The Ethics and Public Policy Center and the Boisi Center for Religion and American Public Life cordially invite you to attend a luncheon panel discussion on November 13, 2003 from 12:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m., of an important new study and survey conducted by Zogby International. The study—"The Views of American Catholics and Opinion Leaders on Issues Regarding the Catholic Church"—compares the views of one hundred select Catholic leaders with those of one thousand Catholics chosen at random nationwide. The study examines such topics as what contributed to the sex abuse scandal, what will prevent future scandals, and how to regain the laity’s trust.

Because of the urgency of these issues, we have asked four renowned experts to offer their commentary on this important story: John Zogby, George Weigel, Alan Wolfe, and Rev. J. Bryan Hehir. We hope you can join us for what is sure to be a stimulating discussion.

We will begin with a catered lunch at noon. Our presentations and panel discussion will begin at 12:30.

John Zogby is president and CEO of Zogby International and considered the most accurate pollster in the United States today. Since 1996, Zogby has polled for Reuters News Agency and NBC News. His clients also include New York Post, Fox News, Gannett News Service, Albany Times Union, Buffalo News, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Cincinnati Post, and nearly every daily newspaper in New York State, as well as television stations throughout the United States. Zogby regularly appears on all three nightly network news programs as well as NBC's "Today Show" and ABC's "Good Morning America." He is a frequent guest on Fox News and MSNBC special programs, along with CNBC's "Hardball with Chris Matthews." He is also a Senior Associate of Global Affairs at Maxwell School at Syracuse University.

George Weigel, senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, is a Roman Catholic theologian and one of America’s leading commentators on issues of religion and public life. Weigel is the author of a major study of the life, thought, and action of Pope John Paul II. Witness to Hope: The Biography of Pope John Paul II was published to international acclaim in 1999, and translated into French, Italian, Spanish, Polish, Portuguese, Slovak, Czech, Slovenian, Russian, and German. The 2001 documentary film based on the book won numerous prizes. Weigel is the author or editor of fifteen other books, including The Courage To Be Catholic: Crisis, Reform, and the Future of the Church (Basic Books, 2002), The Truth of Catholicism: Ten Controversies Explored (HarperCollins, 2001), Soul of the World: Notes on the Future of Public Catholicism (Ethics and Public Policy Center/Eerdmans, 1994), The Final Revolution: The Resistance Church and the Collapse of Communism (Oxford, 1992) and Catholicism and the Renewal of American Democracy (Paulist, 1989). Weigel is a consultant on Vatican affairs for NBC News, and his weekly column, "The Catholic Difference," is syndicated to more than fifty newspapers around the United States.

Alan Wolfe is professor of political science and director of the Boisi Center for Religion and American Public Life at Boston College. His most recent books include The Transformation of American Religion: How We Actually Practice Our Faith (Free Press, 2003) and An Intellectual in Public (University of Michigan, 2003). He is the author or editor of more than ten other books, including Moral Freedom: The Search for Virtue in a World of Choice (W. W. Norton, 2001) and One Nation, After All (Viking, 1998), both of which were selected as New York Times Notable Books of the Year. A contributing editor of The New Republic and The Wilson Quarterly, Professor Wolfe writes often for those publications as well as for Commonweal, New York Times, Harper's, Atlantic Monthly, Washington Post, and many others.

J. Bryan Hehir, president and CEO of Catholic Charities U.S.A. and former head of Harvard Divinity School, is an internationally known expert on Catholic social ethics and international affairs. Rev. Hehir was a member of the Harvard faculty from 1992 to 2001. Before joining Harvard, he spent 19 years in Washington, DC, at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and at Georgetown University. At the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in Washington, D.C., he was director of the Office of International Affairs (1973-1983), secretary of the Department of Social Development and World Peace (1984-1988), and counselor for social policy (1988-1992). At Georgetown, he was Joseph P. Kennedy Professor of Christian Ethics in the School of Foreign Service at the Kennedy Institute of Ethics. In January 2004, Rev. Hehir will become president of Catholic Charities for the Archdiocese of Boston.