by Elio Cardinal Sgreccia. His translations include other works of theology, spirituality, and bioethics for a variety of Catholic publishers, including the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. He worked for several years as a health care interpreter, conference interpreter, and classroom interpreter, and acquired health care experience as a pharmacy technician. He also served as one of the founding editors and as managing editor of the Catholic literary journal Dappled Things Magazine.
Dr. Di Camillo earned his BA summa cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania in the Biological Basis of Behavior and Italian Studies. He earned his bioethics doctorate and licentiate degrees summa cum laude from the Pontifical Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum in Rome. He received the Academic Excellence Award for his doctoral dissertation on organizational cooperation with evil and collaborative arrangements involving Catholic health care systems.
Dr. Di Camillo lives with his wife and children in Lancaster County, PA.
John A. Di Camillo, PhD, BeL
Mass for Life Celebrant
TBD
Schedule
8:00am - 9:30am Check-In
8:00am - 4:00pm Sponsorship Exhibits
8:15am - 9:15am Holy Hour
9:30am - 11:00am Welcome, Invocation Prayer, Keynote Address, and Presentation of the 15th Annual Rev. Thomas M. King, S.J. Award
11:10am - 2:30pm Breakout Sessions and Lunch
2:40pm - 4:00pm Panel Discussion
4:00pm - 4:15pm Closing Prayer & Adjournment
5:00pm - 6:00pm Mass for Life