
Fr. John Jay Hughes has been a Catholic priest since 1968. A Church historian, he received his doctorate of theology from the University of Münster, where he studied under Cardinal Josef Ratzinger, the future Pope Benedict XVI. He is a widely experienced preacher and the presenter of our popular programs, A Journey through the Parables, Thirty Remarkable Saints, and Seeing Him Who Is Invisible.
A preacher for almost sixty years, Fr. Hughes’s message is firmly grounded in the Gospel. He details his conversion to the Catholic Church and faith journey in his acclaimed autobiography, No Ordinary Fool: A Testimony to Grace (Tate Publishing, 2008). Eugene Kennedy calls it “the most profound memoir of a spiritual search since Thomas Merton’s Seven Storey Mountain.” Most Reverend John R. Quinn, Archbishop Emeritus of San Francisco, said, “John Jay Hughes is among the most distinguished and able writers in the English-speaking world. . . . The moving story of his conversion, his Harvard education, and association as a student with Professor Joseph Ratzinger, should indeed find great interest in a wide audience.”

Fr. Robin Ryan, C.P., Ph.D., is an award-winning professor, theologian, celebrated author, and experienced retreat leader. A Passionist priest, he currently serves as associate professor of systematic theology and director of the Master of Arts in Theology program at Catholic Theological Union. Previously, he taught graduate theology at CTU and at Saint John’s Seminary in Boston. Fr. Ryan has spent many years in retreat ministry, and he leads retreats for laity, religious, and clergy across the country. He served as the Director of Bishop Molloy Passionist Retreat House in Queens, New York, from 1996 to 2000.
Fr. Ryan is the author of numerous articles and recordings on theological and spiritual topics. He is the editor and co-author of the book Catholics on Call: Discerning a Life of Service in the Church (Liturgical Press, 2010) and the author of God and the Mystery of Human Suffering: A Theological Conversation Across the Ages (Paulist Press, 2011) and Jesus and Salvation: Soundings in the Christian Tradition and Contemporary Theology (Liturgical Press, 2015). He is also a contributor to and the English-language editor of the Diccionario de la Pásion (Madrid: San Pablo, 2015). The founding director of Catholics on Call, he regularly gives retreats for laity, religious, and priests.
Praise for Robin Ryan
“For years Robin Ryan has written and taught about Jesus Christ with great clarity, deep insight, and a pastoral heart. He places the treasures of tradition in touch with contemporary questions. Listening to him will reward the hearer with beautiful, challenging understandings of their own.” – Elizabeth A. Johnson, CSJ, Distinguished Professor of Theology, Fordham University
“Robin Ryan is not only a careful and thoughtful scholar. He is a master teacher who makes crystal clear how the Bible and the tradition understand and profess Jesus of Nazareth as the Christ. Perhaps even more important, however, he is a person of faith who will inspire those who encounter him in this series to deeper faith in and commitment to Jesus themselves.” – Stephen Bevans, SVD, Catholic Theological Union
“Fr. Robin Ryan’s astute insights and pastoral sensibilities are clearly evident. Always with a hint of humor, Fr. Ryan brings his training as a systematic theologian and the charism of his Passionist community into conversations that matter.” – Sr. Laurie Brink, O.P., Ph.D., Catholic Theological Union
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