By Lou Baldwin • Posted February 23, 2015

The seventh annual Man Up Philly Men’s Spirituality Conference will be held March 7 at St. Joseph’s University’s Hagan Arena featuring gifted speakers from around the region and the country addressing faith, family and fatherhood, and ending with a 4 p.m. Mass with Archbishop Charles Chaput as the celebrant and homilist.

This year’s theme, “Faith, Family, Fatherhood,” was chosen to fit into the upcoming World Meeting of Families, according to Eustace Mita, who has been with Man Up Philly from its foundation and is also chairman for development for the World Meeting of Families.

“I think we have our strongest lineup of speakers this year for Man Up Philly that we have ever had,” he said.

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Man Up Philly had its beginnings in 2009 as an outgrowth of a Men’s Gospel Group at St. Mary Magdalen Parish, Media. It has grown tremendously since then. Last year’s conference, the first to be held at the Hagan Arena, attracted 1,400 men.

The first speaker this year will be Scott Hahn, a convert to Catholicism who has written extensively on spiritual matters beginning with his conversion account co-authored with his wife, Kimberly, “Rome Sweet Rome.”

He is a professor of theology and Scripture at Franciscan University in Steubenville, Ohio, and the founder and director of the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology. Among his more recent books are “Many are Called,” “Hope for Hard Times,” “The Catholic Bible Dictionary” and “Signs of Life.”

Gus Lloyd, the second speaker, is the morning host of the program “Seize the Day” on the Catholic Radio Channel on Sirius Radio (Sirius XM 129), and a former host on Spirit FM.

A former fallen-away Catholic, he and his wife, Michelle, came back to the Church after a near drowning experience of their only daughter.

The first afternoon speaker will be Devan Schadt. Married with five children, he is a cofounder of the Fathers of St. Joseph, an apostolate that promotes the glory, necessity and power of fatherhood.

Jim Longon, the next speaker, is an active Catholic layman of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. A husband, father, grandfather and retired businessman, he is a Steward of St. John Neumann, a trustee of the Papal Foundation, past president of the Philadelphia Chapter of Legatus, treasurer for Regina Coeli Academy and Regina Angelorum Academy  and grand knight of Santa Maria Council, Knights of Columbus.

The final speaker before Archbishop Chaput’s Mass will be Marie Joseph, a mother of two who is the executive director of Legacy of Life Foundation and author of “Faith on Fire.”

Tickets for ManUp can be purchased through the website, ManUpPhilly.com.