The 25th Annual Cardinal O’Connor Conference on Life

January 20th, 2024

Note: the next Conference will take place in January 2025, the Saturday after the March for Life. Tickets will be available closer to the date. Details about the most recent Conference are below. Videos of the Keynote Address and the Panel Discussion can be found at the link above.

Silver Jubilee Theme:

Discerning the Next 25 Years

Our 2024 Keynote Speaker

Cardinal O'Malley is the Archbishop of Boston, the President of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, and a member of the Council of Cardinal Advisers. He has been a prominent advocate in the pro-life movement, consistently emphasizing the Church’s teachings on the dignity of human life from conception to natural death. Cardinal O’Malley is a member of The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), where he previously served as the Chairman of the Committee on Pro-Life Activities. He also led the Commission on Clergy, Consecrated Life, and Vocations. Additionally, he is a member of the USCCB Administrative Board and a member of the committees on Migration and Pro-Life Activities, as well as the subcommittees focused on the Church in Africa and Latin America.

His Eminence, Seán Patrick O’Malley, O.F.M. Cap.

Meet Our Panelists

Margaret “Peggy” Hartshorn, Ph.D.

Peggy Hartshorn, Ph.D., is the former President and now Chair of the Board of Heartbeat International, the largest pregnancy help organization in the world, with over 3,000 locations in 90+ countries. Peggy co-founded Heartbeat International’s Option Line in 2002. It is the only 24/7, bilingual, internet-based, pro-life call center in the world. Option Line handles about a quarter of a million calls for help each year, connecting callers to their community-based pregnancy help center for life-saving and life-changing help. She is a recipient of the Cardinal John J. O'Connor Award from Legatus International and the People of Life Award for 2023 from the US Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Board Chair, Heartbeat International

Emily Geiger is the Director of Education & Outreach at the Equal Rights Institute. She is the former Co-President of Oles for Life at St. Olaf College, where she worked to transform campus culture using ERI’s apologetics to foster respectful and productive dialogues about abortion. At ERI, she is using her educational background to write, develop curriculum, and teach pro-life advocates how to change minds, save lives, and promote a culture of life in their communities. A sought-after speaker, Emily frequently presents lectures on college campuses, in high schools, and for churches and conferences, and she regularly appears in interviews and radio/TV/podcasts, including appearances on MSNBC, BBC Newsday, EWTN, Focus on the Family, Relevant Radio, Christianity Today, and Real Presence LIVE.

Director of Education & Outreach at Equal Rights Institute

Emily Geiger

Sr. Mariae Agnus Dei, SV

The Sisters of Life are consecrated to protect and enhance a sense of the sacredness of human life. Their missions include caring for vulnerable pregnant women and their unborn children. Sister Mariae Agnus Dei has had the joy of serving as a formator for the community, as well as in the various missions of the Sisters of Life including accompaniment in crisis-pregnancies, post-abortion healing, and in evangelization as a co-host of the Sisters of Life podcast. She graduated from the Catholic University of America with her Bachelor of Science in Nursing and she worked as an intensive care nurse before joining the Sisters of Life. She is currently pursuing her masters in bioethics at the John Paul II Institute at the Catholic University of America.

Sisters of Life, St. Clare’s Convent, D.C.

Kristen Day is the Executive Director of Democrats for Life of America. Having been elected to serve as a Precinct Delegate at Michigan State University, she worked for State Representative Rick Sitz and then for the University’s Government Affairs Office. Later, she rose to serve in the highest position as the Chief of Staff for Congressman Jim Barcia. Working to pass pro-life and pro-family legislation, she advocated for Democrats who oppose abortion. Working for the Democratic Co-Chair of the Bipartisan House Pro-life Caucus, Kristen set up a whip operation to alert pro-life Democrats when critical pro-life votes were going to come on the Floor or in Committee. She works to remind people that pro-life Democrats are not only needed but essential, for pro-life legislation to pass the House and Senate. Day’s articles have been published in publications such as the Washington Post and the National Review. She has also appeared on NPR's Talk of the Nation, FOX News, MSNBC, EWTN and other major news outlets.

Executive Director, Democrats for Life of America

Kristen Day

Panel Moderator

Kim Daniels is the director of the Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life at Georgetown University and an adjunct professor in Georgetown’s Department of Theology and Religious Studies. She was appointed by Pope Francis as a Member of the Vatican Dicastery for Communication in 2016, and in that role was an advisor to the organizing committee for the February 2019 Vatican Meeting on the Protection of Minors in the Church. In August 2021 Kim was also appointed a member of the Synod 2021-2024 Communications Commission. She is also a consultor to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee for Religious Liberty, and has advised other Catholic leaders and institutions on a broad range of issues where Church teachings intersect with public life, including immigration, human life and dignity, religious liberty, and care for creation. Kim is a graduate of the University of Chicago Law School and Princeton University.

Director of the Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life at Georgetown

Kim Daniels, J.D.

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.

Kathi Aultman, M.D. is a retired Board-Certified OB/Gyn and is a current 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. 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 there. 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 testified extensively before state and congressional bodies, aided the Justice Department, and won multiple awards.

