Catholic thought and human flourishing: Culture and policy

Keynote Speaker Biographies

The Most Reverend Robert E. Barron is the episcopal vicar of the Santa Barbara Pastoral Region, one of the five pastoral regions in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. He was appointed titular bishop of Macriana of Mauritania and auxiliary bishop in 2015. Bishop Barron received a M.A. in philosophy from the Catholic University of America in 1982 and a doctorate in sacred theology from the Institut Catholique de Paris in 1992. Shortly after his ordination, he served as associate pastor at St. Paul of the Cross Parish in Park Ridge, Illinois. He was later appointed to the theological faculty of Mundelein Seminary and has served as a visiting professor at the University of Notre Dame and the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome, as well as scholar-in-residence at the North American Pontifical College at the Vatican. Bishop Barron is the founder of Word on Fire, a global media ministry that has been spreading the message of the New Evangelization since 2000. He served as the rector-president of Mundelein Seminary University of St. Mary of the Lake in Illinois.

His Eminence Donald Cardinal Wuerl is the archbishop of Washington and was elevated to the College of Cardinals in 2010 by Pope Benedict XVI. He participated in the March 2013 conclave that elected Pope Francis. He serves on numerous national and international bodies, including the Vatican Congregations for the Doctrine of the Faith, for Bishops, and for Clergy; the Pontifical Councils for Promoting Christian Unity and for Culture; and the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See. He is known for his teaching ministry and is involved in many education, health care, and social service organizations. He is the author of numerous articles and more than a dozen books, including the bestselling catechisms “The Catholic Way” (Image Catholic Books, 2001) and “The Teaching of Christ” (Our Sunday Visitor, 1976). Cardinal Wuerl received graduate degrees from The Catholic University of America and the Gregorian University in Rome, as well as a doctorate in theology from the University of Saint Thomas in Rome. On January 6, 1986, Pope John Paul II ordained him as a bishop in Saint Peter’s Basilica, Rome. He served as auxiliary bishop in Seattle until 1987 and then as bishop of Pittsburgh for 18 years until his appointment to Washington. His titular church in Rome is Saint Peter in Chains.

Panel Participant Biographies

Arthur C. Brooks is president of AEI. He is also the Beth and Ravenel Curry Scholar in Free Enterprise at AEI. Immediately before joining AEI, he was the Louis A. Bantle Professor of Business and Government at Syracuse University, where he taught economics and social entrepreneurship. Dr. Brooks is the author of 11 books and hundreds of articles on topics including the role of government, fairness, economic opportunity, happiness, and the morality of free enterprise. His latest book is the New York Times bestseller “The Conservative Heart: How to Build a Fairer, Happier, and More Prosperous America” (Broadside Books, 2015). His other books include the New York Times bestseller “The Road to Freedom: How to Win the Fight for Free Enterprise” (Basic Books, 2012), “The Battle: How the Fight Between Free Enterprise and Big Government Will Shape America’s Future” (Basic Books, 2010), “Gross National Happiness” (Basic Books, 2008), “Social Entrepreneurship” (Prentice Hall, 2008), and “Who Really Cares” (Basic Books, 2006). Before pursuing his work in public policy, Dr. Brooks spent 12 years as a classical musician in the United States and Spain. He is a frequent guest on national television and radio talk shows and has been published widely in publications including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post.

Timothy P. Carney is a visiting fellow at AEI, where he helps direct the Culture of Competition project, examining barriers to competition in all areas of American life, from the economy to the world of ideas. He has more than a decade of experience as a journalist covering the intersection of politics and economics. His work at AEI focuses on how to reinvigorate a competitive culture in America in which all can reap the benefits of the economy. Mr. Carney is the author of two books: “The Big Ripoff: How Big Business and Big Government Steal Your Money” (John Wiley & Sons, 2007) and “Obamanomics: How Barack Obama is Bankrupting You and Enriching His Wall Street Friends, Corporate Lobbyists, and Union Bosses” (Regnery Publishing, 2009).

John Carr is the director of the Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life at Georgetown University. He is also Washington correspondent of America Magazine. During the 2012–13 academic year, he held a residential fellowship at the Harvard Institute of Politics. Before that, he served for more than 20 years as director of the Department of Justice, Peace, and Human Development at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, providing guidance for the US bishops’ public policy and advocacy initiatives and publicly representing the department. He also headed the Catholic Campaign for Human Development and has contributed to the growth of national statements such as Communities of Salt and Light and Faithful Citizenship. In addition, he has served as executive director of the White House Conference on Families and as director of the National Committee for Full Employment.

E. J. Dionne writes about politics for The Washington Post in a twice-weekly column and on the PostPartisan blog. He is also a senior fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution; a government professor at Georgetown University; and a frequent commentator on politics for National Public Radio, ABC’s “This Week,” and MSNBC. Before joining The Washington Post in 1990 as a political reporter, Dr. Dionne spent 14 years at The New York Times, where he covered politics and reported from Albany, Washington, Paris, Rome and Beirut. He is the author of six books: “Why the Right Went Wrong: Conservatism — From Goldwater to the Tea Party and Beyond” (Simon & Schuster, 2016); “Our Divided Political Heart: The Battle for the American Idea in an Age of Discontent” (Bloomsbury, 2012); “Souled Out: Reclaiming Faith and Politics After the Religious Right” (Princeton University Press, 2008); “Stand Up Fight Back: Republican Toughs, Democratic Wimps, and the Politics of Revenge” (Simon & Schuster, 2004); “They Only Look Dead: Why Progressives Will Dominate The Next Political Era” (Simon & Schuster, 1996); and “Why Americans Hate Politics” (Simon & Schuster, 1991), which won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and was a National Book Award nominee. Dr. Dionne attended Harvard College and was a Rhodes Scholar at Balliol College, Oxford.

