HUMAN ACTION
AND THE
Drama
OF ACCOMPANIMENT:
THE 30th ANNIVERSARY OF VERITATIS SPLENDOR
September 29th - October 1st, 2023
Rochester, New York
CONFERENCE SCHEDULE
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 29th
Feast of Sts. Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael, Archangels
5:00 - 7:00pm Conference Check-In
7:00pm Keynote Panel No. 1: Alessandro Rovati, Ph.D., Belmont Abbey College, “Christ Who Lives in Me: Following Jesus in Veritatis Splendor and Beyond”
9:00pm Evening Reception
10:00pm Compline in the Chapel
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 30th
Feast of St. Jerome, Priest and Doctor of the Church
7:30 - 9:00am Continental Breakfast
8:30am Morning Prayer in the Chapel
9:00 - 10:30am Concurrent Session No. 1
Room A
Edmund M. Lazzari, Marquette University; Duquesne
University, “‘If You Wish to be Perfect’: e Gifts of the Holy Spirit, Radical Self-Gift, and Veritatis Splendor”
Blaise Ringor, e Ponti cal and Royal University of Santo Tomas, Manila, "Gratitude and the Splendor of Truth"
Siobhan Latar, Trinity School at Meadow View; St. Bernard's School of eology and Ministry, "You Know at I Love You: Peter, Giussani, and the Birth of Morality"
Room B
Eduardo Echeverria, Sacred Heart Major Seminary, "Christian Anthropology and the Moral and Sacramental Signi cance of the Body for Marriage"
Daniel Drain, St. Bernard’s School of eology and Ministry, “ e ‘Pre-Moral Body’ and the Di erence of Gender: Identity, Otherness, and Transgenderism"
Joseph Arias, Christendom College, "Veritatis Splendor and Recent Developments in Catholic Teaching on the Intrinsically Evil Acts of Homicide and Abortion"
Room C
Timothy Strei , Saint Paul Seminary, "Positive Moral Norms and Circumstances in Veritatis Splendor”
Peter Colosi, Salve Regina University; St. Bernard’s School of eology and Ministry, “Two Re ections on the Nature of Conscience: Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning and St.
John Paul II’s Veritatis Splendor”
Room D
Lisa Lickona, St. Bernard’s School of eology and Ministry, “Approaching the ‘Logic’ of Pastoral Mercy: Some Indications from Dominum et Vivi cantem”
Joan Morris Gilbert, Holy Apostles College and Seminary, “What is the Role of Truth and Freedom in the Practice of the ‘Hermeneutics of the Gift’?”
Alexander Montes, University of Rochester Medical Center, "Totus Tuus: Understanding Freedom as Self-Donation in Veritatis Splendor"
11:00 - 12:30pm
Keynote Panel No. 2: Steven Long, Ph.D., Ave Maria University
12:45 - 1:30pm Lunch
1:45 - 3:15pm
Concurrent Session No. 2
Room A
William F. (Bill) Murphy, Jr., St. Edmund's Retreat: Edmundite Initiative for Human Dignity, “Francis and the Conciliar Renewal of Moral eology for the Signs of Our Times?”
Concurrent Session No. 2 Continued
Room A cont.
