Plenary Speaker Father Christopher Smith, STD/PhD, pastor of Prince of Peace Parish in Taylors, South Carolina, will speak to the Church Music Association of America at 11 a.m. July 1 at the Sheraton Hotel in downtown Indianapolis with an address entitled “Liturgical Theology.”
A native of Greenville, South Carolina, he was received into the Catholic Church at the age of 13 at St Mary’s. After graduating from Southside High School, he went to Christendom College in Front Royal, Virginia. After a year living in Rome studying at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, he entered priestly formation at the Pontifical Roman Major Seminary, the Pope’s personal seminary, for service in the Diocese of Charleston. While there, he obtained a licentiate in dogmatic theology from the Gregorian University and also studied French at the Institut Catholique in Paris. Father Smith was ordained Deacon by Camillo Cardinal Ruini, Papal Vicar for the Diocese of Rome, on 30 October 2004 and Priest by Bishop Robert Baker of Charleston on 23 July 2005.