Our Lady Of Peace – 2025

Simeon Gallagher, OFM Cap., is a member of the Mid-America Province of the Capuchin Order. Fr. Gallagher is currently the Director of the Preaching Ministry Office of the Mid-America Province of the Capuchin Order. He conducts retreats, parish development programs, parish missions and religious education workshops. His association with the Emmaus Spirituality Program for Priests has gained him an international reputation in conducting retreats for priests.

His work has taken him to Central America (El Salvador). He was instrumental in founding Emmaus in Great Britain, and he has presented ecumenical lectures at the Jean XXIII Centre, Geneva, Switzerland. For the past several years, he has worked closely with the US Armed Forces at military bases around the world. He recently returned from engagements in Asia and Australia. In June, 2011 he was a featured speaker at the Society of University Neuro-Surgeons (SUN) International Symposium in Athens, Istanbul, and Ephesus.

Sr. J. Sheila Galligan, IHM is currently a professor emerita in the Department of Theology at Immaculata University. Sister Sheila studied (MA) at St Charles Seminary, Overbrook, PA and completed her doctoral work (STD) at the University of St Thomas (Angelicum), Rome. She focused on the writings of C S Lewis. Sr. Sheila has had teaching experience in primary and secondary levels. She has published articles in various religious and educational journals and is actively engaged in promoting respect for life.

Dan has been married to his wife Joanne for over fifteen years and is the father of three adopted children, two from Uganda and one from Philadelphia. Dan and Joanne’s story of how God led them to each of their children is a truly powerful and inspiring one about how a personal relationship with God and obedience to Catholic teaching will lead you to a love you would otherwise have never known. As a father in a biracial family, Dan is especially in awe of how God has made his dinner table a place where in many ways the sons and daughters of former slaves and former slave owners sit together at the table of fellowship as Martin Luther King dreamed. However, Dan shares his story with great honesty and humor revealing that being a dad for Christ in his house is not always so dreamy! Dan’s journey as a father is a reminder that God’s plans are always greater than our own and that a personal relationship with God, while not always easy, is always worth it.