Napa Institute’s Summer Conference based around “Doers of the Word” theme

The Napa Institute will present its 15^th annual Summer Conference at The Meritage Resort and Spa, 875 Bordeaux Way, Napa, California, from July 23 to 27, 2025.

The conference features presentations by prominent Catholic speakers, fine dining, and opportunities for daily Mass, personal prayer, Confession, and spiritual direction. According to organizers, the conference seeks to “dive deeper into our Catholic faith and examine, with a spirit of charity, intellectual rigor, and fidelity to the magisterium, the pressing issues facing Catholics today.” The Institute is built on the three pillars of Community, Formation, and Liturgy, and conference organizers encourage attendees “to build connections through meals with open seating and evening activities.”

The conference has both keynote sessions and breakout sessions that “examine current topics impacting people of faith.” Spiritual components of the conference include daily Mass, adoration, a Eucharistic procession, Confession, and opportunities for spiritual direction.

The conference theme for 2025 is “Doers of the Word” and “faith, hope, and charity in the work of personal conversion and renewal of the world.”

Featured speakers at the conference include Fr. Rocky Hoffman, executive director of Relevant Radio, Jesuit Fr. Robert Spitzer of the Magis Center of Reason and Faith, Sr. Miriam James, SOLT, co-host of the Abiding Together podcast, FOCUS founder Curtis Martin, EWTN News President and COO Montse Alvarado, Aaron Kheriaty, MD, of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, Dr. Tim Gray, president of the Augustine Institute, entrepreneur and philanthropist Frank Hanna, Norwegian Bishop Erik Varden, Msgr. Roger Landry, National Director of the Pontifical Mission Societies, and Jonathan Reyes, senior vice president of evangelization and faith formation for the Knights of Columbus.

Speakers will make remarks tailored to the theme of the conference; sessions will include discussions of the election of the new Holy Father, Pope Leo XIV.

Additional information and registration information can be found on the Napa Institute site. Presentations from previous years’ conferences can also be viewed at this site.

CWR spoke with Summer Conference founder Tim Busch about the conference.

CWR: Why did you want to launch the Summer Conference?

I had been active in Legatus [a Catholic organization for business leaders, see www.legatus.org] for 20 years at the time, participating in Legatus trips and conferences. I thought they were fabulous, and never missed them. I was on vacation in 2010, and Mark Brumley [president of Ignatius Press] contacted me and suggested I present a Catholic conference in Napa at The Meritage Resort and Spa [Busch is founder and CEO of Pacific Hospitality Group, which owns and operates The Meritage]. His words resonated with me, so I dictated a memo of what the experience would look like, which is pretty much what we have today, 15 years later. Our first year, we had about 140 to 150 attendees; this year, we expect to have about 800.

We built the conference on the three pillars of community, formation, and liturgy. Liturgy was one area where I really thought we would be able to do better than other conferences. The Meritage has a newly renovated chapel, Our Lady of Grapes, where Masses are celebrated every hour throughout the conference. Besides the English Mass, we will have Mass in Latin, both Novus Ordo and Tridentine, as well as Eastern liturgy. This year, one of our participants will be Bishop Steven Lopes of the Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter, who will celebrate an Ordinariate mass for us, which is much like a Tridentine mass in English.

We expect about 15 bishops and 50 priests to be attending, and we’ll have a Mass each day in the morning, at noon, and in the evening, celebrated by a bishop. We have two venues on site for priests to celebrate Mass; we find that many prefer to celebrate their own Masses, rather than concelebrating in a single Mass. So, Wednesday through Sunday, we’ll have Mass being celebrated almost every half hour, starting with a Tridentine Mass at 7 a.m. There will be a total of 130 Masses celebrated over the course of five days. So, if you were to go to the chapel between Masses, it wouldn’t be long before another started. We’re relying on the Marian Sisters of Santa Rosa to manage the schedule for us.

We also have an Eucharistic procession and perpetual adoration.

CWR: How has the Summer Conference developed over the years?

It has become longer. We start on Wednesday, but as there are events happening on Monday and Tuesday, it really goes on for a whole week. Also, people approached me and asked that the Napa Institute present additional events. That’s why, for example, we launched the fall Faith & Business Conference, which this year will be in New York, on October 14 and 15.

Along with that event, we’ll be having the 2025 Eucharist procession in New York City, which starts and St. Patrick’s Cathedral, proceeds to Times Square, and comes back. Norbertine Father Ambrose Criste will be offering us a meditation. Cardinal Sean O’Malley will celebrate Mass for us at St. Patrick’s. This is a spectacular and emotional event, and it’s free to participate.

