Event Speakers

Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke

“Some Obligations and Rights of Pastors, Parochial Vicars, Rectors of Churches, and Chaplains”
Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke was born in Richland Center, Wisconsin, on June 30, 1948, the youngest of six children. He began his priestly formation as a high school student at Holy Cross Seminary in La Crosse. After studying philosophy at The Catholic University of America and theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, he was ordained to the holy priesthood by Pope Paul VI at St. Peter’s Basilica on June 29, 1975.
As a priest, Father Burke served as Associate Rector of the Cathedral of Saint Joseph the Workman in La Crosse, and also taught religion at Aquinas High School.
In 1980, he returned to Rome for studies in Canon Law, and obtained a Doctorate in Canon Law from the Pontifical Gregorian University in 1984. He subsequently served as Moderator of the Curia and Vice Chancellor of the Diocese of La Crosse. In 1989, he was appointed Defender of the Bond at the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura in Rome.
On December 10, 1994, Monsignor Burke was appointed Bishop of La Crosse by Pope Saint John Paul II, who consecrated him a Bishop on January 6, 1995. After almost nine years of service as Bishop of La Crosse, during which he founded the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe at La Crosse, Bishop Burke was named Archbishop of Saint Louis, and was installed on January 26, 2004. On June 27, 2008, Pope Benedict XVI appointed Archbishop Burke Prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura. He was elevated to the College of Cardinals on November 20, 2010. Appointed in November of 2014, Cardinal Burke was the Cardinal Patron of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta. In September of 2017, Cardinal Burke was appointed as a member of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura. As Founder of the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Cardinal Burke continues to serve as Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

The Very Reverend Markus Graulich, S.D.B.

“Who Can Be Ordained? Requirements, Prerequisites, Irregularities, and Impediments for Holy Orders”
Markus Graulich grew up in Niedertiefenbach, Germany. He joined the Order of the Salesians of Don Bosco in 1984 and studied at the Benediktbeuern Theological Faculty. He was ordained a priest in 1994 and received his doctorate in Canon Law in 1999. Markus Graulich was director of the Istituto storico di diritto Canonico (Institute for the History of Canon Law) and a Professor for Fundamental Questions and History of Canon Law at the Pontifical Salesian University in Rome. In June 2009, he was appointed by Pope Benedict XVI as Promotor of Justice for the Apostolic Signatura. In April 2011, Graulich was appointed a consultant to the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts. Pope Benedict XVI appointed him an auditor of the Roman Rota in December 2011, where he received the rank of prelate. In 2014, Pope Francis appointed Graulich as Undersecretary of the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts.

Professor William L. Daniel, J.C.D.

“The Judicial Protection of Priestly Ministry in the Jurisprudence of the Apostolic Signatura”
William L. Daniel is an associate professor of canon law at The Catholic University of America (Washington, DC), editor of the faculty’s journal The Jurist, director of the Institute on Matrimonial Tribunal Practice, and a Referendary of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura. His research concentrates on the Church’s procedural law, and his translations of sentences and decrees of the Apostolic Signatura are published in two volumes entitled Ministerium Iustitiae (Montreal: Wilson & Lafleur, 2011 and 2021). He authored the book The Key to Unlocking the Door to the Truth. Father Ignacio Gordon, S.J. and his Contribution to the Discipline of Canonical Procedural Law (CUA Press, 2022). He earned the JCL and JCD from Saint Paul University in Ottawa. He lives with his family in the Washington, DC area.

Phyllis Sower, J.C.L.

“The Ownership and Administration of Temporal Goods – Where Canon Law and Civil Law Conflict and Some Solutions”
Phyllis Sower is the immediate past president of the Catholic Bar Association. She has practiced law as a civil attorney for 47 years in Frankfort, Kentucky, specializing in estate planning. She received her J.D. from the University of Kentucky, her M.A. in Theology from Franciscan University of Steubenville and her J.C.L. from the Catholic University of America. Mrs. Sower founded the Corpus Christi Classical Academy in Shelbyville, Kentucky in 1999 and served as principal and on faculty for 17 years. She is the Founder of the Sunshine Center and serves the Franklin County District Court for referrals for child protection and child abuse prevention. She is a member of the Kentucky Bar Association, Canon Law Society of America, the Catholic Bar Association and the Frankly County Bar Association. She is admitted to practice in Kentucky, both the Eastern and Western US District Courts of Kentucky, the 6th Circuit US Court of Appeals, the US Tax Court and the US Supreme Court. She is a Master Catechist in the Archdiocese of Louisville. She is married to John, with whom she shares three grown sons and seven grandchildren.

Michael Joseph Mazza, J.D., J.C.D.

“Memoranda of Understanding: Civil Intrusions on the Ius Nativum of the Church to Assign and Discipline Her Clergy.”
Michael Mazza is an independent civil and canon lawyer. He received his M.A. in religious studies from the Notre Dame Apostolic Catechetical Institute, his J.D. from the Marquette University School of Law and his J.C.L. and his J.C.D. from the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome. He has spoken and written widely, particularly on the intersection of civil and canon law, publishing articles in the popular press as well as in civil law reviews such as the Notre Dame Law Review and the Marquette Law Review, and in the professional canonical journals of Catholic University of America (The Jurist), St. Paul’s University in Ottawa (Studia Canonica), the Pontifical University of Salamanca (the Revista Espanola de Derecho Canónico), and the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross (Ius Ecclesiae). He is a member of the State Bar of Wisconsin, the Catholic Bar Association, the St. Thomas More Lawyers Society of Wisconsin, and the canon law societies of the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, and of Great Britain and Ireland. With over 20 years of civil law experience, Michael provides canon law services to those who need professional legal advice, expertise, and representation. He regularly advocates on behalf of clerics, religious, and lay people in addition to representing dioceses and religious orders. Dr. Mazza is an adjunct professor of canon law at Marquette University Law School and at the Sacred Heart Seminary and School of Theology. He and his wife have eight adult children and resides in Brookfield, Wisconsin.