Invited Speakers -- The Family -- Notre Dame Center for Ethics and Culture

Helen Alvaré is an Associate Professor of Law, specializing in the law of marriage and the family, at the George Mason University School of Law in Virginia. There, she also teaches Property Law. Professor Alvaré speaks and publishes regularly on these subjects in the United States and in Europe. During the Spring of 2008, Professor Alvaré was a visiting professor at the John Paul II Institute for Marriage and Family in Washington DC.

For eight years prior to joining the faculty of George Mason University, Professor Alvare was an Associate Professor at the Catholic University of America’s Columbus School of Law in Washington DC.

From 1990 to 2000, Professor Alvaré was the director of communications and planning for the U.S. Catholic Bishops in Washington DC, on subjects ranging from abortion and euthanasia to bioethics and Christian feminism.

For six years prior to 1990, Professor Alvaré practiced law with the law firm of Stradley, Ronon, Stevens and Young in Philadelphia and with the Office of General Counsel of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Professor Alvaré makes regular television and radio appearances and testifies before the U.S. Congress. She is an advisor to ABC news regarding the Catholic Church, an advisor to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ marriage and pro-life committees, and a Consultor to Pope Benedict XVI’s Pontifical Council for the Laity.

She received her law degree from Cornell University and her Masters in Systematic Theology from the Catholic University of America.

Francis J. Beckwith, a native of New York City, received his B.A. from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas in 1983, his M.A. in Apologetics from Simon Greenleaf University (Now called Trinity Graduate School) in 1984, his M.A. in philosophy from Fordham University in 1986, his Ph.D. in from Fordham University in 1989, and his Master of Juridical Studies from Washington University School of Law in 2001. Professor Beckwith is the former associate director of the J.M. Dawson Institute of Church-State Studies at Baylor University, and is an Associate Professor of Philosophy & Church-State Studies at Baylor University. Prior to arriving at Baylor University in July of 2003, Professor Beckwith held full-time faculty appointments at Trinity International University, Whittier College, the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and Princeton University as a Visiting Research Fellow in the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions in the Department of Politics. For the 2008-09 acadmic year, Professor Beckwith is the Remick Visiting Fellow at the Notre Dame Center for Ethics and Culture.

Professor Beckwith is one of the most distinguished scholars in the United States today and writes in the areas of social ethics, legal philosophy, and theology. He is the author or editor of over a dozen books, including Defending Life: A Moral and Legal Case Against Abortion Choice (Cambridge University Press, 2007); To Everyone An Answer: A Case for the Christian Worldview (InterVarsity Press, 2004); Law, Darwinism & Public Education: The Establishment Clause and the Challenge of Intelligent Design (Rowman & Littlefield, 2003); Do the Right Thing: Readings in Applied Ethics and Social Philosophy, 2nd ed. (Wadsworth, 2002); and Relativism: Feet Firmly Planted in Mid-Air (Baker Book House, 1998). His forthcoming books are Return to Rome: Confessions of an Evangelical Catholic (Brazos Press, 2009) and Is Statecraft Soulcraft?: Christianity and Politics (InterVarsity Press, 2009).

Philip Bess is the University of Notre Dame School of Architecture’s Graduate Director. Previously he taught at Andrews University, University of Michigan, Miami of Ohio, and University of Illinois at Chicago. He received his M.T.S. from Harvard University Divinity School and his M. Arch. from the University of Virginia School of Architecture in 1981. He directed a Summer Seminar in Christian Scholarship at Calvin on New Urbanism and Communities of Faith in 2001, and in 2002 served as coordinator of a conference on the same topic co-sponsored by Calvin College and The Seaside Institute. He received the “Teacher of the Year” award in 2001 from the Andrews University Division of Architecture and the Annual Award for Excellence in Faculty Research / Creative Activity, after which he was awarded travel funds to graphically document selected European urban streets and squares for course enhancement. He is the author of Inland Architecture: Subterranean Essays on Moral Order and Formal Order in Chicago (Interalia Design Books, 2000) and City Baseball Magic: Plain Talk and Uncommon Sense About Cities and Baseball Parks (Reissue by Knothole Press, 1999). He is also the author of “Not Too Late to Hold Politicians and Major League Baseball Accountable” in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune and “Cities Should Be Planned Around People” in Hartford’s Courant; publications which reflect an interest in neighborhood baseball park design and town planning. He has worked through Thursday Architects in Chicago since 1985, serving as a design consultant for municipalities, architects, and community development corporations. He engages in tasks as diverse as town and neighborhood master planning, code and ordinance writing and parking and traffic analysis.

