J. Bryan Hehir

Religion and Foreign Policy Scholar Class of March 1984
location icon Location
Washington, District of Columbia
age iconAge
44 at time of award

About Bryan's Work

J. Bryan Hehir is a Roman Catholic priest and a teacher of ethics who focuses on foreign policy issues, human rights, and nuclear strategy.

Much of Hehir’s research and writing centers on the role of the Catholic Church in international affairs.  He served as Councilor for Social Policy of the Department of Political Affairs for the United States Catholic Conference of Bishops, and led the Bishops’ Committee that prepared the 1983 pastoral letter on nuclear policy.  His articles have appeared in journals of foreign policy, ethics, and theology, and he has contributed to several anthologies, including Human Rights and Foreign Policy (1979), The Security Gamble (1984), and Estrangement: America and the World (1985).

Biography

Hehir is the pastor of St. Paul’s parish in Cambridge, Massachusetts.  At Harvard University, he is the Parker Gilbert Montgomery Professor of the Practice of Religion and Public Life in the Kennedy School of Government.  He is also the Secretary for Social Services and the President of Catholic Charities for the Archdiocese of Boston.  He served on the faculty of Georgetown University (1984-1992) and the Harvard Divinity School (1993-2001).

Hehir was ordained as a priest in 1966.  He received both an A.B. (1962) and a M.Div. (1966) from St. Johns’s Seminary in Boston and a Th.D. (1977) from the Harvard University Divinity School.

Last updated January 1, 2005.

Published on March 1, 1984

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