Writer and professor André Parreira will participate as a keynote speaker at the Catholic Family Life Federation of the United States’ annual Hispanic conference, which will take place in Charleston, South Carolina. The other keynote speaker is Monsignor Jorge Rodrigues, the Auxiliary Bishop of Denver. The event will take place in Charleston on 10 October 2026.
At the “Forged in Faith” (Forjados en la fe) conference, André Parreira will give two presentations, sharing his in-depth studies on Church documents regarding marriage preparation and his more than 25 years of pastoral experience leading the program that has already prepared over 300,000 couples for the sacrament of matrimony across more than 100 dioceses worldwide.
Dr. André Parreira’s first lecture will address Church documents and requests for marriage catechumenate. Dr. André Parreira, a professor in the postgraduate program for marriage catechesis at the Catholic University Center of Santa Catarina in Brazil, has studied this field for over 25 years. This makes him a widely recognized promoter of the Church’s teachings on this urgent matter. His presentation will focus on historical documents and the 2022 Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life document, Catechumenal Pathways for Married Life.
The second lecture by author and professor André Parreira will focus on his pastoral experience spanning more than 25 years. He will share his experience supporting numerous dioceses and conducting training sessions at the request of bishops, priests, and family ministry coordinators in Brazil and other countries. This experience has allowed him to understand diverse pastoral realities across multiple countries.
In more than 100 dioceses, marriage preparation has been revitalized through the methodology proposed by Karina and André Parreira, featuring the book Matrimony: Preparation Sessions, for pre-Cana, and the book Marriage: Deepening Sessions for ongoing formation and, in particular, post-Cana care—available in Spanish, English, Portuguese, and Italian.
In the United States, the annual conference of the Hispanic Federation is an event of great importance, as it gathers leaders from Catholic Family Life Ministry nationwide.
This conference invites participants to renew and strengthen themselves for ministry through prayer, formation, and shared wisdom.
In addition to the two main speakers – the Auxiliary Bishop of Denver Mons. Jorge Rodríguez and Professor André Parreira – the event will feature other panelists, such as:
- Carla Ferrando-Bowling is the president of the Federation and holds a master’s degree in marriage and family. She serves as director of the Department of Marriage and Family for the Diocese of Green Bay in Wisconsin, which is the second department of the USCCB.
- José Antonio Martínez, Vice President of the Federation and Director of Marriage, Family Life, and Spirituality for the Diocese of Phoenix (Arizona).
- Luisa de Poo, Director of the Marriage and Family Life Office for the Diocese of Austin (Texas).
- María José Oliva, from the Diocese of Nashville (Tennessee).
- Alicia Saucedo, Marriage Ministry Coordinator for the Diocese of Dallas.
- Mara Romero, Hispanic Family Life Coordinator for the Diocese of Charleston, the host diocese for this big event.
- Mrs. Karen Flores, Marriage and Family Life Coordinator within the Department of Evangelization and Catechesis for the Diocese of Oakland.
The Pius Institute, collaborating entity and member of the federation:
The Pius Institute will have a booth at Saturday’s conference, where it will present the marriage catechumenate materials by Karina and André Parreira. As a Catholic institute and publishing house dedicated to family and life, spreading good books is an essential part of our mission.
The apostolate of the Pius Institute and its publisher house is active in more than 27 countries.
The Pius Institute is an apostolate inspired by saints such as Saint Anthony Mary Claret, Saint John Bosco, Saint Francis de Sales, Saint Maximilian Kolbe, and Saint Alphonsus Liguori. These saints used books as an important tool for evangelization.
Just as these saints had their lives defined by evangelizing through books, the Pius Institute and publishing house knows it has an apostolate mission above everything else. Therefore, it humbly wishes to support the authors and evangelizers who need the printed word. So being present at such a conference is both a gift and an honor.
If you would like to know more about the books written by Karina and André Parreira, please visit our international website with e-commerce: piusinstitute.org.
