St. Catherine of Siena (1347 - 1380)
doctor of the Church
reformer
patron saint of Europe
knew she was called to the priesthood Click here!
CATHOLIC PATRONS
Dr Sheila Cassidy
Doctor, author, spiritual thinker and former political prisoner
in Chile , tortured for supporting victims of the Pinochet dictatorship. Author
of Audacity to Believe (1972), Sharing the Darkness. The
Spirituality of Caring (1988), Prayer for Pilgrims (1994),
The Loneliest Journey (1997), Good Friday People (2002).
Delle Chatman
Delle
Chatman is a playwright, an actress, a screenwriter, a teacher, a visual
artist, and a published author. Her scripts have spanned many genres and have
been produced by ABC, NBC, CBS, and PBS. A screenplay written for Sidney
Poitier – “FREE OF EDEN” – premiered on the Showtime
Network, celebrating the importance of education and personal integrity. For
seven years, she directed the screenwriting program at Northwestern University,
and now has two books in print – “The Death of a Parent:
Reflections for Adults Mourning the Loss of a Father or Mother” (ACTA
Publications, 2001) and “The Unteachable Ten: Wisdom and Visions for
All Students of Life” (Infinity Publishing, 2001). Taking her passion
for photography and painting to the marketplace for the first time just a few
years ago – Chatman received praise from Francis Cardinal George of
Chicago for her work as a photographer and painter focusing on religious
themes. She has studied theology at Catholic Theological Union, and currently
hosts the PBS award-winning, faith-based program “30 Good
Minutes.” She appears as a regular contributor of reflections on the
Hallmark Channel’s daily broadcast called “New Morning.”
She cherishes that television ministry along with her service on the Lay
Preaching Team at her home parish, St. Gertrude in Edgewater Chicago.
Airline Executive. Lecturer in Economics. Irish Minister of
Foreign Affairs (1973-1977). Leader of Fine Gael Party. Prime Minister of
Ireland (1981-1987). President of the European Council of Heads of Government,
and Deputy European Chairmanship of the Trilateral Commission. Chancellor of
the National University of Ireland . Weekly column writer for the Irish Times.
Author of Planning in Ireland (1969), Towards a
New Ireland (1973), The Israeli-Palestinian Issue
(1990), All in a Life. Autobiography (1991), Modern Irish
Democracy (ed.; 1993), Reflections on the Irish
State (2003). He wrote numerous articles including the classic
‘Women Ministers in the Catholic Church?’ (1968).
Prof Mary Grey MA
Oxon, PhD Louvain
Professor of Pastoral Theology at the University of Wales; Hon
Fellow at Sarum College; prev. Prof of Feminism and Christianity at Nijmegen
University; President of the European Society of Women in Theological Research
(1989-1991). Author of In Search of the Sacred (1989), Redeeming
the Dream (1989), From Barriers to Community (1991), The
Wisdom of Fools Seeking Revelation Today (1993), Beyond the Dark Night
(1997), Prophecy and Mysticism (1997); The Outrageous Pursuit
of Hope (2000), Introducing Feminist Images of God (2001),
Sacred Longings (2003).
Prof Catherina Halkes PhD
Retired
Professor of Theology at the Catholic University of Nijmegen . Pioneer in
Europe of the Theology of Feminism. Author of De horizon van het pastorale
gesprek (1977), Als vrouwen aan het woord komen (ed. 1978),
Met Mirjam is het begonnen (1980), Op water en brood (ed.
1984), Vrouwen, mannen, mensen (1984), Bibliografie feminisme en
Christendom (ed. 1984), Feminisme en Spiritualiteit (1986),
Zoekend naar wat verloren ging (1987), En alles zal worden
herschapen (1989), Boeiende Beelden (ed. 1992), Roomse
dochters (ed. 1992).
