Scholarly Panels
Contributions from academics drawing on the method and resources of their respective disciplines.
Panels / topics proposed to date:
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Sino-Vatican Relations in Historical Perspective
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Sociological Perspectives on Christianity
in Contemporary China -
The Sinicisation of Religion in China Today
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Environmental Issues and the Faith Communities of China
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suggestions for panels and topics
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suggestions concerning speakers (including yourself)
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submission of brief abstracts
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other suggestions or feedback
Note: Panel organizers (only) will have conference registration fees waived in appreciation for their service to the gathering.
Presentations and
workshops
Discussion forums and practical advice from people involved in the life of the Church in China and in the Chinese diaspora.
Practical workshops and presentations requested to date:
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Faith and the Current Generation
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Social Services: Making a Contribution in China Society
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The American University Context
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Relations among Christians and China
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Paths to Discipleship
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Religion in the City
Click this button for a form to enter:
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suggestions for workshops or presentations
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suggestions concerning speakers (including yourself)
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other suggestions or feedback
Note: Presenters will have their conference registration fees waived in appreciation for their service to the gathering.
Board of Directors
OFFICERS
Peter Tan
Chair of the Board
Houston, Texas
Peter Tan was born in Indonesia and grew up in Singapore. He graduated from the University of Hawaii in 1977 with a double BA Degree in Business Administration and Political Science. In 1992, he converted to the Catholic faith. He joined the Knights of Columbus, became the Diocesan Deputy of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston and then Master of the Fourth Degree. He currently serves on the Board of St. Mary Seminary in Houston. He is a Knight Commander with Star of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem. Since 2016, he and a small group of priests and Chinese lay Catholics in Houston raised funds to sponsor priests from China to attend the University of St. Thomas in Houston to study for a MA Degree.
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As Chair of the Board (8/2023-8/2026), Peter’s vision for USCCA is to increase its impact by engaging strategic initiatives that will bring Catholics in China and the USA in conversation through various means and channels. He would like to strengthen USCCA as a bridge of friendship, where old friends can meet from time to time and where new friendships can be made and nurtured.
Richard Madsen, Ph.D.
Vice Chair of the Board
San Diego, California
I was sent on a mission to Taiwan in 1968 and spent three years learning Chinese language and culture. While there I discerned a vocation to be a bridge builder between China and the West by fostering mutual understanding between their cultures and reconciliation from past estrangements. I have pursued this vocation with help from the USCCA since its founding. Much of this has been through academic research, in which I have produced eighteen books. In the process I have made friends with many different Chinese people, from high officials to university professors, farmers, and migrant workers. I have carried out dialogues about fundamental human values with Catholics, Protestants, Buddhists, and Communists.
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I hope that the USCCA can help the American Catholic Church participate in some small way in the three-part dialogue promoted by the Asian Bishops’ Conference — dialogue with Asian cultures, religions, and the poor.
Anne S. Tsui, Ph.D.
Secretary
Paradise Valley, Arizona
Dr. Anne Tsui (PhD.) is a longlife academic who has worked in several universities both in the US and in China. She is currently Professor emerita at Arizona State University, and Distinguished Visiting Professor at Peking University and Fudan University, China. She is the 67th President of the Academy of Management, a Fellow of the Academy of International Business, and the 14th Editor of the Academy of Management Journal. Since 2000, Dr. Tsui has worked with the leading business schools of China, and she founded the International Association for Chinese Management Research and the journal “Management and Organization Review” that publishes primarily Chinese research . She has been a leading force in the development of Chinese management research. In addition, as a co-founder of the Responsible Research in Business and Management, led a global effort to transform business research into a force for the common good.
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Being a Catholic and being Chinese are two of my core identities. USCCA allows me to live out these two identities with fellow Board members sharing the same passions. What a blessing it is. I look forward to contributing to a new chapter in the life of USCCA with new leadership, new ideas and new energy.
Deacon Doug Lovejoy, Colonel, USA (Ret), MPA, Ph.D.
Treasurer
Annapolis, Maryland
Deacon Doug Lovejoy has been guided by the Holy Spirit in focusing his life on service to the Church, the country and the mission of the USCCA. After graduating from Notre Dame and earning his master's degree from Princeton, Doug served twenty-four years in the US Army as a China specialist during which he taught Chinese Politics at West Point and Princeton and earned his PhD from the Catholic University of America. His dissertation, “Uncertain Opening,” addressed the impact of foreign relations on the Catholic Church and China in the post-Mao period. He was ordained a deacon for the Diocese of Trenton in 2004 and served as executive director of the USCCA (at the time known as the U.S. Catholic China Bureau) from 2003 to 2006. He and his wife Jean have been married for fifty-five years and they have five children and nine grandchildren. He continues to serve as a deacon in the Archdiocese of Baltimore.
