Dolores R. Leckey is a senior
fellow at the Woodstock Theological Center, where she coordinates the Church
Leadership Program. She is the former Executive Director of the Secretariat for
Family, Laity, Women and Youth at the United States Conference of Catholic
Bishops (USCCB), where she served for twenty years. Prior to that she was a
producer for WNVT, Channel 53 in Northern Virginia, and a faculty member of the
DeSales School of Theology. Her B.A. is from St. John's
University in New York and her M.A. from the George Washington University in
Washington, D.C. She has been awarded 12 honorary doctorates, three of them the
doctor of divinity (Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley; St. Mary's Seminary
and University, Baltimore; and Lafayette College, Easton, PA). In 1988 the
Washington Theological Union awarded her its Distinguished Service Award for her
work in the area of lay spirituality. In November 1997, she was awarded the Pro
Ecclesia et Pontifice medal by Bishop Anthony Pilla, then president of the U.S.
Conference of Catholic Bishops. In January 2000 St. John's University in NYC
presented her with the St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Medal. In 2003 she received a
"Person of Vision" award from the Arlington Commission on the Status of
Women.The Catholic Common Ground Initiative bestowed its 2004 Cardinal Bernardin
award on her for her efforts at "bridge building". Dolores has been an official
advisor to the American Catholic bishops at two Roman Synods: in 1980 at
the Synod on the family, and in 1987 at the Synod on the laity. She has
lectured widely throughout the United States as well as in Europe and Australia. In 1994 she was in residence at
Tantur: The Ecumenical Institute
for Theological Studies, near Jerusalem. While there she presented a lecture on
"The Spirituality of the Laity Since the Second Vatican Council" to the Armenian
Orthodox community, which included the Patriarch Tarkom Manongrian. She was
also a presenter at the first Christian-Jewish Conference in Jerusalem on the
subject of "Religious Leadership in a Secular Age." During the winter of 1998 she was
a "scholar-in-residence" at the College of Preachers in Washington, D.C. Dolores
was a participant in the official bilateral dialogues between the Roman Catholic
Church and the Reformed Church of America. The results of these dialogues have
been published under the title Laity in the Church and in the World:
Resources for Ecumenical Dialogue (U.S. Catholic Conference, 1998). Formerly a member of the Board of
Trustees of St. Mary's Seminary and University in Baltimore, the University of
Dayton in Ohio, and the Northern Virginia Community College, she is a member of
the Ecumenical Institute of Spirituality, a member of the Association for
Religion and Intellectual Life, and the Advisory Committee for the Arlington
Street People's Assistance Network. She is a member of the Committee of 100 in
Arlington, Virginia (since 1975) and with her late husband is a founding member
of the Arlington Partnership for Affordable Housing. Her books include: The
Ordinary Way: A Family Spirituality (Crossroad/Continuum, 1982); Laity
Stirring the Church (Fortress/Augsburg, 1987); Practical Spirituality
(Sheed & Ward, 1987); Women and Creativity (Paulist Press), which was the
1991 Madeleva Lecture; Winter Music: A Life of Jessica Powers, Poet, Nun,
Woman of the Twentieth Century (Sheed & Ward, 1992); Seven Essentials
for the Spiritual Journey (Crossroad); Blessings All Around Us
(Resurrection Press, 1999), Facing Fear with Faith with Arthur Jones (Ave
Maria Press, 2002); Spiritual Exercises for Church Leaders with Paula
Minaert (Paulist Press 2003). She is currently working on a book in the Paulist
Press series Rediscovering Vatican II. The book is about the Council's
Decree on the Laity and the proclamation on Christian Education.
See also: