J. Bryan Hehir To Assume Leadership Of Divinity School

August 19, 1999

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Following a nationwide search that began in January, President Neil L. Rudenstine announced that he is appointing Father J. Bryan Hehir to lead the Divinity School. Hehir will serve as chair of an Executive Committee consisting of himself and other senior administrators.

An internationally renowned theologian specializing in studies on Roman Catholic social teaching, Hehir is professor of practice in religion and society at the Divinity School, and a faculty associate of the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs. He has served as chair of the Divinity School Executive Committee for the past eight months on an interim basis, during the course of the search that has just ended.

"Father Hehir is a man of exceptional intellect and incisiveness, and he possesses rare human and spiritual qualities that make him ideally suited for this important position," Rudenstine said in announcing the appointment. "During his service as interim leader of the Divinity School, Father Hehir has earned the universal respect of students, faculty, staff, and other university colleagues, and he has demonstrated an extraordinary capacity to bring individuals together to work toward significant common purposes.

"I am enormously pleased that Harvard will benefit from Father Hehir’s leadership at this moment in theological education and in the life of the Divinity School," Rudenstine added. "His combination of qualities — humanity, leadership, intelligence, judgment, commitment, and administrative ability — is quite simply superb."

In accepting the appointment, Hehir said: "I am deeply grateful to President Rudenstine for inviting me to serve in this position of leadership at Harvard Divinity School. I regard the appointment as a unique privilege and a major challenge. The privilege arises from the opportunity to lead a distinguished institution with a globally esteemed faculty, a superb staff, and a talented community of students. I have already benefited from their generous collaboration and I look forward to a new chapter for the Divinity School, drawing on these multiple resources to shape an intellectual, ministerial, and social contribution to the religious traditions represented at the Divinity School.

"The challenge ahead is to build upon the solid intellectual, administrative, and financial foundation established by Dean Thiemann," Hehir added. "In multiple ways, this is an open moment in our society and in the world for religious traditions and institutions to serve the human person and the human family. Harvard Divinity School can and should contribute to this historic opportunity."

Because Hehir will continue his role with the Catholic Relief Services and his pastoral commitments as a Catholic priest, he will be aided in his role as chair of the Executive Committee by a group that will include Associate Deans Clarissa Atkinson, Nancy Richardson, and Tim Cross.

Prior to coming to Harvard, from 1988 to 1992, Father Hehir was the Joseph P. Kennedy Professor of Christian Ethics at Georgetown University’s Kennedy Institute of Ethics. His affiliations include his status as a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a member of the Catholic Theological Society of America and of the Council on Foreign Relations. Father Hehir has received numerous academic honors — a MacArthur Fellowship and honorary degrees from 25 institutions. In 1983, Father Hehir played a key role in drafting the influential 1983 Catholic Bishops’ Statement on Nuclear Weapons. Hehir received his B.A. and M.A. from St. John’s Seminary, Boston, and a Th.D. in applied theology from the Harvard Divinity School.