His Eminence Oscar Andres Cardinal Rodriguez Maradiaga, SDB is a native of and Archbishop of Tegucigalpa, Honduras. He was ordained for the Salesians in 1970 and holds a doctorate in theology from the Pontifical Lateran University, Rome. He is currently President of the Episcopal Conference of Honduras. He was created Cardinal by Pope John Paul II in 2001. He is a member of the Congregation for the Clergy, Pontifical Councils: for Justice and Peace and Social Communications; Pontifical Commission for Latin America and Special Council for America of the General Secretariat of the Synod of Bishops. His campaign for human rights and the poor have won widespread praise. He is further admired as a dynamic pastor who brokered peace accords with rebels and led rebuilding efforts after natural disasters and is an outspoken proponent of the cancellation of Third World debt. In June 2007 he was elected President of Caritas Internationalis and will be its global representative through 2011.

Topic: St. Paul's Legacy of Inculturation Challenges Us to Be Attentive to the “Signs of the Times”

Rev. Robert Schreiter, C.PP.S. is an internationally recognized expert in the areas of inculturation and the world mission of the church. He is interested in how the gospel is communicated in different cultures and in how a theology of reconciliation might shape missionary activity today. He holds the professorship of theology and culture sponsored by the Edward Schillebeeckx Foundation at the University of Nijmegen. Among his published books are The New Catholicity: Theology Between the Global and the Local and The Ministry of Reconciliation: Spirituality and Strategies.

Topic: Ambassadors for Christ’s Sake: St. Paul’s Vision of Reconciliation

Dr. Thomas T. Beaudoin taught at Boston College and Santa Clara University, and is now associate professor of practical theology in the Graduate School of Religion and Religious Education at Fordham University. He is the author of three books on faith and culture.

Ms. Margaret O’Brien Steinfels is founding co-director of the Fordham University Center on Religion and Culture. Before joining Fordham in 2004, Ms. Steinfels served for fifteen years as the editor of Commonweal. She has written on a variety of topics on childcare, family issues, bioethics, religion and politics, and foreign and domestic policy. As a commentator, she has served on a variety of television and news programs and was one of several lay people asked to address the U.S. Catholic bishops on the clerical sexual abuse crisis at their June 2002 meeting in Dallas. At the Center she continues to explore questions that arise when religious faith intersects with contemporary culture and fosters dialogue on the challenges posed to the culture.