Mary Rice Hasson, J.D.

Mary Rice Hasson, J.D., is the Kate O’Beirne Senior Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C., where she co-founded and directs the Person and Identity Project, an initiative that equips parents and faith-based institutions to promote the truth about the human person and counter gender ideology. She is also currently a Visiting Fellow for the Veritas Center at Franciscan University. An attorney and policy expert, Mary has been a three-time keynote speaker for the Holy See during the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women and serves as a consultant to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, for the Committee on Laity, Marriage, Family Life, and Youth and the Committee on Religious Liberty. She was awarded the Cross Pro Eccelsia et Pontifice, a decoration of the Holy See, for her distinguished service to the Catholic Church by law people and clergy. She speaks frequently at national conferences, universities, and in dioceses across the country and provides expert advice to legislators, policymakers, and NGOs on issues related to gender ideology. The co-author of several books on education, Mary’s writing appears regularly in national media and academic publications. A graduate of the University of Notre Dame and Notre Dame Law School, Mary is married to Seamus Hasson, and they are parents of seven grown children and grandparents of nine. 

The Person & Identity Project

The Person and Identity Project assists the Catholic Church in promoting the Catholic vision of the human person and responding to the challenges of gender ideology. It responds with the answers to the questions about what is sex, gender, and the human person. The PIP stands at the intersection of the truth and a culture lost in confusion, offering a clear path toward rootedness in God’s plan for our lives.

“The impact of gender ideology extends far beyond the number of children and teens who personally experience identity confusion, however. Gender ideology has distorted the cultural meaning of “man” and “woman.” It is changing our language, dictating new words and meanings (e.g., “cisgender”), and altering our relationships. Every institution is affected. Employers and schools require new trainings on “transgender inclusivity” and institute new policies covering “gender identity.” Social media has become a minefield, where people who think biological sex is real, that males can never become females (and thus “transwomen” are not women at all), or that women’s sports and private spaces are worthy of protection, must tread lightly or face a virtual mob and social humiliation.

Catholics are called to respond. For Catholics, gender ideology is best understood as a troubling disconnect from the truth about who we are—the inevitable result of a culture that has forgotten God. As both Pope Francis and Pope Benedict XVI have observed, gender ideology promises a false, androgynous “utopia” even as it wages a “global war” on marriage and the family.”

Links

Mary Rice Hasson

The Person & Identity Project

Books

Emily Stimpson Chapman

Emily Stimpson Chapman is a wife, mother, and best-selling Catholic author of over dozen books, including The Story of All Stories: A Story Bible for Young Catholics (Word on Fire Votive, 2025); Letters to Myself from the End of the World (Emmaus Road, 2021), The Catholic Table: Finding Joy Where Food & Faith Meet (Emmaus Road, 2016), and These Beautiful Bones: An Everyday Theology of the Body (Emmaus Road, 2014).

In addition to The Story of All Stories, Emily’s newest books include Around the Catholic Table, a cookbook for everyday dinners and handbook for easy hospitality (Emmaus Road, 2025) and Sacred Wine: The Holy History and Heritage of Catholic Vintners (Marian Press, 2005). In recent years, she also has written studies for the women’s ministry Endow, edited the Formed in Christ high school textbook series (published by Tan Books), and published three children’s books with Scott Hahn. A fourth children’s book with Scott Hahn, this one about Saint Joseph, will be forthcoming in 2026.

Through the years, Emily has published widely in the Catholic Press, with her work appearing in First Things, The National Catholic Register, Our Sunday Visitor, Touchstone, Faith and Family, The Catholic Digest, and elsewhere. These days, you can mostly find Emily on Instagram and on Substack, where she both writes the popular weekly newsletter “Through A Glass Darkly,” and co-hosts the podcast Visitation Sessions. You also can also find her in a rambling old house in Steubenville, Ohio, where she and her husband Chris are raising their three young children, ages 7, 5, and 4.

The Theology of Hospitality

Long have I appreciated the insightful and humorist musings of Emily, all of which have encouraged me to let go of scrupulosity and embrace joy. Through the many years that Emily embraced her single state, I admired her honesty and the ways in which she encouraged others to live deeply meaningful single lives. As she entered marriage, struggled with infertility, and adopted three children, Emily lived the Catholic faith out loud and on the pages of her works. All of these moments of embracing God’s will through the struggles of life have formed her into the brilliant woman that she has become, and we are the benefactors of that wisdom!

One of the aspects of Emily’s work that most inspires me is how she and her husband actually embrace and live it. What I have come to understand as their theology of hospitality, is their lived experience of simplifying their lives in order to make room for others through community building. By opening their home to others and preparing a meal in order that they can share conversation and quality time together, they are preaching a theology without words. This receptivity gives home to weary souls in need of spiritual replenishment as well as a satisfying meal and smiling faces at the end of a long day. It is a way to step out of the busy rat race and journey with others through their weekly battles and successes, celebrating and grieving in community. In this podcast episode, Emily shares simple ways in which every Christian can respond to their call of charity and hospitality.

Links

The Story of All Stories

These Beautiful Bones: An Everyday Theology of the Body

Letters to Myself from the End of the World

Hope to Die

Around the Catholic Table

Fr. Dave Pivonka

Father Dave Pivonka, TOR, is a well-known speaker and has served as the President of Franciscan University of Steubenville since May 21, 2019.

Father Dave has hosted multiple video series including The Wild Goose on the Holy Spirit, Sign of Contradiction on St. Francis of Assisi, Metanoia on conversion, and in 2024, 10th Hour Production’s My father’s Father on God the Father. He has written eight books, including The Breath of God, Living a Life Led by the Holy Spirit, and Joyful Sons and Daughters, Embracing The Father’s Love. Fr. Dave hosts Franciscan University Presents on EWTN, and cohosts the popular podcast, They That Hope.

My Father’s Father

In one of his most recent and certainly his most emotionally raw video series, Fr. Dave takes an in-depth look into fatherhood. He explores the ways in which our relationship with our earthly father forms and shapes our original perception of God the Father. The series sheds light on the importance of the relationship of a father with his children and how even his failings and the hurt a person may have encountered in childhood can be transformed into healing through Christ, who ultimately presents us to his father. Fr. Dave brings the viewer along as he reminisces about his own childhood, which was blessed with a father who was like a best friend and loved him unconditionally. Yet not everyone on the series has that same experience with their own fathers. Repairing the father wound requires necessary healing in order to embrace the reality of our sonship, because all of us must find our identity as sons and daughters of God the Father.

Spiritual Fatherhood

One of the most powerful points of my discussion with Fr. Dave was the insight into his spiritual fatherhood, as priest and president of Franciscan University. In his daily encounters with so many young people who are carrying their own woundedness, the priests on campus have a very important and redemptive role in the story of healing for those with father wounds. Their spiritual fatherhood is an imperfect reflection of the unconditional love of God the Father, which offers hope and a healthy reference point for those without one.

Links

My father’s Father

Wild Goose Films

Joyful Sons and Daughters