Speakers

Most Reverend George J. Lucas

The Most Reverend George J. Lucas is the fifth archbishop and tenth to lead the Archdiocese of Omaha. He comes to Omaha after serving nearly 10 years in the Diocese of Springfield in Illinois, where he was ordained a bishop on December 14, 1999. He was named Archbishop of Omaha on June 3, 2009, and was installed on July 22, 2009. In the years leading to his ordination as a bishop in Springfield, he served on the faculty of St. Louis Preparatory Seminary-North and St. Louis Preparatory Seminary, the chancellor and vicar general of the Archdiocese of St. Louis and rector of Kenrick-Glennon Seminary. He was named Honorary Prelate of His Holiness in 1994.

He holds the following appointments of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops: Committee for the Protection of Children and Young People, Subcommittee on the Catechism and Task Force for the 2010 Special Assembly.

Dr. Scott Hahn

Dr. Scott Hahn was born in 1957, has been married to Kimberly since 1979, and has six children—and five grandchildren. An exceptionally popular speaker and teacher, Dr. Hahn has delivered numerous talks nationally and internationally on a wide variety of topics talks related to Scripture and the Catholic faith.

He is currently a Professor of Theology and Scripture at Franciscan University of Steubenville, where he has taught since 1990, and is the founder and president of the Saint Paul Center for Biblical Theology. From 2005 to 2011, he held the Pope Benedict XVI Chair of Biblical Theology and Liturgical Proclamation at St. Vincent Seminary in Latrobe, Pennsylvania.

Author or co-author of more than 40 books, his newest titles include the Catholic Bible Dictionary; Many are Called; and Signs of Life.

Scott received his Bachelor of Arts degree with a triple-major in Theology, Philosophy and Economics from Grove City College, Pennsylvania, in 1979, his Masters of Divinity from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in 1982, and his Ph.D. in Biblical Theology from Marquette University in 1995. He was ordained in 1982 at Trinity Presbyterian Church in Fairfax, Virginia. He entered the Catholic Church at the Easter Vigil, 1986.

Deacon Alex C. Jones

Deacon Alex Jones was born in 1941. He and his wife, Donna, have three grown sons: Joseph, Benjamin, and Marc, eleven lovely grandchildren, two great-grandsons and one stubborn Beagle named Amanda. He graduated from Wayne State University in 1965 with a Bachelor's Degree in Art Education, and taught in the Detroit school system for twenty-eight years. He received his Masters in Pastoral Studies from Sacred Heart Major Seminary in May, 2007.

From April 1975 to December 2000 he was the senior minister of two churches in the city of Detroit: Zion Congregational Church of God in Christ (1975-1982), the second oldest Pentecostal church in Michigan, and Maranatha Christian Church (1982-2000), an Evangelical/Charismatic church.

In March of 1998, while reading the apostolic fathers and subsequent church history in preparation for a Wednesday evening bible study, he discovered the Church to be charismatic/liturgical, hierarchical, and Eucharistic-centered. In light of that discovery, He and Donna began a two-year journey into the Catholic Church that culminated in fifty-four members of his previous congregation, including fourteen members of his family, entering the Catholic Church. He entered R.C.I.A. at St. Suzanne Catholic Community on September 10, 2000, and was welcomed into the Catholic Church through confirmation during Easter Vigil on April 14, 2001.

He was ordained a Permanent Deacon in the Archdiocese of Detroit on October 1, 2005. On May 31, 2007 he retired from the position of Evangelization Coordinator for the Archdiocese of Detroit. He currently serve as deacon at St. Suzanne/OLGH and as Pastoral Associate at SS Peter and Paul Catholic Church.

Deacon Ralph Poyo

Deacon Ralph is the founder of New Evangelization Ministries whose mission is to assist parishes in developing plans to more effectively evangelize their members. He was born to his Colombian mother, Connie, and his Cuban father, Jose, in Cali, Colombia. They came to the United States in 1965 and spent a few years in Atlanta, Georgia before settling in Miami, Florida. It was during high school in Miami that Ralph met his future wife, Susan, and after five years of dating, they married in 1984. They now have five beautiful daughters: Sarah Marie, Rachel Joy Louise, Leah Christine, Rebekah Faith, and Hannah Grace. He testifies that he has come to understand the true meaning of patience in living with his "Six Pack" of women. Still, second only to the Lord, they are the loves of his life, and he counts it his greatest accomplishment to have introduced his girls to the Lord.

After graduating from Taylor University with a B.A. in Scripture, Ralph first set out to work in the Lord's vineyard by serving in Miami Youth for Christ as a trained evangelist. His personal mission was to reach out to "un-churched" high school students, to lead them into a relationship with Jesus Christ and disciple them into their local Church communities. Ralph received seventy-two credit hours of intensive evangelization training in his intern year at YFC, before going on to serve as the full-time Youth Minister for St. Louis Catholic Church in Miami.

In this midst of this journey, Ralph was captivated and bound for many years by an addiction to pornography. Having been exposed to this material at a young age, before his own encounter with Christ, Ralph began to experience the direct conflict between this material and his desire to live in the Spirit. During his first few years in ministry, he continued to battle this sin in secret, but it wasn't until he truly opened his heart to God and allowed the light of Truth to penetrate this darkness, that he began gaining ground and experiencing genuine conversion.

After eight years within the St. Louis community, the Lord moved Ralph and his young family to Raleigh, North Carolina where he took on the youth ministry position at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church. Seven years later, he became the Director of Faith Formation at St. Luke the Evangelist Parish in North Raleigh. Ralph was ordained to the permanent deaconate for the Diocese of Raleigh in November of 2005. With his engaging and passionate style of preaching, the Lord continues to use him to reach people even beyond the parish setting, as he challenges listeners of all ages to get outside of their comfort zones in their day-to-day practice of the faith. He is passionate about helping others to make Catholicism more a way of life than just a religious identity. Having committed his life to the pursuit of Truth and to the service of the Church