“Created for This Moment” will be the theme for the 17th annual Columbus Catholic Women’s Conference scheduled for Saturday, Feb. 15 in the Kasich Center at the state fairgrounds.
Women of the diocese are invited to encounter Christ and be inspired through Mass, Reconciliation, Eucharistic Adoration, fellowship, music, lunch, displays from more than 70 vendors and powerful stories of faith, hope and love.
Speakers will be Father John Riccardo, Mary Guilfoyle, Sister Mercedes Torres, OP, Carrie Daunt and Sarah Swafford.
Father Riccardo, a missionary and executive director of ACTS XXIX, is a past Columbus conference speaker and conducted his signature program, The Rescue Project, in Columbus in 2022. His “Christ is the Answer” program is heard every weekday morning on St. Gabriel Catholic Radio in the Diocese of Columbus.
He was ordained a priest of the Archdiocese of Detroit in 1996. In 2019, after 23 years in parish ministry, he founded Acts XXIX to proclaim the gospel in an attractive and compelling way and to equip clergy and lay leaders for the age in which God has chosen us to live.
He is a graduate of the University of Michigan, the Gregorian University and the Pope John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and the Family.
Guilfoyle is a wife, mother and grandmother of twin boys. After a life-changing encounter with Jesus while in college, she served Him in parish ministry for most of her adult life. Upon returning to Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit to complete earlier studies, a cancer diagnosis enrolled her in far more advanced courses than she could have imagined.
After a miraculous healing, she returned to parish ministry, serving as a director of evangelization and discipleship. She is a missionary with ACTS XXIX, co-host of the “You Were Born for This” podcast with Father Riccardo, and serves on the leadership team and is the lead for The Rescue Project.
Sister Mercedes was raised in Brooklyn in a Dominican immigrant family. She studied international relations and Spanish at the University of Southern California. She has always had a great love of travel and personal encounter, leading her to work for a Manhattan-based non-profit, planning trips and bringing medical supplies and doctors to Cuba and Nicaragua before entering religious life.
She entered the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in 2011 and professed her final vows in 2019. She has taught Spanish and humanities at a high school in Phoenix, was a librarian at the Pontifical North American College in Rome, and currently serves as vocations director for her community.
Daunt is a speaker for the John Paul II Healing Center, devoted to the center’s mission of transformation in the heart of the Church. She is the main presenter and content developer for the center’s women’s conference. She also presents alongside her father, Dr. Bob Schuchts, at the center’s marriage conference.
She is the author of “Undone: Freeing your Feminine Heart from the Knots of Fear and Shame”; co-author with her husband of “Man Your Post: Learning to Lead like St. Joseph” and author of the children’s book “Beloved Daughter.” She lives with her husband and nine children in Tallahassee, Florida.
Swafford is the founder of Emotional Virtue Ministries. She speaks internationally on topics including faith, relationships and interior confidence. Engaging audiences of all ages, she shares her message at school assemblies, retreats, rallies, parishes and conferences around the world.
She is the co-author of “Gift and Grit: How Heroic Virtue Can Change Your Life and Relationships” and author of “Emotional Virtue: A Guide to Drama-Free Relationships.” She is co-host of EWTN’s “At the Heart of Relationships” and lives in Atchison, Kansas with her husband, Dr. Andrew Swafford, and their six children.
Music for the conference will be provided by Andrea Thomas and the Vigil Project of Cincinnati. Thomas is a worship leader, songwriter and entrepreneur with a passion for holistic living. Her performance background turned to a deep love for and call to worship. She is co-director of The Vigil Project, which has a mission of restoring devotional prayer in the Catholic Church that deepens participation in the sacraments and liturgical seasons.
The emcee will be Jennifer Rice, director of missionary discipleship at Hilliard St. Brendan the Navigator Church. Originally trained as a clinical social worker, she obtained a Master’s degree in theology to blend the two disciplines into a ministry of presence and pastoral support in which she continues to serve.
She is also a writer, speaker, and coordinator and emcee of women’s events. She and her husband, Grant, are parents of triplet high school seniors.
The conference will begin at 8 a.m. and conclude with a 4 p.m. Sunday Vigil Mass. Tickets are $50 for adults and $35 for anyone 23 and younger. Admission is free for priests and religious. For more information, go to columbuscatholicwomen.com.