Patrick Madrid

PATRICK MADRID is the publisher of Envoy Magazine and serves as director of the Envoy Institute of Belmont Abbey College. He has authored twelve books on Catholic themes, including, Pope Fiction, Search and Rescue, Does the Bible Really Say That? and the multi-volume Surprised by Truth series. He was vice president of Catholic Answers for eight years, from 1988 through 1995, helping co-found that apostolate's flagship magazine, This Rock, in January of 1990.
Patrick is a cradle-Catholic, not a convert. He was raised in the Catholic Faith, growing up in Southern California, where he earned a bachelor's degree in business from the University of Phoenix. He is completing degrees in philosophy and theology at the Pontifical College Josephinum, Columbus, Ohio.

He has hosted several EWTN television series and is the host of the Thursday edition of EWTN Radio's “Open Line” broadcast, heard on approximately 140 AM and FM stations around the U.S., as well as on Sirius Satellite Radio. Over the past 20 years, he has delivered over 1500 public lectures on Catholic history, theology, and apologetics, in English and Spanish, at parishes and universities around the world. He is a veteran of a dozen formal, public debates with Protestant ministers, Mormon leaders, and other non-Catholic spokesmen.

Cardinal Edward Egan, Archbishop of New York, recently commented on the effectiveness of Patrick's approach to apologetics saying, “How do you bring a friend or relative back into the Church? First you pray. Then, you follow Patrick Madrid's advice in [his book] Search and Rescue.”

Patrick and his wife Nancy have been married for 27 years and have been blessed by the Lord with eleven healthy and happy children and five grandchildren (who are also happy and healthy). Their most important goal as a couple is to one day hear the Lord Jesus say to them and their children, “Well done, good and faithful servants; you have been faithful over a little . . . now enter into the joy of your master” (Matt. 25:21)

Fr. Charles Connor

Father Charles P. Connor, the Historian of the Diocese of Scranton, received his early education in Saint Rose School, Carbondale, Penna. He is a graduate of the University of Scranton, where he also received his Master's Degree in United States History. In 1979, he received his PH.D, in United States History from Fordham University, New York City.

He served as Adjunct Professor of History at the University of Scranton, and his articles have appeared in numerous scholarly journals and Catholic publications. His column OUR CATHOLIC HERITAGE appears in each issue of The Catholic Light, official newspaper of the Diocese of Scranton. Two of his books have been published by Ignatius Press, San Francisco: Classic Catholic Converts in 2001, and DEFENDERS OF THE FAITH IN WORD AND DEED in 2003.

Father has co-produced several series for the Eternal Word Television Network, including: The History of the Catholic Church in the United States, Historic Catholic Converts, Defenders of Faith in Word and Deed, Doctors of the Church, The Catholic Priesthood through the Ages, Therese of Lisieux: The Saint for the Third Millennium, and most recently, The Sacraments through the Ages. He has appeared several times as the guest of Mother Angelica on her nationally syndicated program, MOTHER ANGELICA LIVE, as well as with Marcus Grodi on the Journey Home, and THE WORLD OVER, E.W.T.N's national news program.

Father Connor received a PH.D in Philosophy from the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium, and an S.T.B and M.A. in Theology from the Gregorian and Angelicum Universities in Rome, where he received his priestly formation at the North American College.

Ordained a priest of the Diocese of Scranton in 1990, he served for ten years as Assistant Pastor of Saint Patrick's Parish in Scranton. He has served as Pastor of Saint John the Evangelist Parish in Susquehanna, Penna., and on July 3, 2003 was named Pastor of Saint Rose of Lima Parish in Carbondale, Penna.

Fr. Ray Ryland

Fr. Ray Ryland served as an Episcopal Priest from 1950 until he and his family were received into the Catholic Church in 1963. Having received his Ph.D. from Marquette University and his J.D. from the University of San Diego Law School he taught for over 20 years at the University of San Diego as Professor of Theology before transferring to Franciscan University of Steubenville, where he was Adjunct Professor of Theology until 1994.
Currently Fr. Ray Ryland serves as Assistant at St. Peter’s Church in Steubenville Ohio. He also is Chaplain of the Coming Home Network and is contributing editor for This Rock Magazine.
Fr. Ray Ryland’s conversion story is in Journeys Home, edited by Marcus Grodi, which is published by Queenship and is available through the Coming Home Network.

Marcus Grodi, a cradle Protestant, received a BS degree in Polymer Engineering and worked as a plastics engineer before attending Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. After receiving his Masters in Divinity degree he was ordained to the Protestant ministry serving nine years before he and his family were received into the Catholic Church in 1992. Marcus now serves as the President / Founder of The Coming Home Network International, a non-profit Catholic lay apostolate that helps non-Catholic clergy and laity come home to the Catholic Church. He also hosts a weekly television program on EWTN called The Journey Home, and is the author of the novel How Firm a Foundation and the editor/author of Journeys Home.His conversion story can be read on our website by clicking here.

