Talks and Retreats

To schedule a speaking event with Bill Donaghy, contact Carrie Archual at carchual@tobinstitute.org or 215.302.8200 x101


1. A Man for All Seasons: Rediscovering Authentic Masculinity
A father and truly every man is meant to be a steward, guardian, and cultivator of beauty in the world. This was the first man's task in Eden and remains the perennial call for every man up to today: to shamar (protect or guard) and to abodah (cultivate) the life of the garden, both literally and spiritually. With the words and example of St. John Paul II and Pope Francis as our guides, join international speaker and teacher Bill Donaghy for a challenging and inspiring journey, into the heart of authentic masculinity.


2. The Genesis of Gender: Rediscovering the Human Person
Our culture continuously asks the question “Who am I?” LGBTQIA? This long list of letters is an attempt to categorize those who feel constricted by the heteronormative binary of male/female. But what does it really mean to be a human person today? Can the ancient book of Genesis tell us anything about our own genesis? Do we walk on solid ground, in a world where our identity is connected to our sexuality, or is our humanity an ever-changing reality? Our very lives and the health of our civilization may depend on the answer.


3. The Beautiful Mess of the Family 
Deep in the heart of every person is a desire to be happy; we are made for it and we long for it, but how do we find happiness? The gospel says give yourself and you’ll find yourself, but we are afraid to trust this radical call. So God gives us the family, a place in which, as Dr. Peter Kreeft says, “A person cannot be selfish!” Discover how the family can be a “saint-making machine” with husband and father of four, Bill Donaghy.


4. Everything's Amazing but Nobody's Happy: Rekindling Wonder through the Theology of the Body
Modern man has everything at his fingertips but is anything reaching his heart? We live in the most technologically advanced society in human history, with answers at the tips of our fingers and ways to communicate instantly with anyone anywhere. But with all of these ways to communicate, we still seem so far from real communion. Discover how a knowledge of the theology of our bodies can return us to a truly life-giving “FaceTime” with others that will reawaken wonder.


5. The Way of Beauty: Theology of the Body and the Art of the New Evangelization
What is it about the beautiful that draws hearts and stirs the ache for communion within us all? What is the meaning of Dostoyevsky’s cryptic word “In the end, Beauty will save the world”? With insights from St. John Paul II and Pope Emeritus Benedict’s Letter to Artists, and in response to Pope Francis’s call that “every form of catechesis would do well to attend to the “way of beauty”, Bill Donaghy will offer a contemplative journey deep into the sacramental power of painting, sculpture, and the visual arts. This talk is for "all men and women... entrusted with the task of crafting their own life: in a certain sense, they are to make of it a work of art, a masterpiece.” (St. John Paul II, Letter to Artists)


6. MARRIAGE: Divine Invention or Human Convention
This talk explores the idea of marriage in the grand design of God and in the history of humanity… Is it a kind of Divine invention or just human convention? Is marriage a cultural creation that we can if we want re-create? Or is marriage something larger than our ideas? Is Marriage something almost cosmic that, rather than us having created it.... may in fact have created us?


7. God, Love, and the Meaning of Life: The Theology of the Body
International speaker and teacher Bill Donaghy reflects on the ache in the human heart for intimacy, relationship, and transcendence, and introduces the sacramental vision of the human person in St. John Paul II’s Theology of the Body as an answer to that ache. Discover through story, experience and reflection on source quotes from the Pope, a total vision of man and woman, the call to love, and our ultimate destiny.


8. The Family, Model of Hope for the "Me” Generation
"God inscribed in the humanity of man and woman the vocation... of love and communion." (St. John Paul II, Familiaris Consortio, 11) In this age of gender dysphoria and efforts made to redefine the meaning of marriage, we will look with reverent attentiveness to the great dance of God's Creation, of the archetypes of the masculine and the feminine He has placed all around us. As men and women we will discover our unique place in the spousal mystery which St. Paul says points to Christ and the Church, and rediscover our call to love!


9. "Embracing Our Call to Greatness": The Vision of the Human Person for St. John Paul II

Why are we here? What does it mean to be human? What is this restlessness, this ache in the human heart for intimacy that nothing in the world seems to completely satisfy? And why does it all appear to flow out of the mystery of our sexuality?

10. The Theology of the Body: A Look at the Beauty, Plan and Meaning of Human Sexuality, An Introduction to the Theology of the Body Seminar

Length: Full Day to Multiple Days, depending on the needs of your group. The eight themes covered in our offering can be delivered in a short format (three, 45-minute presentations) or spread out over multiple days wherein your clergy can interact with the material, and each other, using discussion questions and/or a small- or large-group format. The lengthier seminar options (one full day to multiple days) also offer your priests a rich opportunity for one or more question-and-answer sessions. Ample time for breaks can also be part of the longer seminar options.


Why are we here? What does it mean to be human? What is this restlessness, this ache in the human heart that nothing in the world seems to satisfy? And why does it all appear to flow out of the mystery of our sexuality?


Join international speaker and lay evangelist Bill Donaghy for a penetrating gaze into the wonder and vision of masculinity and femininity in St. John Paul II’s ground-breaking reflections on human love.


Topics covered: The eight sessions in our Introduction to the Theology of the Body seminar include:


• Session 1: An Education in Being Human

• Session 2: The Great Analogy of Spousal Love
• Session 3: Man and Woman He Created Them (Our Origin)
• Session 4: Man and Woman He Redeemed Them (Our History)
• Session 5: The Resurrection of the Body (Our Destiny)
• Session 6: Celibacy for the Kingdom
• Session 7: Marriage as a Sacrament
• Session 8: The Language of Sexual Love

To schedule a speaking event with Bill Donaghy, contact Carrie Archual at carchual@tobinstitute.org or 215.302.8200 x101


Commissioned by St. John Paul II himself in a World Mission Sunday Mass in the Jubilee Year 2000, Bill Donaghy has spoken nationally and internationally on the New Evangelization and St. John Paul II’s ground-breaking teaching known as Theology of the Body for over a decade. He brings humor and the call to holiness together in a dynamic and culturally relevant way. Bill holds an Associates Degree in Visual Arts, a Bachelors in Philosophy and a Masters in Systematic Theology. He and his wife, Rebecca, live outside of Philadelphia, PA with their four beautiful and extremely energetic children.

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