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About our keynote, Fr. John Riccardo

Fr. John Riccardo discerned God’s call and was ordained a priest of the Archdiocese of Detroit in 1996. 

In 2019, after 23 years in parish ministry, Fr. John was released from the Archdiocese to found and lead Acts XXIX, a Catholic non-profit missionary apostolate. God’s great love story for the humanity he created is at the center of Acts XXIX evangelization work, powered by the Holy Spirit who guided the disciples of the early Church and is active today.

The Acts XXIX ministry exists to help get God’s world back by equipping clergy and lay leaders for the apostolic age in which we live. Since the ministry’s founding, more than 2,000 priests and bishops have been ministered to during retreats, clergy convocations, workshops, and other accompaniment activities. Recently the team felt called to introduce The Rescue Project to reach a world hungering for God. It is the team’s belief that the most urgent evangelistic task today is the compelling proclamation of the gospel whereby people are overwhelmed by the Good News and decide to entrust themselves to Jesus Christ.

The Acts XXIX apostolate’s work is free since, as St. Matthew writes, we have received without pay and are to give without payment (cf. Mt 10:8). Generous supporters make this missionary work possible. The team only asks for travel and lodging, reminiscent of Jesus’ missioning of the twelve.

A key tenet of the ministry’s work is to share the Gospel through digital media. Fr. John and his co-worker Mary Guilfoyle host a podcast, “You Were Born for This,” which focuses on evangelization and the Church’s missionary transformation. Many of Fr. John’s homilies,  presentations and podcasts, including “Christ is the Answer,” are available on the website for study, sharing and prayer. 

Fr. John has extensive parish experience serving 15 years as pastor, most recently at Our Lady of Good Counsel in Plymouth, Mich., as well as at St. Anastasia, in Troy. He is a graduate of the University of Michigan, the Gregorian University in Rome, and the Pope John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and the Family