Speakers
Order of Malta Speakers & Presenters
On behalf of the Order of Malta, we extend a warm welcome to all the distinguished speakers who will be gracing our religious conference. We are deeply honored to have them share their wisdom and insights with our attendees, and we are confident their contribution will enrich our conference and inspire all those in attendance.
Fra’ Georg Lengerke
Fra’ Georg von Lengerke was born in 1968. After high school and military service (1987-1989), he studied law in Heidelberg, Lausanne and Munich, passing his First State Examination in Law in 1994. During this time he decided to become a professed priest of the Order of Malta. He studied philosophy and theology in Frankfurt/St. Georgen and Innsbruck. He had his priestly ordination in Mainz in 2000, followed by chaplaincy in Giessen. Since 2002 he has been completely in the service of the Order, living in the “Malteser Kommende” in Ehreshoven near Cologne. In 2003 he took temporal vows, and in 2006 he took solemn vows.
Fra’ Georg has done pastoral work in liturgy and preaching, retreats and spiritual counselling for individuals and groups. His 2006 Doctorate (Dr. theol.) at the University of Bonn was with a thesis about the Presence of Christ in the Poor. During 2008 to 2016, he was Director of the Malteser Spiritual Centre in Ehreshoven. He is currently in charge of building up a life community for the Youth of the Order in Munich.
His current role includes the following:
- Chief Chaplain of the German Subpriory of St. Michael
- Chief Chaplain of the Youth of the Order in Germany (“Gemeinschaft junger Malteser”)
- Spiritual Director of the “Kommende junger Malteser” in Munich.
Rev. Dennis McManus, D.Litt.
Fr. Dennis McManus is a priest of the Archdiocese of Mobile in Alabama. From 1997 to 2006, he served as Associate Director of the Secretariat for the Liturgy at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops in Washington, DC. Pope John Paul II named him as consultor and theologian to the newly established Vox Clara commission of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, on which he has served since 2001; Pope Benedict XVI then appointed Fr. McManus as a consultor to the Congregation in 2010 and then as peritus to the Vox Clara Commission.
In addition, he has served as professor of Liturgy at Conception Abbey Seminary, the Dominican House of Studies, Dunwoodie Seminary, St. John the Evangelist Seminary in Boston, and Mt. St. Mary’s in Emmitsburg. Fr. McManus has written widely on liturgical topics but specialized in the application of liturgical translation theory, the development of the Rites of Exorcism, and Judaism in the Roman Rite.
He is also the USCCB consultant for Jewish Affairs and was a member of both the Vatican-Baptist dialogue (2007-2012) and the USCCB-Reform Churches dialogue, which issued a historic joint agreement on the form and recognition of baptism (2012).
Fr. McManus holds a bachelor’s degree in classical languages and philosophy from St. Mary’s College of California, a master’s degree in ethics from Georgetown University, and a doctorate in historical theology from Drew University.
Dana Gioia
Dana Gioia is an internationally acclaimed poet and writer. Former California Poet Laureate and Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, Gioia was born in Los Angeles of Italian and Mexican descent. The first person in his family to attend college, he received a B.A. and M.B.A. from Stanford and an M.A. from Harvard in Comparative Literature. For fifteen years he worked as a businessman before quitting at forty-one to become a full-time writer.
Noelle Mering
Noelle Mering is a Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center where she co-directs the Theology of Home Project. She is an editor for Theology of Home, co-author of the Theology of Home book series, and the author of Awake, Not Woke: A Christian Response to the Cult of Progressive Ideology. She studied philosophy and theatre at Westmont College in California and got her MA in philosophy at the Franciscan University of Steubenville. Noelle and her husband live in Southern California with their six children.
Rev. Marc P. Valadao SJ, S.S.L.
Fr. Marc Valadao is the Vice-Rector/Dean of Men/Director of Human Formation/Chair of Pastoral Studies & Sacred Scripture/Assistant Professor of Sacred Scripture at St. Patrick’s Seminary in Menlo Park, CA.
Fr. Valadão was born and raised in Fort Bragg, CA. He joined the Society of Jesus in 2006 and was ordained a priest in 2016. As part of his priestly formation, he taught religious studies, including Sacred Scripture, sacraments, and philosophy at the college preparatory level in California and Arizona. While studying theology, he also assisted the Catholic chaplaincy service at San Quentin State Prison. In addition, he has provided supply work as a parish priest in the Dioceses of Fresno, San Jose, and Stockton.
