By TAMI QUIGLEY Staff writer
Six featured speakers will offer presentations at “Lord, To Whom Shall We Go?” the Diocese of Allentown’s Spirit 2017 Men’s Conference Saturday, Nov. 4 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at DeSales University, Center Valley.
The speakers are: Bishop Nelson Perez, Deacon Ramon Lima, Peter Herbeck, Father Stan Fortuna, Marty Rotella and Father Bernard Ezaki.
Members of the Commission for Men serve on the Planning Committee. Stewardship: A Mission of Faith is also a conference sponsor.
Robert Olney serves as the liaison to the Commission for Men. Members of the commission also serve with him on the conference planning committee.
“We are very excited about this year’s presenters and look forward to offering sessions in Spanish this year. It will be a great conference,” said Olney, director of the Diocesan Office of Marriage and Natural Family Planning.
Bishop Nelson Perez
Bishop Perez is Auxiliary Bishop and vicar for the Eastern Vicariate, Diocese of Rockville Centre, New York. Ordained to the priesthood in 1989, he was named Chaplain to His Holiness with the title of Monsignor by St. Pope John Paul II in 1998. In 2009 he was made a Prelate of Honor.
Pope Benedict XVI named Bishop Perez an Auxiliary Bishop for the Diocese of Rockville Centre in 2012.
Bishop Perez’s ministries in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia included founding director of the Catholic Institute for Evangelization 1993-2002 and assistant director of Hispanic Affairs 1990-1993.
Deacon Ramon Lima
Deacon Lima is a retired CPA and permanent deacon in the Diocese of Brooklyn, New York. He has been involved in their deacon formation program and Hispanic ministry for 40 years. He is a retreat and pilgrimage leader and author.
Deacon Lima was born in Havana, Cuba in 1937. He married in 1959 and migrated to the United States in 1960. He was ordained in the first class of deacons for the Diocese of Brooklyn in 1977. He began to form deacons in the Spanish program in 1982 and co-founded the National Association of Hispanic Deacons in 1984.
Peter Herbeck
Herbeck is vice president of Renewal Ministries and weekly host of two EWTN programs, “The Choices We Face” and “Crossing the Goal.” He is a speaker, author, husband and father of four.
For more than 30 years, Herbeck has been actively involved in evangelization and Catholic renewal throughout the United States, Canada, Africa and Eastern Europe. He also hosts the daily radio show “Fire on the Earth.”
A frequent conference speaker, Herbeck has authored “When the Spirit Comes in Power” and “When the Spirit Speaks,” and has produced CDs and booklets about discipleship and life in the Spirit.
Herbeck is involved with “i.d.9:16,” an outreach to Catholic young adults sponsored by Renewal Ministries. He resides in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Father Stan Fortuna
Father Fortuna is one of the eight founding members of the Community of Franciscan Friars of the Renewal (CFR), a Franciscan order established by the late Cardinal John O’Connor, Archbishop of New York, in 1987.
Ordained a priest in the Bronx 1990, he is an accomplished musician and has recorded 20 CDs. He is also an international speaker, writer and evangelist.
Father Fortuna established the nonprofit Francesco Productions in 1987, with all proceeds benefitting the community’s work with the poor of the South Bronx where he lives. Francesco International Love Outreach was later started to assist in working with the poverty-stricken outside of the United States, including the underprivileged in Uganda and Poland.
An international speaker, Father Fortuna has been a featured presenter at numerous Franciscan youth conferences like Steubenville and has numerous appearances to his credit on the EWTN program “Life on the Rock.” He has released more than 18 CDs in a variety of musical genres.
Marty Rotella
Rotella is a Catholic singer/songwriter, evangelist and speaker. He works closely with Stewardship Mission of Faith.
His original recordings include the CDs “Amazing Grace” in 2014, “Spirit Power 3” in 2009 and “Pray the Rosary for Life” in 2006.
Rotella is a parishioner of Church of St. Francis of Assisi, Ridgefield Park, Archdiocese of Newark, New Jersey.
Father Bernard Ezaki
A native of Allentown, Father Ezaki is assistant pastor of St. Jane Frances de Chantal, Easton.
Ordained a priest for the Diocese of Allentown in 1988, Father Ezaki spent one year as an assistant pastor at St. Peter, Coplay. He then served 24 years as a professor of theology at Bethlehem Catholic High School. He was named assistant pastor of the Cathedral of St. Catharine of Siena, Allentown in 2013 before being assigned to St. Jane.
Legally blind since birth, Father Ezaki has learned the secret of Christian joy is nothing less than gratitude. At age 45, he discovered a sentence in a book that changed his life: “I’m not grateful because I’m happy; I’m happy because I’m grateful.”
Men will also have the opportunity to receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation and conclude the day with Mass with Bishop of Allentown Alfred Schlert.
Registration fee is $40. Deadline to register is Monday, Oct. 23.
There is a special rate of $10 for all men attending Spanish sessions, as well as young men in high school or of college age. Registration includes continental breakfast and lunch.
To register, visit www.CMFDA.org. For questions, call 610-289-8900, ext. 2028.
