Women Of Grace Retreat – 2025

Johnnette Benkovic Williams is Founder and President of Women of Grace®, a Catholic apostolate for women featuring a number of outreaches including conferences, media, study groups and more. 

After years of being a non-practicing Catholic, Johnnette experienced a deep conversion back to her Catholic faith in 1981. Her conversion sparked a new vocation: sharing the Gospel message through the utilization of media. She has been an inspiring and consistent presence on EWTN Catholic radio and EWTN Catholic television for over 30 years.

Donald Wallenfang, OCDS, PhD is a Secular Discalced Carmelite, Professor of Theology and Philosophy at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit, and Academic Advisor for the Benedicta Institute. He received his MTS from St. Norbert College and his PhD in systematic theology from Loyola University Chicago. He has published twelve books as well as numerous articles and book chapters on a variety of topics in Catholic theology and philosophy. His areas of expertise merge at the intersection of Carmelite spirituality, phenomenology, metaphysics, and sacramental theology. Wallenfang served in full-time Catholic youth and young adult ministry for nine years. He has been married to his wife, Megan, for twenty-three years and has six children.

Kitty Cleveland, a singer/songwriter, inspirational speaker, and artist from New Orleans, began her professional career as a lawyer and then as a college instructor. But in an adoration chapel one day in 1998, as she searched for God during a devastating family crisis, she clearly heard the Lord Jesus call her to become a “music missionary.” Kitty has since released 10 CDs of music and prayer. Those CDs became the foundation for her nonprofit, Sounds of Peace, which has a mission to share the consolation of her music and prayer with the poor, the sick, and the dying at no charge to them.

Kitty has appeared numerous times on EWTN, Boston Catholic TV, on the radio, in concert, and as a keynote speaker both at home and abroad. She lives in the New Orleans area with her musician husband, and they are slowly adjusting to an empty nest. In addition to leading hundreds of people in praying the rosary each weekday morning online at 5:45 am CT (you are cordially invited!), she enjoys cooking, gardening, and oil painting. Kitty’s first book, From Prison to Paradise: A Sory of Radical Trust in God’s Divine Mercy (The Word Among Us Press) is now available.

Auxiliary Bishop/Vicar General/Episcopal Vicar for Faith Initiatives 

Most Reverend William John Waltersheid was born on November 1956 in Ashland Pennsylvania; ordained a priest of the Diocese of Harrisburg in July 1992; appointed Titular Bishop of California and Auxiliary Bishop of Pittsburgh in February 2011; consecrated April 2011.  Appointed Episcopal Vicar for Clergy and Secretary for Clergy and Consecrated Life April 2011.  Appointed dean of the regional vicar of Vicariate 1 and chaplain to the Sisters of the Holy Spirit September 2017.