Fr. Marcus Holden
Fr Marcus Holden is a Co-founder of Evangelium and a native of Lancashire, England and was ordained a priest of the Archdiocese of Southwark in 2005.
He studied theology at Oxford and later at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. His passion is for catechesis and teaching and in that vein he helped set up St Anthony Communications and the Evangelium Project.
He has also worked with the Maryvale Institute and the Catholic Truth Society. He is currently the Parish Priest of St Bede’s, Clapham Park, London and was previously Parish Priest of Ramsgate & Minster.
While there he oversaw the restoration of Pugin’s neogothic Church of St Augustine and had it established as the National Shrine of St Augustine of Canterbury.
James Bradshaw
As well as being the Evangelium Ireland PRO, James Bradshaw is a writer whose work regularly appears in Catholic and secular publications.
He recently completed a five-week trip in Sub-Saharan Africa with the support of Aid to the Church in Need (ACN).
He will speak about his experience and the broader issue of anti-Christian persecution worldwide in this workshop, which is sponsored by ACN Ireland.
Fr. Francis Gavin
Introducing our next speaker Fr. Francis Gavin. Fr Gavin is a native of Marino, Dublin and a priest of the Oratory of St Philip Neri (Oratorian). Until recently he lived at the Birmingham Oratory, founded by St. John Henry Newman, where he was ordained to the priesthood in 2014.
He returned to Dublin in 2021 to join the Dublin Oratory-in-Formation at St. Kevin’s on Harrington Street.
He studied theology at the Mater Dei Institute, Dublin, St. Patrick’s College, Maynooth and the University of Nottingham, where he completed a dissertation titled ‘The Ecclesial Vocation of the Theologian in the Thought of Newman and Ratzinger.
Fr. Andrew Black
Fr Andrew Black is a priest of the Diocese of Down and Connor, and originates from the town of Hollywood just outside of Belfast. Fr Black studied History and Scholastic Philosophy at Queen’s University before joining St Malachy’s Diocesan Seminary in 2007. Following two years at the seminary, he moved to Rome to finish his studies at the Pontifical Irish College. After his ordination to the priesthood in 2015, Fr Black worked as Chaplain to Belfast’s City Hospital before resuming his studies in Rome, completing a Licentiate in Sacred Scripture in 2022. In September, Fr Black commenced a Doctorate at the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome.
