War, Politics and Ethics: Choices for the Country and the Citizenry in an Election Year

Rev. J. Bryan Hehir is the Secretary for Social Services and the President of Catholic Charities in the Archdiocese of Boston. He is also the Parker Gilbert Montgomery Professor of the Practice of Religion and Public Life at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

Father Hehir served as President and CEO of Catholic Charities USA from 2001 through 2003. From 1998-2001 he served as Interim Dean and Dean of the Divinity School. From 1993-2001 he served on the Harvard Divinity School faculty as Professor of the Practice in Religion and Society. From 1984-1992, he served on the faculty at Georgetown University in the School of Foreign Service and the Kennedy Institute of Ethics. From 1973-1992 he served on the staff of the U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops in Washington, D.C., addressing policy issues for the church in the United States.

Hehir is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the America Philosophical Society and the Council on Foreign Relations. He serves on the Board of the Arms Control Association, the Global Development Committee and the Independent Sector. He was named a MacArthur Fellow in 1984. His research and writing focus on issues of ethics and foreign policy, and the role of religion in world politics and in American society. Father Hehir earned his A.B. and Master of Divinity degrees at St. John's Seminary and his Doctor of Theology at Harvard Divinity School.

Publications include: The Moral Measurement of War: A Tradition of Continuity and Change; Military Intervention and National Sovereignty; Catholicism and Democracy; Social Values and Public Policy: A Contribution from a Religious Tradition; and The Moral Dimension in the Use of Force.

Co-sponsored by Ethics in Public Life and St. Mary's Student Parish.

Reception to follow. Free and open to the public.