Dr. William Mahrt PhD.
Dr. William Mahrt is Associate Professor of Music at Stanford University. Having devoted his life and scholarly activity to the study and praxis of the Roman rite and its music, Dr. William Mahrt has created a body of work which serves as a touchstone for countless scholars and active church musicians.
His insights into the characteristics of the various forms of Gregorian chant have elucidated the nature of chant as something integral to the sacred liturgy, and even explicated the nature of the sacred liturgy itself. His exposition of the nature of beauty and its embodiment in Catholic sacred music, liturgical gestures and symbols, and architecture has served as an important guide in the Church’s understanding of the purpose of artistic beauty in Divine worship.
His work with the polyphonic masters of the Renaissance has illuminated the performances and scholarship of many choirs and students, and his devoted direction of the St. Ann Choir and Stanford Early Music Singers remains a pillar of the practice of sacred music in the United States.
Robert M. Senkewicz and Rose Marie Beebe
Rose Marie Beebe is Professor Emerita of Spanish literature at Santa Clara University and Robert M. Senkewicz is Professor Emeritus of History, also here at Santa Clara. Rose Marie and Bob have collaborated on a number of books on the history of Spanish and Mexican California including, The History of Alta California; Lands of Promise and Despair: Chronicles of Early California, 1535–1846; Testimonios: Early California through the Eyes of Women, 1815–1848; Junípero Serra: California, Indians, and the Transformation of a Missionary; a complete translation of Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo’s Recuerdos; and Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo: Life in Spanish, Mexican, and American California.
Rose Marie and Bob have received numerous teaching and scholarship awards at Santa Clara University. In 2015 they were recognized with the University Award for Sustained Excellence in Scholarship. They have also received awards from The Bancroft Library, the Historical Society of Southern California, the California Mission Studies Association, and the California Council for the Promotion of History.
Rose Marie received a year-long fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities for the Vallejo project. In 2019 they were awarded the Oscar Lewis Award for Western History by the Book Club of California for their book Junípero Serra: California, Indians, and the Transformation of a Missionary.
Dr. Jennifer Donelson-Nowicka
Jennifer Donelson-Nowicka is an Associate Professor and the Director of Sacred Music at St. Patrick’s Seminary in Menlo Park, California, where she holds the William P. Mahrt Chair in Sacred Music and serves as the founding Director of the Catholic Institute of Sacred Music.
She serves on the board of the Church Music Association of America (CMAA), is the managing editor of the CMAA’s journal Sacred Music, and is a regular member of the faculty for the CMAA’s annual Sacred Music Colloquium. The sometime president, she is currently a board member of the Society for Catholic Liturgy. Donelson-Nowicka serves as a consultant to the USCCB’s Committee on Divine Worship.
Rev. Matthew Spencer O.S.J.
Fr. Matthew Spencer is the Provincial of the Holy Spouses Province of the Oblates of St. Joseph, a religious community based in Santa Cruz, California. He was previously an on-air personality on Immaculate Heart Radio, now Relevant Radio.
“In college I studied computer science, and after graduation I got a great job, making good money and working in a cutting-edge field of software engineering. I loved software design and programming, and I was just waiting for God to send me a wife to complete my plans. A strange thing started happening though. Several people in very different circumstances asked me if I ever thought about being a priest. My reaction surprised me: I didn’t want anything to do with it! But God had other plans…”
Rev. Dwight Longenecker
Fr. Dwight Longenecker was brought up in an Evangelical home in Pennsylvania.
“After graduating from the fundamentalist Bob Jones University with a degree in Speech and English, I went to study theology at Oxford University. Eventually I was ordained as an Anglican priest and served as a curate, a school chaplain in Cambridge and a country parson on the Isle of Wight.
Realizing that the Anglican Church and I were on divergent paths, in 1995 I and my family were received into the Catholic Church. For ten years we continued to live in England where I worked as a freelance writer and charity worker. Then in 2006 the door opened to return to the USA and be ordained as a Catholic priest.
I now serve as Pastor of Our Lady of the Rosary Church in Greenville, South Carolina.”
Fr. Dorian Llywelyn
Fr Dorian Llywelyn SJ is a member of the Western US Province of the Society of Jesus and a Welshman.
