About
the Essay Contest
In the over 800 inspiring essays written on the theme, "Why
My Priest is a Hero," we read about priests who have
changed hearts and souls of young people and their family
members. Some are still serving faithfully, while some have
gone to their eternal reward. We read about priests, from
John Paul II to local pastors, who have made a real difference
in the faith life of a young person. These priests are heroes.
There were a few interesting and amazing occurrences among
the winners this year. Each essay was submitted to the judges
in a blind format, so they had no idea who wrote the essay.
Among many schools who submitted essays, three separate
Catholic schools boasted three winners each! Our special
congratulations to Wayside Academy in Ontario, Canada, St.
Leo Catholic School in Lincroft, NJ and St. Thomas More
Academy in Burton, MI.
We found that homeschool students were well represented,
with six winners in the top 20 essayists. Several of those
students are Seton Home Study School students, including
the Grand Prize Winner in grades 9-12.
Not only that, this year's 2nd place Grade 5-8
winner is the younger brother of last year's 2nd
place Grade 5-8 winner! And yes, Mom was pretty excited!
To top it all off, when we called the winners to announce
their prizes, we found we had to call one family twice!
The Fasanello family in NJ was proud to hear that two of
their children had won 8th place awards, one in each grade
category. Talk about keeping peace in the family!
Read on.... Meet our talented winners and read their inspiring
essays. May they inspire us to appreciate and support our
own local priest-heroes.
Panel of Judges
Our eleven esteemed
judges are leading national Catholic educators and communicators
from various dioceses and Catholic organizations. They had
the difficult task of choosing and ranking the top 10 essays
in each grade category.
Tom Allen
Tom Allen is editor-in-chief and president of www.CatholicExchange.com,
a leading Internet portal for Catholics. He is also co-producing
Jeff Cavins' new "Morning Air" drive-time radio
program which is scheduled to hit the national airwaves
in March, 2003.
Tom has spent
considerable time and energy over the past four years developing
a theatrical film about the life and ministry of Brother
Bill Tomes of Chicago, whose work with the inner city youth
gangs has attracted the attention of an array of major media,
including Time magazine. The project, which Tom is producing
with the actor Judge Reinhold, features a script written
by noted Hollywood screenwriter Angelo Pizzo ("Rudy,"
"Hoosiers") and Jim Caviezel ("The Count
of Monte Cristo," "The Thin Red Line") in
the lead role. He is also developing a motion picture on
the life of St. Edmund Campion, which will feature actor/director
Mel Gibson in a supporting role.
Educated at the
University of Notre Dame (B.A.-English, 1984), Tom studied
film production at New York University and afterward served
for four years as senior editor of Moviemaker Magazine.
After that he served as assistant supervisor of a Catholic
Charities homeless shelter for men in Seattle. He now lives
in Oceanside, California, with his wife and four children.
Katherine
Andes
Katherine is the co-author of the Friendly Defenders Catholic
Flash Cards. As an award-winning free-lance writer, her
work has appeared in Envoy, This Rock, Immaculata, Catholic
Parent, Twin Circle, The Family Magazine, Human Life Review
and many secular publications. She also served as Managing
Editor for Merciful Love magazine. She has also worked in
the entertainment industry in script development and written
industrial films. She also occasionally works as an announcer
for radio and television. Currently, she is a catechist
in the Diocese of Fresno and home schools her "two
great kids," Lauren and Bill.
Laura Berquist
Laura Berquist is the Director of Mother of Divine Grace
School Independent Study Program. Started in 1995, there
are currently 1700 students in the program. The mother of
six, she has home schooled her own children for 18 years.
The oldest three have now graduated from college, one of
her children is a sophomore at Thomas Aquinas College, and
the younger two are still home schooling. Mrs. Berquist
is the author of Designing Your Own Classical Curriculum
and editor of The Harp and Laurel Wreath: Poetry for the
Classical Curriculum, both published by Ignatius Press.
She frequently gives talks on the subject of home schooling
and educational theory.
Bernadeane
Carr, STL
Bernadeane Carr received her licentiate in theology from
the University of Fribourg, Switzerland. She is the former
editor and current columnist of the San Diego diocesan newspaper,
The Southern Cross. She is also the diocesan Director of
Media Ministry and an instructor for the San Diego Diocesan
Institute.
Sr. Sheila
Galligan, IHM, STD
Sr. Sheila
Galligan is the Chairperson and a Professor of Theology
at Immaculata College, in suburban Pennsylvania. She has
taught at all levels, including elementary, middle and high
school, college, and at St. Charles Seminary, in Philadelphia,
and the Pontifical College Josephinum in Columbus, Ohio,
where she is also on the Board of Trustees. She serves on
the Board of the Cardinal Newman Society and served on the
Bishop’s Ad-Hoc Committee to oversee the use of the
Catechism. A member of the Fellowship of Catholic Scholars,
Sr. Sheila has been published in a variety of scholarly
and popular Catholic magazines, including Spirituality Today,
Momentum, Carmelite Digest, Pastoral Life, The Catholic
Answer, and The Living Light.
She is actively
involved in Right-to-Life issues, with a special focus on
proclaiming the chastity message. She speaks often to groups,
particularly on the topics of Mary, the Psalms, virtue and
sin, and C.S. Lewis.