CWR: Who would benefit from attending the Summer Conference?

It’s open to anyone. As I mentioned, we’ll have many clergy, and about 30 to 40 nuns. The rest are laity. Most of our attendees have been over age 60, so we’re working on trying to get younger participants.

Our attendees are presidents of universities and people who head lay apostolates. About 20% of our attendees are Legatus members. But there are also people not in any organization, who love their Faith, and come when their schedules permit.

CWR: Can you tell us a bit about the food and wine at the Conference, as well as the accommodations?

The food is amazing. We offer all three meals, with different themes each night. We feature wine from Trinitas Cellars [founded by Busch]. We’ll be offering our Marian series of wines–Our Lady of Guadalupe (full bodied red), Our Lady of Lourdes (Cabernet Sauvignon), Our Lady of Fatima label (Meritage red blend)–these are great wines with beautiful labels that are really works of art. Trinitas has also produced wine that we have given to Pope Benedict XVI (red Zinfandel) and Pope Francis (Cabernet Franc), which they really enjoyed. We’re working on a wine for Pope Leo XIV, which will be done this summer.

One night, we invite six to eight of the local Napa wineries to come and pour for us.

Most people opt to stay at the Meritage. There are 467 rooms, which gives us the ability to accommodate all attendees (although we did run out of rooms one year). There are premier views of the surrounding hills and vineyards with on-site restaurants, a cave spa, a bowling alley, and a resort pool. Trinitas Cellars has a tasting room onsite.

The staff takes the care of our attendees seriously, so you will meet smiling and helpful faces. We include a bottle of Trinitas wine in every room, rooms which have warm Tuscan-inspired interiors. The Meritage Resort has private patios and balconies overlooking the resort vineyards, and you can upgrade to suites with extra space, fireplaces, and kitchenettes.

However, no one is required to stay on the property. If people want to take a less expensive route, such as staying in an Airbnb, they’re still very much welcome to attend the conference.

CWR: What is new at the Conference this year?

Yes. We’ll be introducing the first-ever Napa Institute Arts Festival. It will precede the conference on Monday and Tuesday, July 21 and 22, and will feature screenings of Catholic and faith-based films, an art display featuring the work of local artists, and a live concert. Many who attend the Summer Concert have an interest in making films that offer an alternative to the terrible material mainstream movies feed our children.

CWR: And here is a virtual option?

Yes. All the talks will be available for free on YouTube; we also have them on our website. The keynote talks can be viewed live, while the breakout sessions will be recorded and released several months after the conference. We provide our content to EWTN, which includes it in their programming.

CWR: Any other thoughts on the Conference?

I think the Summer Conference is a unique opportunity to develop friendships with fellow Catholics who share similar worldviews. We also give people the opportunity to focus on their faith from an academic perspective. Our culture has drifted away from its Judeo-Christian roots and now presents us with beliefs at odds with our Catholic faith, including those which favor abortion, a redefinition of marriage, transgender and woke ideology, and DEI. Many opt to ignore Church teaching on these social issues and embrace these new ideologies.

However, our views are aligned with the teaching of the Church. We want to create a culture within our culture that embraces Catholic teaching and shares it with others. Also, as we welcome so many clergy and religious, our conference is a good reminder to them that they are not alone when they hold to Catholic belief, and that there are plenty of us who want to support them.

CWR: You went to Rome to attend Pope Leo XIV’s installation Mass on May 18?

Yes, I went to both Pope Francis’ funeral on April 26 and the installation Mass as well. Fr. Henry Stephan, a Dominican who played a role in the conversion of Vice President J.D. Vance to the Catholic faith, offered me a ticket to the installation mass. I remember that it was an especially emotional experience for me as I thought about it while flying home. Pope Leo’s election was amazing, a miracle. He’s an American pope, and relatively young for a pope at age 69. English is his first language, but he speaks multiple languages beautifully. We’re asking our speakers at the Summer Conference to share their thoughts on Pope Leo’s election.

CWR: What are some things you hope to see in his pontificate?

I hope he presents Catholic teaching in a clear, straightforward way. We don’t need nuance; we need clarity. I hope he’ll also bring about fiscal reform in the Vatican. It operated at a nearly 90 million euro deficit last year; we need to do better than that. We need to pray for Pope Leo’s success. He’s just getting started; I think we can be optimistic about the future.