Joseph Bryan Hehir is a Catholic priest, theologian, and professor born in 1940 in Lowell, Massachusetts, and raised in Chelmsford, Massachusetts. Ordained for the Archdiocese of Boston in 1966, he earned a doctorate in theology from Harvard Divinity School in 1977 with a thesis on the ethics of intervention, following seminary formation at Saint John's Seminary in Boston. Hehir served as a staff member at the U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops from 1973 to 1992, focusing on international justice, peace, and foreign policy, and was the key author of the 1983 pastoral letter 'The Challenge of Peace' on nuclear disarmament. He participated in Vatican delegations to the United Nations in 1973 and 1978. Academically, he was faculty at Georgetown University School of Foreign Service (1984–1992), professor of religion and society at Harvard Divinity School (1993–2001), where he chaired the executive committee and led the school as its first Catholic head (1998–2001, forgoing the formal dean title) while also serving as pastor of St. Paul's Church in Cambridge, and the Parker Gilbert Montgomery Professor of the Practice of Religion and Public Life at Harvard Kennedy School of Government until his retirement in June 2021, with affiliations at the Carr Center for Human Rights and Safra Center for Ethics. In charitable leadership, he was president and CEO of Catholic Charities USA (2001–2003), president of the Catholic Charitable Bureau of the Archdiocese of Boston (2003–2007), and has served as secretary for health and social services for the Archdiocese of Boston since around 2008, acting as liaison to Catholic health systems including Caritas Christi. Renowned for bridging Catholic moral theology with U.S. foreign policy, human rights, nuclear strategy, and the role of religion in public life—particularly through contributions to bishops' statements on peace and the 'consistent ethic of life'—Hehir is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, International Institute for Strategic Studies, and American Academy of Arts and Sciences. His awards include the MacArthur Fellowship (1984), Laetare Medal from the University of Notre Dame (2004), Letelier-Moffitt Human Rights Award (1983), Marianist Award (1995), Martin E. Marty Award, and Carballo Teaching Award. Hehir has faced criticism from conservative Catholics for progressive stances, including advocating contraception as a private matter (1974), accepting the Letelier-Moffitt Award from a group seen as Marxist-linked (1983), promoting the 'consistent ethic of life' (accused of enabling pro-abortion politicians), supporting gay adoptions and honoring pro-abortion figures through Catholic Charities Boston (2005), partnering on health plans involving abortion referrals via Caritas Christi (2009), and questioning church teachings on women priests (2003) and orthodoxy enforcement (2005).