Prof Michael
Hornsby-Smith BSc(Soc) PhD
Retired Professor of Sociology at the University of Surrey ;
prev. Chairman British Sociological Association’s Sociology of Religion
Study group (1990-1993). Author of Catholic Education (1978),
Roman Catholic Opinion (co-author 1979), Roman Catholics in
England (1987), The Changing Parish (1989), Roman Catholic
Beliefs in England (1991), The Politics of Spirituality
(1995).
Baron and Baroness
Holvoet Bourguignon
Baroness
HolvoetBA Law & MA Philology; prev.
lecturer in Zaire , Tunisia , Paris , Brussels & Toronto . Author of
Les femmes dans l’oeuvre romanesque de Simone de Beauvoir.
Baron Holvoet PhD
Law & BA Sinology (Louvain), MA Egyptology & BA Assyriology
(Brussels); ret. Director of National Office of Pensions (Belgium).
Lord Raymond Hylton MA
Hon Dr Soc Science
Parliamentarian, House of Lords. Chairman NIACRO - N. Ireland
Association for Care and Resettlement of Offenders; Vice Chairman Partners in
Hope, re Children at Risk in Moscow . Promoted just legislation regarding
the treatment of minorities, care for the handicapped and the prosecution of UK
child abusers overseas.
Sister Naoko Iyori
MA
History, and Diploma from Pastoral Institute of Pontifical University of
Salamanca, Spain. Retired lecturer at Dept. of Sociology at various
Universities in Japan. Lecturer at Institutes of On-going Religious Formation
and of Lay Missionary Formation. Visiting research associate at the Centre for
Religion, Culture and Gender in the Dept. of Religions and Theology at
Manchester Univ. UK (1998~1999). Works with Japanese Council for Justice and
Peace since 1980 as well as with Asia Partnership for Human Development, a
Catholic International Development Organization (1989 ~ 1998). Collaborated
with UN Human Rights Committee and with HABITAT for the cause of Asian women
and children(1988 ~1996). Works for the reconciliation and recovery of justice
of the drafted women in Asia and Pacific Area during the WW II. Wrote several
books such as Report on People's Development in Asia (1990), Issues of
Environment and Development of the Squatters in Asia & Latin America
(1992), Democratization of Asia and Women (1994), Guatemalan
Indigenous Women (1997) and many articles on the human rights of women.
Translated into Japanese Helder Camara's Sister Earth: Ecology and the
Spirit (1998) and John Wijngaards’
The Ordination of Women
in the Catholic Church (2005).
Marie R. Joyce PhD
Marie Joyce BA (Hons), M Ed
Psych, PhD, Visiting Senior Research Fellow in a Research Institute in
Melbourne. Registered Psychologist in the State of Victoria, Australia, and a
Fellow of the Australian Psychological Society. Member of the APS College of
Clinical Psychologists and Chair of the APS Ethics Committee (2001 - 2004).
Convenor of the APS Ethical Guidelines Advisory Committee. She has published
widely both research papers and theoretical works in the area of
Rational-Emotive Behaviour Therapy and its applications for children,
adolescents and parents. Her other major teaching and research interest is
cognitive development, that is, the ways in which individuals' mental
structures grow in complexity. She is an Associate Fellow and Supervisor of the
Albert Ellis Institute in New York and a Faculty member of the Australian
Institute for Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy. Marie supervises the theses
of Masters and Doctoral students and undertakes her own research projects. Her
current research projects include the evaluation of an education transition
centre for marginalized young people (aged 11-15) who have dropped out of
school, and the evaluation of a residential model of care for homeless young
people. She also has a deep commitment to human rights and is involved in a
project to deliver tertiary education to refugees on the Burma-Thai border. She
is also currently participating, as an interviewer, in a project called
Detention Remembered, an initiative of Spare Lawyers for Refugees to
create an audio-visual record of asylum seekers' experience of detention in
Australian Detention Centres. Marie is the mother of five adult children and
grandmother of eight.
