The 26th Annual Cardinal O’Connor Conference on Life
January 25th, 2025
Life and Dignity:
A Global Commitment
Our 2025 Keynote Speaker
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’.
Lila Rose
Meet Our Panelists
Founder and Director, The Abortion Survivors Network
Melissa Ohden is the Founder and Director of The Abortion Survivors Network and The Abortion Survivors Network Education and Policy Center. She is a Master's level prepared Social Worker with experience in the fields of mental health, substance abuse treatment, domestic violence and sexual assault counseling, and child welfare.
She is the survivor of a failed saline infusion abortion in 1977, which is documented in her medical records, medical professionals she has been connected with over the years, and even her birthmother, Ruth. Like so many abortion stories, Ruth's and Melissa's were so much more painful than anyone, including Melissa's adoptive parents, could imagine.
Ruth was forced to abort Melissa at the age of 19 and spent over thirty years believing the abortion had been successful--Melissa's survival and placement for adoption had been kept a secret from her. Melissa and Ruth are now a part of one another's lives.
Melissa and her family reside in Kansas City, Missouri.
Melissa Ohden
Dr. Alveda C. King, PhD
Jor-El Godsey
President, Heartbeat International
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.
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 Paula Aldana
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.
Founder, SOS Ministries
Panel Moderator
Abigail “Abi” Galván serves as the host of EWTN's Pro-Life Weekly, where each week, she, along with a team of pro-life experts, shines the light of truth on abortion, euthanasia, assisted suicide, and the culture of death. Abi serves on the Pastoral Council of the Archdiocese of Washington, DC. She is also a founding board member of the Gratia Plena Institute. This non-profit organization strives to arm young women with the beautiful truths of the Catholic faith to help them unlock their feminine genius. A graduate of Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, Abi earned her bachelor’s degree in international politics. While there, she served as regent of the Catholic Daughters of the Americas, executive director of Love Saxa, and volunteered at the Cardinal O’Connor Conference. Originally from Texas, Abi now calls Arlington, VA, her home.
Host, EWTN Pro-life Weekly
Abigail Galván
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.
Father 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
Fr. 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
Dr. Kimberly Henkel is the Founder and Executive Director of Springs of Love, an apostolate dedicated to inspiring Catholics to discern and live out the call to foster and adopt. Springs of Love supports foster and adoptive families through educational programs, small groups, and dedicated parish care teams. Kimberly is the Executive Producer of the Springs of Love Foster & Adoption Video Stories, featured on FORMED and EWTN On-Demand. This series received four awards by the Catholic Media Association in 2024, including first place for best video series and first place for best pro-life video.
Kimberly has appeared on EWTN’s Women of Grace and At Home With Jim & Joy, Catholic Answers Live, The Catholic Doctor’s Radio Show, CFN Live, and C-SPAN. She has been published in The Linacre Quarterly, The National Catholic Register, The Catholic Times, Focus on the Family and Humanum. She was a speaker at the 2024 Walk for Life West Coast in San Francisco.
Converting to Catholicism as an adult, Kimberly moved to Washington, D.C. to pursue a Masters in Theological Studies from the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage & Family. Kimberly went on to earn a PhD in Moral Theology/Ethics, with a focus in Bioethics, from the Catholic University of America, where she was awarded a full John Quasten Scholarship and Hubbard Dissertation Fellowship. She also studied bioethics in Rome at the Regina Apostolorum.
After years of infertility, in 2019, Kimberly co-founded Springs in the Desert, a ministry to spiritually and emotionally accompany those struggling with infertility and loss. In 2021, Springs in the Desert was named a finalist in the OSV Challenge.
In their infertility journey, Kimberly and her husband, Greg, felt called to pursue adoption through foster care. Once they began their fostering journey, they were struck by the overwhelming need of so many children and broken families and surprised by the lack of awareness and support in the Church. In 2022, they founded Springs of Love to ignite the hearts of Catholics to care for the vulnerable children in our midst. Kimberly and Greg are adoptive parents to four children in Ohio.
Kimberly Henkel, PhD.
Kathi Aultman, M.D., is a retired Board-Certified OB/GYN and an Associate Scholar with the Charlotte Lozier Institute. She is a member of the American Association of Prolife Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the Christian Medical and Dental Associations, the Florida Medical Association, and is a Life-Fellow of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. She practiced medicine from 1981 to 2014 in Orange Park, Florida.
Dr. Aultman was the co-founder and co-director of the first Rape Treatment Center in Jacksonville, Florida, and performed sexual assault exams on women and children as a medical examiner for Duval and Clay Counties. She performed 1st trimester D&C with suction abortions and 2nd-trimester D&E’s. She also served as the Medical Director for Planned Parenthood of Northeast Florida, Inc. from 1981 to 1983.
