Marilyn Lane, co-founder and co-chair of the Christ Our Life Catholic Conference, joins the Catholic Morning Show to preview the ninth biennial gathering coming to Casey's Center in downtown Des Moines on September 26 and 27. She walks through a speaker lineup that spans New York, Australia, Ethiopia, and Scotland, and explains why it takes more than two years of work to build a single weekend. Marilyn also shares the testimonials that have stayed with her across sixteen years — including the one from Timothy Cardinal Dolan she'll never forget.
Marilyn Lane, who co-founded the Christ Our Life Catholic Conference with Ellen Miller after both women felt the same prompting in 2008, joins Bo Bonner and Deacon Mark Campbell to preview the 2026 conference — the ninth biennial edition of what began as a one-and-done idea.
The details: Saturday and Sunday, September 26–27, 2026, at Casey's Center (formerly Wells Fargo Arena), 233 Center Street, Des Moines. Registration, the full schedule, speaker bios, and testimonials are at ChristOurLifeIowa.com. Tickets are available in-person and by livestream at the ticket page.
The 2026 lineup: Bishop William M. Joensen of Des Moines, who preaches Saturday's homily; Bishop Joseph Espaillat of New York, the Bronx-born "rapper priest" bishop, preaching Sunday; Charbel Raish, coming from Australia to tell the story behind How Islam Led Me Back to Christ and the founding of Parousia Media; Sister Medhin Tesfay, who works with Mary's Meals in war-torn Tigray, Ethiopia; Fr. Robert Spitzer of the Magis Center and EWTN, presenting research drawn from more than 1,500 near-death experiences; Chris Stefanick of Real Life Catholic; Gabriel Castillo, host of the Children of Mary podcast and author of The Power of the Rosary; Crystalina Evert of Women Made New Ministries; Fr. David Michael Moses; music missionary Steve Angrisano; and Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow, founder and CEO of Mary's Meals, who travels from Dalmally, Scotland every two years.
Marilyn explains that booking speakers of this caliber takes at least two years — work on the 2028 conference is already underway — and stresses that every member of the steering committee and board of directors is an unpaid volunteer. Deacon Mark notes that some of the strongest endorsements come from the presenters themselves, speakers who work the conference circuit constantly and still single out Christ Our Life for how well it's run.
Asked about the impact, Marilyn points to thousands of testimonials collected over sixteen years, many arriving a year or more after the fact. The one she holds closest describes children, seniors, religious, converts and cradle Catholics of every race and background worshiping together for two days. She also recalls Timothy Cardinal Dolan surveying the crowd from the stage in 2014 and telling them he didn't think they could pull this off in New York City. Bo adds his own: he and his wife met their children's godparents — friends they still travel hours to see — at the very first Christ Our Life conference.
Heard on the Catholic Morning Show, weekdays at 7 a.m. Central on Iowa Catholic Radio. More at IowaCatholicRadio.com.
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