Prof Eric Jurgens PhD (Law)
Member and Assistant President of the Senate (Eerste Kamer) of the Parliament of the Netherlands (1995 - now). Member of the Dutch House of Commons (Tweede Kamer; 1972-1975; 1990-1994). Chairmain N.O.S. (Dutch Radio & TV Umbrella; 1975 - 1985). Professor of Government Law at the Free University of Amsterdam (1987 - 1999) and the National University of Limburg (1991-2000). Has been a member and chairman of numerous national and international institutions. At present chairman of Union of State Libraries (2004 - now).
Publications: P.P.R. op aarde (1968); Omroep als publieke dienst (1985); Omroeprecht en auteursrecht (with N. van Lingen 1986); De stenen tafelen: een nieuwe moraal voor burgers en overheid? (editor, 1992); Tweede Kamer op orde (with J. A. van Schagen, 1993); De heren van Den Haag zijn onderweg (anthology of 100 poems, with F. Niessen, 1993); Een onparlementair stelsel (with W. Vermeend, 1993). Writes and has written many articles.
Decoration: Officer of the Order of the Dutch Lion (1985).
Baroness Helena Kennedy QC of the
Shaws
Chair
of the London International Festival of Theatre (1994-2002). Chair of the
British Counsel Board; Chair of the Human Genetics Committee; Vice-President of
the Haldane Society; Hon Fellow of the institute for Advanced Legal Studies;
Board member of the Independent newspaper. She holds nineteen honorary
doctorates in law. Author of Eve was Framed (1992), Just Law: The
changing face of justice (2004). She contributed to The Bar on Trial
(1978), Child Sexual Abuse within the Family (1984),
Balancing Acts: On being a mother (1989) . Creator of BBC television
series Blind Justice (1987). Moderator of the BBC’s
Hypotheticals. She received the UK ‘Woman of Europe’
award, 1995, ‘Campaigning and Influencing’ award (National
Federation of Women’s Institutes 1996) and The Times ‘Lifetime
Achievement in the Law’ award, 1996.
Patrick Lister MA MBA CBE
KSS
Pro
Chancellor Coventry University .Member of the Catenian Association since 1953,
President 1960-1961.
Prev. Founder Member and Chair of the Catholic Union UK;
Fellow, Institute of Logistics & Transport; Director and Chief Executive,
Engineering Employers West Midlands Association (1983-1984); Chairman of
Governors, Coventry University (1986-1997).
Arlene and
Leonard Swidler
Arlene
Swidler MTh, author of Woman in a man’s Church (1972),
Sister Celebrations (1974), Human Rights in Religious Traditions
(1982), Mainstreaming (1985), A New Phoebe (ed. 1990),
Homosexuality and World Religions (1993). She and Len
were co-founders of the Journal of Ecumenical Studies (1964) and
co-editors of the classic research volume Women Priests (1977); Temple
University , Philadelphia .
Prof Leonard Swidler is
Founder/Director of the Institute for Interreligious, Intercultural
Dialogue (Philadelphia 1985), and Co-Founder/Director of the Global
Dialogue Institute (1995), holds degrees in History, Philosophy, and
Theology, was visiting Professor at Graz (Austria), Hamburg and Tübingen
(Germany), Nankai University (Tianjin, China), Fudan University (Shanghai), and
Temple University Japan (Tokyo), University of Malaya (Kuala Lumpur,
Malaysia). He has published more than 60 books, including: Dialogue
for Reunion (1962), Jewish-Christian Dialogues (1966),
Bloodwitness for Peace and Unity (1977), Jewish-Christian-Muslim
Dialogue(1978) From Holocaust to
Dialogue (1981), Buddhism Made Plain (1984), Religious
Liberty and Human Rights (1986), Breaking down the Wall Between
Americans & East Germans, Christians and Jews (1987),
Catholic-Communist Collaboration in Italy (1988), After the Absolute:
The Dialogical Future of Religious Reflection (1990), Death or
Dialogue. From the Age of Monologue to the Age of Dialogue (1990), A
Bridge to Buddhist-Christian Dialogue (1990), Human Rights:
Christians, Marxists, and Others in Dialogue (1991), Muslims in
Dialogue. The Evolution of a Dialogue over a
Generation(1992), For All Life:
Toward a Universal Declaration of a Global Ethic. An Interreligious
Dialogue (1998), Theoria & Praxis. How Jews,
Christians, Muslims Can Together Move from Theory To
Practice(1999), The Study of
Religion in the Age of Global Dialogue(2000).
