• 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.
    • Feedback from past attendees of Converging Roads:
    • "I’m so glad I attended. It was so insightful and gave me more knowledge on how to study more about human dignity, disabled persons and the correct way to explain our duty to others (as health care providers to our patients)."
    • "It is edifying to be with so many people trying to live their faith in a field that constantly challenges the truth."
    • "Thus far in my (nascent) career, my Catholic and medical identities have unfortunately been largely separate. I’m confident that the knowledge I obtained at Converging Roads and my subsequent reflection will serve me well on my path towards becoming the Catholic physician I’m striving to be."

REGISTRATION

REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN

FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT

In-Person Ticket Options:
  • Physicians/Physician Assistants: $159
  • Nurses/Nurse Practitioners: $139
  • General Admission*: $85
  • Medical residents, clergy, or religious*: $75
  • Student Scholarship Rate**: $15
   
Online Ticket Options:
  • Online tickets include access to the livestream on Saturday, September 14, as well as additional access to the recordings (from noon CT on Sunday, September 15, to 11:59 pm CT on Wednesday, September 18).
   
  • Physicians/Physician Assistants: $129
  • Nurses/Nurse Practitioners: $109
  • General Admission*: $55
  • Medical residents, clergy, or religious*: $45
  • Student Scholarship Rate**: $0
   
  • *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 Opportunities:
Includes 1 exhibitor booth and admission for 1 organizational representative
  • Ministry/Non-Profit (including CME/CNE credits): $180
  • Ministry/Non-Profit (not including CME/CNE credits)*: $105
  • Vendor/For-Profit (including CME/CNE credits): $230
  • Vendor/For-Profit (not including CME/CNE credits)*: $155
   
  • *Not eligible for CME/CNE credits, however, Chaplain certificates of completion can be requested upon registration for continuing education purposes.
Sponsors:
  • If you and/or your organization is interested in joining our mission as a supporting sponsor, please click here for the Sponsorship Form. You can also submit the form online by clicking here.
   
  • For questions or more information, please contact the conference coordinator at [email protected].
Student Scholarships:
  • Undergraduate, graduate, nursing, and medical students are eligible to register for Converging Roads at the discounted rate above through the Dr. Mini Vettical Scholarship. If you are a student currently enrolled in classes and would like to attend the conference, please complete our student scholarship form prior to registering for the conference (click here).
   
  • If you are interested in providing a scholarship for a student to attend Converging Roads, you can do so at the time of registration or by clicking here.
Refund Information:
  • If you are no longer able to attend the conference, after purchasing your ticket, you may choose to transfer your registration fees to a student in need, or request a refund.
   
  • All refunds must be requested 2 weeks prior to the conference. The last day to request a refund is Friday, August 30. All refund requests made on or after August 31 will not be accepted, but the funds will automatically be transferred to a student in need. Please email [email protected] to transfer your registration or request a refund.

TOPICS

  • The Dignity of the Human Person and Its Implications for Medical Care
  • Steven J. Squires, PhD
  •  
  • The Ethical and Religious Directives on the Beginning of Life
  • Rev. Peter Fonseca MA, MS, MDiv

 

  • Managing Care at the End of Life: Discerning between Ordinary and Extraordinary Care
  • John A. Di Camillo, PhD, BeL
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  • The Art of Compassionate Accompaniment of Patients and Families

  • Thomas M Carroll II, MD, PhD, Rev. Peter Fonseca MA, MS, MDiv, and Steven J. Squires, PhD

  •  
  • Pastoral and Spiritual Care for the Sick and Dying
  • Thomas M Carroll II, MD, PhD

 

  • Care for the Health Care Professional
  • Christin J. McIntyre, MD, PhD
  •  
  •  