Sarah Borden, received her B.A. in philosophy from Wheaton College in 1995, her M.A. in philosophy from Fordham University in 1998, and her Ph.D. in philosophy from Fordham University in 2001. In 2001, she joined the faculty of Wheaton College, where she is an associate professor. Professor Borden is the author of Edith Stein in the series of Outstanding Christian Thinkers (London: Continuum Publishers, 2003). She is the 2008-09 Myser Visting Fellow at the Notre Dame Center for Ethics and Culture.

Monsignor Charles Brown studied History as an undergraduate at the University
of Notre Dame, followed by Theology at Oxford University and Medieval
Studies at the University of Toronto. His doctorate in Sacramental Theology
is from the Pontifical Athenaeum Sant'Anselmo in Rome. He is a priest of
the Archdiocese of New York. Since 1994 he has worked as an Official of the
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in Rome.

H. Tristram Engelhardt holds full professorships at both Baylor College of Medicine and Rice University and is a member of the Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy. He is the editor of the Journal of Medicine and Philosophy, co-editor of Christian Bioethics, co-editor of the Philosophy and Medicine book series with over sixty volumes in print, co-editor of the book series Clinical Medical Ethics, and editor of the series Philosophical Studies in Contemporary Culture. Engelhardt has authored over two hundred fifty articles and chapters of books in addition to numerous book reviews and other publications. There have been over one hundred twenty reprintings or translations of his publications. He has also co-edited more than 25 volumes and has lectured widely throughout the world. His books include Bioethics and Secular Humanism: The Search for a Common Morality and the second, thoroughly revised edition of The Foundations of Bioethics, which has appeared in Chinese, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese and Spanish. A Chinese translation of Bioethics and Secular Humanism appeared in 1998. His most recent work is The Foundations of Christian Bioethics, which appeared in the summer of 2000. Engelhardt is a member of the Board of Advisors of the Notre Dame Center for Ethics and Culture.

Fred and Lisa Everett have co-directed the Office of Family Life for the Diocese of Fort Wayne–South Bend since 1988. They are involved in marriage preparation and enrichment, natural family planning training and courses, education in human sexuality, parent education, pro-life activities and bioethical consultations. They are both frequent contributors and speakers on issues related to marriage, the family and building a culture of life.

Fred studied in the Great Books program at the University of Notre Dame and received a Bachelor of Arts in 1985. He continued his studies at Notre Dame Law School and received a Juris Doctor in 1988. He is currently a member of the bar in the State of Indiana. Since 1988, Fred has served as a diocesan public policy coordinator and consultant for the Indiana Catholic Conference. Fred Everett is an adjunct professor of medical ethics at the University of Saint Francis in Fort Wayne as well as a producer and CEO of AMDG Media LLC.

Lisa Everett studied, as well, in the Great Books program at the University of Notre Dame where she graduated summa cum laude, receiving a Bachelor of Arts in 1985. She continued her studies at the John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and the Family in Rome during the 1985-86 academic year.

The Everetts married in 1986 and are the parents of seven children: Nick, Tom, Elizabeth

(16), Katherine (14), Joe (11), Mike (9) and Maria (6).

