Journalism in a Post-Truth World

Welcome

Father Dave Pivonka, TOR

Father Dave Pivonka, TOR, was elected president of Franciscan University of Steubenville on May 21, 2019. The well-known Catholic speaker and author graduated from Franciscan University with his BA in theology in 1989, then earned an MDiv, MA in theology, doctorate in education, and executive juris doctorate. A solemnly professed member of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus Province of the Third Order Regular of St. Francis of Penance, Father Dave was ordained to the priesthood in 1996. He held various leadership positions at Franciscan University from 1996-2008 including vice president for Mission and Planning. From 2008-2012, Father Dave served as director of Post-Novitiate Formation for the Franciscans, TOR, and from 2012-2019, he directed Franciscan Pathways, hosting The Wild Goose video series on the Holy Spirit, a documentary on St. Francis of Assisi, and Metanoia, a 2019 video series on conversion. He has written seven books, including Living Metanoia: Finding Freedom and Fulfillment in Christ (OSV, 2021), hosts Franciscan University Presents on EWTN, and cohosts the popular podcast, They That Hope.

Keynote Speaker

Daniel Lipinski

The Honorable Daniel Lipinski, PhD, represented the Third District of Illinois in the U.S. House of Representatives as a Democrat from 2005 to 2021. A rarity in contemporary politics, he was known as a highly knowledgeable and effective lawmaker who worked to bring people together across the aisle to solve problems. He authored 18 laws in a wide variety of issue areas, served on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee, and was the Democratic co-chair of the Congressional Pro-Life Caucus and the International Religious Freedom Caucus. After completing a BS (Northwestern University) and an MS (Stanford University) in engineering, Lipinski earned his PhD in American politics from Duke University. He is currently the Pope Leo XIII Fellow on Social Thought at the University of Dallas, a distinguished visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, and president of Lipinski Solutions, LLC, a consulting firm. He has recently published articles in First Things, America, The Atlantic, and Public Discourse, and op-eds in the The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and Chicago Tribune. He is working on a book about his work in Congress and what needs to be done to mend the dangerous divide in America.

Keynote Speaker

Michael P. Warsaw

Michael P. Warsaw is the president and CEO of Eternal Word Television Network, Inc. (EWTN), the world’s largest religious media network, which is based in Irondale, Alabama, USA. Using all facets of technology, EWTN’s global reach includes 10 television networks, shortwave, satellite, and AM/FM radio services, online and digital media services, news, and publishing. Michael joined EWTN in 1991 and has held senior management positions in the areas of television production, satellite operations, and technical services. He was named president of EWTN in 2000 and assumed the post of chief executive officer in 2009. In that capacity, he oversees the network’s strategic direction and mission around the world and serves as publisher of the National Catholic Register. A member of the board of EWTN, Michael serves as chief executive or managing director of EWTN’s affiliate organizations both domestically and internationally. He also serves as a member of the Board of Directors of the Catholic Radio Association, the Board of Trustees of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, and the Board of Trustees of Catholic Distance University.

Moderator

Montse Alvarado

Montse Alvarado has recently been named President and COO of EWTN News. She has also served as founding host of EWTN’s weekly discussion show, EWTN News in Depth since 2021. Previously, she was the Executive Director and COO of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty from 2017-2023. Profiled by the Wall Street Journal as “A defender of all religion, on the front lines of America’s culture wars,” Montse Alvarado has worked with the team at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty since 2009 to secure twelve victories at the Supreme Court and has for Becket clients such as the Little Sisters of the Poor, Yeshiva University in New York, archdiocesan schools and death-row prisoners across the country, as well as charitable groups like Philadelphia Catholic Social Services on television and radio. Montse serves on the advisory boards of various leading Catholic non-profits including the Fellowship of Catholic University Students and the GIVEN Institute. She advises the U.S. Bishops through the USCCB Religious Liberty Committee. Born in Mexico City, she is fluent in Spanish and French.

Moderator

Dr. Matthew Bunson

Dr. Matthew E. Bunson serves as executive editor and Washington Bureau chief for EWTN News. He has been active in Catholic journalism, Catholic social communications, and education for the last 30 years, including writing, editing, and teaching on a variety of topics related to Church history, the papacy, the saints, and Catholic culture. He is also a senior fellow of the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology and the author or co-author of over 50 books including: The Encyclopedia of Catholic History, The Pope Encyclopedia, We Have a Pope! Benedict XVI, The Saints Encyclopedia, and best-selling biographies of St. Damien of Molokai and St. Kateri Tekakwitha.