SCHEDULE

       
7:30 AM
 Check-in Begins
8:00 AM
 Opening Remarks
8:10 - 9:10 AM
 The Dignity of the Human Person and Its Implications for Medical Care  
9:15 - 10:15 AM
 The Ethical and Religious Directives on the Beginning of Life
10:15 AM
 Break
10:30 - 11:30 AM
 Managing Care at the End of Life: Discerning Between Ordinary and Extraordinary Care
11:30 AM - 1:10 PM
 Hippocratic Oath Luncheon
12:05  - 1:05 PM
 The Art of Compassionate Accompaniment of Patients and Families
1:10 - 1:25 PM
 Break
1:10 - 2:00 PM
 Confession
1:25 - 2:25 PM
 Pastoral and Spiritual Care for the Sick and Dying
2:30 - 3:30 PM
 Care for the Health Care Professional
3:30 - 3:35 PM
 Closing Remark
4:00 - 5:00 PM
 Vigil Mass
5:15 - 6:00 PM
 Wine & Cheese Reception

Speakers

REV. PETER FONSECA MA, MS, MDiv
Archdiocese of St. Louis, St. Louis University

Fr. Peter Fonseca, a priest of the Archdiocese of St. Louis, holds a Master of Arts in Theology, a Master of Science in Bioethics, and a Master of Divinity degree, as well as a certificate in Catholic healthcare ethics from the National Catholic Bioethics Center. Having previously served as a parish priest, he is now assigned as the director of continuing formation for priests for the Archdiocese of St. Louis while pursuing a PhD in health care ethics at the Albert Gnaegi Center for Health Care Ethics at St. Louis University. His research focuses on the convergence of medical ethics and the pastoral needs of the faithful. In addition to his canonical assignments Fr. Fonseca serves as a bioethics consultant to various parties in the archdiocese and greater St. Louis area. He has presented at various conferences and seminars across the country and has contributed to local television and national radio programs.

SUSIE SAENZ
Vice President of Operations, St. John Paul II Foundation

Susie Saenz is Vice President of Operations at the St. John Paul II Foundation where she oversees and supports the Conference team as they plan and execute Converging Roads and Together in Holiness conferences, along with the Together in Holiness Formation series Business Development team as they expand this initiative to parishes and schools across the country.  Susie earned her BS in Kinesiology from Texas A&M University and, prior to joining the St. John Paul II Foundation in 2017, worked at Baylor College of Medicine in the philanthropy and alumni relations office. She and her husband, Victor, are parishioners at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Houston, TX.

MOST REV. DAVID L. TOUPS, SThD
Bishop of the Diocese of Beaumont

Most Rev. David L. Toups was ordained and installed as the sixth Bishop of Beaumont on August 21, 2020. The following week Hurricane Laura threatened the Gulf Coast of Southeast Texas and Southwest Louisiana. Bishop Toups went out to the Neches River with the Eucharist and prayed. Since then he has stepped out into the community and led Southeast Texas in prayer through his weekday television messages, live streamed Masses, and visits to parishes and missions all across the diocese. He has led the diocese out of the COVID pandemic and invited the Catholic Churches in Southeast Texas to throw open their doors to the communities and welcome people. Bishop Toups grew up in Louisiana and in Florida. He attended Florida Southern College in Lakeland before entering St. John Vianney College Seminary in Miami. He attended the Pontifical North American College in Rome and obtained a Bachelor of Sacred Theology and Licentiate of Sacred Theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University, and a Doctorate in Sacred Theology from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1997 for the Diocese of Saint Petersburg, Florida, and served there in various capacities for 10 years. Between 2007-2010, Bishop Toups served as the Associate Director of the Secretariat for Clergy, Consecrated Life, and Vocations at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in Washington. He returned to the Diocese of Saint Petersburg in 2010 and served as Pastor of Christ the King Parish in Tampa, before being named as President and Rector of St. Vincent de Paul Regional Seminary in 2012 where he served until his appointment as Bishop of Beaumont.

