Debate Topic: To the Catholic Mind, Theistic Evolution is Intellectually Tenable

When: 7:00 p.m. Wednesday, December 13, 2023
Where: St Lucy, 2706 E. Queen Ave. Spokane, WA 99217

Arguing against the Resolution: Mr. Hugh Owen
Hugh Owen is the convert son of Sir David Owen, a former Assistant Secretary General of the United Nations and Secretary General of International Planned Parenthood Federation. Hugh attended Princeton University where, at the age of 18,he was baptized, confirmed and made his first Holy Communion in the Princeton University Chapel on the Easter Vigil, in 1972. Hugh received a B.A. in honors in history from New York University, and a M.S. in education in supervision and administration from Bank Street College of Education in New York City. Between 1977 and 1991, Hugh worked as a teacher and administrator of several independent schools and served as a school evaluator for the Middle States Association and as a member of the executive committee of the New Jersey Association of Independent Schools. For the past 25 years, Hugh has dedicated his life to the service of the Church as a writer, editor, teacher, and lecturer. Hugh has written numerous books and articles on Catholic and secular topics. For thirteen years, Hugh was in charge of religious education for St. John Bosco Parish in the Diocese of Arlington, Virginia. For the past twenty-three years he has served as the founder and director of the Kolbe Center for the Study of Creation in Mt. Jackson, Virginia, and was recently made a member of the newly-founded John Paul II Academy for Human Life and the Family. Hugh and his wife Maria have nine children(including a daughter who is a Benedictine nun) and twenty grandchildren.

Arguing for the Resolution: Mr. Mark Forrester
Mark Forrester is a graduate of Thomas Aquinas College (class of '12) and went on to study systematic theology at the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, DC. He has been a junior high and high school teacher in classical education for over nine years teaching math, science, theology, literature, composition,and history.