AUSCP 2025 Assembly
Sex and Spirituality Pastoral Considerations
14TH ANNUAL AUSCP ASSEMBLY
June 23 – 26, 2025
San Antonio, Texas
Welcome Home!
Join us as we come together as friends and colleagues in the heart of San Antonio’s vibrant Riverwalk district. The 2025 AUSCP Assembly invites you to explore the vital intersection of sexuality and spirituality through a pastoral lens.
This June, we’ll create a space for honest dialogue, mutual support, and collective wisdom on a topic that touches every aspect of our ministry. You’ll find a welcoming community ready to engage, whether it’s your first Assembly or your 10th.
The Assembly begins on June 23rd with an optional retreat led by Fr. Ronald Rolheiser, OMI. Then join us for three days of keynote presentations, discussions, and fellowship with member priests and friends.
We look forward to welcoming you home to AUSCP in San Antonio!
Hotel Information
Drury Plaza Riverwalk Hotel
105 South St. Mary’s Street
San Antonio, TX. 78205
The Drury Plaza Hotel San Antonio Riverwalk is located on the San Antonio River, walking distance from shops, restaurants and entertainment. Relax in the sun on the deck of the rooftop pool, which also has two whirlpools! Formerly the Alamo National Bank, this 24-story renovated skyscraper features 50-foot ceilings, travertine flooring and stained glass windows.
2025 Assembly Featured Presenters
More information coming soon.
Todd A. Salzman
BA, PhD
Keynoter
Salzman completed his BA in Philosophy and Theology/Religious Studies at the University of San Diego, 1986. He completed his BA/MA/STB (Sacrae Theologiae Baccalaureus) in Theology at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in 1990 and his Ph.D. in theology, summa cum laude with congratulations of the examining board in 1994 at the KUL. He is married to Katy and they have three children: Ian, Aaron, and Emily.
Todd Salzman, Co-Author: The Sexual Person: Toward a Renewed Catholic Anthropology (Moral Traditions)
Two principles capture the essence of the official Catholic position on the morality of sexuality: first, that any human genital act must occur within the framework of heterosexual marriage; second, each and every marriage act must remain open to the transmission of life. In this comprehensive overview of Catholicism and sexuality, theologians Todd A. Salzman and Michael G. Lawler examine and challenge these principles. Remaining firmly within the Catholic tradition, they contend that the church is being inconsistent in its teaching by adopting a dynamic, historically conscious anthropology and worldview on social ethics and the interpretation of scripture while adopting a static, classicist anthropology and worldview on sexual ethics.
While some documents from Vatican II, like Gaudium et spes (“the marital act promotes self-giving by which spouses enrich each other”), gave hope for a renewed understanding of sexuality, the church has not carried out the full implications of this approach. In short, say Salzman and Lawler: emphasize relationships, not acts, and recognize Christianity’s historically and culturally conditioned understanding of human sexuality. The Sexual Person draws historically, methodologically, and anthropologically from the best of Catholic tradition and provides a context for current theological debates between traditionalists and revisionists regarding marriage, cohabitation, homosexuality, reproductive technologies, and what it means to be human. This daring and potentially revolutionary book will be sure to provoke constructive dialogue among theologians, and between theologians and the Magisterium.
Jennifer Beste
Keynoter
Jennifer Beste is the Koch Chair for Catholic Thought and Culture at the College of Saint Benedict and St. John’s University. Beste holds a master’s degree in divinity from Vanderbilt Divinity School and a Ph.D. in religious ethics from Yale University.
Susan Weber
Strategic Planning
Susan Weber coordinates the evaluation processes for Lilly Endowment Inc.’s Religion Division. She spent several years as the Indianapolis Center for Congregation’s director of evaluation and congregational learning, as well as a resource consultant to congregations.
Weber is a Roman Catholic lay woman. Prior to her work at the Center, she served the Archdiocese of Indianapolis as coordinator of boards of education, office of Catholic education from 1976-1985. For almost 20 years thereafter, she was an independent consultant and group facilitator for dioceses, churches, religious communities, and schools nationwide. Sue has degrees from St. Mary-of-the-Woods College and Indiana University, Bloomington and is professionally certificated as a group facilitator through Indiana University.
Damian Zynda, Th.D.
Contemplative Dialogue Facilitator
Dr. Damian Zynda Th.D. will facilitate contemplative dialogue following the keynotes. Zynda is director of Spiritual Directors Institute, Rochester, NY. Dr. Damian Zynda teaches spiritual direction at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska and is the Director of Formation at the Church of the Transfiguration in the Diocese of Rochester, NY. She is the author of “Archbishop Oscar Romero: A Disciple Who Revealed the Glory of God,” published by the University of Scranton Press in 2010. […]
As Director of Mission and Ministry at McQuaid Jesuit, and Director of Ignatian Identity at Canisius High School in Buffalo, NY, Dr. Damian Zynda forms leaders in the McQuaid Jesuit and Canisius HS adult community in Ignatian Spirituality and Jesuit Pedagogy. She holds a doctorate in Systematic Theology and Christian Spirituality from the University of St. Michael’s College, the Toronto School of Theology (2004), and Certifications in Advanced Jesuit Studies from Boston College (2016), Spiritual Direction in the Spiritual Exercises, Loyola House, Guelph, Ontario, Canada (1991), and Supervision of Spiritual Directors from St. Meinrad’s School of Theology, St. Meinrad, Indiana (2014). Since 2004 she has been on faculty in the Christian Spirituality and Master of Ministry Programs at Creighton University forming spiritual directors in the Ignatian Tradition.