Mary Eberstadt is an essayist and author of several books, including “How the West Really Lost God: A New Theory of Secularization” (Templeton Press, 2013), “Adam and Eve After the Pill: Paradoxes of the Sexual Revolution” (Ignatius Press, 2012), and “The Loser Letters: A Comic Tale of Life, Death, and Atheism” (Ignatius Press, 2010). Her latest volume is “It’s Dangerous to Believe: Religious Freedom and Its Enemies” (HarperCollins, 2016). She has been a research fellow at the Hoover Institution and a senior fellow at the Ethics & Public Policy Center in Washington, DC. Ms. Eberstadt focuses on issues of American society, culture, and philosophy. She has written widely for various magazines and newspapers. Between 1998 and 1990, she was executive editor of the National Interest magazine. From 1985 to 1987, she was a member of the policy planning staff of the US State Department, a speechwriter for former Secretary of State George P. Shultz, and a special assistant to Ambassador Jeane J. Kirkpatrick at the US Mission to the United Nations. She was also managing editor at The Public Interest. A four-year Telluride Scholar at Cornell University, Ms. Eberstadt graduated magna cum laude in 1983.

Robert P. George is McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence and director of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University. He is also the Herbert W. Vaughan Fellow of the Witherspoon Institute and has been a visiting professor at Harvard Law School. He has served as chairman of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom and as a presidential appointee to the US Commission on Civil Rights. He has also served on the President’s Council on Bioethics and as the US member of UNESCO’s World Commission on the Ethics of Science and Technology. He was a judicial fellow at the Supreme Court of the United States, where he received the Justice Tom C. Clark Award. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Swarthmore College, he holds degrees in law and theology from Harvard; D.Phil., B.C.L., and D.C.L. degrees from Oxford University; and 18 honorary degrees. He is a recipient of the US Presidential Citizens Medal and the Honorific Medal for the Defense of Human Rights of the Republic of Poland and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. His most recent book is “Conscience and Its Enemies: Confronting the Dogmas of Liberal Secularism” (ISI, 2013).

Seamus Hasson is founder and former president of The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, a bipartisan, public-interest law firm that protects the free expression of all religious traditions. Since 1994, Mr. Hasson and the Becket Fund have successfully represented clients from nearly every faith tradition, including Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Sikhs, Hindus, Native Americans, Unitarians, and Zoroastrians. Before founding the Becket Fund in 1994, he was an attorney at Williams & Connolly in Washington, DC, where he focused on religious liberty litigation. From 1986 to 1987, he served in the Office of Legal Counsel at the Justice Department, where he advised the White House and cabinet departments on church-state relations. He graduated magna cum laude from Notre Dame Law School in 1985 and holds a master’s degree in theology from Notre Dame.

Jonathan Reyes is executive director of the Department of Justice, Peace, and Human Development at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. He studied European history as a Rackham Fellow at the University of Michigan. He earned a Ph.D. in European history at the University of Notre Dame, writing his dissertation on the historical vision of Christopher Dawson. In 2009, Dr. Reyes became the president and CEO of Catholic Charities in the Archdiocese of Denver. In 2005, he helped found the Augustine Institute of Denver, a graduate program devoted to Catholic theological studies and leadership training, and served as its first president. He also served as vice president for ministry and formation for the Fellowship of Catholic University Students. He taught in the history department at Christendom College in Front Royal, Virginia, where he also served two years served as vice president for academic affairs.

Michael R. Strain is director of economic policy studies and resident scholar at AEI. His research interests include labor economics, applied microeconomics, public finance, and social policy. His research has been published in peer-reviewed academic journals and in the policy journals Tax Notes and National Affairs. He also writes frequently for popular audiences. His essays and op-eds have been published by The New York Times, National Review, The Weekly Standard, The Atlantic, Forbes, Bloomberg View, and a variety of other outlets, and he is a regular contributor for The Washington Post. He is frequently interviewed by major media outlets and speaks often to a variety of audiences. Before joining AEI, Dr. Strain worked in the Center for Economic Studies at the US Census Bureau and in the macroeconomics research group at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. He is a graduate of Marquette University and holds an M.A. from New York University and a Ph.D. in economics from Cornell.

Andreas Widmer is a professor and the director of entrepreneurship programs at The Catholic University of America’s Busch School of Business and Economics. He is the author of “The Pope & the CEO: Pope John Paul II’s Leadership Lessons to a Young Swiss Guard” (Emmaus Road Publishing, 2001), which explores leadership lessons that he learned as a Swiss Guard protecting Pope Saint John Paul II and refined during his career as a successful business executive. His experience spans the fields of technology, international business strategy consulting, and economic development. He is a member of The Carpenter’s Fund, a senior collateral lender to small- and medium-sized businesses and projects in emerging markets. He was previously the cofounder of SEVEN Fund, a philanthropic organization promoting enterprise solutions to poverty.