Cardinal Burke
H.E. Raymond Cardinal Burke currently serves as the patron of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta. Prior to this he was Cardinal Prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura. He also served as the archbishop of the Archdiocese of St. Louis, Missouri from 2003 to 2008, and previously as the bishop of the Diocese of La Crosse, Wisconsin from 1995 to 2003.
Cardinal Burke is a regular visitor to Ireland and has been the keynote speaker at the annual Catholic Voice conference in Limerick for the last number of years.
Bishop Schneider
H. E. Bishop Athanasius Schneider O.C.R. is Auxiliary Bishop of Astana, Kazakhstan and titular bishop of Celerina. He is a member of the Canons Regular of the Holy Cross of Coimbra.
His book ‘Dominus Est’ is a beautiful treatise on the Holy Eucharist with a particular emphasis on reverent reception of the Holy Eucharist.
Bishop Schneider favours the reception of Holy communion on the tongue whilst kneeling. He wrote “The awareness of the greatness of the eucharistic mystery is demonstrated in a special way by the manner in which the body of the Lord is distributed and received,”
John Smeaton
John Smeaton is the director of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (S.P.U.C.) a position which he has held 1996.
In 2005 John was elected vice-president of the International Right to Life Federation and helped to coordinate more than 150 pro-life/pro-family groups at UN conferences in Cairo, Copenhagen, Beijing, Istanbul and Rome, which resulted in pro-life victories in Cairo, Istanbul and Rome.
John is married to Josephine and they have a grown-up family. He is a regular visitor to Ireland and has spoken at several of the annual Catholic Voice conferences.