Thomas J. Reese, S.J. (photo courtesy of America magazine) March 21, 2006 For immediate release Contact: (202) 687-4299 woodstock@georgetown.edu Washington, DC - Thomas J. Reese, S.J., will return this summer to the Woodstock Theological Center, where he served as a senior fellow before he became editor of America magazine in 1998. At Woodstock, Father Reese will focus on contemporary Catholic Church issues, ethics and public policy, and religion and politics. Father Reese wrote three books on the politics and organization of the Catholic Church while at Woodstock from 1985 to 1998. He also ran two symposia, one on the Catechism of the Catholic Church and another on the role of bishops' conferences. Before he went to America, he initiated the Woodstock Center project on lobbying ethics. "Woodstock provides an ideal setting for scholarly reflection on contemporary theological and ethical issues," said Father Reese, who will again be a senior fellow. "I look forward to returning to Woodstock." The Woodstock Theological Center is an independent nonprofit institute at Georgetown University that engages in theological and ethical reflection on topics of social, economic, business, scientific, cultural, religious, and political importance. Drawing on the Roman Catholic tradition, the Woodstock Center is ecumenically open, multi-disciplinary, and collaborative with others. Its work is a particular instance of the contemporary mission of the Society of Jesus: the service of faith through the promotion of justice. Father Reese, a widely quoted expert on the Catholic Church, was seen on television throughout the world as an insightful commentator on the papal funeral and election last year. While editor of America, he redesigned the magazine, hired the first woman editor, increased circulation, established a Web edition (americamagazine.org), and published articles on a wide variety of issues facing the church and the world. While at Woodstock, he authored a trilogy examining church organization and politics on the local, national, and international levels: Archbishop: Inside the Power Structure of the American Catholic Church (Harper & Row, 1989), A Flock of Shepherds: The National Conference of Catholic Bishops (Sheed & Ward, 1992), and Inside the Vatican: The Politics and Organization of the Catholic Church (Harvard University Press, 1997). Inside the Vatican has been translated into Dutch, German, Polish, Korean and Portuguese. His books have been widely and favorably reviewed. He was born in 1945, entered the Society of Jesus in 1962, and was ordained a Roman Catholic priest in 1974. He has a M.A. in political science from St. Louis University (1968), a M.Div. (Master of Divinity) from the Jesuit School of Theology, Berkeley (1974), and a Ph.D. in political science from the University of California, Berkeley (1976). In 1994-95, he was a visiting fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, DC. During the 2005-2006 academic year he has been a visiting scholar at Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, California. As a Woodstock fellow, Father Reese organized a major research project on national and regional conferences of bishops that resulted in Episcopal Conferences: Historical, Theological, and Canonical Studies (Georgetown University Press, 1989). A similar research project resulted in publication of The Universal Catechism Reader (HarperCollins, 1990). He was also director of the Woodstock Visiting International Fellows Program and taught as an adjunct professor in the Graduate Program in Public Policy at Georgetown University. From 1978-85 he was associate editor of America where he wrote articles and editorials on politics, economics, and religion. Before that, he was legislative director of Taxation with Representation, a Washington-based tax reform lobby (1975-78). During the same period, he was a writer for Tax Notes, published by Tax Analysts. He is author of The Politics of Taxation (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1980). Besides numerous articles and editorials in America, he also has been published in The Washington Post, The National Tax Journal, Tax Notes, The Social Science Journal, The Jurist, The Bible Today, Biblical Theology, Biblical Theology Bulletin, The Tablet (of London), the National Catholic Reporter, Concilium, The Living Light, Etudes, The Catholic Digest, Worship, Catholic News Service, and Religion News Service. He has two honorary degrees: a Doctor of Divinity from the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley (2000) and a Doctor of Letters from Santa Clara University (2002).