Dr. Richard Chacon

Dr. Richard Chacon (Ph.D. University of California, Santa Barbara) is an associate professor of Anthropology at Winthrop University, SC. He has conducted ethnographic fieldwork in Amazonia on traditional hunting practices among the Yanomamo of Venezuela, the Yora of Peru and the Achuar (Shiwiar) of Ecuador and he has also worked in the Andes with the Otavalo and Cotacachi Indians of Highland Ecuador. His research interests include optimal foraging theory, indigenous subsistence strategies, violence, warfare, belief systems, natural resource conservation, the evolution of complex societies, ethnohistory and the effects of globalization.Additionally, Chacon has worked as a U.S. Forest Service Archaeologist. His publications include:

The Taking and Displaying of Human Body Parts as Trophies by Amerindians. Co-edited with David H. Dye. New York: Springer Press.

North American Indigenous Warfare and Ritual Violence. Co-edited with Ruben Mendoza. Tucson: University of Arizona Press.

Latin American Indigenous Warfare and Ritual Violence. Co-edited with Ruben Mendoza. Tucson: University of Arizona Press.

 Traditions of Men: The Genesis and Persistence of Christian Fundamentalism in North America. Co-authored with Robert Roldan Jr. (under review).

Bruce Sullivan

 

Bruce Sullivan was raised as a Southern Baptist and served as a Church of Christ preacher for seven years. As a Church of Christ preacher, Bruce was a zealous apostle for what he believed to be the true Gospel, and, as such, he was also an ardent anti-Catholic. All of that changed, however, when he was confronted with the truth and beauty of the Catholic faith while trying to “evangelize” a Catholic family that had moved into his community. The studies precipitated by his encounter with his Catholic neighbor eventually led Bruce to recognize that the Catholic Church is, in fact, the true Church of Christ. As a result, he was received into the Catholic Church at the Easter Vigil of 1995 (his wife, Gloria, was received four years later in 1999).

Bruce is a graduate of Auburn University and the Sunset School of Preaching. He has been a guest on EWTN's Mother Angelica Live, Bookmark, The Journey Home, Deep in Scripture, and Catholic Answers Live. He is also the author of Christ in His Fullness: A Protestant Minister Discovers the Fullness of Christ in the Catholic Church (published by Coming Home Resources). Bruce and Gloria reside with their five children on a family farm in rural Kentucky.

 

Dr. Paul Thigpen is the editor of The Catholic Answer, a national bimonthly magazine published by Our Sunday Visitor, Inc., that answers questions about Catholic faith, practice and heritage. He is also the founder and executive director of The Stella Maris Center for Faith and Culture in Savannah, Georgia, a lay initiative of catechesis, evangelization, and cultural formation at the service of the Catholic Church. A best-selling author and award-winning journalist, he has published thirty-five books in a wide variety of genres and subjects: history and biography, spirituality and apologetics, anthologies and devotionals, family life and children’s books, study guides and reference works, fiction and collections of poetry and prayers. Three of his most recent titles appeared on various bestseller lists: The Rapture Trap: A Catholic Response to “End Times” Fever (Ascension, 2001); Shaken by Scandals: Catholics Speak Out About Priests’ Sexual Abuse (Servant, 2002); and The Passion: Reflections on the Suffering and Death of Jesus Christ (Allegiance, 2004). Thigpen has also written radio scripts and published more than five hundred journal and magazine articles in more than forty religious and secular periodicals for both scholarly and popular audiences. His work has been translated into thirteen languages. Thigpen graduated from Yale University in 1977 summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, with Distinction in the Major of Religious Studies. He was later awarded the Robert W. Woodruff Fellowship at Emory University in Atlanta, where he earned an M.A. (1993) and a Ph.D. (1995) in historical theology. In 1993 he was named as a Jacob K. Javits Fellow by the U.S. Department of Education. Thigpen has served as an assistant professor of religious studies at Missouri State University (Springfield), a Fellow in Theology at The College of Saint Thomas More in Fort Worth, Texas, and on the adjunct faculty of Saint Leo University in Savannah, Georgia. Thigpen is a former evangelical Protestant who entered the Catholic Church in 1993. The story of his conversion is recounted in the first chapter of the best-selling book Surprised by Truth: Eleven Converts Give the Biblical and Historical Reasons for Becoming Catholic (Basilica, 1994). He has served the Church as an historian, apologist, evangelist, and catechist in a number of settings, speaking frequently at conferences, seminars, parish missions, and scholarly gatherings in the United States and abroad. Thigpen was recently selected to become a member of the National Advisory Council of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.