Bryan Hehir Chronology

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1940	Joseph Bryan Hehir born in Lowell, Massachusetts to Mr. and Mrs. John J. Hehir. He grows up in Chelmsford, MA.
1966	May 26: J. Bryan Hehir ordained in Boston. Fr. Richard P. McBrien preached at Fr. Hehir’s first Mass on Sunday, May 29. McBrien has gone on to become well-known as a dissident priest and professor of theology at Notre Dame.
1973	Fr. Hehir began working at US Bishops (NCCB) conference.  He worked there from 1973 to 1992.
1974	As associate secretary for the International Justice and Peace office and a key policy advisor for the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, Fr. Hehir urged the Vatican and Catholic bishops that the Church can “regard contraceptive practice as an issue of private morality that the church continues to teach for its members, but not an issue of public morality on which it seeks to affect public policy” (Theological Studies, March 1974). The Holy See, at this time, was rallying Third World countries against population control mandates urged by the Henry Kissinger’s National Security Study Memorandum 200 (NSSM 200).Hehir’s position became the basis for the Holy See’s position at the UN Population Conference in Budapest.
1977	Fr. Hehir earns doctorate in theology from Harvard Divinity School.
1983	May 3.  U.S. Bishops issue pastoral letter on nuclear disarmament. “The Challenge of Peace.”  Fr. Hehir is credited with being chief author of the letter.  Drafting committee members included then-Cardinal Joseph Bernadin and Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Gumbleton. The drafters consistently opposed the build-up of American forces and U.S. military aid and intervention abroad. In criticizing Reagan administration defense policies almost across the board, the Bishops and their advisors arrived at essentially pacifist recommendations. The recommendations of “The Challenge of Peace” had no impact on U.S. foreign policy and would later be proven wrong by history, including the Reagan-era arms buildup that helped end the Cold War.
	September 30. Fr. Hehir receives Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) 7th Annual Letelier-Moffitt Memorial Award in Washington DC.  The award was named for Orlando Letelier, a Marxist-Leninist and IPS fellow who was assassinated in 1976 in Washington by the Chilean government’s secret police. Letelier had joined the Chilean Socialist Party in 1959, became ambassador to the U.S. under Chile’s socialist President Allende (who had a close relationship with Chile’s Communist Party), and was ousted from the Chilean government in a U.S.-backed coup that brought Gen. Augusto Pinochet to power in 1973. Letelier later became a senior IPS fellow and leading critic of the U.S.-backed Pinochet regime. Journalist Robert Novak reported that after his assassination, the FBI found documents in Letelier’s briefcase showing Letelier was working with Soviet KGB, East German, and Cuban intelligence agents.
	October.  Fr. Hehir, along with Mary E. Hunt, gives lecture series “Matthew, Marx, Luke, John” at Institute for Policy Studies (IPS). Washington School. Since its founding in 1963, the IPS has steadily followed a pro-Marxist line on foreign policy, defense and the economy and has consistently supported policies that facilitated foreign policy goals of the Soviet Union and weakened the position of the U.S. The IPS has been described in National Review as the “perfect intellectual front for Soviet activities which would be resisted were they to originate openly from the KGB.”
	December 13. Cardinal Joseph Bernadin, with significant content input by Fr. Hehir, delivers talk at Fordham University on “consistent ethic of life” (also known as “seamless garment”). He linked the bishops’ opposition to abortion with their statement on nuclear weapons and their rejection of capital punishment. Bernadin would deliver several more lectures expanding the “consistent ethic of life” to include opposition to pornography along with support for government-funded anti-poverty programs and providing healthcare to the poor. The addresses are considered largely Fr.Hehir’s work and reflective of his thinking.  In a 1996 book, Hehir is said to have felt pushing abortion in public policy would cause the bishops to lose valuable allies. In a 2001 book, his rationale was that the abortion issue did not exhaust the riches of Church social teaching and the Church’s teaching on abortion would be enhanced by placing it in the context of a broader social agenda. Regardless of Fr. Hehir’s rationale, the concepts would later be proven wrong.  In a 2001 profile of Fr. Hehir, the author wrote that the ‘consistent ethic of life’ had not succeeded in diminishing public support for abortion.  Furthermore, leading opponents of abortion within the hierarchy such as Cardinal O’Connor had feared pro-choice Catholic politicians would point to their support for other elements of the Church’s social agenda as a way of deflecting criticism of their pro-choice position–fears that proved well-founded.
