We only use a session cookie to help navigation and for identification of registered users. We don't use tracking cookies nor store personal data from visitors.

Rome Conference 2024 Program

February 2-3-4 / 2024

Master of Ceremony: Robert Colquhoun 
Time Act/Presentation Speaker Room/Place
Friday 2nd
15:00 - 17:00 Check in and registration  n/a Hotel lobby
17:00 - 18:00 Holy Mass F. Felix - F. Doyle Visconti
18:30 - 19:30 Welcome drink   Hotel bar and terrace
19:35 - 19:45 Welcome words Tomislav Čunović Loggia dei signori
19:50 - 20:15 Opening prayer and spiritual reflection: Our Lady of Guadalupe. The Living Icon of Authentic Femininity & Maternity Fr. Felix  Loggia dei signori
20:20 - 23:00

Opening Speech “The End of an Era”

Gala Dinner

Leader of the Year Awards

Shawn Carney

Tomislav Čunović  & Robert Colquhoun

 Loggia dei signori
       
Saturday 3rd
07:00 - 08:30 Breakfast   Savoia hotel restaurant
08:45 - 09:05 Welcome speech Shawn Carney Loggia dei signori
09:10 - 09:45 Abortion as a marxist tool in the context of the cultural and sexual revolution Julio  Loredo de Izcue Loggia dei signori
09:50 - 10:15 Preparing for Battle - My prolife journey Isabel Vaughan-Spruce Loggia dei signori
10:20 - 10:35 Coffee break   Hotel bar & terrace
10:40 - 11:25 Ethical dilemmas of abortion Dr. Pilar Calva Loggia dei signori
11:30 - 11:55 Love that defies all laws Martina Loggia dei signori
12:00 - 12:15 The pro life battle in Italy and the humanity of the embryo Antonio Brandi Loggia dei signori
12:20 - 14:00 Lunchtime   Savoia hotel restaurant
14:05 - 14:25 Public prayer in a hostile environment Tomislav Čunović Loggia dei signori
14:30 - 15:15 Present and future of the protection of life at the international level: challenges and opportunities Dr. Juana Acosta Loggia dei signori
15:20 - 15:45 How did we get here? Legal systems are not always justice systems Matt Britton Loggia dei signori
15:50 - 16:15 Medication induced abortion in the U.S.; legal issues regarding pill reversal and mail order dispensing Dr. Donato Borrillo Loggia dei signori
16:20 - 16:35 Coffee break   Hotel bar & terrace
16:40 - 17:40 Questions & Answers   Loggia dei signori
17:55 - 18:00 Final conclusions Shawn Carney Loggia dei signori
19:00 - 20:00 Holy Mass F. Felix - F. Doyle Visconti
20:30 - 22:30 Dinner   Club House
SUNDAY 4th
  Checkout    

U.S.A National Team

Shawn Carney

President and co-founder of 40DFL
Shawn Carney began as a volunteer in the pro-life movement while still in college. During this time, he helped lead the first-ever local 40 Days for Life campaign. After graduating from college, Shawn was asked to serve as the executive director of the Coalition for Life, a local pro-life organization in Texas made up of more than 60 churches. From its beginning, Shawn has been instrumental in growing 40 Days for Life nationally and then internationally

Matt Britton

General Counsel 40 DFL
Matt Britton has had an expansive legal career, including four terms as an elected prosecutor; a county attorney; counsel to many not-for-profits and U.S. companies operating around the world; a major law firm litigator; and general counsel. Matt has written and spoken countless times on a wide range of legal and pro-life issues in locations across the United States as well as England, Japan, Colombia, Mexico, Korea, Singapore, Brazil, China,and locations across the European Union. 

Most importantly, Matt is married to Libby Britton, and they have eight beautiful children and seven grandchildren.

Fr. Paul Felix

40DFL Chaplain
Fr. Paul Felix is the pastor of the Church of the Annunciation in Houston, Texas. He founded a Catholic professional medical ethics group under the patronage of St. Gianna Beretta Molla. Fr. Felix also serves as spiritual director for clergy, seminarians, and laity for the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston. He leads retreats for post-abortive women, is a 4th degree Knight of Columbus, is a participant in the Opus Dei Circle of Priests, and was promoted to the rank of a Knight Commander of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem.

Tomislav Čunović

OF COUNSEL, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS, 40 DAYS FOR LIFE
Tomislav Čunović is based in Frankfurt, Germany, and serves as 40 Days for Life’s executive director for international affairs. Tomislav has practiced law in Germany since 2008 after studying law in Germany, Spain, and the Netherlands with a focus on international law and human rights law. He has handled a wide variety of matters and litigation in both business and pro-life law. Tomislav has served as legal counsel to several pro-life activists. 

