The NBSCCCI will host its first National Conference beginning with Mass at 5pm in St Mary’s Church Athlone. This will be followed by a keynote address at 6pm in the Sheraton Hotel, Athlone and then by dinner.
The Conference will resume at 9.15 in the Sheraton Hotel on Saturday 28th February and conclude at 5pm.
Speakers on 28th include:
Monsignor Steve Rosetti,
Msgr. Stephen J. Rossetti is a priest of the Diocese of Syracuse. He graduated from the Air Force Academy in 1973 and spent six years in the Air Force. After ordination, he served in two parishes before becoming Director of Education of the House of Affirmation. For 17 years, he served as the Executive Vice President and then the President and Chief Executive Officer of Saint Luke Institute in Silver Spring, Maryland, a residential treatment program for clergy and religious men and women. He is author of numerous books such as the Paulist Press bestseller I Am Awake. He is editor of the Silver Gryphon Award-winning book Slayer of the Soul: Child Sexual Abuse and the Catholic Church (1990), and he is author of the Ave Maria book– When the Lion Roars: A Primer for the Unsuspecting Mystic. He wrote A Tragic Grace: The Catholic Church and Child Sexual Abuse published by Liturgical Press in 1996. His book The Joy of Priesthood won a Catholic Press Association award. His research book on priesthood called Why Priests are Happy: A Study of the Psychological and Spiritual Health of Priests was released in Oct 2011. His latest book was published Fall 2013: Letters to My Brothers: Words of Hope and Challenge for Priests. A licensed psychologist in the States of Maryland and Massachusetts, Msgr. Rossetti has a Ph.D. in psychology from Boston College and a Doctor of Ministry degree from Catholic University. He was a member of the 1993 “Think Tank” for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) on child sexual abuse. He was one of the original consultants in 1998 that helped develop the National Catholic Risk Retention Group’s child abuse prevention program called VIRTUS. He was an expert adviser to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Ad Hoc Committee on Sexual Abuse that drafted the 2002 Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People (Dallas Charter). He also participated in the April 2003 Vatican Symposium on child abuse sponsored by the Pontifical Academy for Life. He was recently a consultant to the USCCB Committee on the Protection of Children and Young People (2011-2014). In February 2012, Msgr In February 2012, Msgr. Rossetti was an invited speaker to the Gregorian University’s international symposium on the sexual abuse of minors. He was chair of the Maryland Psychological Association’s ethics committee. He received a Proclaim Award from the U.S. Bishops’ Conference, a Lifetime Service Award from Theological College, a Touchstone Award from the NFPC, the 2013 John Paul II leadership award from the National Catholic Education Association, and an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree from St. Mary’s Seminary and University. Msgr. Rossetti teaches Pastoral Studies at the Catholic University of America (CUA). He is also a Visiting Professor at the Gregorian University in Rome and a Fellow at the Institute for Policy Research and Catholic Studies at CUA.
Marie Collins was born in Dublin, Ireland – is married with one son. A member of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, she has campaigned for the protection of children and justice for survivors of clerical sexual abuse since bringing the priest who abuser her to justice in 1997. A founder member of the Irish depression support group, “Aware,” also a founding director of survivor support group One in Four (Ireland). With other survivors, Marie lobbied the Irish government for the setting up of the Commission of Investigation into the Dublin Archdiocese – the Murphy Commission – which issued its report in November 2009. In 2010 Marie was one of the joint recipients of the Irish Humbert Summer School award for Courage. Marie has spoken about her experience as a victim of clerical sexual abuse at a number of international conferences including the symposium on child sexual abuse held at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome in February, 2012. She is a founder Trustee of the Marie Collins Foundation in the UK, an NGO dedicated to the needs of children, young people and their families for whom sexual abuse and harm has arisen via the internet and mobile technologies
Fr. Bob Oliver is a native of Bay Shore, N.Y. on Long Island, Bob attended Dartmouth College, graduating in 1982. He earned advanced degrees in theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome before he became a priest in 2000. Until 2010 he was a professor of theology and canon law at the archdiocese’s main training ground for priests, St. John’s Seminary in Brighton. Until his appointment to the CDF as Promoter for Justice in 2012, he served as a visiting professor of canon law at The Catholic University of America in Washington.
Dr Anne-Marie Nolan, is currently engaged in the development and delivery of online learning at the School of Social Work and Social Policy at Trinity College Dublin, and is lead researcher for a new biography of former Archbishop of Dublin, John Charles McQuaid. She is also a part-time lecturer in social science and the humanities at the University of Maynooth.
Ann has a long career as a technical specialist in HIV/AIDS, drug use and sexual health with extensive experience in Ireland and a range of countries in sub-Saharan Africa, Eastern and Western Europe. She has served as Executive Director of Dublin AIDS Alliance and subsequent Chairperson. As policy advisor and development specialist with Irish Aid, Department of Foreign Affairs, Ann developed Ireland’s policy response to vulnerable children and convened an international agreement to prioritise children in Overseas Development Assistance budgeting. Her work for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) resulted in the progression of an evidence-to-practice framework which currently guides the global policy and programming response to orphan and vulnerable children living in the context of HIV and AIDS. Ann has conducted an analysis of the learning from Diocesan Safeguarding reviews on behalf of NBSCCCI.
To book your place follow this link;
National Safeguarding Conference