Hehir Named Boston Catholic Charities Head

A former head of Harvard Divinity School (HDS) will return to Boston in January to lead the city’s Catholic Charities, the Archdiocese of Boston announced Friday.

J. Bryan Hehir, currently president of Catholic Charities USA, will head back to Boston after only two years in his post at the helm of the national service organization.

Hehir was the first Catholic leader of HDS, serving from 1999 to 2001. In his new role, he will also serve as cabinet secretary for social services and director of social services for the archdiocese.

The search for a successor to Joseph Doolin, who announced in June that he would retire at the end of the year, was cut short when Archbishop Sean O’Malley placed Hehir’s name at the top of the list, according to Chair of the Board of Trustees for Boston Catholic Charities Neal F. Finnegan.

“It’s pretty clear that Father Hehir raises the level of play in terms of what the thought process around Catholic Charities is,” Finnegan said. “He is a renowned person.”

“It’s a terrific appointment. Brian is very smart, very sensible and very committed,” said Bradshaw Professor of Public Policy Management Mary Jo Bane. “He is well-respected by the whole community.”

Hehir, who has been a vocal critic of the Catholic Church’s attitude toward priests accused of sexual abuse, arrives at a time when the church is seeking closure to the revelations.

Finnegan said one of Hehir’s main jobs will be to ensure that donations do not fall despite the negative publicity.

“Of course the scandal has challenged us to keep our fundraising levels up, and that still remains something that the board and administration of Catholic Charities has to work on,” Finnegan said.

He added that Hehir will arrive at the Boston service organization in the midst of efforts to centralize its offices and activities.

Hehir, a 1977 graduate of HDS, won a MacArthur Foundation “genius grant” for his role in writing the 1983 Catholic Bishops Statement on Nuclear Weapons, which advocated eventual nuclear disarmament.

Last December, Hehir returned to Harvard to debate the prospective war in Iraq, citing the “just war” theory of St. Augustine to support his view that a war with Iraq would be immoral.

“Great power in the world is as much about restraint as it is about coercion,” he said at the time. “I think the case has not yet been made for necessity.”

When Hehir begins his new job on Jan. 1, he will be taking on a hefty workload at a considerably larger organization, Bane said.

“Catholic Charities USA doesn’t actually operate any agencies,” Bane said. “Priests don’t think about upward mobility as a goal in life, but [Boston Catholic Charities] is a much bigger operation in terms of budget.”

After Cardinal Bernard F. Law ’53 resigned last December in the wake of allegations that he permitted priests accused of child molestation to continue working for the church, The Boston Globe reported that Hehir was a candidate for his replacement as archbishop.

Hehir, who ultimately was not named to that post, helped HDS recover from scandal in May 1999 when Ronald F. Thiemann, dean of HDS at the time, was forced to step down from his position when pornography was discovered on his office computer. After Thiemann resigned, Hehir—who could not be reached for comment yesterday—served as interim head and then dean of HDS.

Because of commitments to the Catholic Diocese, Hehir refused to accept the title of “dean” and instead preferred “chair of the executive committee of the Faculty of Divinity.”

—Staff writer Jenifer L. Steinhardt can be reached at steinhar@fas.harvard.edu.