These are the ten Catholic leaders under 40 who the Herald expects to see helping to shape the Catholic conversation in the UK and beyond
Director, The Christian Heritage Centre, Stonyhurst
Stefan Kaminski is executive director of The Christian Heritage Centre at Stonyhurst, the UK’s newest retreat, study, and Christian leadership centre. Following study in philosophy and theology, he pursued a post-graduate specialisation in marriage and family life at the John Paul II Institute in Rome. Kaminski has opened a purposely restored historic building in the grounds of Stonyhurst College facilitating education, formation, and evangelisation. It also offers an annual Christian Leadership Formation programme.
Academic
Dr Rebekah Lamb is assistant professor in theology, imagination and the arts at St Andrews, specialising in the 19th century to the present, with an emphasis on the Pre-Raphaelites as well as their affiliate circles and inheritors. She is often invited to speak and write on theological and cultural themes, contributing to Church Life Journal, Convivium and the Catholic Herald. She has featured in programmes for the BBC and the McGrath Institute at the University of Notre Dame. She delivered the 2020 Cardinal Winning Lecture (Glasgow University) on St Thérèse of Lisieux’s status as a Doctor of the Church for our times.
Human rights campaigner, CEO, Arise Foundation
Following his studies in the UK and Rome, Luke de Pulford co-founded the anti-slavery charity the Arise Foundation, with fellow Catholic John Studzinski. He coordinates the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, highlighting the country’s human rights abuses, co-founded the Coalition for Genocide Response, sits as a commissioner on the Conservative Party Human Rights Commission, advises the World Uyghur Congress, and is an adviser of Hong Kong Watch.
Academic
Dr Beppe Pezzini is associate professor of Latin and a fellow of Corpus Christi, Oxford. He was previously at St Andrews and before that at Magdalen College, Oxford, the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, and Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa. He is an expert in the Latin language and literature, with a special focus on Early Latin. His interests have converged into a series of works on modern literature, including St John Henry Newman’s Callista, and articles on Tolkien’s works and poetics.
Director, ADF International UK
Following studies at Cambridge and in Rome, Christopher set up the London presence of Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) and grew it into a significant team. ADF is a Christian legal advocacy group promoting religious freedom, family and the unborn.
CEO, Catholic Voices
Thompson is the CEO of Catholic Voices, known for its media work. Brenden worked in youth and parish ministry before taking on the leading role training and coaching Catholics to speak to news agencies and broadcasters to better explain the Catholic position on contentious and current affairs.
Addiction expert, CEO, Castle Craig Hospital
Dominic McCann spent several years working with charities in the UK, Eastern Europe and Africa, particularly the Order of Malta, in areas of learning disabilities, disaster relief and development, resource building and primary healthcare services. McCann is CEO of Castle Craig Hospital, a rehab centre for alcohol, drug and behavioural disorders. In 2018 he led a successful campaign to highlight abuses of the Google Ads platform and other unethical business practices in the sector.
Political adviser, writer, founder. Catholics in the Conservative Party
Andrew Cusack has lived in New York, Buenos Aires, Fife, the Western Cape and presently resides in London where he works for Sir Edward Leigh MP. He is the founding chairman of Catholics in the Conservative Party, which aims to encourage Catholics to take a more active part in the society around them through the Conservative Party. He writes for The Critic, the New York Sun, Quadrant, the Catholic Herald and his own site, andrewcusack.com.
Human rights advocate
Co-founder of the Coalition for Genocide Response. Ewelina Ochab is a lawyer at The International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute, a contributor to Forbes, the deputy director of Refcemi, (the Coptic Orthodox office for advocacy and public policy. Ochab works on the topic of genocide, with specific focus on the persecution of ethnic and religious minorities around the world.