1984	Mario Cuomo, as presidential candidate, gives speech at Notre Dame espousing that his views as a Catholic were a matter of personal morality, and his public position—in favor of abortion–would not be affected by those private morals.  His position draws on principles identical to those Fr. Hehir advocated previously.
1987	June 7-9.  Fr. Hehir participates in secret meeting  sponsored by the NCCB at St. Mary’s College in Notre Dame where members of the Catholic Conference’s Laity Committee met with the bishops who were to represent the U.S. Church at the October 1987 Synod on the Laity in Rome, including Cardinal Bernardin, Archbishop Weakland, and others.
1993	Fr. Hehir begins serving on faculty of Harvard Divinity School and Harvard’s Weatherhead Center while also serving as pastor at St. Pauls in Cambridge.  He serves at HDS until 2001
1998	December.  Fr. Hehir is named interim head (Chair of the Executive Committee) of Harvard Divinity School after previous dean is found with pornography on personal computer. In August of 1999, he is officially named head of the divinity school.
1999	April 19.  Pro-abortion group, Catholics for a Free Choice, cites Fr. Hehir’s earlier statements on contraception to support their position that Catholic hospitals should not be exempt from having to offer contraceptive coverage. “Father Bryan Hehir, a high-ranking official of the United States Catholic Conference at the time, noted in 1974 that the church could ‘regard contraceptive practice as an issue of private morality that the church continues to teach for its members but not an issue of public morality on which it seeks to affect public policy’
2001	June 13. Announcement made that Fr. Hehir will leave Harvard Divinity School at the end of 2001 to take position as President of Catholic Charities USA.  As reported in the Boston Globe, then-archbishop of Boston, Cardinal Bernard Law, had “made it clear he was unhappy with Hehir being stationed at Harvard, a historically Unitarian school with a reputation for progressive theology.”  In  this Harvard announcement of the change, Hehir is credited with “overseeing the establishment of newly-endowed professorships that will greatly enhance HDS’s work in Buddhist studies, Islamic studies, and religion and international conflict.”
2002	October 2.  Hehir is featured along with Mary E. Hunt at a Regis College symposium Regis College symposium,“Women, Church and Society: The Heart of the Matter” as part of a discussion series in response to the sexual abuse crisis. Hehir spoke on “The Consequences of the Crisis: Defining the Issues.” In the talk, he refers to 20th century Catholicism teachings on sexuality as having been “a chronically afflicted area” and said that “dissent is an expected part of the theological tradition of which we are a part.”  He ceded to Dr. Hunt discussion of any perception of the influence and role of women.  Hunt is a Catholic feminist theologian who is Co-director of the Women’s Alliance for Theology, Ethics and Ritual (WATER), is an advocate for women priests, and is also a lesbian who adopted a daughter with her partner of 29 years.
2003	September 18: at BC forum on Church in 21st century, publicly questioned Church doctrine on women priests.  In response to question on women priests, Hehir said  “The ordination of women embraces doctrinal questions that have to be worked through in a Church that takes doctrine seriously.” This view is contradicted by the Catechism of the Catholic Church, and by Pope John Paul II’s, Apostolic Letter, “Ordinatio Sacerdotalis: Reserving Priestly Ordination to Men Alone.”
	September 27. Appointed by Cardinal Sean O’Malley as President of Catholic Charities of Boston and Secretary of Social Services.  Chairman of the Catholic Charities board at the time is banker, Neil Finnegan.  Voice of the Faithful, a group formed to change the structure of the Catholic Church and (whose key strategist was labor and civil rights organizer Harvard Prof. Marshall Ganz), calls Hehir’s appointment an “extraordinary coup for the Archdiocese of Boston.”
2004	April 6.  Boisi Center at Boston College—with Bryan Hehir on Advisory Board—sponsors talk by notorious gay marriage advocate, Fr. James Keenan on “Virtuous Sexual Ethics.”  This occurs in the midst of the statewide “gay marriage” battle where the Church vehemently opposed same-sex marriage.
2005	April 25. Fr. Hehir criticized U.S. bishops and priests who threatened denial of Communion to pro-abortion politicians, such as Sen. John Kerry, or their supporters. He also voiced concerns about the newly elected Pope. The Boston Globe reported on April 30, 2005, “The four panelists hinted at or explicitly stated reservations about his enforcement of conservative orthodoxy when as Cardinal Ratzinger, he ran the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.”