John Finnis is known for his work in moral, political and legal theory, as well as constitutional law. Profesosr Finnis joined the Notre Dame Law School faculty in 1995. He earned his LL.B. from Adelaide University (Australia) in 1961 and his doctorate from Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar in 1965. Currently, Notre Dame shares Professor Finnis with Oxford University, where he has held the positions of lecturer, reader and a chaired professor in law for almost four decades. In addition, he has served as associate in law at the University of California at Berkeley (1965-66), as professor of law at the University of Malawi (Africa) (1976-78), and as the Huber Distinguished Visiting Professor of Law at the Boston College Law School (1993-94). He is admitted to the English Bar (Gray’s Inn).

Professor Finnis teaches courses in Jurisprudence, in the Social, Political and Legal Theory of Thomas Aquinas and in the Social, Political and Legal Theory of Shakespeare.

His service has included the Linacre Centre for Health Care Ethics (governor since 1981), the Catholic Bishops’ Joint Committee on Bioethical Issues (1981-88), the International Theological Commission (1986-92), the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace (1990-95), and the Pontifical Academy Pro Vita (2001-present). He has published widely in law, legal theory, moral and political philosophy, moral theology, and the history of the late Elizabethan era. He is an adjunct Professor in the Department of Philosophy at Notre Dame.

Thomas S. Hibbs is currently Distinguished Professor of Ethics & Culture and Dean of the Honors College at Baylor University, where he oversees a number of interdisciplinary programs, including the Honors Program, a Great Texts major, and the Baylor Interdisciplinary Core. As dean, Hibbs is involved with student recruitment, enrollment management, development of curricula, and faculty recruitment and development.

With degrees from the University of Dallas and the University of Notre Dame, Hibbs taught at Boston College (BC) for 13 years, where he was full professor and department chair in philosophy. At Baylor, he has been involved in ecumenical discussions of the work of John Courtney Murray and John Paul II. In addition to teaching a variety of interdisciplinary courses, Hibbs teaches in the fields of medieval philosophy, contemporary virtue ethics, and philosophy and popular culture.

Called upon regularly to comment on film and popular culture, Hibbs has made more than 100 appearances on radio, including nationally syndicated NPR shows such as "The Connection," "On the Media" and "All Things Considered," as well as local NPR stations in Boston, Massachusetts; Ann Arbor, Michigan; Dallas, Texas; and Rochester, New York. His lectures have been protested by nihilists at Boston University and by communists in Sicily. Although he prefers the heat of Texas to the endless winter of New England, Hibbs remains a faithful citizen of Red Sox Nation.

David Lyle Jeffrey (Ph.D. Princeton; Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada) is Distinguished Professor of Literature and Humanities at Baylor University. He is also Professor Emeritus of English Literature at the University of Ottawa, and has been Guest Professor at Peking University (Beijing) since 1996. His 15 books include A Dictionary of Biblical Tradition in English Literature (1992), The Early English Lyric and Franciscan Spirituality (1975); Chaucer and Scriptural Tradition (1984); English Spirituality in the Age of Wesley (1987; 1994; 2000); The Law of Love: English Spirituality in the Age of Wyclif (1988; 2001); People of the Book: Christian Identity and Literary Culture (1996) and a co-authored book on The Bible and the University in 2007. He is currently completing an historical-theological commentary on the Gospel of Luke and a book on the historic relation of poetry and painting to the development of doctrine.

James McKenna

Gilbert Meilaender has taught since 1996 at Valparaiso University, where he holds the Phyllis and Richard Duesenberg Chair in Christian Ethics. Prior to coming there, he had taught at the University of Virginia and at Oberlin College, where he was Francis Ward and Lydia Lord Davis Professor of Religion. He holds the Ph.D. degree (1976) from Princeton University.