He served in the UK Peace Corps in Egypt and Indonesia. As a Jesuit he has worked in jail ministry and work with the homeless but has worked in higher education since 2021.
He holds advanced degrees in English and theology, and has taught, researched and held academic leadership positions in the UK and the USA. He currently serves at LMU as Director for the Center for Ignatian Spirituality. He is the author of two academic books, many scholarly articles, and also writes about spirituality for non-specialist readers. For many years he has been a spiritual director and a retreat giver.
In Fall 2023, he became a magistral chaplain of the Order of Malta. In the LA location, he is very happily volunteering in the location’s charitable work.
Fr. Tom Enneking
Tom Enneking, osc, has been a member of the Crosier Fathers and Brothers since 1976. Fr. Tom obtained his Master of Arts in Pastoral Liturgy in 1984 along with his Master of Divinity, being ordained to the priesthood upon completion of his studies.
He has served as Vocation Director and Post-Novitiate Formation Director. Fr. Tom served as Director of The Welcome Center, a multicultural ministry established by the Crosiers in collaboration with the parish of St. Odilia in St. Paul, Minnesota. He was assigned for a period to Brazil where he worked as Crosier novice director and post-novitiate formation director. This experience required that he learn to speak Brazilian Portuguese.
He has been engaged in ministry with the Hispanic community in the US for over 25 years, gaining fluency in Spanish as well as familiarity with a variety of cultural patterns within the Latino community. He was elected prior provincial of the Crosiers in 2011 and led the efforts to establish Crosier Village, a new foundation for the Crosiers in the heart of South Phoenix. He was elected the national superior of the Crosiers in the US under the title of conventual prior in 2018. He is now the major superior of the 37 Crosiers who live in the two Crosier communities in the US, one in Onamia, Minnesota and the other in Phoenix.
George Williams, SJ
George Williams, SJ was born in New Haven, CT and graduated from Syracuse University in 1979. He served 5 years as an Air Force Officer in Alaska, Germany, and Saudi Arabia. Following the Air Force, he joined the Jesuit Volunteer Corps in Nome, AK working as the rock show DJ and news editor for KNOM, a Jesuit-founded radio station serving the people of Western Alaska. It was in Alaska that he met Jesuits for the first time and was inspired by them to join the Society of Jesus. He entered the Society in Boston in 1987.
He studied philosophy at Gonzaga University in Spokane for two years and then went to Brazil for his regency assignment where he worked in a poor community in Northeastern Brazil.
He felt called to work in prison ministry, so when he returned to Boston in 1993, he went to volunteer at the Boston City Jail and was immediately hired as their Catholic Chaplain. He has been engaged in prison ministry ever since.
While working in the Boston jail system he earned an MSW from Boston College and then went on to graduate theology studies at the Weston Jesuit School of Theology (now Boston College School of Theology and Ministry), in Cambridge, Mass, where he received his master’s degree in divinity (M.Div.) and a MA in Spiritual Direction. While in theology studies, he worked as a counselor at The Bridge House in Framingham, MA, a faith-based halfway house for ex-prisoners. He was ordained to the priesthood in 2004.
Following ordination, he worked5 years in the MA state prison system as the Catholic Chaplain at MCI-Concord. He was the editor of the Order of Malta prison newsletter, “The Serving Brother” from 2012 to 2020. Fr. Williams is a Magistral Chaplain of the Order of Malta.
He began a doctoral program in Criminology at Northeastern University in 2007 in Boston. He was offered the Chaplaincy at San Quentin State Prison in CA, where he has worked since 2011. While working at San Quentin, he researched, wrote and defended his doctoral thesis: “Resisting Burnout: Correctional Staff Spirituality and Resilience, “earning his Ph.D. in April 2017. He is a founding member of the Catholic Prison Ministry Coalition, established in 2018.
Msgr. Steven Otellini
Msgr. Steven Otellini is a priest of the Archdiocese of San Francisco. Ordained in 1978. Served in St. Catherine’s Parish, and Marin Catholic High School before entering into the diplomatic service of the Holy See, serving in Africa and Greece.
Msgr. Steven Otellini returned to the Archdiocese and served at St. Cecilia’s Parish, Marin Catholic High School, and finally pastor at Church of the Nativity.
Now retired and living at Vallombrosa Retreat Center. A member of the Order since 1998, presently the Principal Chaplain for the Western Association.
