St. John the Baptist/St. Mary of the Lake

Mike Sweeney is a five-time Major League Baseball All-Star first baseman and member of the Kansas City Royals Hall of Fame after a 20-year professional baseball career. Today he works as a Special Assistant to Baseball Operations/Leadership Development for the Kansas City Royals. He is also the founder of Catholic Baseball Camps and the San Diego Saints where he uses “the greatest game ever played to share the Greatest Story ever told.” Mike is a practicing Catholic and daily Communicant who speaks worldwide about his love for Jesus and His Holy Catholic Church. Mike and his wife Shara have been married for over 20 years and are blessed with 6 children.

Kevin O’Brien is the President of North America Publications and the CEO of Best Version Media. Kevin enjoyed a pro football career from 1993 to 1996 when he began searching for God. That led him everywhere—except the Catholic Church. But then, a powerful confession finally brought him home. Kevin has been married to Leslie for 23 years and are blessed with seven children. In 2006, Kevin co-founded the MEN OF CHRIST® apostolate, one of the largest Catholic men’s conferences, the Catholic Men’s Leadership Alliance, an apostolate to unite all Catholic men’s ministries, and Virtue Sport, an apostolate that uses sports to build character in children. In response to growing disunity in 2020, he created Unite Our Nation to bring Christ into the streets through Eucharistic processions.

Fr. John Burns is a priest of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee and author of the bestselling book Lift Up Your Heart: A 10-Day Personal Retreat with St. Francis de Sales. Ordained in 2010, he has served as an associate pastor and pastor in Milwaukee as well as an adjunct professor of moral theology at the Sacred Heart Seminary and School of Theology. He completed a doctorate in moral theology at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome in 2019. His doctoral research focused on the theology of healing through forgiveness. Fr. Burns speaks at conferences, preaches missions, and directs retreats throughout the country. He works extensively with the Sisters of Life and St. Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity, and has given retreats, conferences, and spiritual direction for the sisters in Africa, Europe, and the United States.

Ordained a priest on May 14, 1975, the Most Reverend Jerome Edward Listecki was named the 11th archbishop of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee by Pope Benedict XVI in 2010. He previously served as bishop of the Diocese of La Crosse. In 2000 he was appointed auxiliary bishop of Chicago and ordained a bishop in 2001. In 2002, Archbishop Listecki was named the episcopal vicar of the Vicariate 1 of the Archdiocese of Chicago. In addition, he is a retired lieutenant colonel in the United States Army Reserves. Archbishop Listecki began graduate studies in Canon Law and Moral Theology in 1979 at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas, Rome. His Episcopal motto is “Life is Christ,” from St. Paul’s Letter to the Philippians (Phil 1:18-26).