Father robert sirico biography template

The Acton Institute, publisher of this magazine, has a mission “to promote a free and virtuous society characterized by individual liberty and sustained by religious principles.” What was the spark that motivated you and Acton’s current president, Kris Mauren, to say back in 1990: “We need to do this, and we need to do this now”?

I suppose it was what we saw around us at the time, especially within the moral debates of the free economy and moral and social responsibility. Almost all arguments about things like markets and profits have a moral component. What was frustrating then, as it remains to this day, is that people see the importance of moral and social obligations but fail to see that human freedom is a necessary prerequisite to achieve both the moral and practical goals people desire. That is why Kris came up with the descriptor of the Acton Institute’s mission as the connection of good intentions to sound economics.

When people think about the church and economics, they usually assume charity, welfare, redistribution—not entrepreneurship and free markets. In an article for Jacobin magazine, Eastern Orthodox theologian David Bentley Hart recently made the case that “the New Testament, alarmingly enough, condemns personal wealth not merely as a moral danger, but as an intrinsic evil.” In your book The Economics of the Parables, however, you argue that “the creation of wealth requires a society that rewards rather than penalizes productivity” and that “wealth has potential.” In the 34 years that Acton has been around, is reorienting people’s thinking about money and their faith still a hill to climb?

I think Dr. Hart’s argument was well placed in a magazine named after the Jacobins—given the ruthlessness of the Jacobins’ efforts along the lines of Robespierre at the time of the (ferociously anti-religious) French Revolution. I say this because the choice is essentially between human freedom and coercion.

 Hu

American Roman Catholic priest

Robert Alan Sirico (born June 23, 1951) is an American Catholic priest and the founder of the Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He is a political, religious, and cultural commentator. He is also the retired pastor of Sacred Heart Parish in Grand Rapids.

Early life and education

Sirico was raised in an Italian Catholic family in the Brooklyn borough of New York City, New York, (in both Bensonhurst and East Flatbush) but by his early teenage years, he had left the Church. He received an associate's degree from Los Angeles City College, studied at St. Mary's University College, London, and received a bachelor's degree in English from the University of Southern California. Sirico holds dual Italian and American citizenship. His older brother was actor Tony Sirico.

Writing in the Acton Institute's 2018 Winter edition of its Religion & Liberty quarterly publication, Sirico said growing up in Brooklyn caused him to develop a late appreciation of nature, which only took hold after he moved to the West Coast. His move West happened during what he called "The Great Environmental Awakening of the 1960s and 70s". Sirico's environmental concerns became one of the missions of the Acton Institute: "Our mission at the Acton Institute often attempts to bridge the divide between the extremists of pantheism and those who would seek profit at any cost to the environment. It is our goal to celebrate human flourishing while recognizing that it's not mutually exclusive with God's call for us to be conscientious environmental stewards."

A deeper study of the Christian anthropology led to his return to the Catholic Church in 1977, and later to the writings of St. Augustine. The biography of St. John Henry Newman moved him to consider the priesthood. He received an MDiv from The Catholic Un

Rev. Robert A. Sirico is president emeritus and the co-founder of the Acton Institute. In that capacity, he lectures at colleges, universities, and business organizations throughout the U.S. and abroad. His writings on religious, political, economic, and social matters are published in a variety of journals, including: the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, the London Financial Times, the Washington Times, the Detroit News, and National Review. Fr. Sirico is often called upon by members of the broadcast media for statements regarding economics, civil rights, and issues of religious concern, and has provided commentary for CNN, ABC, the BBC, NPR, and CBS' 60 Minutes, among others.

Fr. Sirico received his Master of Divinity degree from the Catholic University of America following undergraduate study at the University of Southern California and the University of London. During his studies and early ministry, he experienced a growing concern over the lack of training religious studies students receive in fundamental economic principles, leaving them poorly equipped to understand and address today's social problems. As a result of these concerns, Fr. Sirico co-founded the Acton Institute with Kris Alan Mauren in 1990.

In April of 1999, Fr. Sirico was awarded an honorary doctorate in Christian Ethics from the Franciscan University of Steubenville, and in May of 2001, Universidad Francisco Marroquin awarded him an honorary doctorate in Social Sciences. He is a member of the prestigious Mont Pèlerin Society, the American Academy of Religion, and the Philadelphia Society, and is on the Board of Advisors of the Civic Institute in Prague. Father Sirico also served on the Michigan Civil Rights Commission from 1994 to 1998. His pastoral ministry has included a chaplaincy to AIDS patients at the National Institutes of Health. He is the Pastor Emeritus of Sacred Heart of Jesus parish in Grand Rapids, M

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Rev. Roberto Sirico is a Roman Catholic priest and the co-founder and president of the Acton Institute, an organization for the study of religion and liberty that seeks to integrate "Judeo-Christian truths with free market principles." Fr. Sirico also lectures throughout the country, has appeared on numerous broadcast programs, and has written articles and commentaries for a variety of media journals throughout the United States and the larger world. Fr. Sirico has also worked with AIDS patients at the National Institutes for Health, and is currently the pastor at St. Mary Catholic Church in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Fr. Sirico received his M.Div. from the Catholic University of America, his undergraduate years at the University of Southern California and the University of London, and has obtained honorary degrees from the Franciscan University of Steubenville and the Universidad Francisco Marroquin.