• FOR LIFE AND FAMILY

about Converging Roads

Where Health Care Ethics and Medicine Converge
Converging Roads is a regional conference series offering continuing education for health care professionals that equips them to practice the highest ethical and medical standards of their profession. To learn more about Converging Roads, click here.
  • "What I appreciated most about Converging Roads was the fact that each issue was treated with care and with nuance. It was not the same arguments I have always heard, and each issue was examined from multiple perspectives. Presenters were well informed in medicine, ethics, and Catholic teaching, providing well rounded presentations that honored both God and science."
  • - Previous Converging Roads attendee

REGISTRATION

REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN

FOR SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES AND MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT

Ticket Options:
  • Ticket includes online access to the live conference on Saturday, February 27 and continued access for 72 hours following the conclusion of the conference. 
 
  • Physicians/Physician Assistants: $25
  • Nurses/Nurse Practitioners: $25
  • General Admission*: $10
  • (Other health care professionals and non-health care professionals)
  • Medical residents, clergy, or religious*: $10
  • Student Scholarship Rate**: $0
  • (Medical, and nursing, graduate, and undergraduate students)
 
  • *Not eligible for CME/CNE credits, however, Chaplain certificates of completion can be requested upon registration for continuing education purposes.
  • **Not eligible for CME/CNE credits.
Exhibitor and Sponsor Opportunities:
Please email [email protected] for more information about our virtual exhibitor/sponsor opportunities, and how your organization/company can share resources to this year's conference participants.

Presentation Topics

  •  
  • Corporal Works of Mercy as Medical Professionals
  • Father Philip G. Bochanski
  •  
  • Grappling with Moral Distress in Times of Crisis
  • Claudia R. Sotomayor, MD, DBe
  •  
  • Hope and Compassion at the Feet of Those Who Suffer
  • Roland Millare, STD
  •  
  • Framework for Addressing Mental Health Issues in Medicine
  • Francie Broghammer, MD
As part of our mission to uphold the sacredness of life and family, the St. John Paul II Foundation is committed to the health and safety of all conference participants. We will be hosting this year’s Converging Roads as a half-day, virtual conference with the hope of gathering in person at another time in the future. 

We are truly blessed to serve the local health care community through Converging Roads, and please be assured of our prayers for you always but most especially during these extraordinary times.

God bless you and your family, and we hope to “see” you soon!

SCHEDULE

8:00 AM
  • White Mass
  • Check-In/Registration Opens
8:45 AM
 Conference Livestream Begins
9:00 AM
 Opening Remarks
9:15 - 10:00 AM
 Corporal Works of Mercy as Medical Professionals
10:05 - 10:50 AM
 Grappling with Moral Distress in Times of Crisis
11:05 - 11:50 PM
 Hope and Compassion at the Feet of Those Who Suffer
11:55 AM - 12:40 PM
 Framework for Addressing Mental Health Issues in Medicine 
12:40 - 12:45 PM
 The Promise of the Catholic Healthcare Professional
12:45 - 1:00 PM
 Closing Remarks

Speakers

ROLAND MILLARE, STD
Director of Shepherd’s Heart

Dr. Roland Millare, a native Houstonian, serves as the Director of Shepherd’s Heart Program. Additionally, Roland serves as the Chair of the Theology Department at St. John XXIII College Preparatory (Katy, TX). He has been teaching at the school since it opened in 2004. He also serves as an adjunct professor of theology for permanent deacon candidates at St. Mary’s Seminary. He attended St. Francis De Sales K-8th grade and he graduated from St. Thomas High School in 1999. He received a BA in Theology from Franciscan University in Steubenville, Ohio. He has a MA in Theological Studies from the Notre Dame Graduate School of Christendom College (Alexandria, VA) and a Licentiate (STL) and Doctorate in Sacred Theology (STD) in Dogmatic Theology (with a specialization in Sacramental Theology) at the Liturgical Institute of the University of St. Mary of the Lake (Mundelein, IL). He has published various theological articles and book reviews for the Adoremus Bulletin,  Logos, Antiphon, New Blackfriars, and the Heythrop Journal. Roland enjoys the gift of life and love with his beautiful wife Veronica and their two daughters, Gabriella and Karolina, in Sugar Land.

FRANCIE BROGHAMMER, MD
Chief Psychiatry Resident, UC Irvine Medical Center

Frances Broghammer, MD, is the Chief Psychiatry Resident at the University of California, Irvine.  Her main interests lie in spirituality, ethics, education, and human flourishing.  She currently serves as vice president of the California Psychiatric Association’s education committee and as chair of the Orange County Psychiatric Society’s (OCPS) Government Affairs Committee.  Additionally, she holds the distinction of sitting on the UC Irvine Medical Ethics Committee.  Dr. Broghammer graduated from the University of Notre Dame, Magna Cum Laude, with a degree in Science Pre-Professional Studies and Portuguese Language & Brazilian Studies.  She attended the University of California, Irvine for medical school and was elected to the Alpha Omega Alpha (AOA) Medical Honor Society.  Dr. Broghammer has published several peer reviewed articles and is currently researching suicide, social isolation, and human flourishing.  Most recently, Dr. Broghammer was voted “Outstanding Resident Teacher” by UC Irvine’s medical students, a testament to the 6-week seminar course “Humanism in Psychiatry” which she founded and leads for all rotating third year medical students.  She resides in Long Beach, California with her husband and their 5-year-old son.

CLAUDIA R. SOTOMAYOR, MD, DBe
Clinical Ethicist and Adjunct Assistant Professor, Georgetown University

Dr.  Claudia Sotomayor, currently works as Clinical Ethicist at the Pellegrino Center for Clinical Bioethics, and Adjunct Assistant Professor of Internal Medicine of GUMC. She is also a Cura Personalis Fellow . She holds an M.D. from Universidad Autonoma de Chihuahua, in Chihuahua, Mexico. She also graduated with a Master’s degree in Bioethics from Anahuac University in Mexico City, and she graduated with a Doctorate in Bioethics from Loyola University in Chicago Il, USA. Claudia also completed a fellowship in Clinical Bioethics at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston TX. (USA). She has been a Research Scholar for UNESCO Chair in Bioethics and Human Rights since 2012 where she has worked in the area of Multiculturalism, Bioethics and Religion. She has also served as a member of the Ethics committee in different hospitals in the USA. Before coming to the USA, she worked in different hospitals in Mexico as a primary care physician, and was the health committee coordinator for FUNDESPEN, a non-profit that provides medical care to Mayan communities in rural areas of Quintana Roo, Mexico.

FATHER PHILIP G. BOCHANSKI
Executive Director, Courage International

Father Philip G. Bochanski, MDiv, MA is a Catholic priest of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and Executive Director of Courage International. He is a member of the Catholic Medical Association. Father Bochanski received the degrees of Master of Divinity and Master of Arts in Theology from Saint Charles Borromeo Seminary, Overbrook, in Wynnewood, Pennsylvania. Father Bochanski has more than twenty-two years’ experience in pastoral care, including parish, nursing home and hospital settings, as well as 11 years as chaplain for the Courage apostolate, which provides pastoral support for people who experience same-sex attractions and desire to live a chaste life. He is the author of numerous talks, articles and book chapters on pastoral care, including the chapter “Pastoral Care of the Sick and Dying” in Catholic Witness in Health Care: Practicing Medicine in Truth and Love” (Travaline & Mitchell, eds., CUA Press, 2016).

SPONSORS

CONTINUING EDUCATION

Accreditation 
This activity has been planned and implemented in accordance with the accreditation requirements and policies of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) through the joint providership of Christian Medical & Dental Associations and St John Paul Foundation. The Christian Medical & Dental Associations is accredited by the ACCME to provide continuing medical education for physicians.

Physician Credit

The Christian Medical & Dental Associations designates this educational activity for a maximum
of 3 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™. Physicians should only claim credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

Physician Assistant
AAPA accepts certificates of participation for educational activities certified for AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™ by an organization accredited by the ACCME or a recognized state medical society. Physician assistants may receive up to 3 credits for completing this activity.

Nurse Practitioner

The American Academy of Nurse Practitioners Certification Program (AANPCP) accepts AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™ from  organizations accredited by the ACCME. Individuals are responsible for checking with the AANPCP for further guidelines. Nurse practitioners may receive up to 3 credits for completing this activity.

Nursing
This educational activity has been approved by the Ohio Nurses Association (ONA), an accredited approver by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation (OBN-001-91). 3 contact hours approved.

Objectives:

  • -Consider how the works of mercy animate medical care that cares for the whole person.
  • -Propose how medical care that is rooted in Christ can secure positive outcomes for patients, families, and for the culture of institutions.
  • -Discuss the positive impact on medical practitioners and patients when clinical encounters are animated by and rooted in a higher purpose rather than just viewing medical professionals as providers and patients as a disease process.
  • -Understand the phenomenology of depression and despair.
  • -Identify how mental health impacts medical care, clinical encounters, and outcomes for patients and practitioners.
  • -Appreciate suicide as an individualistic action with far-reaching implications, including the well documented effect of suicide contagion.
  • -Discuss the meaning and purpose of suffering, and how to help patients mature through suffering.
  • -Consider and define compassion in the care of patients and their families, and describe how medical professionals can be a compassionate presence to patient and family.
  • -Explore the role of hope and how to foster hope appropriately within the patients and family.
  • -Propose examples in the clinical context in which the struggle of suffering and the presence of compassionate and hopeful medical team secured positive outcomes for patients.
  • -Articulate the inner workings of the composite person, body, mind, and spirit.
  • -Explore case studies involving ethical dilemmas that bring moral distress.
  • -Identify reliable resources upon which medical professionals can rely or turn to in times of crisis.
  • -Discuss how self-care must take place within a genuine relationship between patients and physicians, and physicians with peers.

Chaplains

The National Association of Catholic Chaplains has approved this program for 3.25 Continuing Education Hours. Please select the General Admission or Clergy/Religious (if applicable) ticket option and request a certificate of completion on your registration form. For questions, please email [email protected]. 

CONTACT US

  • PHONE

    832.779.1070

  • PHYSICAL ADDRESS

    7730 Westview
    Houston, TX 77055

  • MAILING ADDRESS

    P.O. Box 5927
    Katy, TX 77491

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