STEVEN J. SQUIRES PhD
Vice President Ethics at CHRISTUS Health

Health care ethicist and Mission leader with wide-ranging experience and skills including health care operations, clinical ethics, organizational ethics, system ethics, and Mission leadership. Specialties include: ethics curricula and education, ethics competencies, pandemic planning, ethics program evaluation and assessment, policy development, ethics consultation and training, moral distress and interventions, Mission discernment, Mission assessment and SWOT, Catholic social and moral teaching and the Ethical and Religious Directives (ERDs), values based decision-making, moral development, physician onboarding (orientation), stewardship and the environment, and the principle of cooperation.

JOHN A. DI CAMILLO, PhD, BeL
Personal Consultations Director & Ethicist The National Catholic Bioethics Center

John A. Di Camillo, PhD, BeL, is an Ethicist and the Personal Consultations Director at The National Catholic Bioethics Center (NCBC). He manages NCBC’s 24/7 free ethics consultation service and the Personal Consultations Fellows and Interns Program. He applies Catholic moral theology to science and medicine through research, writing, speaking, mentoring, and fielding hundreds of ethics questions every year. His areas of focus include cooperation with evil, sexual orientation and gender identity, brain death and organ donation, reproductive technologies, and pregnancy complications. He has teaching experience across multiple disciplines, including Italian, Church history, science, philosophy, biomedical ethics, and moral theology.

THOMAS M CARROLL II, MD, PhD
Associate Professor of Medicine, University of Rochester Medical Center

Dr. Thomas Carroll is an Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Rochester, husband, and father of four. He received his M.D. and PhD from the University of Connecticut and then completed his internal medicine training at the University of Rochester where he subsequently served as Chief Resident and completed the fellowship program in Hospice and Palliative Medicine. Dr. Carroll practices both general internal medicine and palliative care in the office and hospital settings. He also directs the Advanced Communication Training (ACT) Program (https://act-ur.com/), which seeks to improve patient care by supporting communication excellence among individual clinicians and clinical teams. His interests include communication training, medical education at all stages of training, bioethics, and moral theology.

CHRISTIN J. MCINTYRE, MD, PhD
Psychiatrist in Outpatient Practice

Christin McIntyre, MD, PhD is an psychiatrist in solo outpatient practice, as well as a wife and mother of five.  She started her career in research science, earning a combined MD/PhD from the University of Kansas Medical Center in Pharmacology and Toxicology.  She completed a residency in Psychiatry at Oregon Health Sciences University, where she served as Chief Resident; over the course of her medical training, her interests gradually shifted from research to psychotherapy, and she has continued in solo outpatient practice since 2002 (https://cjmcintyremd.com). Dr. McIntyre continues to see patients in Oregon and Washington by telehealth since relocating to Idaho in 2021, and is now additionally licensed to provide telehealth services in the state of Florida. Psychotherapy continues to be a main focus of her practice, along with medication management informed by her background in Pharmacology.  More recently, she has partnered with her husband Jim to provide support for individuals seeking to augment their mental health treatment with dietary strategies, including therapeutic ketogenesis (https://metabolicmentalhealthcare.com/).  To better serve a growing number of Catholic patients in recent years, Dr. McIntyre has pursued training in Thomistic Psychology as well as with the John Paul II Healing Center.  She and her husband Jim are Oblates of Mount Angel Abbey, where she offers periodic retreats that draw from her experience in clinical psychiatry, spiritual healing ministry, and the Catholic faith.

SPONSORS

Venue

CHRISTUS Southeast Texas - St. Elizabeth Hospital

755 North 11th St.
Beaumont, TX 77702

For More Information:
Gabby Anglin, Conference Coordinator
309.397.5436
[email protected]

CONTACT US

  • PHONE

    832.779.1070

  • PHYSICAL ADDRESS

    1177 W Loop South, Ste. 940
    Houston, TX 77027

  • MAILING ADDRESS

    P.O. Box 5927
    Katy, TX 77491

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