In 2017 Tomislav started the first 40 Days for Life vigil in Frankfurt with two friends and helped to spread the 40 Days for Life mission in Germany.

Robert Colquhoun

Director of International Campaigns 40DFL
Robert Colquhoun is based in London, where he led the first 40 Days for Life campaign in England. The vigils were held outside a BPAS abortion facility that, after several campaigns, stopped doing abortions and eventually closed its doors. Robert has helped the 40 Days for Life mission spread across the United Kingdom. He now assists local leaders coordinating 40 Days for Life efforts in nations as widespread as Australia, Croatia, New Zealand, Russia, and South Africa.

Donato Borrillo

Assistant General Counsel and Director of Medicolegal Affairs 40DFL
Dr. Donato Borrillo is a practicing physician and an attorney. After his medical residency, he practiced as a flight surgeon with the United States Air Force from 1996 through 2001 and was assigned to Special Operations Command in Europe and Africa. Dr. Borrillo was honorably discharged as a major after nine years of military service and was a visiting scholar at Cambridge University, England, from 1998 to 1999. His previous legal practice focused on class action, mass torts, personal injury, wrongful death, occupational injury, and health care law. Dr. Borrillo is an active member of Blessed Trinity Catholic Church in Ocala, Florida, and is enrolled in his fourth year of Catholic Bible School of Michigan. He teaches medical students from the University of Toledo at the school's community free clinic and provides services to patients at Misión La Guadalupana in Ocala, Florida. Dr. Borrillo has spoken at the request of numerous bar associations and continuing medical and legal education seminars and has over thirty medical publications.

Speakers

Julio Loredo de Izcue

President Associazione Tradizione Famiglia Propietà
Julio Loredo de Izcue was born in Lima, Perú, and is a founding member of Tradición y Acción por un Perú Mayor. 

He has helped to spread the ideals of tradition, family, and property as a youth organizer, journalist, writer, speaker, and college professor. He has lectured in more than twenty countries. His books and papers have been published in the United States, Canada, Spain, France, Great Britain, Italy, Poland, Germany, Estonia, Hungary, Brazil, Perú, and Colombia. 

He has lived in Italy since 1994 and is the president of Associazione Tradizione Famiglia Proprietà.

Isabel Vaughan-Spruce

Co-Director March for Life UK and 40DFL Leader
Isabel Vaughan-Spruce has been praying for and offering help to women and couples outside abortion centres for around twenty years. She has been campaign director for 40 Days for Life in Birmingham, England, for more than ten years and co-director of March for Life UK, which she co-founded, for ten years. Isabel has been arrested twice for silently praying near an abortion centre. Despite being acquitted in court, she has subsequently been threatened by police with a fixed penalty notice for her prayers. Isabel continues to pray near the abortion centre.

Dr. Pilar Calva

Bioethicist and Doctor of Medicine
Dr. Pilar Calva is an international lecturer and professor on bioethics issues, genetics, clinical practice, end-of-life coaching, infertility, and thanatology. She obtained her M.D. after training with Professor Jérôme Lejeune at the Hospital des Enfants Malades in Paris, France. She received her certification on cytogenetics from the Sorbonne University in Paris in 1987.

Martina

Catholic Pro-Life and mother
Martina was born in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1993 during the war. She grew up in a Catholic family who went to Holy Mass on Sundays, but she did not know much about her Catholic faith. She received most of her Catholic education from her grandmother. 

After graduating from economics school, Martina immigrated to Switzerland due to the lack of freedom in her home country, where she experienced physical, psychological, and sexual violence. 

She has two beautiful girls, one of whom is the reason she is sharing her testimony with us

Antonio Brandi

President Pro Vita e Famiglia
Antonio Brandi has lived in several European countries since 1971 and worked professionally in the fields of tourism, transport, and entrepreneurship until 2017. Over the last 15 years, he has been involved in nongovernmental organization work. He is the co-founder and president of Pro Vita e Famiglia and is dedicating his life to the battle for Christ, life, and family

Dr. Juana Acosta

Director of the Legal Clinic of Public Interest and Human Rights at the University of La Sabana, Colombia
Dr. Juana Acosta is a lawyer from the Javeriana University of Colombia. She holds a master’s degree in human rights and democratization from Externado University, an LLM in international legal studies from New York University, and a Ph.D. from the National Autonomous University of Mexico. She serves as the director of social projection and relations for law and political sciences faculty at the University of La Sabana Colombia