Panelist

Carl M. Cannon

Carl M. Cannon is the Washington Bureau Chief of RealClearPolitics and Executive Editor of RealClear Media Group. Carl is a past recipient of the Gerald R. Ford Journalism Prize for Distinguished Reporting and the Aldo Beckman Award, the two most prestigious awards for White House coverage. Previous positions include executive editor of PoliticsDaily.com, D.C. bureau chief for Reader’s Digest and White House correspondent for both the Baltimore Sun and National Journal. He was a 2007 fellow-in-residence at Harvard University’s Institute of Politics, a past president of the White House Correspondents’ Association, and is a published author.

Moderator

Tim Carney

Timothy P. Carney is the senior political columnist at the Washington Examiner and a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. He is the author of Alienated America: Why Some Places Thrive While Others Collapse, The Big Ripoff, and Obamanomics. In addition to his Washington Examiner columns, his work has been published in a variety of magazines, websites, and newspapers, including The Atlantic, New York Post, The New York Times, Reason Magazine, and The Wall Street Journal. His television appearances include CNBC, CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, and the “PBS NewsHour.”

Panelist

Caroline Downey

Caroline Downey is education reporter at National Review. She was a 2022 Publius Fellow with the Claremont Institute. As an intern in 2019, she represented The Heritage Foundation in the annual televised debate against interns from the Cato Institute. Caroline is editor in chief of The Conservateur, a startup digital fashion and lifestyle magazine for women. She holds degrees in Economics and Political Science from Boston College.

Moderator

Jeanette De Melo

Jeanette De Melo is the executive director of the National Catholic Register and co-host of EWTN Radio’s “Register Radio.” She served as the Register’s editor in chief from 2012-2021. From 2005 to 2012, she was the communications director for the Archdiocese of Denver. Previously, she was the associate communications director for the Archdiocese of New Orleans. She holds a licentiate degree from the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome, Italy, and a bachelor’s degree from Franciscan University in Steubenville, where, in 2018, she also received an honorary doctorate. She lives in the greater New Orleans area with her husband and three children.

Moderator

Tim Graham

Tim Graham is the Executive Editor of NewsBusters and is the Media Research Center’s Director of Media Analysis. Tim is co-author with MRC President Brent Bozell of the books Unmasked: Big Media’s War Against Trump (2019), Collusion: How the Media Stole the 2012 Election and How To Prevent It From Happening Again in 2016 (2013), and Whitewash: What The Media Won’t Tell You About Hillary Clinton, But Conservatives Will (2007). He is also the author of Pattern of Deception: The Media’s Role in the Clinton Presidency (1996).

Moderator

Lauren Green

Lauren Green joined FOX News Channel (FNC) in 1996 and currently serves as its chief religion correspondent based in the New York bureau. Most recently, she reported live from the Vatican for the funeral of former Pope Benedict XVI. Previously, she provided live coverage from Rome in 2013 on the election of Pope Francis, as well as on the retirement of Pope Benedict XVI. Additionally, she provided live coverage of the beatification of Pope John Paul II from Rome in 2011 and Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to the United States in 2008. Prior to joining FNC, Green served as a weekend news anchor and correspondent at WBBM-TV (CBS-2) in Chicago. From 1988 to 1993, she was a general assignment reporter at KSTP-TV (ABC-5) in St. Paul, Minnesota. Outside of her career at FNC, Lauren is a reputable concert pianist with a degree in piano performance from the University of Minnesota. She has interviewed some of the most prominent people in the classical music world including Placido Domingo, Pierre Boulez, and Joshua Bell and has covered such events as the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition and opening night of the Metropolitan Opera. In 2004, she released her debut album, “Classic Beauty.” A graduate of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, Lauren was named Miss Minnesota in 1984 and was the third runner-up in the 1985 Miss America contest.

Panelist

Mary Katharine Ham

Mary Katharine Ham is a nationally prominent journalist, author, and speaker, and host of her own light-hearted news podcast, “Getting Hammered.” As a political commentator, she has brought conservative perspective mixed with a humorous take on politics and pop culture to CNN from 2016 to 2022 and Fox News from 2007-2015. She’s also a frequent speaker on college campuses on the issue of free speech. In 2016, she moderated an ABC News 2016 GOP presidential primary debate in New Hampshire, which featured nine candidates. Ham is the co-author with Guy Benson of “End of Discussion: How the Left’s Outrage Industry Shuts Down Debate, Manipulates Voters, and Makes America Less Free (and Fun),” and she has written for The Atlantic, USA Today, and the New York Post. She also has spoken and written on her faith and overcoming hardships after the loss of her first husband in 2015. Remarried in 2020, Ham brings a message of resilience and redemption to audiences. Ham is a die-hard UGA football fan, a Southern gal who is close to her family in North Carolina. She lives with her husband, three daughters, newborn son, and a very energetic Belgian Malinois named Scout in Virginia.

