Contact: Deirdre Trabert Malacrea, RENEW International, 908-769-5400 ext. 126

BALTIMORE, Feb. 13, 2012 /Christian Newswire/ -- Sr. Theresa Rickard, OP, President and Executive Director of RENEW International will be a featured speaker at the first annual Mid-Atlantic Congress for Pastoral Leadership (MAC). The Congress, co-sponsored by the Association of Catholic Publishers and the Archdiocese of Baltimore's Department of Evangelization, will be held from March 8-10, 2012, at the Hilton Hotel in Baltimore, Maryland.

This new event will bring leaders in parishes and schools together to enrich their faith, strengthen their pastoral ministry, and enhance their leadership skills. The theme for the MAC in 2012 is Witness Hope!¡ Sea Testigo de la Esperanza! focusing on how leaders need to be witnesses of hope so that they can instill hope in others.

Sr. Theresa's session The Call to a New Evangelization: Awakening, Deepening, and Sharing our Faith is scheduled for Friday, March 9, 2012 from 1:30-2:45 pm. She will present the call for a new evangelization as a challenge to Catholics to serve as disciples identifying fundamentally with Christ. This workshop will explore the unique meaning and purpose of Catholic evangelization with practical ways to strengthen faith in family life, workplaces, and parishes.

"I am looking forward to this opportunity to engage ministry leaders in the important call to transform the parish into a vibrant community of hope and gospel action," Sr. Theresa said.

Sr. Theresa is a strong proponent of small Christian communities in which parishioners' spiritual lives are renewed through sharing about the role of faith in everyday life. Since becoming its President and Executive Director, she has led RENEW International's expansion into more than fifty dioceses as well as five developing countries. Under her watch, RENEW has launched innovative and effective pastoral processes in support of the new evangelization, faith formation, and spiritual renewal, including Why Catholic? Journey through the Catechism and ARISE Together in Christ, available in multiple languages.

In addition to her leadership role at RENEW International, Sr. Theresa is a Dominican Sister of Blauvelt, New York. She holds the degree of Doctor of Ministry in Preaching from Aquinas Institute of Theology in St. Louis, Missouri as well master's degrees in Divinity and Religious Education. Twitter users can follow her at @srterryrickard.

To register to attend the Mid-Atlantic Congress, sign up for email updates, or for additional information, visit the MAC website at www.midatlanticcongress.org.

RENEW International is a canonically-recognized Catholic organization operating under the auspices of the Archdiocese of Newark which fosters spiritual renewal in the Catholic tradition. It can be found on the web at www.renewintl.org or at www.facebook.com/renewintl.