Who is the Father Flader who hosts this blog? I was born in Kohler, Wisconsin, U.S.A., and studied chemistry at Harvard University, graduating with a B.A. in 1962.

Then I went to Rome where I studied Theology at the Roman College of the Holy Cross from 1962 to 1964, and where I had the great privilege of being very close to the founder of Opus Dei, St Josemaria Escriva.

From 1964 to 1967 I studied Canon Law at the University of Navarre in Pamplona, Spain, obtaining a doctorate in 1967. My doctoral dissertation, on mixed marriages, was published by the University of Navarre Press in 1968.

I was ordained a priest of Opus Dei in Segovia, Spain, in August 1967, and came to Australia in March 1968 to be the first chaplain of Warrane College, a residential college at the University of New South Wales which opened in 1970. I served as chaplain of Warrane and of Creston College, a college for girls at the same university, until 1991.

From 1992 to 1997 I was chaplain of the University of Tasmania in Hobart and in 1998 moved to Melbourne where I was chaplain of RMIT University from 1998 to 2001.

Then it was back to Sydney where from 2002 to 2010 I was Director of the Catholic Adult Education Centre of the Archdiocese of Sydney.

From 2011 to 2014 I served as chaplain of Montgrove College, a girls’ school run by the PARED Foundation in the Sydney suburb of Orchard Hills, and from 2015 to the present I have been chaplain of Tangara School for girls in Cherrybrook.

Since January 2005 I have written the “Question Time” column in “The Catholic Weekly” of Sydney, and since July 2007 the column has also appeared in the Perth Catholic newspaper “The Record” and Brisbane’s “The Catholic Leader”.

The first three years of those questions and answers were published as Question Time 1 – 150 Questions and Answers on the Catholic Faith, by Connor Court in 2008. Editions of the book were published in the Philippines and the United States, and there have been translations into Spanish and Indonesian. The second volume, Question Time 2 – Another 150 Questions and Answers on the Catholic Faith, was published by Connor Court in 2012. It was followed by Question Time 3 in 2016 and Question Time 4 in 2018.

Another book, A Tour of the Catechism – Volume 1, The Creed, published by Connor Court in 2011, is a commentary on the Catechism of the Catholic Church, refined over many years of teaching the Catechism.

In 2014 my DVD series Journey into Truth, consisting of 24 half-hour talks on the faith based on the Catechism of the Catholic Church, was produced by Arts Media Productions. The companion book of the same title, with the full text of the talks, was published in the same year by Connor Court. They are distributed in the U.S. by St Joseph Communications and have been featured on EWTN.