Keynote Speakers

We are pleased to have Jeff Crandall return as one of our keynote speakers. Mr. Crandall is presently the Co-Director of Faith Formation at St. Bernadette Catholic Church in Houston, Texas (www.stbchurch.org) and is the author of the book "Being Loved -- a Reflection on Human Nature". With a Bachelor’s Degree in Music Education, he taught band for five years (1983-1988) while working on a Master’s Degree in Religious Education. With that he taught Theology, mainly Old and New Testament, at St. Thomas High School for the next fifteen years (1988-2003). Jeff has taught Scripture in the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston’s Formation Toward Christian Ministry program since 1989. He also taught in, and wrote six course outlines for, the Archdiocesan Biblical Studies Project. Jeff continues to give classes to adults in his own parish and other parishes around the Archdiocese. His vocation, and passion, has always been the study and the teaching of Scripture. While working at St. Martha Catholic Church in Kingwood, Texas (2003-2009), he began a ministry of free audio CDs which has produced and given out more than 50,000 CDs throughout the Archdiocese. Hundreds of these talks are on the St. Martha website: www.stmarthaaff.com, and may be downloaded for free. Jeff and his wife Jean have seven children and ten grandchildren all living in the Houston area.

We also welcome Reverend Michael Witt as our second keynote speaker. Father Witt was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Saint Louis in 1990. Before that he served the Church for twenty-two years as a Christian Brother teaching in Oklahoma, Missouri and Tennessee. He holds a Ph.D. in Modern European History from Saint Louis University and a Masters in Divinity from Kenrick-Glennon Seminary. He has served the Archdiocese as associate pastor, pastor, Director of Continuing Formation for Priests and Director of the Kolbe House, a residence for Catholic men discerning their vocation. Besides publishing two books on Catholic topics and contributing journal articles, Father Witt has assembled a 169-part series in Catholic Church history available from Covenant Network and housed at www.michaeljohnwitt.com. He recently completed a term as Interim President-Rector of Kenrick-Glennon Seminary, continues to teach on the faculty there and is the Director for Permanent Deaconate of the Archdiocese of Saint Louis.