WEBINAR SCHEDULE

All times are central time.

9:00 am     Opening of Webinar by ITEST Director, Dr. Tom Sheahen

9:05 am     Opening prayer by Fr. Tom Davis, founder & president of the Liberty Institute for Faith & Ethics (L.I.F.E.)

9:15 am     Dr. Melissa Moschella, Why It Is Morally Right to Take the COVID Vaccine

9:50 am     Dr. Stacy Trasancos, Scandal and the COVID-19 Vaccine Moral Calculus

10:20 am   Q & A and Dialogue between Melissa and Stacy

10:55 am   Wrap up by Tom Sheahen

10:58 am   Closing prayer by ITEST Associate Director, Sister Marianne Postiglione, RSM

Stacy Trasancos, Ph.D., is the Executive Director of Bishop Joseph Strickland’s St. Philip Institute of Catechesis and Evangelization in Tyler, TX and Chief Research Officer of Children of God for Life. She is a Fellow of the Word on Fire Institute and Adjunct Professor at Seton Hall University Catholic Studies program. Her work focuses on the integration of faith and science. Recently, she has been a weekly guest host for Relevant Radio. She is the author of Particles of Faith: A Catholic Guide to Navigating Science (Ave Maria Press, 2016, Student Edition 2019) and articles for National Catholic RegisterNCBQuarterly, and Catholic Answers Magazine. She has a Ph.D. in Chemistry from Penn State, graduated summa cum laude with a M.A. in Dogmatic Theology from Holy Apostles College & Seminary, and worked as a Senior Research Chemist for DuPont Lycra®. Stacy is a mother of seven and grandmother of six. She and her husband, Jose, live with their family in Hideaway, Texas. See her position at National Catholic Register and Catholic Answers.

Melissa Moschella, Ph.D., is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the Catholic University of America, and a Visiting Scholar at the Heritage Foundation’s B.K. Simon Center for American Studies. Her research and teaching focus is on natural law, bioethics and the moral and political status of the family. She is the author of To Whom Do Children Belong? Parental Rights, Civic Education and Children’s Autonomy (Cambridge University Press, 2016), and of numerous articles published in scholarly journals as well as popular media outlets, including BioethicsThe Journal of Medical Ethics, The Journal of Medicine and Philosophy, The Journal of Law and Religion, The American Journal of JurisprudenceThe New York Times, USA Today, The Washington Post and The Public Discourse.  She graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College, received a Licentiate in Philosophy summa cum laude from the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, and received her Ph.D. in Political Philosophy from Princeton University. See her position in First Things and The Public Discourse.

THE INITIAL CONVERSATION

WCAT Radio’s “The Open Door” discusses ethical concerns about the new COVID-19 vaccines with two special guests. Stacy Trasancos, Ph.D., the Executive Director of St. Philip Institute in Tyler, Texas, and Melissa Moschella, Associate Professor of Philosophy at the Catholic University of America and visiting scholar at the Heritage Foundation’s Simon Center for American Studies Both have recently written on ethics and the new vaccines.