Jim Beckman is this year's 2008 keynote speaker.

For more info on Scott and his ministry, please visit his web site at: www.scottmanthony.com or his parish youth ministry web site at www.sjy.org/youthministry.

Art Bamert...
Art is a 44 year old cradle Catholic who  grew up in St. Louis, MO. He attended Catholic middle school  and high school and then headed west to the Rockies to seek  his fortune.  He ended up learning how to ski, rediscovering his faith and meeting his lovely wife Donna.  Art has worked with young people for nearly 20 years. He was a weekly volunteer at a Children's Hospital, and a counselor with a cancer camp for youth for 10 years.  From 1997 -2006 he served as the  Director of Youth and Family Ministries at  Seven  Sorrows BVM Parish in  Middletown, PA. In 2006 Art  became the Associate Dir. of Spiritual Life at Lancaster Catholic High School. In 1998  Art and a fellow youth minister started the Catholic Youth Foundation with the intent to help bring quality Catholic resources to those who minister to teens and for Catholic youth. He  served as the president for six years. 
In 2008 Art and his associates formed the Catholic Youth Ministry Group, to produce new and dynamic resources for Catholic youth ministry.  Art is the Editor- in- Chief of the online Catholic Youth Magazine, BeAttitude, scheduled to be relaunched in 2008.  Art has authored numerous articles, ministry materials, and prayers for Catholic youth, including a Stations of the Cross for teens.  Art speaks  locally, regionally and recently in Washington State and Michigan to groups of youth and adults on a variety of topics as well as planing and  running  retreats for the Diocese and parishes. He is also a  student of Catholic apologetics and loves to talk about anything to do with Christ or His Church.  He is a full-time stay-at-home Dad, mural artist and a pretty  decent cook.  Art has been  married for 21 years to his wife Donna, a pediatric Oncology nurse.  They have two children: Rebekka and Noah  and reside in the peaceful bucolic Borough of Elizabethtown,  PA.

Sr. Marianne Lallone, IHM...
Sr. Marianne is 37 years-old and has been a sister of the Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (Immaculata) since 1990. She professed her first vows in 1993 and her final vows in 1998. She received a BA in English and Theology from Immaculata University in 1990 and is currently pursuing an MA in Theology at St. Charles Seminary in Philadelphia, PA. She is currently a religion teacher at Bishop Shanahan High School in Donwingtown, PA. Previously, she was the Director of Spiritual Life at York Catholic HS in York, PA. She is also a member of the IHM Vocation Committee. She has been involved in parish youth ministry since 1993 and she loves to pray, sing, play piano, listen to praise and worship music, hike, read and spend time with her family and friends.

Tom Fertal...
Tom is a 37 year-old native of Bethlehem, PA. He is a cradle Catholic who fell away from the Church in his teens only to "revert" in his mid-twenties. He obtained a Criminal Justice degree from Penn State University, is a U.S. Army veteran and has worked for the Boy Scouts of America. He is a certified youth minister and religious educator with the Diocese of Harrisburg. Tom is currently the Director of Spiritual Life at Lancaster Catholic High School in Lancaster, PA where one of his duties is directing Final Hour, a worship band made up of students from LCHS. He is also the Vice-President of the Catholic Youth Foundation. Three years ago he created Wind & Flame, a regional Confirmation retreat that annually draws 600-800 young candidates. But because that isn't enough he is also pursuing a Master's degree in Theology through the Distance Education Program at Franciscan University of Steubenville. Tom resides in Elizabethtown, PA with his wife Patty and their five young children: Bridget, Sarah, Bernadette, Jacob and Matthew. In his "spare" time he plays guitar, goes golfing and throws darts (usually at a dart board).

JP Kasperowicz...
John Paul Kasperowicz has been ministering to youth in a parish setting since 1996 and has a passion for the conversion of hearts in the Catholic Church. "My prayer is that all Catholics would truly realize, with all their hearts, the amazing gifts we have in the Church." With his gifts of music, speaking, multi-media, & technology he has facilitated, spoken at and / or provided music for hundreds of retreats on the east coast, including many Confirmation retreats in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and at Fan the Fire in York and Connecticut. As a musician / song writer with a knowledge of contemporary praise and liturgical music he has produced one album as well as music for the Chaplet of Divine Mercy. He is also currently co-host of Catholic Talk Radio show with Dom Lateri.

Chris McDonnell...
Chris is 24 years old and graduated from Franciscan University in Steubenville, Ohio in May 2004 with a BA in Business Marketing and a Minor in Theology. He hails from Lancaster, PA and is the oldest of five children. In his senior year of high school he converted to the Catholic Faith. He has been a worship leader for many youth retreats over the last seven years. He is currently the Director of Youth Minsitry at St. Katharine Drexel Parish in Mechanicsburg, PA. He loves making funny, Catholic videos and tricking others into being part of them.