	July 13.  Hehir-led search committee announces appointment of Edward Saunders as head of the Massachusetts Catholic conference.  Saunders had a history of donating personal funds to politicians who vehemently opposed the CC on abortion and gay marriage.
	October 22. It is revealed publicly that Catholic Charities of Boston had been aiding in adoptions of children by gay couples.  Despite Vatican teachings that allowing homosexuals to adopt children is “gravely immoral,” the social services agency of the Archdiocese of Boston has allowed 13 foster children to be adopted by same-sex couples in the past two decades. “If we could design the system ourselves, we would not participate in adoptions to gay couples, but we can’t,” said the Rev. J. Bryan Hehir…”We have to balance various goods.”
	November. Catholic Charities of Boston–with Fr. Hehir as President and Peter Meade as Chair–announces plan to honor pro-abortion and pro-gay-marriage mayor of Boston, Thomas Menino, at their annual holiday fund-raiser dinner on December 9.  This honor expressly violates USCCB’s own guidelines saying that politicians who oppose Church teachings should not be honored.  After public uproar, Cardinal O’Malley pulls out from previous plans to attend the event, but does not stop the honoring of Menino.
	November 29. Bryan Hehir speaks at gay-friendly Paulist Center in Boston as part of adult education series that also featured gay activist Larry Kessler, whose AIDS Action Committee published a graphic guide to safe gay sex distributed to high school students earlier in the year.  The Paulist Center participates in Boston’s annual Gay Pride parade and teen-focused Boston Area Gay Lesbian Youth (BAGLY) events and had awarded their Isaac Hecker Award to Sr. Jeannine Gramick and Fr. Robert Nugent, who were banned by the Vatican from speaking on homosexuality as their views were contrary to Church teaching:
2006	March 2. Catholic Charities announces agency will exit the adoption business after Vatican rules adoptions to gay couples may not be brokered by a Catholic organization.  Chair Peter Meade and six other board members quit Catholic Charities board in protest.  Meade will later be appointed as co-chair of key commission to review archdiocesan parish closings.
	March 19. Bryan Hehir keynotes Social Justice Convocation #1. Sponsored by Catholic Campaign for Human Development (which was funding ACORN at the time), and including a talk by woman who organized a Boston area Catholic parish’s participation in Boston’s Gay Pride parade.
	June 6. Search committee led by Bryan Hehir’s former Catholic Charities Board Chair, banker, Neil Finnegan, names  James McDonough new Chancellor for Archdiocese of Boston. According to public archdiocesan financial reports, McDonough is paid a salary of $250,000/year.
2007	July 28.  Fr. Hehir leaves role as President of Catholic Charities of Boston, appointing former student and spiritual directee, Tiziana Dearing to the role.  The Boston Globe reports, “The former dean of Harvard Divinity School, cementing his role as one of the closest advisers to Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley, is leaving his post as president of Catholic Charities of Boston so he can spend more time at the chancery.”Dearing had previously contributed to the presidential campaign of pro-abortion candidate Sen. John Kerry, had criticized pro-lifers publicly, and had supported the work of union/ community organization and Voice of the Faithful strategist, Marshall Ganz.
2008	March 14.  Caritas Christi announces new governance model. Fr. Hehir named as Cardinal O’Malley’s delegate to revamped Caritas Christi hospital board. Archdiocese of Boston involvement to be limited to “matters pertaining to Catholic identity, mission and the implementation of the religious and ethical directives of the USCCB.”  Hehir’s title expanded to Secretary of Health and Social Services.
	April 4.  Caritas Christi announces new President, cardiac surgeon, Ralph de la Torre.  Search committee again included Fr. Hehir colleague and former Catholic Charities board chair Neil Finnegan. De la Torre came as a referral by Jack Connors.
2009	February 26.  Partnership of Caritas Christi announced with CeltiCare to provide healthcare services to low-income Massachusetts residents via Commonwealth Care program. Services need to include abortion referrals.  Fr. Hehir has been Cardinal O’Malley’s delegate to the board for nearly a year. In ensuing months, it is also revealed that the “Catholic” board members have donated $58,000 to pro-abortion politicians over recent years.  After pro-life Catholics complain about the abortion referrals required in the plan and the National Catholic Bioethics Center reviewed the arrangement, on June 27, Cardinal O’Malley instructed Caritas Christi to withdraw from its part ownership of CeltiCare. However, the 6 Caritas Christi hospitals would remain in the CeltiCare plan as providers of services, and under the plan, Caritas Christi is obliged to refer women for abortions. CeltiCare lists 3 Planned Parenthood abortion locations in Massachusetts.
