The Church Up Close
Covering Catholicism
in the age of Benedict XVI
Speakers
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Ettore Balestrero
Secretariat of State
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Marta Bertolaso
University Campus Bio-medico, Rome
A biologist, Marta Bertolaso is the executive director of the academic committee on Health and Primary Care for the Home Renaissance Foundation. She also works for the Philosophical Institute on Science and Technology of the University Campus Bio-medico (Rome).
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Maurice Borrmans, M. Afr.
Pontifical Institute for Arabic and Islamic Studies
Professor Emeritus, Pontifical Institute of Arabic and Islamic Studies (PISAI), Rome/Lyon. A missionary in the Arab world for 20 years, he is a consultor of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue. He was director of the journal Islamochristiana, which publishes articles by Christian and Muslim scholars. He is also the author of "Guidelines for Dialogue Between Christians and Muslims" (1990).
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Charles Brown
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
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Francis Campbell
British Ambassador to the Holy See
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Bernardo Cervellera
AsiaNews
Bernardo Cervellera is a missionary of the Pontificial Institute for Foreign Missions (PIME). He is also a journalist and he is in charge of the news agency "Asia News". From 1997 to 2002 he was the Director of "Fides", the Vatican's international news agency. Under his direction the agency became a reliable and appreciated news body. From 1995 to 1997 he taught History of Western Civilization at Peking (Beida) University. He writes for the catholic newspaper "Avvenire" and has taken part, as an expert of international politics, to Italian TV talk-shows like "Porta a Porta", Excalibur", "Otto e mezzo".
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Brian Ferme
St. Pius X Institute of Canon Law, Venice
Born in Portsmouth (England) in 1955, Prof. Ferme studied philosophy, theology and canon law in Melbourne, Oxford and Rome. He was ordained a priest in 1980. After having taught canon law at the Gregorian and Lateran universities in Rome, he served as the dean of the canon law department of the Catholic University of America (Washington, DC), he is currently the director of the St. Pius X Canon Law Institute in Venice. He is also a consultor for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and the Pontifical Council for the Interpretation of Legislative Texts.
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Cassian Folsom, O.S.B.
Monastery of San Benedetto, Norcia
Born in 1955 (Lynn, Massachusetts), Cassian Folsom served as the vice-rector of the Pontifical Atheneum of Saint Anselm from 1997 to 2000 and is the founding prior of the Benedictine monastery Maria Sedes Sapientiae in Norcia, Italy, where he is also the rector of the Basilica of San Benedetto. A member of the Fellowship of Catholic Scholars, he is the author of numerous studies on Roman Catholic liturgy.
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Anthony Frontiero
Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace
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Philip Goyret
School of Theology, Pontifical University of the Holy Cross
Philip Goyret was born in the United States (1956) and lived in Uruguay and Argentina before moving to Rome. An industrial engineer, priest and theologian, he teaches ecclesiology at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, where he is also the assistant dean of the theology department. He was a peritus in the Tenth General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops (2001).
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David Maria A. Jaeger, O.F.M., J.C.D.
Pontifical University Antonianum
Rev. Fr. David-Maria Jaeger, O.F.M., J.C.D., is a former pastor of St. John Neumann Catholic Church in Austin, Texas and served on the Tribunal for the Diocese of Austin. He is currently a member of the faculty at the Pontifical Athenaeum "Antonianum" in Rome and is a member of the Delegation of the Holy See on the Bilateral Permanent Working Commission between the Holy See and the State of Israel. Born of Jewish parents in Tel Aviv, Israel, Fr. Jaeger is the only native-born Israeli ("Sabra") ordained as a Roman Catholic priest in the world.
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Elizabeth Lev
Duquesne University
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Rafael Martínez
School of Philosophy, Pontifical University of the Holy Cross
Rafael A. Martínez is professor of philosophy of science at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross (Rome). A trained physicist and philosopher, he is interested in the historical and epistemological aspects of scientific concepts, and in the relationship between science and religion. Author of Immagini del dinamismo fisico. Causa e tempo nella storia della fisica (1996); co-author, with Mariano Artigas and Thomas Glick, of Negotiating Darwin. The Vatican confronts Evolution 1877-1902 (2006).
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Christopher Nalty
Congregation for the Clergy
Monsignor Christopher H. Nalty is a priest of the Archdiocese of New Orleans currently serving as an official of the Vatican's
Congregation for the Clergy. A native New Orleanian, Msgr. Nalty practiced law for six years before entering the seminary.
He has been leading visitors on tours of the excavations at St. Peter's Basilica since 1996.
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Joan-Andreu Rocha Scarpetta
Regina Apostolorum Pontifical Athenaeum
Prof. Joan-Andreu Rocha Scarpetta is the Director of the Masters programme in «Church, Ecumenism and Religions» at the Regina Apostolorum Pontifical Athenaeum, where he also teaches Ecumenical Theology and Church-Islam relations. At the European University (Rome), he teaches various courses on religion and contemporary society. At the Gregorian University he teaches a course on «Media, Ecumenism and Religions». He is an active member of the «UNESCO Association for Interreligious Dialogue» and of the «International Foundation for Intercultural and Interreligious Education» (IFIIE).
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Raphaela Schmid
Beckett Institute
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James Francis Stafford
Apostolic Penitentiary
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Marco Tosatti
La Stampa
Born in Genova (Italy), Marco Tosatti has been following Vatican affairs as the "vaticanista" of the daily newspaper La Stampa since 1981. He is the author of such books as "Il dizionario di papa Ratzinger: guida al pontificato" (The Dicitonary of Benedict XVI: A Guide to the Pontificate) and "Quando la chiesa perseguitava padre Pio" (When the Church Persecuted Padre Pio). In 2004, he prepared the Italian edition and updating of Jonathan Kwitny's book on Pope John Paul II, "The Man of the Century." An expert on the Armenian genocide, he is also a student and aficionado of Arabic, Armenian and oriental studies.
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Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service
(Idaho, USA). Correspondent for Catholic News Service in Rome since 1989. Covered many of Pope John Paul's foreign trips beginning in 1990, traveling to Africa, Asia, Oceania, North and South America and throughout Europe. Also reported on the U.N. Women's Conference in Beijing and interreligious relations in India and in Iran . Prior to moving to Italy, served as assistant editor of the newspaper of the Archdiocese of Seattle and as a reporter in the Washington, D.C., office of CNS. Bachelor's degree in religious studies from Seattle University (1983).
