Two Nationally Known Ethics Speakers Featured In Spring Lectures

This past spring, the CBA hosted two nationally known speakers as part of its Business Ethics Lecture Series. The Rev. Robert A. Sirico presented "The Entrepreneurial Vocation" on February 4. Michael Novak, theologian, author, and former U. S. ambassador, presented "Catholics, Capitalism, and Democracy" on April 2.

Novak currently holds the George Frederick Jewett Chair in Religion and Public Policy at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D. C., where he is the director of social and political studies. Novak has received numerous awards and has written more than 25 books in the philosophy and theology of culture. His writings have been read around Fall 2003 the globe and have appeared in every major Western language, Bengali, Japanese, and Korean.

Novak serves on the editorial boards of several publications and organizations here and abroad. He was co-founder of This World, Crisis, and First Things, and was publisher/ editor of Crisis until 1996.

In 1974, he campaigned for the creation of a White House Office of Ethnic Affairs. The office was opened during the Ford administration and continued under President Carter with Novak serving as an adviser during both administrations.

He was also appointed and served as Ambassador of the U. S. Delegation to the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva, 1981 -1982; head of the U. S. Delegation to the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, 1986; member of the Board for International Broadcasting, 1984 -1994; member of the Presidential Task Force on Project Economic Justice, 1985; and has served the United States during both Democratic and Republican administrations. Sirico is the co-founder and president of the Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty, a non-profit, non-partisan, free-market educational organization dedicated to educating future religious leaders about the principles of the market.

Sirico was ordained a priest on May 13, 1989. His pastoral ministry has included a chaplaincy to AIDS patients at the National Institutes of Health and the recent founding of a new community, St. Philip Neri House in Kalamazoo, Michigan. This community is formed in the spirit of John Henry Cardinal Newman.

Sirico is an active member of both the American Academy of Religion and the Philadelphia Society. He is also on the board of advisers of the Civic Institute in Prague. He is a regular lecturer at many international universities, and he has served a four-year term on the Michigan Civil Rights Commission. In 1990, his work in public policy was recognized by his induction into the Mont Pèlerin Society.

Sirico was co-editor of The Social Agenda: A Collection of Magisterial Texts, and assisted the book's publisher, the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace in Staging a Conference, to celebrate the fifth anniversary of Centesimus Annus. More recently, he became involved with the Acton Institute regarding a conference on the theme of "Globalization, the Economy, and the Family." In January 2001, he acted as primary facilitator for a retreat conference of a group of the Mexican episcopate, including Cardinal Juan Sandoval Iñiguez.

His writings on religious, political, economic, and social matters have been published in a variety of journals and newspapers. He has often been called upon by many of the news media for statements regarding economics, civil rights, and issues of religious concern and has been quoted in major news publications both domestically and internationally.

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