Kathi A. Aultman, M.D.

For the past 20-plus years, Joyce McCauley-Benner 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 Feminists for Life’s Director of Public Education, the Editor for FFL’s magazine, The American Feminist, and runs the helpsites WomenDeserveBetter.com, and GirlsDeserveBetter.org. Joyce has made presentations to several campuses, on Capitol Hill, and at international conferences, addressing poverty, violence, and exploitation.

Joyce McCauley-Benner

Sister Juliana Faustina is originally from Rhode Island and graduated from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, TX. She entered the Sisters of Life in 2016, and professed first vows on August 4, 2019. 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. Sister currently lives at St. Paul the Apostle Convent in New York, and serves in the community's Hope & Healing mission, accompanying women who have suffered from the experience of abortion as they seek healing through the merciful love of Jesus Christ. (www.sistersoflife.org)

Sr. Juliana Faustina, SV

Robert Fastiggi (A.B. Dartmouth, Ph.D Fordham) holds the Bishop M. Kevin Britt Chair of Dogmatic Theology and Christology at Sacred Heart Major Seminary, Detroit, MI where he has taught since 1999. He previously taught at St. Edward’s University in Austin, TX (1985–1999). He was the co-editor of the English translation of the 43rd edition of Denzinger-Hünermann, Compendium of Creeds, Definitions, and Declarations on Matters of Faith and Morals (Ignatius Press, 2012) and the executive editor of the 2009–2013 supplements to the New Catholic Encyclopedia. He is a council member of the Mariological Society of America, a member of the theological commission of the International Marian Association, and a member of PAMI, the Pontifical Marian Academy International (Pontificia Academia Mariana Internationalis).

Dr. Robert Fastiggi

Daniel K. Williams is a senior fellow at the Ashbrook Center at Ashland University and the author of several books on religion and politics in the United States, including Defenders of the Unborn: The Pro-Life Movement before Roe v. Wade and The Politics of the Cross: A Christian Alternative to Partisanship. Before coming to Ashland, he was a professor of history at the University of West Georgia. His analysis of the politics of abortion and American religion has been featured in the Atlantic, the Washington Post, and Christianity Today. He holds a Ph.D. in history from Brown University and a B.A. in history and classics from Case Western Reserve University.

Dr. Daniel K. Williams

Melissa Moschella is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the Catholic University of America. Her research and teaching focus on natural law, biomedical ethics, and the family. She is the author of To Whom Do Children Belong? Parental Rights, Civic Education and Children’s Autonomy (Cambridge University Press, 2016), and of numerous articles published in scholarly journals as well as popular media outlets, including Bioethics, The Journal of Medical Ethics, The Journal of Medicine and Philosophy, Notre Dame Law Review, The New York Times, USA Today, and The Washington Post. She serves as Associate Editor of Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics, on the editorial board of the National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly, and on the editorial advisory board of The Journal of Medicine and Philosophy. She graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College, earned a Licentiate summa cum laude from the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, and received her Ph.D. in Political Philosophy from Princeton University.

Dr. Melissa Moschella

Josh Craddock is an affiliated scholar with the James Wilson Institute. He is a graduate of the Harvard Law School, where he served as editor-in-chief of the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy. He later clerked for the Honorable Chief Judge Timothy Tymkovich of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. Prior to law school, Mr. Craddock managed advocacy teams for several non-profit organizations at the United Nations. His writing has appeared in the Notre Dame Law Review, Harvard Journal on Legislation, Washington Post, Newsweek, and National Review.

Josh Craddock, J.D.

Dr. Katrina Furth is an associate scholar at the Charlotte Lozier Institute in Washington, DC, which promotes science and statistics for pro-life causes. She specializes in communicating science concepts with non-scientific audiences and is the lead author of the VoyageofLife.com website. Since graduating with a PhD in Neuroscience from Boston University, she has worked as an adjunct professor at Catholic University in Washington, DC. Dr. Furth enjoys educating scientists and non-scientists alike about fetal development and has presented expert legislative testimony, seminars, and talks concerning milestones in heart and brain growth. She believes that as people come to understand more about embryonic and fetal development, they will be more likely to support life-affirming policies. Dr. Furth also enjoys working with teen moms through a ministry called YoungLives. She currently resides in Washington DC with her husband and four children.

Dr. Katrina Furth

Kathleen Domingo serves as Executive Director of the California Catholic Conference. She lobbies on behalf of the 12 Catholic dioceses in California, representing the bishops of California on issues such as human life and dignity, strong healthy families, racial justice, environmental justice, healthcare access, housing, restorative justice, educational excellence and religious liberty. Kathleen served for eight years in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles as Senior Director of the Office of Life, Justice and Peace. She led OneLife LA, created Respect Life Week, and built the first Caring for the Whole Person diocesan-based program in the nation. Kathleen is a national speaker, writer, and organizer. She regularly shares her insights and resources with dioceses and organizations around the country and internationally. She holds a BS from the University of San Francisco as well as a Certificate from its St Ignatius Institute. She earned a Master’s degree in Theology from the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies in Marriage and Family in Washington, DC.

