Elshoff, 67, is a Capuchin Franciscan friar who is a licensed marriage and family therapist. Originally from Cincinnati, he studied at the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology in Berkeley, California, before making his perpetual profession as a Capuchin in 1979 at the age of 23. He was ordained a priest in 1982.
The Franciscan friar holds a master’s degree in marriage and family therapy from the California Family Study Center and received his license in marriage and family therapy in 1990. He spent time as a high school campus minister, vocations director, and novice master before becoming the provincial minister at St. Francis of Assisi Friary in Burlingame in 2008. He is currently the pastor of St. Lawrence of Brindisi Church in Los Angeles.
Father Slawomir Szkredka
Szkredka, 49, is a professor of biblical studies at St. John’s Seminary in Camarillo. He was born in Czechowice, Poland, in 1974 and attended St. Cyril and Methodius Seminary in Orchard Lake, Michigan, before being ordained to the priesthood at the age of 27 in 2002.
From 2008 to 2015, Szkredka studied in Rome, where he received a doctorate in sacred Scripture from the Pontifical Biblical Institute in 2016. He has published academic articles in “Pastoral Psychology,” “The Catholic Biblical Quarterly,” “Verbum Vitae,” and other biblical journals and speaks English, Polish, and Spanish.
Father Brian Nunes
Nunes, 58, is the current vicar general and moderator of the curia for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, where he has served as an administrator since 2014.
A native of Los Angeles, Nunes studied communications at Loyola Marymount University and worked as a journalist at Business Wire for nearly 12 years before he entered seminary. He was ordained a priest of the archdiocese in 2008 at the age of 43.
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Nunes served as the priest secretary for Archbishop Gomez from 2015 to 2019 and as the vice chancellor of the archdiocese from 2018 to 2020. He speaks English, Tagalog, and Spanish.
Courtney Mares is a Rome Correspondent for Catholic News Agency. A graduate of Harvard University, she has reported from news bureaus on three continents and was awarded the Gardner Fellowship for her work with North Korean refugees.