Ron Rolheiser, OMI
Retreat Director
As a young child, Ron’s father George, along with his family, and other German- Russian families, immigrated from Saratov, Russia, and settled, as homesteaders, near the Alberta border where they established a community centred around St. Donatus Church in Cactus Lake, Saskatchewan. Ron’s mother Matilda was from a family of homesteaders in a nearby area. After meeting George at a parish picnic, they married, and acquired a farm, near Cactus Lake, within 4 miles of the original Rolheiser homestead.
Following his school years, Ron entered the novitiate of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate and professed his First Vows in September 1966. Ordained to the priesthood in 1972, Ron continued his education, receiving a B.A. (University of Ottawa, 1969), B.Th. (Newman Theological College, 1973), M.A. (University of San Francisco, 1974), M.R.Sc. (University of Louvain, 1982) and Ph.D/STD (University of Louvain, 1983). During and after his studies, he taught theology and philosophy at Newman Theological College, in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
Fr. Ron is in demand and well-known as a speaker. Keeping an active speaking schedule, his retreats and workshops have inspired many. Along with his academic knowledge in systematic theology and philosophy, he has become a popular speaker in the areas of contemporary spirituality and religion and the secular world. Franciscan Communications has produced fifteen DVDs of his retreats that are well-loved for both individual and group use.
Assembly Notes
Pope St. John XXIII Award
The AUSCP will present its highest honor, the Pope St. John XXIII Award, to Ruben Garcia, Executive Director, Annunciation House, El Paso, Texas.
Garcia is the executive director of Annunciation House, a non-profit organization supporting migrants and refugees fleeing poverty and violence. For over 40 years, he has been advocating for social justice.
In the 1970’s, Garcia co-founded Annunciation House to respond to the urgent needs of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border. Due to his courageous and insightful leadership, the organization has grown significantly, providing food, housing, hospitality and legal assistance to thousands who have recently crossed the border at this very busy entry point. Ruben is well known for his service to the immigrants/refugees whom he encounters daily, hearing their harrowing personal stories of fear and desperation as they arrive at the border. Annunciation House has been the target of persons adamantly in opposition to immigration. In February of 2024,Texas Attorney General, Ken Paxton, accused Annunciation House of harboring illegal aliens and attempted to shut the House down. Paxton served an administrative subpoena seeking a variety of documents pertaining to individuals who received certain services provided by Annunciation House. Ruben, together with other leaders, responded in defense of and solidarity with immigrants and refugees. The court decision found the administrative subpoena unconstitutional.
On October 17, 2024 Ruben Garcia offered a webinar to the AUSCP enlightening people prior to the election about the plight of refugees/immigrants and the true situation at the border.
AUSCP is honored to recognize Ruben Garcia with the 2025 John XXIII Award for his courageous and compassionate service to migrants and refugees at our southern border for over forty years. The award honors Garcia’s witness and ministry; he is an example of the power of leadership, one person with direct impact on thousands and by his example, impact on the whole Church.
Viewing of the movie, Cabrini
Monday evening • June 23 • Optional event
Cabrini is a 2024 American biographical drama film directed by Alejandro Gómez Monteverde and written by Rod Barr, based on a story by both. The film depicts the life of Catholic missionary Francesca Cabrini, portrayed by Cristiana Dell’Anna, as she encounters resistance to her charity and business efforts in New York City. Cabrini explores the sexism and anti-Italian bigotry faced by Cabrini and others in New York City in the late 19th century. View the official trailer.
Viewing of new documentary; A Black History Tour of St. Louis
Tuesday evening • June 24 Optional event
Fr. Gerry Kleba, a member of the AUSCP, has been a hospital chaplain, a university professor, a retreat master, but mostly a parish priest predominantly in economically depressed communities. His many guided history bus tours have served as the basis for a documentary film, A Black History Tour of St. Louis.
In addition to the location footage, the documentary features an interview with Lynne Jackson, the great great granddaughter of enslaved St. Louis residents Dred and Harriett Scott. The infamous 1857 Supreme Court decision denied them citizenship, basing its ruling on the exclusion of Blacks from citizenship when the Constitution was written.
Kleba and producer Tony West are awaiting word from several film festivals, to learn if A Black History Tour of St. Louis is accepted. Kleba and West intend to participate in the AUSCP presentation, Tuesday, June 24, an optional event for Assembly attendees. Kleba and West plan to be present for discussion after the viewing.
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