Lockdown restrictions have presented unprecedented challenges and opportunities for the Church. We want to find out how different lay Catholics have been responding.
In this 10th CV Connect webinar we are hearing stories from different lay Catholics from England, Scotland and Ireland. We want to know how, in theses extraordinary circumstances, people are responding to this confinement with creativity.
Guest Speakers
Katie Ascough
Katie is co-founder of calledtomore.org, a Catholic faith formation platform. She is a freelance journalist and has written for publications such as the Catholic Herald, The Irish Times, the Irish Independent, and Alive!.
Katie is an award-winning human rights activist having worked extensively in the pro-life movement. Her awards include the Westminster Award for Human Life, Human Rights, and Human Dignity, Junior Chamber International’s Ten Outstanding Young Persons Award, Newman College Ireland’s Courage in the Public Square Award, and was recently listed in Inside the Vatican’s Top 10 persons in 2019.
John Patrick Mallon
John, along with his cousin Brian, is the co-founder of Sancta Familia Media, a Catholic Media apostolate with over 50k followers on facebook alone. John and Brian quit their jobs in December 2016 to form Sancta Familia Media which is named after the parish they grew up in Scotland (Holy Family, Mossend). They have gone one to cover events all over the UK, Ireland, France, Poland and Uganda, and organising successful nationwide initiatives such as Rosary on the Coast (2018) which saw 45,000+ Catholics gather around the coast of the UK. Such was the success of this the bishops of Scotland asked them to do promotion and coverage for the hugely popular visit of the relics of St Therese in Scotland in late 2019. As 2020 began and lockdown shut many sectors down the work of Sancta Familia has continued.
Maria Jones
Maria is a wife, mother to 5 and, Centre Coordinator of Education at Regina Caeli hybrid Academy. Maria achieved a Bachelors of Education degree in Primary Teaching while becoming a single mum, having her first child in the Easter holiday of her first year. She was a cradle Catholic and experienced a second conversion during this time.
David Wells
David is a much sought after speaker, having spoken 500 conferences worldwide including being a regular contributor to the Religious Education Congress in Anaheim, California where he has spoken to over 30,000 delegates. David is also the author of two best selling books: The Reluctant Disciple and The Grateful Disciple (Redemptorist Publications) and has served on several working parties for the Bishop’s Conference of England and Wales, and guest-lectured at three English Universities.