Annual CCI Awards Dinner at Drury Lane, October 7, 2009, featuring Bishop Thomas Doran, Rockford Diocese, "Some Observations on the Church in the 21st Century"

10/2/2009 9:29:00 PM

Tickets are $65 per seat, $500 for a table of 10. Send contributions/reservations to CCI, 106 Calendar Court, PMB 122, Lagrange, IL 60525 or by phone at 708 352 5834. Reception from 6 pm to 7 pm. Dinner at 7 pm, program immediately following dinner.

Upon his graduation in 1958, he was assigned to Theological Studies at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome by then Bishop Loras T. Lane, Bishop of Rockford. Ordained to the priesthood on December 20, 1961, he finished his studies and was awarded a Licentiate in Sacred Theology in 1962. Upon his return to the Diocese of Rockford, he served in many administrative, judicial and pastoral areas until 1975. Bishop Doran returned to Rome to complete a doctorate in Canon Law from 1975-1978. On returning to the Diocese he again served many administrative areas, most especially as Chancellor, Judicial Vicar, Vicar for Catholic Education and Rector of the Cathedral of St. Peter until 1986.

In the Spring of 1986, the Holy Father, Pope John Paul II, appointed him to be Prelate Auditor of the Roman Rota in Rome. He served on the Roman Rota until his appointment as Bishop of Rockford in April of 1994. Bishop Doran was ordained and installed as the Eighth Bishop of the Diocese of Rockford on June 24, 1994. On September 2, 2000, the Holy Father recognized the Diocese of Rockford and Bishop Doran by naming him a member of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura. On March 2, 2001, Pope John Paul II named Bishop Doran a bishop member of the Congregation for the Clergy.

Bishop Doran currently serves on the following Committees and Boards:

President of the Institute on Religious Life

Board of Catholics United for the Faith

Trustee for The Catholic University of America

Bishop Doran previously served on the following Committees and Boards:

Subcommittee to draft the US Bishops' application of plan to implement Ex Corde Ecclesiae

Consultant to the Ad Hoc Committee to Oversee the Use of the Catechism

The subcommittee to study the Interdicasterial Instruction on Certain Questions Regarding the Collaboration of the Non-Ordained Faithful in the Sacred Ministry of Priests

Ad Hoc Committee on the Forum

Board of National Rural Life Conference

Chairman of Region VII Bishops

Administrative Committee of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops (1997-2000)

Administrative Board of the U.S. Catholic Conference (1997-2000)

Mixed Commission to revise the "Essential Norms" for Diocesan/Eparchial Policies Dealing with Allegations of Sexual Abuse of Minors by Priests or Deacons

Commission on Science and Human Values

Committee on Women in Society and in the Church

Common Ground Initiative

Chairman of the USCCB Canonical Affairs Committee

Administrative Committee of the USCCB

Ad Hoc Committee on Sexual Abuse of Minors

Episcopal Board of Advisors for the cause of Archbishop Sheen's Beatification (2009)

Kathleen Sullivan's interest in and focus on education issues commenced back in the 1960s. She was, in fact, one of the first to note changes in health education curricula, particularly as it related to sex education issues. She watched the development of Title X funded clinics and the implementation of school-based clinics during the 1970s. These clinics provided sex education concentrating on birth control information and services. By the 1980s, Planned Parenthood and its ilk were firmly entrenched in America's schools and communities with little community input or knowledge of their agenda and its resulting havoc on the lives of teens and society as a whole. Out of wedlock pregnancies, abortion, STDs and emotional trauma were on a meteoric rise.

Kathleen, along with others in the prolife, profamily community, realized that it was time to act. In recognition of her interest and work in the field, in 1980 she was appointed to President Reagan's Family Policy Board. In 1985, Kathleen founded Project Reality in the Chicago area. For the next 28 years she dedicated her life to successfully bringing the abstinence message to nearly two million teens throughout America through abstinence curricula in the schools (public and private), assemblies, rallies and related activities and materials. During that time she and Project Reality mentored dozens of abstinence educators and other abstinence education organizations nationwide. She was instrumental in the passage of the Welfare Reform Act of 1996 that for the first time established federal funding for abstinence education and put the issue of abstinence education vs. Planned Parenthood on the national agenda.

In 2008 Kathleen, as Chairman and CEO of Project Reality, decided it was time to retire (semi) and leave the work of abstinence education to the many able providers now in the field, many of whom know of and recall Kathleen's efforts as instrumental to their success .

Kathleen was born in Trinidad in the West Indies. She has been married to Jerry and lived in the United States for 56 years. She has six children and 33 grandchildren. Kathleen and Jerry currently reside in Naples, Florida.

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