UPCOMING RESPECT LIFE CONFERENCE

2012 Respect Life Conference
Justice, Mercy and Capital Punishment
October 6, 2012
Cody, Wyoming

In 2005 the former Bishop of Cheyenne, The Most Reverend David A. Ricken, expressed a desire for a group in the state to address capital punishment as a pro-life issue. Join us on October 6, 2012, when CUL's Respect Life Conference steps up to the plate and our panel of speakers answer the following questions: What does the Catholic Church teach about capital punishment? Do we have a right to put a criminal to death? How is the death penalty applied in today's society? What does being on "death row" entail? How do forgiveness and mercy enter in, especially when a loved one is murdered?

Guest Speakers include:

Mr. Recinella

Dale S. Recinella, J.D., M.T.S.
I Was in Prison Ezine)

Dale S. Recinella, author of Now I Walk on Death Row: A Wall Street Finance Lawyer Stumbles into the Arms of a Loving God (Chosen Books: April 2011) and The Biblical Truth about America's Death Penalty (Northeastern University Press: 2004), "Ending the Death Penalty: What one Catholic Supreme Court justice could do," America, April 28, 2008, and "Why American Catholics Must Say 'No' to the Death Penalty," America, November 1, 2004, has served for twenty years as a spiritual counselor and Catholic Correctional Chaplain in Florida's prisons. On behalf of the Catholic Bishops of Florida, in 1998 he began ministering cell-to-cell to the approximately 400 men on Florida's death row and the approximately 2000 men in Florida's long-term solitary confinement. He and his wife, Dr. Susan Recinella, have ministered as a team during executions: he serving as spiritual advisor to the condemned and his wife serving as a lay minister to the condemned's family and loved ones. They also minister to the families and loved ones of murder victims.

Mr. Recinella, who received a Masters in Theological Studies (M.T.S.) summa cum laude from Ave Maria University's Institute for Pastoral Theology (2009) and law degree magna cum laude from Notre Dame University Law School (1976), is a licensed Florida lawyer and has taught international law/business ethics in Europe, at the undergraduate and graduate levels, at St. John's University at the Vatican (Oratorio) and at Temple University in Rome.

He has been a Community of Faith columnist for The Tallahassee Democrat: his column about respect life, the death penalty and prison ministry appeared regularly for eleven years in The Florida Catholic, the statewide newspaper of the Catholic Bishops of Florida; and he received a Year 2000 Press Award from the Catholic Press Association. He presents the weekly two-hour program for the faith and character-based dorm at Union Correctional Institution (Raiford) ("UCI").

In 1997 he was named a University of Notre Dame Exemplar for modeling faith and citizenship in action, named Citizen Volunteer of the Year (2000) by the chaplains of UCI, and received the Year 2001 Humanitarian Award from the Franciscan Alumni Association. Mr. Recinella has been named the recipient of the 2011 Law & Spirituality Award for the Diocese of St. Augustine which is to be presented to him at the annual Red Mass by Bishop Estèvez.

Mr. Recinella appears frequently on worldwide Vatican Radio and extensively addresses audiences nationally and in Europe. He and his wife have raised five children.

Ms. Muha

Rachel Muha
The Brian Muha Memorial Foundation)
Rachel Muha, a native of Cleveland, OH, attended Ohio State University, married and was blessed with two sons: Chris, a graduate of Yale Law School, and Brian, who, while attending Franciscan University in Steubenville, OH, was murdered at the age of 18. Rachel has a Catechetical Diploma from the Catholic Distance University, and has been active in both local and state pro-life efforts. After her son's death she helped found The Brian Muha Memorial Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization that provides scholarships and both after-school and summer programs for inner city children and their families. Rachel shares frequently with audiences on matters of forgiveness, the death penalty, suffering, and God's grace.

Fr. Judd

Father Augustine Judd, OP, STL,

Father Augustine Judd, OP, STL, a native of Farmington, Connecticut, entered the Dominican Order in 1990 and was ordained a priest in 1996. In 1997 he received his STL from the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception (PFIC) in Washington, DC, and was then assigned to Providence College from 1997 to 2000, where he was an instructor in the Theology Department. After pursuing his studies in Switzerland from 2000-2003, he returned to Washington, where he taught systematic theology at the PFIC for three years, before beginning an apostolate as a Catholic chaplain at Providence College in Providence, RI, New York University, and American University in Washington, DC, his current assignment.

More Information:

Please bookmark this page and return at a later date as conference details will be posted as they become finalized. Or, for more information, please email us or call Catholics United for Life at (307) 754-1026 (Symona) or (307) 587-5113 (Mary Anne).