Katherine Mascari, University of Notre Dame, "Physical, Moral, Spiritual: Origen, John Paul II, and the Anthropological Foundations of Moral Formation"
Fr. Christian J. Ivandic, University of Notre Dame, "Veritatis Splendor and Origen’s eodramatic eology
Room B
Taylor Patrick O’Neill, omas Aquinas College, “Veritatis Splendor on Nature and Grace: e Necessary Ordering of Natural Virtue to the Supernatural End”
Matthew Kuhner, St. Bernard’s School of eology and Ministry, " e Perspective of the Acting Person’ in Veritatis Splendor and the Pastoral Conversion of Moral eology"
Joseph omas Lanzilotti, e Heights School, " e Paschal Mystery and the Renewal of Moral eology”
Room D
Richard G. DeClue, Jr., Word on Fire Institute, “Metaphysics and Morality in Veritatis Splendor and other Contemporary Voices”
Fr. Ryan Connors, St. John's Seminary, "Veritatis Splendor at irty: ree Decades of Catholic Moral Teaching Founded on the Splendor of Truth"
Joseph Terry, City University of New York, " e Marian Shape of Veritatis Splendor"
3:15 - 4:30pm Open Time
4:45 - 5:30pm Vigil Mass in the Chapel with the Most Rev. Salvatore R. Matano, Bishop of the Diocese of Rochester
5:45 - 7:15pm Keynote Panel No. 3: Caitlin Smith-Gilson, Ph.D., University of Holy Cross, “What Constitutes the Truly Good Person? Re ections on Radical Freedom and Abandonment in Veritatis Splendor”
7:15pm Dinner
9:00pm Compline in the Chapel
9:30pm Evening Reception
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 1st
26th Sunday in Ordinary Time
7:30 - 9:00am Continental Breakfast
8:00 - 8:45am Mass
9:00 - 10:30am Concurrent Session No. 3
Room A
Fr. Matthew Schneider, LC, Belmont Abbey College, “Reading
Veritatis Splendor in Light of Amoris Laetitia”
William R. Hamant, St. omas More Oratory, "What Does the Lord Ask of You? e Law of Gradualness, the Gradualness of the Law, and the Loss of the Purgative Way"
Michel G. MacDonald, Sacred Heart High School, "Exposing an Old Wolf in New Sheepskin in the Light of Veritatis Splendor"
Room C
Michael D. Stannard, Clovis Community College, "Kant and Veritatis Splendor"
Michael A. Wahl, Providence College, "Veritatis Splendor and Contemporary Catholic Virtue Ethics"
Kevin M. Scott, University of Notre Dame, “Categorical Morality for Contingent Nature: Veritatis Splendor and Neo-Aristotelian Eudaimonism”
Concurrent Session No. 3 Continued
Room D
Luke Arredondo, St. Philip Institute of Catechesis and Evangelization, "Too Many omisms? An Interrogation of the Utilization of St. omas Aquinas in Veritatis Splendor and Amoris Laetitia"
James E. Kelly, Ave Maria University, "A Brief Catechesis on Goodness and Grace: Human Action in Aquinas, Trent, and Veritatis Splendor"
10:30 - 11:00am Open Time
11:00 - 1:00pm Keynote Panel No. 4: Angela Franks, Ph.D., St. John’s Seminary
“ e Aesthetics of Human Action According to John Paul II”
1:00pm Lunch (containers provided)
Scan the QR code below to access our conference survey online:
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Conference Committee
Daniel Drain, Conference Co-Chair
Matthew Kuhner, Conference Co-Chair
Mary Colleen Drain
Bernadette Bobrowski
Kelly Brunacini
Katharina Nieves
Marco Stango
Rev. Peter Van Lieshout, Conference Chaplain
ank You
Session Moderators
Conference Assistants
Transportation Drivers
Tyburn Academy
Conference Sponsors:
National Catholic Bioethics Center
Catholic Medical Association - Finger Lakes Guild
HOTEL SHUTTLE:
A complimentary shuttle will be provided to take attendees from and to the conference hotel (DoubleTree by Hilton Rochester, 1111 Je erson Road Rochester, NY, 14623) and conference location on Friday evening, Saturday morning, Saturday evening, and Sunday morning. A shuttle will not be provided to or from the airport.
KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
Angela Franks, Ph.D.
Dr. Angela Franks is a theologian, speaker, writer, and mother of six. She serves as Professor of eology at St. John's Seminary in Boston and as a Senior Fellow at the Abigail Adams Institute in Cambridge. She is a Life and Dignity Writing Fellow for Church Life Journal (University of Notre Dame). Her areas of specialty include the theology of the body, identity, the Trinity, Christology, and the thought of John Paul II and Hans Urs von Balthasar. She is nishing a two-volume book manuscript entitled e Body and Identity. Volume 1 is subtitled Liquid Bodies and Empty Selves, while volume 2 is called eological and Philosophical Anthropology. Dr. Franks has been published in academic journals such as eological Studies, Christian Bioethics, Nova et Vetera, Communio, and others. She has written two books on sexual ethics and the history of eugenics.
