Keynote Presenter:
Massimo Faggioli, PhD is a leading authority on the history and administrative inner workings of the Catholic Church with specific expertise in the papacy, Vatican II, the Roman Curia, liturgical reform, new Catholic movements and on Catholicism and global politics. He is Professor of Theology and Religious Studies at Villanova University (Philadelphia) and a much published author and commentator.  Professor Faggioli is one of the foremost scholars on the intersection of American Catholicism and the state of democracy in the United States.  He examines and charts both the impact and potential threats to democratic ideals as our increasingly “unique” brand of American Catholicism, embraced by a majority of U.S. Bishops and funded by weathly conservative donors, is wedded to a democracy increasing invested in free wheeling capitalism that eschews social safety networks.