Professor Meilaender has published eleven books and numerous articles. Among the books are Friendship: A Study in Theological Ethics; Faith and Faithfulness: Basic Themes in Christian Ethics; Bioethics: A Primer for Christians; Body, Soul and Bioethics; The Way that Leads There: Augustinian Reflections on the Christian Life; and (an edited volume of readings) Working: Its Meaning and Its Limits. He is co-editor (with William Werpehowski) of the Oxford Handbook of Theological Ethics. He has served on the Board of Directors of the Society of Christian Ethics, as an Associate Editor of Religious Studies Review, and on the Editorial Board and currently
as an Associate Editor of the Journal of Religious Ethics.

Bioethics is one of the areas to which Professor Meilaender has given considerable attention in his teaching and writing. He is a Fellow of the Hastings Center and has been a member of the President's Council on Bioethics since it was established in January, 2002.

William Saunders is the Senior Fellow and Director of the Family Research Council's Center for Human Life and Bioethics. He was principal drafter of FRC's "Building a Culture of Life: a Call to Respect Human Dignity in American Life."

Mr. Saunders attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill on a Morehead scholarship. He obtained his degree in law from the Harvard Law School. He was featured in Harvard's first Guide to Conservative Public Interest Law in 2003, and he served on Harvard's Advisory Committee for its 2008 celebration of public interest law. Mr. Saunders practiced law with the D.C. firm of Covington and Burling, and taught law at the Catholic University of America. A member of the Supreme Court bar, he has authored numerous legal briefs in state and federal (and foreign) courts. He is a monthly columnist for National Public Radio's "Talking Justice."

At the Family Research Council, as director of the Center's work on life issues, Mr. Saunders has spoken and written frequently on topics such as stem cell research and cloning. He has submitted testimony on several occasions to the President's Council on Bioethics and has briefed Congressional staff multiple times on stem cell research and cloning. Mr. Saunders is a columnist for the National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly. He has appeared often in the media, including BBC World News, CNN, Fox News, Vatican Radio and National Public Radio. His articles on issues such as bioethics, the family, and Christian social responsibility have appeared in a variety of journals, such as First Things, Human Events, Human Life Review, The Legal Times, Communio and Touchstone. His articles and book chapters have been published by the university presses of Villanova, BYU, Fordham, Georgetown and the Catholic University of America, as well as by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, Freedom House, Greenhaven Press, Rowan & Littlefield, Praeger, St. Augustine's, and Intervarsity press. He has given lectures and participated in debates at many colleges, universities, and law schools, including Princeton, Harvard, Georgetown, Colorado, South Carolina, Wake Forest, Pittsburgh, Notre Dame, Cleveland Marshall, Indiana, San Diego, Catholic University, Malone, Texas Lutheran, Northwood, Central Florida, and Belmont Abbey, and he delivered the annual J. Michael Miller Lecture at the University of St. Thomas (on international law) in February 2007, the annual R. Wayne Kraft Memorial Lecture (on bioethics) at DeSales University in February 2004 and the annual James Moore Lecture (on Sudan) at Millikin University in 1999. He has also lectured, and/or has been published, in many foreign countries, including Italy, Germany, Poland, Slovakia, Mexico, Qatar, Malaysia, Romania, Hong Kong, and the United Kingdom. Mr. Saunders is a contributing editor and regular columnist for Touchstone: A Journal of Mere Christianity.

Mr. Saunders also serves as human rights counsel at the Family Research Council. In that role he directs FRC's UN work and international activities. Mr. Saunders has written and lectured on topics of international law, human rights, and the family. He was appointed by President Bush to serve on the United States delegation to the UN Special Session on Children in 2001/02. In 2004, Mr. Saunders served on the NGO Working Committee in connection with the Doha International Conference for the Family. He served on the organizing committee for the conferences of the World Congress of Families in Mexico City (2004) and in Poland (2007), and is a member of that organization's Managing Committee.

Mr. Saunders is Chairman for Religious Liberty for the Federalist Society. Mr. Saunders is a member of the boards of the International Right to Life Federation, the International Association of Catholic Bioethicists, the Christian Institute on Disability, and the Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity. He is a founding member of Do No Harm: the Coalition of Americans for Research Ethics. He is a Fellow of the Wilberforce Forum. He is a member of the Board of Advisors of the Center for Law, Philosophy and Culture at the Catholic University of America.