Caitlin Smith-Gilson, Ph.D.
Caitlin Smith-Gilson is Professor of Philosophy at University of Holy Cross, New Orleans, and visiting Professor of Philosophy at Ponti cia Università della Santa Croce, in Rome, Italy. Dr. Gilson is Associate Editor of e New Ressourcement Journal. She is author of 7 books of Catholic eology, Christian philosophy, and poetry, and two more set for publication—Monotheism and Paradise and e Anguillara Decade: Redolence and Rhapsody. Her current projects are a second volume on Heaven and a novel on Purgatory, both for Wipf & Stock.
Steven Long, Ph.D.
Dr. Steven A. Long is full professor of theology at Ave Maria University and ordinary member of the Ponti cal Academy of St. omas Aquinas. In 2022, he began his term as president of the American Catholic Philosophical Association. Dr. Long is author of several books, including e Teleological Grammar of the Moral Act. He also co- edited Reason and the Rule of Faith: Conversations in the Tradition with John Paul II with Christopher J. ompson. He has published scholarly articles in e omist, Nova et Vetera, Communio, National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly, and others.
Alessandro Rovati, Ph.D.
Dr. Alessandro Rovati is Department Chair and Associate Professor of eology at Belmont Abbey College, where he also serves as the Director of the Diaconal Formation Program. A graduate of the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan, Italy, Dr. Rovati’s scholarship focuses on Christian Ethics, Moral eology, and Catholic Social Teaching. He published articles on Joseph Ratzinger’s Christological understanding of beauty, Stanley Hauerwas’ theological proposal, Pope Francis’ contributions to moral theology, and on living Christianity in a secular age. Dr. Rovati recently co-edited a special issue of the Journal of Moral eology on “Vocation, Friendship, and the Catholic Moral Tradition” and is currently working on two writing projects, one on Charles Taylor and one on the moral theology of the Servant of God Msgr. Luigi Giussani. He led the association for early-career moral theologians New Wine New Wineskins for the past ve years and served as the Synod Coordinator for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Charlotte.
O Mary, Mother of Mercy, watch over all people, that the Cross of Christ may not be emptied of its power, that man may not stray from the path of the good or become blind to sin, but may put his hope ever more fully in God who is "rich in mercy" (Eph 2:4). May he carry out the good works prepared by God beforehand (cf. Eph 2:10) and so live completely "for the praise of his glory" (Eph 1:12).
PRAYER FROM VERITATIS SPLENDOR
Veritatis Splendor's Closing Prayer. August 6, 1993, Feast of the Trans guration, during the fteenth year of Pope St. John Paul II’s Ponti cate.
HOST INSTITUTION
For over 125 years, St. Bernard's has steadily pursued a course of dedication and service to Christ and His Church. Opened as a Roman Catholic Seminary in 1893 in the Diocese of Rochester and restructured as an Institute for eological and Ministerial studies in 1981, St. Bernard's went on to open its doors in the Diocese of Albany. From there in 2011 it held its rst class in the Diocese of Syracuse, and then in 2019 began its rst ever online distance learning program allowing anyone anywhere to access graduate theology and philosophy degrees and certi cates. In 2020, St. Bernard’s expanded its diaconate and lay formation o erings to the Diocese of Bu alo, and in 2021 began providing diaconate formation for the Diocese of Allentown, PA.
Our mission is to nurture the entirety of the human person through attention to the pastoral, intellectual, spiritual, and human dimensions of formation with the hope that we may, in a de nite and dedicated way, assist our students to understand the things of our Faith and to incarnate them in their day-to-day service to God's people and the world as a whole.