Dr Suzanne
Tunc
MA Law, DD (Theology),
Assistant Counsellor in the legal Department of the International Monetary Fund (1947-1950), wrote
(with her husband André Tunc) the classic Le Droit des États
Unis, ,vols. 1-3, 1950, a book which has seen many reprints. She lived for some time in many countries, like the USA, UK, Switzerland and visited many others, including Japan.
She now lives in Paris, Other publications of her hand are: Brève Histoire des Femmes
Chrétiennes (1989), Les Femmes au Pouvoir. Deux Abbesses de
Fontevraud (1993),
Des femmes
aussi suivaient Jésus (1998), and Croire au XXI
Siècle (2005). She translated into French, John Wijngaards book The Ordination of Women in the Catholic Church, Unmasking a Cuckoo's Egg Tradition (2001)
ECUMENICAL PATRONS
Rev Baroness
Kathleen Richardson of Calow
First Woman President of the Methodist Conference (1992-1993);
Moderator, Free Churches Council (1995-1999); President of Churches
Together in England (1995-1999). She was created a Life Peer in the House
of Lords in 1998.
Christina
Rees
Writer,
broadcaster and public speaker. Chair of the influential Anglican organization
WATCH: Women and the Church. Writes regularly for BRF’s Day
by Day with God. Contributes to Radio 4’s Thought for the
Day. Author of Sea Urchin: A Childhood at Sea (1989), Divine
Embrace (2001) and Voices of this Calling (editor, 2002).
Most Rev Prof Dr
Joris Vercammen
Doctorate in theology at the Catholic University of Louvain in
Belgium .
Old-Catholic Archbishop of Utrecht in the
Netherlands .
Head of the Union of Old Catholic
Churches.
Dr Pauline
Webb
Officer of
the British Methodist Church Overseas Division. Vice-Moderator of the World
Council of Churches (1968-1975). Organizer of Religious Broadcasting in the
BBC’s World Service (1979 – 1987). She is the author of
Evidence for the Power of Prayer (1987), Candles for Advent
(1989), She Flies Beyond (1993), Worship in Every Event
(1997) and Living by Grace. She also wrote television and film
scripts and was co-editor of the Dictionary of the Ecumenical
Movement.
Doctor, author, spiritual thinker and former political prisoner
in Chile , tortured for supporting victims of the Pinochet dictatorship. Author
of Audacity to Believe (1972), Sharing the Darkness. The
Spirituality of Caring (1988), Prayer for Pilgrims (1994),
The Loneliest Journey (1997), Good Friday People (2002).
Delle
Chatman is a playwright, an actress, a screenwriter, a teacher, a visual
artist, and a published author. Her scripts have spanned many genres and have
been produced by ABC, NBC, CBS, and PBS. A screenplay written for Sidney
Poitier – “FREE OF EDEN” – premiered on the Showtime
Network, celebrating the importance of education and personal integrity. For
seven years, she directed the screenwriting program at Northwestern University,
and now has two books in print – “The Death of a Parent:
Reflections for Adults Mourning the Loss of a Father or Mother” (ACTA
Publications, 2001) and “The Unteachable Ten: Wisdom and Visions for
All Students of Life” (Infinity Publishing, 2001). Taking her passion
for photography and painting to the marketplace for the first time just a few
years ago – Chatman received praise from Francis Cardinal George of
Chicago for her work as a photographer and painter focusing on religious
themes. She has studied theology at Catholic Theological Union, and currently
hosts the PBS award-winning, faith-based program “30 Good
Minutes.” She appears as a regular contributor of reflections on the
Hallmark Channel’s daily broadcast called “New Morning.”
She cherishes that television ministry along with her service on the Lay
Preaching Team at her home parish, St. Gertrude in Edgewater Chicago.
