James F. Gontis

James F. Gontis’ primary vocation is as husband and father.  He and his wife, Eva Marie, are blessed to be the parents of eight children, six boys and two girls. 

Jim is beginning his 15^th year as Diocesan Director of Religious Education for the Diocese of Harrisburg.  During his tenure with the Diocese, he has delivered approximately 1,200 workshops on approximately 150 topics pertaining to the Catholic Faith. 

Among many projects, he acted as Chairman for the committee that put together the Diocese of Harrisburg’s Formation in Christian Chastity Program, which is being used in a number of dioceses throughout the United States. 

He acts as coordinator of the Diocesan Men’s Conference, the Diocesan Women’s Conference, the Diocesan Catechetical Conference, and this year, the 2015 Family, Become What You Are Conference.

He served from 2007 – 2013 as the Chairman of the Pennsylvania Conference for Catechetical Leadership.  By virtue of this position, he represented the eight dioceses of Pennsylvania on the Representative Council of the National Conference for Catechetical Leadership.

 Mr. Gontis is adjunct faculty at Messiah College, a private Protestant college in Grantham, PA, where every other fall, he teaches a course on Catholicism.  He has taught the catechetics course in the Harrisburg diaconal program, as well as the catechetics seminar to the First Theology Seminarians at Mount Saint Mary’s Seminary in Emmittsburg, MD. 

 Jim has a weekly radio show called Coffee and Catholicism that runs weekly on 720 AM, Holy Family Radio in Harrisburg as well as on Catholic Perspectives on various radio stations in the mid-state area.

He has also had articles published or re-printed in various publications including: the Diocese of Harrisburg’s newspaper, The Catholic Witness, the Diocese of Fort Wayne – South Bend’s newspaper Today’s Catholic, the NCCL’s magazine Catechetical Leader, the Fellowship of Catholic Scholars Journal, and on Our Sunday Visitor’s website.  He recently had a catechetical pamphlet published by Our Sunday Visitor entitled, “Top 10 Ways to be an Outstanding Catechist.”  He has also been interviewed for various religious and secular publications. 

Prior to his current position, Mr. Gontis was the Theology Department Chairman at Cardinal Brennan High School in the Diocese of Allentown.

Jim and his family reside in the Harrisburg area and are members of Holy Name of Jesus Parish, where he serves on the school board, on the RCIA Team, and is an Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion.

He is a 4^th Degree Member of the Knights of Colulmbus, is a member of the Harrisburg Chapter of the Serra Club which prays for Vocations to the Priesthood and Consecrated Life, and is an Assistant Wrestling Coach at Bishop McDevitt High School.