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His commitment to the USCCA reflects his lifelong dedication to the mission of bringing the American Church closer to China and its people.
Sr. Maria Lai, CSJ
Director
Los Angeles, California
Sister Maria Lai is a Sister of Saint Joseph, Orange. She grew up in Hong Kong. She earned an MA in Pastoral Theology from Loyola Marymount University (LMU), an MA in Learning Technologies from Pepperdine University, and an MS in Family Consumer Sciences from California State University, Northridge. Since 2012 she has been called to journey with the graduate students at LMU as a spiritual director and resident minister. Sister Maria also serves as director of religious education at St. Bridget Chinese Catholic Parish. And she is a facilitator at the Virtual Learning Community for Faith Formation at Dayton University. In addition, she serves as a mentor for survivors of human trafficking, which she finds very meaningful.
DIRECTORS
Rev. John S. Chen, Ph.D.
Director
Boston, Massachusetts
Fr. John Chen currently serves as a pastor in the Boston Archdiocese. After graduating from Boston College with Ph.D. in Higher Education in 2003, he went back to China to serve the Catholic Church as the executive vice rector of the National Seminary in Beijing. During his tenure, the seminary was transformed from one single class of seminarians into an institution with about 200 students (seminarians, priests, religious sisters and laity), as well as a graduate program in theology. He published a book entitled The Rise and Fall of Furen University, Beijing (Routledge-Palmer, New York).
Rev. Francis Li, D.Min.
Director
Chicago, Illinois
Fr. Francis was ordained in 1999. He has served at three very diverse parishes before he being named the Pastor of St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta Parish, a parish with two worship sites, St. Therese Chinese Catholic Church and St. Barbara Catholic Church. He received his Advanced Pastoral Leadership Certificate through the Kellogg School of Management and the Doctor of Ministry Degree from the Catholic Theological Union, Chicago, in 2016. He has a passion for Evangelization and enjoys readings, sports, and contemporary cinema.
Rev. Joseph Lin, CM
Director
Queens, New York
Fr. Joseph Lin belongs to the China Province of the Congregation of Mission founded by St. Vincent de Paul, also known as the Vincentians, whose central charism is to share the Gospel with those who have been marginalized in society. Fr. Lin received his master's degree in Scripture at St John’s University in 2011 and in Pastoral Counseling at Fordham University in 2020. He served the Chinese community at the Church of St. Joseph in Manhattan until 2015, and now he serves Chinese community as parochial vicar at the Basilica of Regina Pacis in Brooklyn.
Rev. Hugh O’Donnell, CM, Ph.D.
Director
Chicago, Illinois
Throughout his career, Fr. O'Donnell has held leadership and formation positions in the U.S., China, and in France. Born of Irish immigrant parents in Chicago in 1934, he entered the Congregation of Mission (the Vincentians) in 1952. Ordained a priest in 1961, he eventually went on for doctoral studies in Biblical theology, receiving his Ph.D. from the University of Fribourg, Switzerland, in 1966. He then served as professor and formation director at St. Thomas Seminary in Denver (1966-1975), as rector at Kenrick Seminary in St. Louis (1975-1978), and as provincial superior of the Midwest Province Congregation of the Mission (1978-1987). After returning to St. Thomas Seminary as professor of theology and formation director, in 1993 he accepted the mission to Taiwan as provincial superior there. Under his tenure, the Vincentians re-entered China for the first time since 1950. Then from 2003 to 2009 he served as director of the Center for International Formation at the Vincentian motherhouse in Paris. Now based in the U.S., Fr. O'Donnell founded and heads up an annual five-week summer program on leadership at De Paul University for sisters and priests from China.
Mary Sluka
Director
Riverside, Illinois
Mary Sluka's service to the USCCA stems from her time as a graduate student in Asian Studies from the University of Hawaii. She also has a graduate degree in Pastoral Studies from Catholic Theological Union in Chicago. A long-time member of the Board of the USCCA, she served as Secretary for almost a decade. While serving with the USCCA, she has helped introduce the Montessori-based "Catechesis of the Good Shepherd" to China, organize several national conferences of the USCCA, lead a study tour to Hong Kong and China, and give talks on the Church in China in parishes in several U.S. cities, where she has always found congregants to be deeply inspired by the stories of Chinese Catholics.
