Catholic Diocese of Arlington
Encourage and teach with patience

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Featuring

Most Rev. Paul S. Loverde
Bishop, Catholic Diocese of Arlington

Bishop Paul S. Loverde was installed as the third Bishop of Arlington at the Cathedral of Saint Thomas More on March 25, 1999. He was born in Framingham, Massachusetts, on September 3, 1940, to Paul Loverde and Ann Marie Conti. Bishop will be celebrating Mass at the Diocese’s second annual Men’s Conference.

Bishop Loverde serves on the Board of Directors for Christ the King Seminary, East Aurora, New York; Mount Saint Mary's College and Seminary, Emmittsburg, Maryland; Catholic Distance University, Hamilton, Virginia; and The Institute for the Psychological Sciences, Arlington, Virginia.

Paul Thigpen, Ph.d.

Former evangelical pastor &

best selling author & journalist

Dr. Paul Thigpen is the Director of Adult Faith Formation for St. Brendan Catholic Church in Cumming, Georgia. A former Evangelical Protestant pastor who entered the Church in 1993, he is an internationally known speaker, best-selling author, and award-winning journalist.

Paul graduated from Yale University in 1977 summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, with Distinction in the Major of Religious Studies. At Emory University in Atlanta, he earned an M.A. (1993) and a Ph.D. (1995) in Historical Theology. He was awarded the George W. Woodruff Fellowship by Emory (1985), the Henry Salvatori Fellowship by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute (1992), and the Jacob K. Javits Fellowship by the U.S. Department of Education (1993).

In 2008 Paul was appointed by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops to their National Advisory Council. He has also served the Church as a theologian, historian, apologist, evangelist, and catechist in a number of settings, speaking frequently in Catholic and secular media. He is also past editor of The Catholic Answer, a national bimonthly magazine that answers questions about the Catholic faith.

Paul has published thirty-seven books and 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 circulated worldwide and translated into twelve languages.

Paul and his wife, Leisa, will celebrate their thirty-second wedding anniversary this year. They are active members of St. Luke Catholic Church in Dahlonega, Georgia, a vibrant parish in the Archdiocese of Atlanta.

Rev. Msgr. Stuart Swetland
flynn Chair for Christian Ethics

Msgr. Stuart W. Swetland, S.T.D., was ordained a priest in 1991 for the Diocese of Peoria, IL. He received his undergraduate degree in Physics from the United States Naval Academy. Elected a Rhodes Scholar in 1981, he entered the Catholic Church while studying at Oxford. He has a B.A. and M.A. in Politics, Philosophy and Economics from Oxford; a M.Div. and M.A. from Mount St. Mary’s Seminary; and his S.T.L. and S.T.D. from the Pontifical Lateran University having studied at the John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family in Washington, DC. Before arriving at Mount St. Mary’s in June 2006, Msgr. Swetland served for over a decade as Director of Newman Centers at Bradley University and University of Illinois.

He currently serves as the Vice-President for Catholic Identity and Mission and holds the Archbishop Flynn Chair of Christian Ethics at Mount St. Mary’s University. He also serves as the Executive Director of the Center for the Advancement of Catholic Higher Education and the Executive Secretary for the Fellowship of Catholic Scholars.

Msgr. Swetland was named a Prelate of Honor in 2000 by Blessed John Paul II. He is also a Knight Commander for the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre and a 4th Degree Knight of Columbus. In 2010, Msgr. Swetland was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters from Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas. Msgr. Swetland hosts the weekly television show "Catholicism on Campus" on EWTN and co-hosts the show "Go Ask Your Father" on Relevant Radio.

Rev. William Saunders
Pastor of our Lady of Hope Church  &

professor of theology

Father William P. Saunders was born Washington, D.C. and attended West Springfield High School. He graduated from the College of William and Mary with a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in Accounting and membership in Beta Gamma Sigma Honor Society.

During the summer after college graduation, Father Saunders focused on his vocation to the priesthood, with which he had been wrestling since college. He applied to the Diocese of Arlington for admission into the seminary, and was assigned to St. Charles Borromeo Seminary, in Philadelphia. In 1984, Father Saunders graduated from St. Charles Seminary with a Master of Arts in Sacred Theology, Summa cum laude, and was ordained to the Holy Priesthood on May 12, 1984.

Fr. Saunders has served in several parishes throughout the diocese, as well as being Campus Chaplain and Adjunct Professor of Theology for Marymount University. During this time, Father Saunders also pursued studies at Catholic University, receiving a Doctor of Philosophy in Education Administration. In the summer of 2000 he was assigned as the founding pastor of Our Lady of Hope Catholic Church in Potomac Falls, Virginia, where he continues to serve.

In 1992, Fr. Saunders was appointed President of the Notre Dame Institute for Catechectics, a Catholic graduate school. Subsequently, the Notre Dame Institute officially merged with Christendom College, becoming the Notre Dame Graduate School. Father Saunders was then appointed Dean of the Graduate School. Although Father Saunders continues to serve as a Professor of Catechetics and Theology, he had to relinquish his role as Dean in 2002 because of the demands of construction at his home parish of Our Lady of Hope.

Between 1993 and 2006 Father Saunders also wrote a weekly column entitled “Straight Answers” for the Arlington Catholic Herald, the diocesan newspaper.  In 1998, he published a book by the same title, Straight Answers, and in 2002, a subsequent volume, Straight Answers II.

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