Her experiences doing abortions, and those in her OB/GYN practice, led her to a prolife position. She has spoken nationally and internationally and has testified extensively on various pro-life issues before state and congressional bodies, state courts, and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. She spoke at the 2019 Washington D.C. March for Life Rally and was the keynote speaker at the 2019 Rose Dinner following the special speaker, Vice President Pence. She has been interviewed by CBN, Live Action News, and Focus on the Family. She spoke to students at the 2020 and 2024 Cardinal O’Connor Conference for Life at Georgetown University and at Princeton and the University of Chicago in 2024. In 2022, she appeared on Dr. Ben Carson’s podcast, Common Sense.
She was the lead author of “Deaths and Severe Adverse Events after the Use of Mifepristone as an Abortifacient from September 2000 to February 2019” and is a co-author of “Mifepristone Adverse Events Identified by Planned Parenthood in 2009-2010 compared to those in the FAERS and FOIA.
Dr. Kathi Aultman, MD
Grace Melton is a Senior Associate for international social issues in The Heritage Foundation’s Richard and Helen DeVos Center for Life, Religion, and Family. In this role, Grace focuses on life, marriage and family, religious liberty and human rights as they pertain to U.N. policies, as well as in American foreign policy priorities.
Grace was appointed to serve as a public delegate on the U.S. delegation to the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women in 2017, where she advocated for pro-life, pro-woman policies. She also has participated in U.N.-related commissions in New York, Geneva and Nairobi, and often speaks at conferences and U.N. events.
Her writing has appeared in publications such as The Washington Times, Public Discourse, The Daily Signal, and Newsweek. She has also done interviews with NPR, National Catholic Register, and other media.
Grace originally joined Heritage in 2004 as Research Assistant in domestic policy studies. She is a graduate of Williams College and serves on the Board of Directors of Cardinal Kung Academy in Stamford, CT. Grace lives in Connecticut with her husband and children.
Grace Melton
Joyce McCauley-Benner
Joyce McCauley-Benner presents “Slaves Among Us: Sex Trafficking in the U.S.” and “Victory Over Violence,” her personal story. For the past 20-plus years, Joyce has worked as an advocate for vulnerable populations, including sex trafficking victims, domestic violence victims, and low-income families. While working with those populations, she was a case manager, researcher, and legal advocate. Joyce weaves her personal story of pregnancy after rape along with experiences from her advocacy efforts to help audiences understand the powerful connection between the exploitation of women and the exploitation of abortion.
As a pro-life feminist, Joyce has also worked as a racial justice facilitator, community organizer, and energy assistance program administrator. She now serves as FFL’s Director of Public Education and Editor for FFL’s magazine, The American Feminist, helpsite, WomenDeserveBetter.com, and Girls Deserve Better, as well as addressing poverty, violence, and exploitation during her presentations on campus, on Capitol Hill, and at international conferences.
Sr. Maryann Agnes Mueller
Before joining the Felician Sisters, Sr. Maryann Agnes Mueller worked as a dietician and research tech. Later, she became a certified diabetes educator and a high school science teacher. She serves as the full-time justice and peace coordinator for the Felician Sisters of North America, and she edits the congregational justice and peace newsletter. She serves on several boards, including U.S. Catholic Sisters Against Human Trafficking, for whom she publishes the Stop Trafficking Newsletter.
Rebecca Kiessling
Rebecca Kiessling has been an international pro-life speaker since 1995, speaking for various pro-life organizations, including right to life groups, crisis pregnancy center fundraisers, 40 Days for Life events, rallies, churches, high schools, universities, Students for Life, women’s conferences, attorney conferences, adoption events, and Catholic conferences and groups such as Magnigicat and Legatus, throughout North America, Europe, and Latin America.
Politically influential, she changed the heart of Gov. Rick Perry during his presidential campaign, as well as Newt Gingrich, and many legislators across the U.S., Canada and Europe.
She’s also an attorney and mother.
She appeared in the following documentary films: The Citizens United film, “The Gift of Life with Gov. Mike Huckabee,” the “40” film, "The Matter of Life" on EWTN, “Conceived in Rape: From Worthless to Priceless,” “Except in Cases of Rape? 12 Stories of Survival,” and “Conceived in Rape and Other Exceptions.” Rebecca has appeared on Fox’s Huckabee, CNN’s Piers Morgan debating Gloria Allred, CBN’s 700 Club, Catholic TV’s “This is the Day,” ABC’s Good Morning America, EWTN’s Life on the Rock and Defending Life with Fr. Frank Pavone, “Facing Life Head On,” as well as the nationally-syndicated tv program “Extra.” Her story has been featured in Glamour Magazine and Marie Claire Magazine.
She’s also the poster child for Feminists for Life’s ad, “Did I Deserve the Death Penalty,” author of the Heritage House ’76 pamphlet “Conceived in Rape: A Story of Hope,” and the writer of, and subject of, numerous articles and blogs on LifeNews, Lifesitenews, and Live Action.
Founder and President of Save The 1, and co-founder of Embryo Defense.
Mass for Life Celebrant
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