Herbert Quinde
Director
Chicago, Illinois
Herbert Quinde is the Career Services Office Coordinator at Catholic Theological Union (CTU) in Chicago where he provides vocational coaching and accompaniment for religious and lay ministry students and alumni. CTU is an interfaith and intercultural graduate school of theology and ministry anchored by 24 religious orders where clergy, religious, lay women, and men study together to serve the Church as pastoral leaders. Over 40% of the students come from the Global South including Asia, Africa, Latin America, and Oceania. He is retired from a business career in information technology serving in numerous executive capacities both domestically and abroad as well as public service roles in prison reform and ministry. He has a M.A. in Theology with concentrations in systematics and spirituality from CTU and a B.A. in philosophy and sociology from Boston College. He has had a life-long interest in China and its cultural focus on harmony shaped by the interfaith and intercultural lens of Matteo Ricci and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz.
Carolyn Woo, Ph.D.
Director
Born and raised in Hong Kong, Dr. Carolyn Yauyan Woo was educated by the Maryknoll Sisters until she came to the US for college. At Purdue University, she received her Bachelor, Master and Doctoral degrees in business and quantitative methods, with a specialization in Strategic Management. Dr. Woo’s career included professorships and administrative responsibilies including director of MBA programs and associate executive vice president for academic affairs
(Purdue University), dean of the business school at the University of Notre Dame, and chief executive officer at Catholic Relief Services.
Dr. Woo has served as director of seven corporations and about thirty non-profit boards with the majority of these in the Catholic sector. The latter includes Catholic social service, higher education, health system, national education association, communication, and family ministries. Dr. Woo’s column for Catholic News Service was awarded first prize for spiritual column by the Catholic Press Association.
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I was educated by American missionary sisters (Maryknoll) who brought Christ to me in Hong Kong. Their ministry is a reminder that we are all one family with love as the mandate from Christ. I hope that we Chinese Catholics, wherever we are, recognize that we are brothers and sisters who hold each other in prayer, support and inspiration.
ASSOCIATE DIRECTORS
Stephen C. Tsai, Ph.D.
Associate Director
Walnut Creek, California
Steve Tsai came to the United States in 1970 for graduate studies. He attended the University of Rhode Island and U. C. Berkeley where he majored in Civil Engineering and Earthquake Engineering. After graduation, he worked at a Geotechnical Engineering firm for 5 years before joining the California State University, Long Beach. He is Professor Emeritus in California State University, Long Beach where he served in the College of Engineering, Department of Civil Engineering and Construction Management for over thirty years before his retirement in 2014.
Dr. Tsai was also Executive Director for Inter Friendship House Association (IFHA) in Los Angeles for over ten years. IFHA of Southern California has served visiting Chinese scholars in the US since 1989. Its activities include providing needed assistance and various services such as English Classes, culture workshop and field trips for visiting Chinese scholars.
Fr. Tim Kilkelly, MM.
Associate Director
Walnut Creek, California
EMERITUS DIRECTOR
Rev. Rob Carbonneau, CP, Ph.D.
Director Emeritus
Scranton, Pennsylvania
Father Rob served as Executive Director of the U.S.-China Catholic Association (2014-2017). He is a Passionist priest; a member of St. Paul of the Cross Province. Presently he is an Affiliated Research Fellow at the Ricci Institute for Chinese-Western Culture at Boston College where he is also an adjunct professor in the Theology Department. At the Ricci Institute, he is also historian and curator of the Passionist China Collection (PCC), an archive of over 10,000 photos and 60,000 documents, photographs, reports, films, and correspondence that reveal the twentieth century Passionist-based mission in Hunan, China. Fr. Rob is a graduate of Assumption University, Worcester, MA (BA, History), St. John's University, New York (MA, Theology and M.Div.) and Georgetown University (Ph.D. in American and East Asian history). He has taught at American colleges and universities and as a foreign expert in Chongqing, China (2007-2008). His research and international publications focus on the Passionists in China, and the relationship between American Catholic missionaries and the U. S. Department of State in pre-1955 China. Fr. Rob frequently lectures on Chinese history and Catholicism.
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"Having been associated with the USCCA since it was founded in 1989, I am particularly interested in the approximately 33 American Catholic religious congregations of priests, Brothers and Sisters and their lay members who were missionaries to China in the twentieth century. Their collective archives reveal a Chinese and American cross-cultural story based on a Catholic stamina of faith that still inspires us and provides insights on contemporary Chinese society of today."