Kathleen Domingo

Student Panel

Four student presidents of college pro-life clubs join us to discuss their experiences and advice.

Note: this panel will be a breakout session and will be speaking for only one session

Elizabeth Oliver is a sophomore at Georgetown University studying Classics with minors in French and Theology from Greenwich, CT. In addition to her role as Co-Sponsorship Chair on the OCC Board, Elizabeth serves as the President of Georgetown University Right to Life. She volunteers at the Northwest Center as a French translator. Over the summers, Elizabeth runs and leads a daycare for children in her local community. She is passionate about strengthening the pro-life message at Georgetown and empowering other students to use their voices for the voiceless. She loves to travel, enjoys singing in choirs, and likes baking with her friends and family.

Elizabeth Oliver

Kenzi Bustamante is the Students for Life President at the University of Chicago. She is a fourth-year student studying biology with a specialization in global health and is enrolled in the Harris School of Public Policy Masters program. Kenzi is a staff writer for the Chicago Thinker, the free-speech conservative publication on campus, and writes articles about pro-life events on campus. She currently works at the Institute of Politics at UChicago and has non-profit and healthcare research internship experience in West Africa. After graduation, she hopes to work for a pro-life organization, focusing on the international direction of the movement.

Kenzi Bustamante

Liliana Zylstra is a junior communication arts major at Grove City College where she serves as president of the Life Advocates club and works as a student marketing fellow for the Institute for Faith and Freedom. Lily is interested in the role of persuasion in the pro-life movement. She has canvassed for pro-life candidates and legislation in 5 different states as part of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America’s student program. She also completed an internship with SBA’s communication department in Washington, D.C., during the summer of 2023.

Liliana Zylstra

Kylie Gallegos is a senior at the University of Notre Dame majoring in American Studies and Theology. She is the president of Notre Dame Right to Life, the largest and oldest pro-life student group in the nation, and has previously served as the Director of Education and VP of Programming. She has worked in various capacities for National Right to Life, Oklahomans for Life, the Sisters of Life, BirthRight, and EWTN Pro-Life Weekly.

Kylie Gallegos

Panel Moderator

Matteo Caulfield is formerly the director of the 2022 & 2023 Cardinal O’Connor Conferences on Life, as well as the former Vice President of Georgetown University Right to Life. Graduating from Georgetown as the Loyola Medalist in May 2023 with degrees in Classics and Government, Matteo now works concurrently at the US Senate and the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities. He has a passion for the intersection of Catholic social teaching and public policy, and continues pro-life work by volunteering at the Northwest Center. After some time in public service, Matteo intends to attend law school to continue advocating for life through the law.

Matteo Caulfield

Mass for Life Celebrant

Archbishop William E. Lori

Archbishop Lori is the Vice-President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) and the Supreme Chaplain of the Knights of Columbus.

He is the former chairman of the USCCB’s Committee on Doctrine and the Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty. He currently serves as a member of the Administrative Committee, the Priorities and Plans Committee, the Committee on Pro-Life Activities, and the Promotion and Defense of Marriage Committee. He serves as a consultant to the Committee on Doctrine, the Ad Hoc Committee Against Racism, and the Committee for Religious Liberty.

In 2002, in recognition of his role as an emerging leader in the Church’s response to the sexual misconduct crisis, Archbishop Lori was appointed to the USCCB Ad Hoc Committee on Sexual Abuse. He was instrumental in drafting the landmark Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People. The Vatican-approved “Essential Norms” of the Charter are now particular law for the Catholic Church in the United States to ensure that no one who works for the Catholic Church will ever pose a threat of any kind to any person, young or old.

In 2005, he was elected Supreme Chaplain of the Knights of Columbus, where he has the responsibility of overseeing the spiritual welfare of the Order’s 1.8 million members and their families. He has helped guide many spiritual initiatives of the Order, most notably the Order’s third Eucharistic Congress held in Chicago in 2005 and the International Marian Congress and Guadalupe Festival held in Phoenix in 2009.

In September 2011, New York Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan, then USCCB president, appointed Archbishop Lori as chairman of a newly formed Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty to address growing concerns over the erosion of freedom of religion in America. In October 2011, serving as the new head of the ad hoc committee, Archbishop Lori called on Congress to defend the American legacy of religious liberty during a hearing before the Subcommittee on the Constitution of the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee.

In March 2012, Archbishop Lori’s committee issued “Our First, Most Cherished Liberty,” a comprehensive statement of the U.S. bishops on religious liberty. He served as chairman of the Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty until 2017. On March 20, 2012, Pope Benedict XVI named Archbishop Lori the 16th Archbishop of Baltimore. The Mass of installation occurred at the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen in Baltimore on May 16, 2012. In January 2019, Archbishop Lori released “The Journey to Racial Justice: Repentance, Healing and Action,” acknowledging sins of racism within the Church in the past and present, and suggesting concrete measures to combat racism and promote racial justice.

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