Panelist

Clemente Lisi

Clemente Lisi teaches writing and journalism at The King’s College, in New York City. He also co-directs the NYC Semester in Journalism program and acts as an advisor to the student online newspaper/print magazine/video platform, The Empire State Tribune. He has worked as a journalist and editor for over two decades. In that time, he has been an editor at major metropolitan dailies such as the New York Post and the New York Daily News. He also has experience in the digital space, serving as senior editor at ABCNews.com. Clemente is a graduate of the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, and he worked as an adjunct professor at Fordham University. He enjoys coaching and playing soccer, reading books about history, and spending time with his wife and two children.

Panelist

Kathryn Jean Lopez

Kathryn Jean Lopez is a senior fellow at the National Review Institute where she directs the Center for Religion, Culture, and Civil Society. She is also editor-at-large of National Review Magazine, where she has been on the editorial staff, including as editor of National Review Online, for over a quarter century. She is published widely in Catholic and secular publications and is also a nationally syndicated columnist with Andrews McMeel Universal. Kathryn Jean is author of A Year with the Mystics: Visionary Wisdom for Daily Living, and she speaks frequently on faith in public life, virtue, and prayer. She is also a media fellow at the Religious Freedom Institute, a fortnightly columnist for Our Sunday Visitor’s Newsweekly, and co-author of the book How to Defend the Faith Without Raising Your Voice. She wrote the afterword to Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan’s COVID-19 book, I Am With You: Lessons of Hope and Courage in Times of Crisis. She is a contributor to recent books including Women Who Pray: Eleven Catholic Women on the Power of Prayer, Mind, Heart, and Soul: Intellectuals and the Path to Rome, and St. Patrick’s Cathedral: The Legacy of America’s Parish Church. Her “Caught My Eye” feature can be heard weekdays on The Catholic Channel on Sirius XM, Channel 129. 

Panelist

Terry Mattingly

Terry Mattingly is a thirty-three-year nationally syndicated veteran columnist on religion. He writes the column titled “On Religion” for the Universal syndicate, and he is a senior fellow at the Overby Center at the University of Mississippi, focusing on religion, news, and the First Amendment. He is the founder and editor of the GetReligion website, which critiques the mainstream media’s coverage of religion news. He was also the founder of the Washington Journalism Center at the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities and worked as a reporter and religion columnist at the Rocky Mountain News in Denver and the Charlotte Observer and the Charlotte News. He double-majored in journalism and history at Baylor University and then earned an MA at Baylor in church-state studies and an MS in communications at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign.

Panelist

Dr. Christine Mugridge

“Dr. Mugridge holds a PhD in the interdisciplinary fields of Social Communications Science and Theology (Pontifical Salesian Univ. Rome, Summa Cum Laude). She is a broadcast journalist who held a Vatican Press Corp permanent member pass for nearly 10 years. Working as a Vatican Analyst in Rome she interviewed heads of state, members of the diplomatic corp and Vatican Curia. She reported live and produced segments for multiple news agencies and other media including TELEPACE-Vatican TV, Rome Reports, Vatican Radio, and Relevant Radio. Christine is a published author with books from: St. Paul Institute (Education Text Division), Vatican LEV, Ascension Press, St. Anthony Messenger Press among others. She is likewise a frequent conference speaker and retreat host who has served in this capacity in over 20 countries. Dr. Mugridge resides in Steubenville, Ohio where she is a full-time staff member of Franciscan University’s Catechetical Institute and lecturer for the Theology Department.”

Panelist

Ursula Murua

Ursula Murua is a Peruvian journalist based in Denver, Colorado. She has worked in print, radio, and TV. In 1997, she led the digital transformation of the Latin American Catholic news agency ACI Prensa, which became and still is the most visited Catholic website in Spanish. Since 2010, she has developed the digital strategy for the different news agencies of the ACI Group, and in 2018, she became the director of social media and digital strategy for EWTN News. Currently, she leads a team of 15 professionals in 10 countries.

Panelist

Mary Margaret Olohan

Mary Margaret Olohan is a Senior Reporter for The Daily Signal where she covers the top cultural and political stories of the moment, including the struggles of biological women to maintain the integrity of their sports and spaces, attacks on unborn, and the COVID-19 pandemic’s effect on everyday Americans and their livelihoods. She previously wrote for both The Daily Wire and got her start at The Daily Caller News Foundation covering social issues and politics. Mary Margaret is a graduate of The Catholic University of America and the proud oldest daughter in an Irish Catholic family of eleven children.

