The 28th annual Holy Spirit Conference, “Healing Through the Spirit Brings Freedom,” will take place April 30-May 2 at Carroll College in Helena. The weekend will feature nationally known speakers Walter Matthews, Father John Hampsch and Linda Schubert, and will include high school and middle school youth tracks, and a children’s ministry.

Event organizers said this year’s conference is especially focused on the healing aspect of the Charismatic Renewal, with Father Hampsch’s address on the healing of memories, and Schubert’s talk about the healing power of prayer.

Walter Matthews has been executive director for the National Service Committee of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal of the United States since 1993, after working as the committee’s associate director for about nine years. His involvement in Catholic Charismatic Renewal began in 1972. In 1990, Pope John Paul II appointed Matthews to a five-year term as a member of the Pontifical Council for the Laity. He has advised the U.S. Bishops’ Committee on the Laity.

Matthews lives in Locust Grove, Va., with his wife and three children.

Father John Hampsch was ordained as a priest in 1952 and is a member of Claretian Missionaries. He has served as parish priest, rector, seminary professor and college professor. He has written for magazines and newspapers, served as a retreat master and ministered as a hospital, prison and campus chaplain. He directed suicide prevention programs, and has been a Cursillo director.

Father Hampsch, who has traveled in 57 countries and all 50 states, calls himself an “itinerant preacher-teacher,” with special emphasis on teaching and healing services. He has been active in Charismatic Renewal for over 36 years. As director of the Claretian Teaching Ministry, formerly the Claretian Tape Ministry, his audio and video recordings constitute one of today’s largest Catholic communication ministries. His 17 books and 95 booklets are used as discussion material for study groups and small-group home retreats.

Linda Schubert is a Catholic convert whose love for Jesus is rooted in and nourished through Catholic Charismatic Renewal. Her conversion in 1977 followed the death of a stepson. Schubert knows the power of healing prayer, having experienced Jesus’s healing presence during breast cancer surgery, grief, divorce and the suicide of a family member.

She now serves in fulltime ministry through Catholic Charismatic Renewal, is in her third term on the Council for the National Service Committee of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal in the United States and is in the Association of Christian Therapists. She co-authored nine books with Father Robert DeGrandis, a member of St. Joseph’s Society of the Sacred Heart, and has since written many others. After the 1991 publication of her international bestseller “Miracle Hour,” she ministered in about 20 countries. Her ministry focuses mainly on prayer, healing, reconciliation, leadership training and gifts of the Holy Spirit.

People who attended the conference last year will receive registration materials by mail. Attendance costs $40 per person for adults and high school students, $20 for middle school students and $10 for college students carrying ID. Early registration prices are in effect until April 20. There is no charge for children in kindergarten through fifth grade. Adult and youth registration soon will be available at parishes and online at www.diocesehelena.org. For more information, contact the Pastoral & Renewal Services office at the Diocese of Helena, 406-442-5820, ext. 16.


Published in The Montana Catholic Online, Volume 26, No. 2, February 19, 2010.