Doctors Denise Oliver (left) seen here with Bishop Philip Egan and Christina Pal (right) taught in Rome at the Pontifical North American College (seminary) and other places – Dr Pal at Christendom College and Dr Oliver at the Angelicum-Pontifical University of St Thomas Aquinas and elsewhere.
They moved to Bournemouth at the beginning of November 2019 to teach at the Academy of the Annunciation, living beside the Oratory, and welcoming students to share the prayer and life of the Oratory during their courses.
Dr Denise Clare Oliver and Dr Christina Pal are both converts to Catholicism. They first collaborated as members of the League of Catholic Evangelists, and as lecturers for the Evangelization Training Programme sponsored by St Joseph Communication and the Catholic Resource Center in Vista, Southern California in 1999.
Prior to 1999, Dr Oliver’s teaching and speaking engagements relating to evangelization included St Joseph Radio in Southern California, and lecturing on topics related to evangelization, apologetics, reasons for faith, conversion, prayer, and Carmelite Spirituality in the United States, Ireland, England, and Rome. In the Jubilee Year 2000 she was a lecturer at the Vatican Youth Center. In 2009 she offered a series of lectures on theology and evangelization for young adults preparing for missionary activity in Northern England. More recently, as a professor at the Pontifical University of St Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum) in Rome, she has instructed catechists, formators, seminarians, deacons, and priests, and offered lecture series for the on-going priestly formation programme at the Pontifical North American College. In 2018 Dr Oliver was an invited lecturer for the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization and the International Congress of Catechesis at the Vatican.
Dr Pal began teaching RCIA and Adult Catechesis in 1994, and taught in Youth Ministry and Confirmation Preparation in 1995. She has over 20 years experience as a Catechist and as a Retreat Leader – for adults, young adults, and teens. Dr Pal has been an adjunct professor at the Augustine Institute – instructing several hundred students on subjects related to Catechesis and the New Evangelization. She has also been a professor for Christendom College, teaching on apologetics, reasons for faith, the New Evangelization, Catholic moral theology, and various other topics. More recently, Dr Pal gave a week-long intensive course in Catholic Apologetics for the New Evangelization in New York for the Emmanuel School of Mission, and lectured on similar topics for the on-going priestly formation programme at the Pontifical North American College.
Prior to their move to Bournemouth, Dr Oliver and Dr Pal were at Buckfast Abbey’s School of the Annunciation.where, they taught theology at degree level (BA and MA) as well as non-degree level until the School’s closure on 31st August 2019.
After this they began working with the Seminary at Oscott College while remaining briefly at Buckfast, and now continue this work from Bournemouth, contributing to the programme for the formation of permanent deacons, and the Pontifical Licence in Sacred Theology programme.
The Academy of the Annunciation at the Bournemouth Oratory is delighted to welcome Dr Oliver and Dr Pal to continue the mission of teaching and educating disciples for the New Evangelization, helping them to listen afresh to the Word of God as did Our Lady at the Annunciation (CATHOLIC BISHOPS’ CONFERENCE OF ENGLAND AND WALES).