Retired
Professor of Dogmatic Theology at Utrecht University with specialization on
Women and the Church. Author of numerous articles including the
classic 
Airline Executive. Lecturer in Economics. Irish Minister of
Foreign Affairs (1973-1977). Leader of Fine Gael Party. Prime Minister of
Ireland (1981-1987). President of the European Council of Heads of Government,
and Deputy European Chairmanship of the Trilateral Commission. Chancellor of
the National University of Ireland . Weekly column writer for the Irish Times.
Professor of Pastoral Theology at the University of Wales; Hon
Fellow at Sarum College; prev. Prof of Feminism and Christianity at Nijmegen
University; President of the European Society of Women in Theological Research
(1989-1991). Author of In Search of the Sacred (1989), Redeeming
the Dream (1989), From Barriers to Community (1991), The
Wisdom of Fools Seeking Revelation Today (1993), Beyond the Dark Night
(1997), Prophecy and Mysticism (1997); The Outrageous Pursuit
of Hope (2000), Introducing Feminist Images of God (2001),
Sacred Longings (2003). 
Retired
Professor of Theology at the Catholic University of Nijmegen . Pioneer in
Europe of the Theology of Feminism. Author of De horizon van het pastorale
gesprek (1977), Als vrouwen aan het woord komen (ed. 1978),
Met Mirjam is het begonnen (1980), Op water en brood (ed.
1984), Vrouwen, mannen, mensen (1984), Bibliografie feminisme en
Christendom (ed. 1984), Feminisme en Spiritualiteit (1986),
Zoekend naar wat verloren ging (1987), En alles zal worden
herschapen (1989), Boeiende Beelden (ed. 1992), Roomse
dochters (ed. 1992). 
Retired Professor of Sociology at the University of Surrey ;
prev. Chairman British Sociological Association’s Sociology of Religion
Study group (1990-1993). Author of Catholic Education (1978),
Roman Catholic Opinion (co-author 1979), Roman Catholics in
England (1987), The Changing Parish (1989), Roman Catholic
Beliefs in England (1991), The Politics of Spirituality
(1995).
Baroness
Holvoet 
Parliamentarian, House of Lords. Chairman NIACRO - N. Ireland
Association for Care and Resettlement of Offenders; Vice Chairman Partners in
Hope, re Children at Risk in Moscow . 
MA
History, and Diploma from Pastoral Institute of Pontifical University of
Salamanca, Spain. Retired lecturer at Dept. of Sociology at various
Universities in Japan. Lecturer at Institutes of On-going Religious Formation
and of Lay Missionary Formation. Visiting research associate at the Centre for
Religion, Culture and Gender in the Dept. of Religions and Theology at
Manchester Univ. UK (1998~1999). Works with Japanese Council for Justice and
Peace since 1980 as well as with Asia Partnership for Human Development, a
Catholic International Development Organization (1989 ~ 1998). Collaborated
with UN Human Rights Committee and with HABITAT for the cause of Asian women
and children(1988 ~1996). Works for the reconciliation and recovery of justice
of the drafted women in Asia and Pacific Area during the WW II. Wrote several
books such as Report on People's Development in Asia (1990), Issues of
Environment and Development of the Squatters in Asia & Latin America
(1992), Democratization of Asia and Women (1994), Guatemalan
Indigenous Women (1997) and many articles on the human rights of women.
Translated into Japanese Helder Camara's Sister Earth: Ecology and the
Spirit (1998) and John Wijngaards’
Marie Joyce BA (Hons), M Ed
Psych, PhD, Visiting Senior Research Fellow in a Research Institute in
Melbourne. Registered Psychologist in the State of Victoria, Australia, and a
Fellow of the Australian Psychological Society. Member of the APS College of
Clinical Psychologists and Chair of the APS Ethics Committee (2001 - 2004).