Fr. Dave Engo, O.F.M. Cap. ...
Fr. Dave is a Capuchin Franciscan Priest from the Province of St. Augustine. He is currently a pastoral assistant at St. John the Evangelist parish in Philadelphia, PA. Fr. Engo has worked in youth evangelization for twenty years, as a high school chaplain, a hospital chaplain, a popular preacher of parish missions and the Forty-hours Devotion, as well as a pastoral associate. He has been actively involved with Capuchin Youth and Family Ministries Retreat Center, Youth 2000, Worship His Awesome Majesty, and Together in Christ. He has also been actively involved in the Right to Life movement, founding a chapter of Teens For Life and participating in Operation Rescue. Most recently, Father Engo has been featured in the internationally acclaimed DVD Fishers of Men, by the U.S. Bishop's Conference.

Fr. Chris Rogers...
Fr. Chris was ordained in the Jubilee Year 2000, for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and is currently the Vocation Director for Diocesan Priesthood in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.
The oldest of 5 children, Fr Rogers was raised in Northeast Philadelphia and graduated from Bishop McDevitt High School in 1991. Upon graduation, he entered St. Charles Borromeo Seminary where he completed his college education earning a B.A. degree in Philosophy. After college, he moved on to the Spirituality Year Program and then onto Theology Studies at St. Charles where he earned a Master of Divinity, Master of Arts and a Bachelor in Sacred Theology Degrees. He spent the first 5 years of priesthood as parochial vicar of Sts. Philip and James Parish in Exton, has been involved with prayer groups for over 10 years and is convinced that encountering the living presence of Christ in the Eucharist and growing in Christ is the most important gift we could ever receive.

Fr. Juan A. Puigbó...
Director of Sol Vocational Institute – A Ministry of the Diocesan Laborer Priests
Fr. Juan A. Puigbó, originally from Venezuela, is a member of the priestly association of the Diocesan Laborer Priests (Sacerdotes Operarios Diocesanos), an organization dedicated to promoting and sustaining priestly, religious, marriage and lay vocations through the love for the Eucharist.

Fr. Puigbó was ordained as a priest in 2001, after completing a Bachelor’s degree in Theology at the Universidad Pontificia Javeriana in Bogota, Colombia and a civil Bachelor’s degree in Theology at the Universidad Santa Rosa in Caracas, Venezuela. He received his Sacred Theology Licentiate in Systematic Theology from The Catholic University of America in 2004 and a master in Marriage and Family at the Universidad de Navarra, Spain in 2006.

He serves as Major Superior for the Diocesan Laborer Priests in the United States and has a background in youth and young adult ministry and vocations. Fr. Puigbó has coordinated many Youth and Young Adult Camps and retreats, and has directed conferences, workshops and talks about lay leadership and youth ministry. He has also experience in spiritual direction and vocational discernment.

He has taught for the Archdiocese of Washington’s permanent diaconate and Hearts Aflame programs; the Hispanic Leadership Program at The Catholic University of America and for the Hispanic Apostolate of the Diocese of Arlington. He has published many articles about youth ministry, vocations and family life in local newspapers and other medias. In 1997, he published a book titled “Jesus entre nosotros” about women religious in Venezuela.

Fr. Puigbó also has served as an associate pastor at a parish in Petare, Venezuela (1999-2001) and at Queen of the Apostles in Alexandria, VA (2001-2004); he was Secretary of the US Council of the Diocesan Laborer Priests (2003-2005). From 2004 to 2007, Fr. Puigbó was the Director of Hispanic Pastoral Affairs for the Archdiocese of Washington. In April 2007 Fr. Puigbó was named Director of the Sol Vocational Institute, a ministry of the Diocesan Laborer Priests, in Washington, D.C.

Carmen Briceño...
Director of Youth Ministry of Sol Vocational Institute
Carmen Briceño obtained her Bachelor in Arts degree specializing in Art and Visual Technology from the University of George Mason (2005), and is currently finishing a Masters in Education also in the aforementioned university. In addition, Carmen is enrolled in the Theology Master program at Christendom College, Virginia. She has been a First Communion catechist for the Nativity Church Parish, and has also actively participated in the youth ministry programs of St. Veronicas Parish both in the Diocese of Arlington. In addition, she has cooperated in the development of special projects for the Office of Hispanic Affairs of the Archdiocese of Washington. She has great experience and has participated as a speaker and facilitator in the fields of youth ministry, young adult retreats, missionary camps, vocational seminars, evening prayers/vigils, formation for young adults in "Theology of the Body", and liturgies for young people among others. Carmen is the creator of "Sex and the City of God" workshops. She is currently working as the Director of Youth Ministry for the Sol Vocational Institute of the Diocesan Laborer Priests in Washington. She is also a member of the mission of the Vocare Foundation, and also coordinates music ministry for the Ascendo Nights at the Vocare House of Discernment.