Michelle
Johnson
Michelle Laque Johnson is Editor-in-Chief of The Catholic
Standard and Times, the official newspaper of the Archdiocese
of Philadelphia. Ms. Johnson was formerly Editor of Bankruptcy
Court Decisions in Horsham, Pa., financial reporter for
Investor's Business Daily in New York, and Business Editor
for The Globe-Times in Bethlehem, PA.
While at The
Globe-Times, Ms. Johnson won a Keystone Press Award for
business and economic news. She was also part of a team
of reporters that won the G. Richard Dew Award for Journalistic
Achievement for a series on the lack of fire code inspections
in city schools. She has a Master’s degree in journalism
from Northwestern University, a Master’s in industrial/organizational
psychology from San Diego State University and a B.A. in
English from the College of Notre Dame of Maryland. Ms.
Johnson and her husband, Stuart, reside in Lansdale, PA.
Curtis
Martin
Curtis Martin was raised Catholic, but left the Church in
high school, eventually becoming a zealous “Bible
Christian.” Through his study of the Bible as an evangelical
Protestant, he discovered that the real “Bible Church”
is, in fact, the Church of the Bible: Roman Catholicism.
He holds a Master’s
degree in Theology from the Franciscan University of Steubenville.
He is the Founder and President of the Fellowship of Catholic
University Students (FOCUS). Now in their fifth year, FOCUS
serves on thirteen campuses, in five states. FOCUS exists
to reclaim the hearts and minds of college students for
Jesus Christ and His Church by training and placing missionaries
on college campuses.
Curtis is the
co-author of Boys to Men: The Transforming Power of Virtue
and Family Matters: A Scripture Study on Marriage and Family,
which he co-wrote with his wife Michealann. He is also a
contributing author of the best-seller, Catholic for a Reason
– Volume I and II.
Curtis has written
articles for the Couple to Couple League, Catholic Dossier,
The Journal for the Fellowship of Catholic Scholars, and
Envoy. He also received the Excellence in Evangelization
award by Envoy Magazine.
He and his wife
host the EWTN television series, Family Matters. They live
in Greeley, Colorado with their six children.
Bud Miller
Bud Miller received his undergraduate degrees in Philosophy
and English Literature from Borromeo College in Ohio, and
earned a Master of Divinity Degree from the Washington Theological
Union in 1994. He has served as the Director of Youth and
Young Adult Ministry for the Diocese of Fall River in Massachusetts
for a number of years. He has also served as Coordinator
of Adult Education and Formation at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel
Parish, Seekonk, MA.
Bud is the founder
of "CATHOLICISM ON CASSETTE" a Catholic evangelization
and apologetics resource for Catholic adults (www.CatholicTapes.net).
He resides in South Dartmouth, MA, with his wife, Kim, and
daughter, Colette.
Matthew
Pinto
Matthew Pinto is the president of Ascension Press, and a
co-founder of CatholicExchange.com,
a premiere Internet portal for Catholics. He is also a co-founder
and former president of Envoy
Magazine. The author of Did
Adam and Eve have Belly Buttons?… and 199 other
questions from Catholic Teenagers (Ascension Press, 1998)
and creator and co-author of the Friendly Defenders Catholic
Flash Cards, Matt is a well-known speaker whose work has
focused primarily on youth and young adults. His newest
book, Amazing Grace for Those Who Suffer, has become a Catholic
best-seller. Matt co-edited the work with Jeff Cavins.
Raised a Catholic,
Matt "woke up" to the Faith after being challenged
by an Evangelical Protestant friend. Unsettled by his friend's
strong objections to Catholicism, Matt searched for answers.
For two years, he spent hundreds of hours reading Catholic
books and listening to cassette tapes. This study led him
to firm convictions about the truth of Catholic teaching.
Matt is a 1987
graduate of Temple University with a bachelor's degree in
communications and a minor in sociology. He has appeared
on numerous television and radio programs, including Life
on the Rock, Mother Angelica Live! and Living His Life Abundantly,
explaining and defending the Catholic Faith, and has conducted
seminars on a variety of Catholic issues throughout the
country. A native of Philadelphia, Matt and his wife Maryanne
reside in West Chester, PA, are the parents of three boys,
sons Michael (5), Andrew (3), and James (1).
Brian
Saint-Paul
Brian Saint-Paul is the senior editor of CRISIS Magazine.
He received a BA in philosophy and an MA in theology from
the Catholic University of America. Prior to working for
CRISIS, Saint-Paul was associate director of the Health
Sciences Institute, a division of Agora Publishing. He has
also spent time as a high-school teacher, Catholic missionary,
and is a former editor of Envoy Magazine. Saint-Paul currently
lives in Washington, D.C. with his wife Zoë Romanowsky.
Christopher
West
Christopher West, MTS is a graduate of the John Paul II
Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family and is also
a visiting professor at the Institute's Melbourne, Australia
campus. Formerly the Director of the Office of Marriage
& Family Life for the Archdiocese of Denver, he continues
to serve Archbishop Chaput as an instructor in marriage
preparation, deaconate formation, and in the seminary. He
is also the Theology of the Body Staff Advisor for the GIFT
Foundation. His extensive lecturing, numerous tapes, and
his book Good News about Sex & Marriage have made him
an internationally recognized expert on John Paul II's theology
of the body. His second book, John Paul II's Theology of
the Body Explained, will be available early in 2003. He
resides just outside of Denver, Colorado with his wife and
their two sons.