Convenor of the APS Ethical Guidelines Advisory Committee. She has published
widely both research papers and theoretical works in the area of
Rational-Emotive Behaviour Therapy and its applications for children,
adolescents and parents. Her other major teaching and research interest is
cognitive development, that is, the ways in which individuals' mental
structures grow in complexity. She is an Associate Fellow and Supervisor of the
Albert Ellis Institute in New York and a Faculty member of the Australian
Institute for Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy. Marie supervises the theses
of Masters and Doctoral students and undertakes her own research projects. Her
current research projects include the evaluation of an education transition
centre for marginalized young people (aged 11-15) who have dropped out of
school, and the evaluation of a residential model of care for homeless young
people. She also has a deep commitment to human rights and is involved in a
project to deliver tertiary education to refugees on the Burma-Thai border. She
is also currently participating, as an interviewer, in a project called
Detention Remembered, an initiative of Spare Lawyers for Refugees to
create an audio-visual record of asylum seekers' experience of detention in
Australian Detention Centres. Marie is the mother of five adult children and
grandmother of eight. 
Member and Assistant President of the Senate (Eerste Kamer) of the Parliament of the Netherlands (1995 - now). Member of the Dutch House of Commons (Tweede Kamer; 1972-1975; 1990-1994). Chairmain N.O.S. (Dutch Radio & TV Umbrella; 1975 - 1985). Professor of Government Law at the Free University of Amsterdam (1987 - 1999) and the National University of Limburg (1991-2000). Has been a member and chairman of numerous national and international institutions. At present chairman of Union of State Libraries (2004 - now).
Chair
of the London International Festival of Theatre (1994-2002). Chair of the
British Counsel Board; Chair of the Human Genetics Committee; Vice-President of
the Haldane Society; Hon Fellow of the institute for Advanced Legal Studies;
Board member of the Independent newspaper. She holds nineteen honorary
doctorates in law. Author of Eve was Framed (1992), Just Law: The
changing face of justice (2004). She contributed to The Bar on Trial
(1978), Child Sexual Abuse within the Family (1984),
Balancing Acts: On being a mother (1989) . Creator of BBC television
series Blind Justice (1987). Moderator of the BBC’s
Hypotheticals. She received the UK ‘Woman of Europe’
award, 1995, ‘Campaigning and Influencing’ award (National
Federation of Women’s Institutes 1996) and The Times ‘Lifetime
Achievement in the Law’ award, 1996. 
Pro
Chancellor Coventry University .Member of the Catenian Association since 1953,
President 1960-1961.
Arlene
Swidler 
MA Law, DD (Theology),
Assistant Counsellor in the legal Department of the International Monetary Fund (1947-1950), wrote
(with her husband André Tunc) the classic Le Droit des États
Unis, ,vols. 1-3, 1950, a book which has seen many reprints. She lived for some time in many countries, like the USA, UK, Switzerland and visited many others, including Japan.
She now lives in Paris, Other publications of her hand are: Brève Histoire des Femmes
Chrétiennes (1989), Les Femmes au Pouvoir. Deux Abbesses de
Fontevraud (1993),
First Woman President of the Methodist Conference (1992-1993);
Moderator, Free Churches Council (1995-1999); President of Churches
Together in England (1995-1999). She was created a Life Peer in the House
of Lords in 1998. 
Writer,
broadcaster and public speaker. Chair of the influential Anglican organization
WATCH: Women and the Church. Writes regularly for BRF’s Day
by Day with God. Contributes to Radio 4’s Thought for the
Day. Author of Sea Urchin: A Childhood at Sea (1989), Divine
Embrace (2001) and Voices of this Calling (editor, 2002). 
Doctorate in theology at the Catholic University of Louvain in
Belgium .
Officer of
the British Methodist Church Overseas Division. Vice-Moderator of the World
Council of Churches (1968-1975). Organizer of Religious Broadcasting in the
BBC’s World Service (1979 – 1987). She is the author of
Evidence for the Power of Prayer (1987), Candles for Advent
(1989), She Flies Beyond (1993), Worship in Every Event
(1997) and Living by Grace. She also wrote television and film
scripts and was co-editor of the Dictionary of the Ecumenical
Movement.