Panelist

Andrea Picciotti-Bayer

Andrea Picciotti-Bayer is Director of the Conscience Project. A Stanford-educated lawyer, she has dedicated her legal career to civil rights and appellate advocacy. She got her start in the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. Prior to leading the Conscience Project, Andrea served as the legal advisor for the Catholic Association, filing amicus briefs with federal courts of appeal and the U.S. Supreme Court in crucial religious freedom cases. Andrea is a legal analyst for EWTN News, a regular columnist for the National Catholic Register and frequent guest on EWTN’s News Nightly. In 2021, Andrea received First Place for Best Coverage — Religious Liberty Issues from the Catholic Media Association. Andrea’s writing has also appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, National Review, Newsweek, CNN en Espanol and other well-regarded publications.

Panelist

Jeremiah Poff

Jeremiah Poff is an education reporter at the Washington Examiner. A native of Virginia, he graduated from Franciscan University of Steubenville in 2019 where he studied communications with a concentration in journalism and minored in human life studies. Prior to working at the Washington Examiner, Jeremiah completed a year-long reporting fellowship as a staff reporter for The College Fix, served on the speechwriting team of former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, and worked as an editorial associate for the Cardinal Newman Society.

Panelist

Ann Rodgers

Ann Rodgers worked for more than three decades covering religion for secular newspapers, primarily The Pittsburgh Press and Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. This included most meetings of the USCCB since 1988 and the interregna and conclaves of 2005 and 2013. She received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Religion News Association, of which she is a past president. She now works as a senior writer, researcher, and communications consultant for multiple Catholic organizations and has also won awards for her stories in Angelus News. Ann has an undergraduate degree in journalism from Northwestern University and a master of theological studies from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary.

Moderator

Erik Rosales

Erik Rosales is a multi-Emmy Award-winning reporter and has served as EWTN News Nightly Capitol Hill Correspondent since 2020. During his nearly 30 years in the television news industry, he has worked in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Fresno, several cities in Texas, and Washington, D.C., covering not only Capitol Hill, but also national security stories out of the Pentagon and the Department of Homeland Security. During President Trump’s time in office, Erik traveled to a variety of locations with then Secretary of Defense James Mattis. Originally from the San Gabriel Valley, Erik is a graduate of Azusa Pacific University.

Moderator

Tracy Sabol

Tracy Sabol is the anchor of EWTN News Nightly, EWTN’s weekday evening news and opinion program broadcast from Washington, D.C. Tracy arrived at EWTN with over 25 years of experience as an Emmy Award-winning broadcast journalist, including work in Atlanta, Philadelphia, and Portland, Maine, where she served as lead evening anchor for 10 years with the local ABC affiliate. She and her news team were the recipients of a number of awards including an Emmy for Best Newscast and an Edward R. Murrow Award. A native of Southwest Pennsylvania, she and her teenage son and daughter live in Northern Virginia.

Panelist

Andreas Thonhauser

Andreas Thonhauser serves as the Vatican Bureau chief for EWTN, where he is responsible for directing the organization’s presence in Rome, Italy. He oversees all editorial and support staff and maintains relationships with Vatican officials. Thonhauser earned a Master of Business Administration from the WU Executive Academy in Vienna and a master’s degree in German philology/Anglistics and Americanistics from the University of Vienna. Prior to joining EWTN in 2021, Thonhauser worked as the director of External Affairs for ADF International, a global human rights organization. Prior to that, he worked for Die Presse, one of the largest and most reputable Austrian daily newspapers, focused on politics and economics.

Moderator

Teresa Tomeo

Teresa Tomeo is an author, syndicated Catholic talk show host, and motivational speaker with more than 30 years of experience in TV, radio, and newspaper, 20 of which were as a secular reporter/anchor in the Detroit market. In the year 2000, Teresa left the secular media to start her own speaking and communications company, Teresa Tomeo Communications, LLC. Her weekday morning radio program, Catholic Connection, is co-produced by Ave Maria Radio in Ann Arbor, Michigan and the EWTN Global Catholic Radio Network. It is heard on over 500 Catholic radio stations worldwide and on the Sirius Satellite Network.

Moderator

Kelsey Wicks

Kelsey Wicks is the interim executive director for Catholic News Agency (CNA). A graduate of the University of Notre Dame, she worked as a legislative assistant on immigration- and refugee-related issues for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops before she turned down a scholarship to Notre Dame Law School to join the Nashville Dominicans. Shortly after discerning out of the convent, she began her career in media, helping to found a Catholic news agency in Arabic to give a voice for persecuted Christians and was appointed to her current position.