	October 17. Bryan Hehir keynotes Social Justice Convocation #2.  Featured speakers include Catholic Relief Services (criticized for key staff members contributing to pro-abortion politicians and for promoting use of condoms), Tiziana Dearing (Catholic Charities of Boston, see July 28, 2007 above), and Sr. Teresa Rickard (RENEW International, a habit-less nun whose religious order is affiliated with the liberal Leadership Council of Women Religious and whose website links to gay rights organizations).
	October 21.  USC Institute of Catholic Studies–where Fr. Hehir is board member–sponsors talk by long-time Catholic Church critic and advocate for women priests, Peter Seinsfels.
2010	March. Fr. Hehir’s colleagues and advisees, Archdiocesan Chancellor McDonnough and wealthy power-broker and donor Jack Connors, begin moves to push Archdiocesan Secretary of Development, Scot Landry, out of his position.
	March 25.  Caritas Christi (where Fr. Hehir serves on the board) announces that the health care system will be acquired for $830 million by Steward Healthcare System LLC, a newly formed affiliate of Cerberus Capital Management, L.P. (“Cerberus”). The announcement says that Steward will continue to run the Caritas Christi hospitals as Catholic health care providers in accord with the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services adopted by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. On May 7, it is disclosed that Steward has also negotiated an escape clause that would allow the firm to end the religious affiliation if it decides that complying with Catholic ethical guidelines is found to be “mutually burdensome,” a term not defined.  The exit clause would call for Steward to make a $25 million donation to a charity chosen by the Archdiocese.
	April 8: Boston College’s Boisi Center sponsors another speaking engagement by gay-marriage-advocate, Fr. James Keenan, talking on AIDS.  Fr. Hehir remains on Advisory Board.
	April 29-30.  Fr. Hehir keynotes a “Living Eucharist” conference in the Diocese of St. Petersburg along with “gay priests” advocate, Fr. Timothy Radcliffe, O.P. (who has also urged an audience to read gay novels and watch gay movies such as Brokeback Mountain) and Jesuit Fr. J. Glenn Murray (who ordered changes to the liturgy and communion rites in the Diocese of Cleveland that were contrary to Vatican and USCCB direction).
	May 12.  Local and national media reports that a Hingham pastor had decided to not admit the son of a lesbian couple to his parish Catholic school because the gay relationship was in discord with church teachings. The Archdiocesan spokesman, superintendent of schools, head of Catholic Schools fundraising, and Catholic Schools Campaign chair, Jack Connors all publicly criticize the pastor’s decision and declare any Catholic school must admit all children to get archdiocesan funding. On May 19, Cardinal Sean O’Malley issues a statement saying that the Archdiocese was going to study this matter and “seriously consider” the Denver Archdiocese’s precedent and rationale for banning children of gay parents from Catholic schools.  On May 20, Fr. Hehir directly contradicted Cardinal O’Malley in a WBUR radio interview, saying the Cardinal was not going to talk about what other bishops do, Boston does not exclude anyone, Boston Catholic schools are accepting kids of gay parents already, and plan to continue doing so with formal policies. In response to a question about how the Church would balance a policy of inclusion with teachings about sin, Fr. Hehir said nothing about the homosexual couple living in a sinful way.  Instead he reaffirmed comments made earlier on the program (by a lesbian mother whose son attended a local Catholic school for a year), saying Catholic moral teachings include not just sexuality, but also character, social justice, concern for the poor, and human rights.
	June 15.   Fr. Hehir speaks at Catholic Healthcare Association meeting in Denver.  The CHA played a key role in passage of President Obama’s healthcare legislation, opposed by the U.S. Bishops because it would allow federal funding of abortions.  In his talk, Hehir paised Sister Carol Keehan’s “intelligent and courageous leadership of this organization,” and said there were “multiple voices” in the debate, the CHA, the U.S. bishops, and others. Amidst those multiple voices, he said “there was foundation for the different judgments made on the bill in the Catholic moral tradition.”