Meet Our 2023 Speakers

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 Crystalina Evert is the founder of Women Made New Ministries and the co-founder of Chastity Project. She is a best-selling author of the books Pure Womanhood, How to Find Your Soulmate without Losing Your Soul, and the curriculum YOU: Life, Love, and the Theology of the Body. She has spoken about the virtue of chastity and God's plan for human sexuality internationally to hundreds of thousands of teenagers, including events such as World Youth Days in Australia, Spain, and Poland. Crystalina is a frequent guest on radio programs throughout the country, and her television appearances include MSNBC, the BBC, Donahue, WGN-TV news, and EWTN. She and her husband Jason have hosted a pair of TV series for teens on EWTN: “The Pure Life” and “Theology of the Body for Teens.”

 Bishop James S. Wall was born in Ganado, Arizona in 1964 to parents James A. Wall and Joan Wall. Along with his parents and five siblings, he continued to live in Arizona for his young adult life, attending public school in Chandler, AZ, and continuing to college at Arizona State University in Tempe, AZ, where he studied history.  On February 5, 2009, Bishop Wall was appointed by Pope Benedict XVI as the fourth Bishop of the Diocese of Gallup, and was consecrated and installed officially on April 23, 2009.  Bishop Wall’s episcopal motto is “Be Doers of the Word”, from the Epistle of St. James: “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves (James 1:22).” This passage is to remind us that we must not only listen to the words of Christ, but put them into daily action, following the teachings of Our Lord. 

  Mary Rice Hasson, J.D., is the Kate O’Beirne Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C., where she directs the Catholic Women’s Forum, a network of Catholic professional women and scholars. Mary is also the co-founder of the Person and Identity Project, an initiative that equips parents and faith-based institutions with the resources they need to counter gender ideology and promote the truth about the human person. An attorney and policy expert, Mary has been a keynote speaker for the Holy See during the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, addressing education, women and work, caregiving, and gender ideology. She also serves as a consultant to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Laity, Marriage, Family, Life and Youth and recently testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee against the Equality Act. Mary is the co-author of several books on education, and her writing has appeared in

the Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, First Things, the National Catholic Register and Our Sunday Visitor, among others. Mary and her husband Seamus Hasson have seven grown children and two grandchildren.

 Fr. Harold Escarcega is a Phoenix native, born and raised in Scottsdale, AZ. He was ordained June 4th, 2022, at the hands of Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted. During the course of his seminary studies he received his Licentiate in Philosophy at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., as well as a Bachelor's in Sacred Theology from St. John Vianney Theological Seminary in Denver, Colorado. With great joy he currently serves at Ss. Simon and Jude Cathedral as Parochial Vicar, and also as a part-time chaplain at Xavier College Preparatory.