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Anthony E. Clark, Ph.D., FRHistS
Director Emeritus
Spokane, Washington
Dr. Anthony E. Clark is Edward B. Lindaman Endowed Chair at Whitworth University, the distinguished Combe Trust Fellow at the University of Edinburgh, and an elected Fellow of the Royal Historical Society of London. He is professor of late-imperial Chinese history and director of the Asian Studies Program at Whitworth University. His publications include China Gothic: The Bishop of Beijing and His Cathedral (2019), A Chinese Jesuit Catechism: Giulio Aleni's Four Character Classic (2021), China’s Catholics in an Era of Transformation: Observations of an “Outsider” (2020), Heaven in Conflict: Franciscans and the Boxer Uprising in Shanxi (2015) and China’s Christianity: From Missionary to Indigenous Church (edited volume, 2017). Clark’s scholarship centers on Sino-Christian cultural exchange in late-imperial China, including an examination of the place of Catholic martyrs. He received his doctorate in classical sinology under Dr. Stephen Durrant, in the lineage of Fr. Teilhard de Chardin, SJ, Fr. Father Jozef Mullie, CICM, Dr. Peter Boodberg, and Fr. Paul Serruys, CICM. His is a tradition of comparative research into China’s long intellectual and religious exchange with the West.
Luke Liu
Director Emeritus
Sugar Land, Texas
Luke Liu is a sixth generation Catholic from Sichuan, China. He holds a master’s in public policy from Carnegie Mellon University, and a certificate of distinction in democratic development from Stanford University. Having launched a career as an engineer in China and Europe, he then turned his focus to civil society and international education. Currently a teacher in Houston, he is also developing programs for young people from around the world to study in America.
Thomas McGuire, M.Div., M.R.E.
Director Emeritus
Chicago, Illinois
Tom McGuire’s friendship with Chinese people dates back to his days as a Maryknoll Missionary in Hong Kong. His experience of living and sharing the Gospel with Chinese refugee sisters and brothers was a formative experience of mission discipleship. Tom also served as Director of Campus Ministry at the University of Detroit Mercy.
When he returned to the U.S. participating in USCCA Conferences helped to maintain his friendships with Chinese people. For six years, he served as USCCA Board Chair and now as a Board Emeritus Director.
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Mr. McGuire seeks and encourages others to seek guidance from the Holy Spirit in the mission of building bridges of friendship and dialogue with the people of China while standing in solidarity with Chinese Catholic sisters and brothers under the cross of Jesus Christ. Shalom,
Rev. Doug Mullin, OSB
Director Emeritus
Collegeville, Minnesota
Douglas Mullin is a Benedictine monk and a priest of Saint John’s Abbey in Collegeville, Minnesota. After a long, distinguished career as an educator and administrator at the elementary, high school, and university levels, Fr. Doug now serves as a chaplain at the St. Cloud VA Medical Center. Since the early 1990’s Fr. Doug has been developing deep, ongoing friendships with seminarians, priests, sisters and lay people from China who have studied at Saint John’s Graduate School of Theology.
Jean-Paul Wiest, Ph.D.
Director Emeritus
Newcastle Washington
EPISCOPAL EMERITUS DIRECTOR
Most Rev. John S. Cummins
Director Emeritus
Oakland, California
John S. Cummins is Bishop Emeritus of the Diocese of Oakland. Throughout his distinguished career, he has worked for ecumenism and social justice in the spirit of Vatican II. For 22 years he was fraternal delegate to the Federation of Asian Bishops Conferences, and that gave him the opportunity to visit to Hong Kong and mainland China. In his own diocese, he has been good friend to the Bay Area Chinese community. In 1998 he sponsored the first meeting of local Chinese American Catholics, inviting then Father John Tong, who subsequently became Cardinal Archbishop of Hong Kong, as the keynote speaker. He also maintained a long and enduring friendship with the most admired Archbishop Dominic Tang Yee-Ming, SJ, the exiled bishop of Guangzhou. Under his leadership four parishes scheduled Sunday Mass in Chinese, and the InterFrienship House for visiting scholars and students from mainland China was established in Berkeley.
LOCAL ORDINARY
Most Rev. Michael C. Barber, SJ
Bishop of the Diocese of Oakland
Bishop Michael Barber is the fifth bishop of the Diocese of Oakland, serving the Church and the wider community in Oakland since May, 2013. He entered the Society of Jesus (commonly known as the Jesuits) in 1973 and was ordained a priest by Archbishop John R. Quinn of San Francisco in 1985. Educated at Gonzaga University (Spokane), Regis College (Toronto), Gregorian University (Rome), and Oxford University (England), he served as a naval chaplain with distinction over many years, rising to the rank of Captain. Before taking the helm of the Diocese of Oakland, he served as Director of the School of Pastoral Leadership in the Archdiocese of San Francisco, professor at St. Patrick’s Seminary in Menlo Park, and Director of Spiritual Formation at St. John’s Seminary in the Archdiocese of Boston. Conversant in Italian, French, Samoan and liturgical Spanish, he now heads one of the most diverse and engaging dioceses in California.