In 1999, Mr. Saunders founded Sudan Relief and Rescue, Inc, to aid the persecuted church in Sudan. He has worked for and written on behalf of the persecuted church for many years.

Elizabeth Schiltz is an Associate Professor at University of St. Thomas, School of Law in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She graduated magna cum laude from Yale University and received her juris doctor from Columbia Law School, where she served on the Columbia Law Review. Schiltz was in private practice for nine years with law firms in Washington, D.C. (Morrison & Foerster) and Minneapolis, Minnesota (Oppenheimer Wolff & Donnelly and Faegre & Benson), focusing on banking regulation, general corporate law and international law. Schiltz was a member of the faculty of Notre Dame Law School from 1996 through 2000. Schiltz currently teaches Contracts, Commercial Law and Consumer Law. She received the 2007 Dean’s Award for Outstanding Scholarship and was elected Professor of the Year by the graduating class of 2007. Her scholarship interests include the relationship of federal and state law in regulating consumer credit, disability and consumer law theory, and feminist legal theory. Recent publications exploring Catholic feminism include West, MacIntyre and Wojtyla: Pope John Paul II’s Contribution to the Development of a Dependency-Based Theory of Justice, Motherhood and the Mission: What Catholic Law Schools could Learn from Harvard about Women, and Should Bearing the Child Mean Bearing all the Cost? A Catholic Perspective on the Sacrifice of Motherhood and the Common Good. Her writings on eugenic abortion based on prenatal testing and embryonic stem cell research have appeared in Business Week and America, and as chapters in Defiant Birth: Women Who Give Birth Against Medical Expectations and in The Cost of Choice: Women Evaluate the Impact of Abortion. Schiltz was a founding member of the Conference of Catholic Legal Thought, and is a contributor to the Catholic legal theory blog, Mirror of Justice.

Janet E. Smith holds the Father Michael J. McGivney Chair of Life Ethics at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit. She is Visiting Scholar at St. Paul Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota for the fall of 2008. She is the author of Humanae Vitae: A Generation Later, editor of Why Humanae Vitae Was Right: A Reader. She two new books: one on bioethics entitled Life Issues, Medical Choices, Questions and Answers for Catholics, co-authored by Chris Kaczor, and another entitled The Right to Privacy. She speaks nationally and internationally on the Catholic teachings on sexuality and on bioethics. She is serving a second term as a consultor to the Pontifical Council on the Family. She received an honorary doctorate in Christian Ethics from the University of Steubenville and the Thomas Aquinas award from Ave Maria University. Over a million copies of her talk, Contraception: Why Not have been distributed. Prof Smith has a new series of talks “Sexual Common Sense”. This series includes a new updated version of Contraception: Why Not and 11 additional talks on sexual issues and bioethical issues. The series is available from www.mycatholicfaith.org.

Michael Waldstein is the Max Seckler Professor of Theology. He previously served as founding president of the International Theological Institute in Gaming, Austria, and was the St. Francis of Assisi Professor of New Testament there. He is a member of the Pontifical Council for the Family and is a Distinguished Fellow of the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology. He holds the degrees of B.A. from Thomas Aquinas College in California, Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of Dallas, S.S.L. from the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome, and a Th.D. in New Testament from Harvard Divinity School. His published works include his definitive translation of John Paul II's Man and Woman He Created Them: A Theology of the Body, "The Common Good in St. Thomas and John Paul II" (Nova et Vetera), and "Dietrich von Hildebrand and St. Thomas Aquinas on Goodness and Happiness" (Nova et Vetera).

Notre Dame Center for Ethics and Culture
1047 Flanner Hall - Notre Dame, IN 46556
Phone: 574-631-9656 Fax: 574-631-6290 Email: ndethics@nd.edu