Corpus Christi native, Joseph Meaney, Ph.D., named president of NCBC

The Board of Directors of The National Catholic Bioethics Center (NCBC) is pleased to announce that Joseph Meaney, Ph.D., has been named as the new president of the Center upon the retirement of its current President, Dr. John M. Haas, at the end of June.  Dr. Haas served as the president of the center for over twenty-two years and was involved with the Search Committee in finding his successor.

During the tenure of Dr. Haas, the NCBC expanded its publications, consultations, and educational initiatives with eight Ph.D. ethicists on staff or serving as Senior Fellows and has developed the center into a foundational Catholic institution in the United States.  For almost forty years the center has worked with the Knights of Columbus to provide bishops’ workshops on bioethics to the Bishops of the United States, Canada, Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean. The last one was attended by 140 Bishops.  

Dr. Meaney is a native of Corpus Christi and a graduate of the University of Dallas and the University of Texas-Austin and has his Ph.D. in Bioethics from the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Rome.  His dissertation topic was Conscience and Health Care: A Bioethical Analysis.  “Conscience protection is a critically important topic today both in the United States and internationally,” according to Dr. Marilyn Coors of the University of Colorado School of Medicine and a member of the board. “We are delighted our new president is so committed to this topic.”  

Dr. Meaney is currently director of international outreach and expansion for Human Life International (HLI) and is a leading expert on the international pro-life and family movement, having traveled to eighty-one countries on its missions.  He founded the HLI Rome Office in 1998 and lived there for nine years where he collaborated closely with dicasteries of the Holy See, particularly the Pontifical Council for the Family and the Pontifical Academy for Life.  He has dual citizenship in the US and France and is fluent in four languages. His family has been active in the health care and pro-life fields in Corpus Christi and France for many years. 

Dr. Meaney was the general editor of the English Edition and co-author with his father, Dr. Michael Meaney, of a chapter in the Pontifical Council for the Family’s “Lexicon: Ambiguous and debatable terms regarding family, life and ethical questions” and is published in several scholarly journals.  He has also written many popular articles and has been interviewed by newspapers, and radio and television in Africa, the Americas, Asia, and Europe. 

His popular articles have appeared in the National Catholic Register, Crux, Inside Catholic, Crisis Magazine, Inside the Vatican, and many other publications. 

Archbishop Gregory Aymond, Chairman of the Board, said, “We are pleased to have as our new president an individual not only accomplished in the discipline of bioethics but also one who can make the Church’s message of life appealing to a broad range of audiences.  We are blessed to have him join us. I look forward to our ministry together.”  

Dr. Haas pointed out that he has known Dr. Meaney for many years, not only as a scholar but also as a man of deep faith. HLI President, Father Shenan Boquet, wished Dr. Meaney the very best in his new position and thanked the Lord of Life for Meaney’s significant contributions to HLI’s global mission of preaching the Gospel of Life over more than two decades.  

Dr. Meaney lives near Paris with his wife, Marie, and their daughter, Thérèse, and they will move to Pennsylvania this summer.  

For more information, please contact George Gunning, Executive Vice President, at [email protected]  or (215) 871-2009 or go to www.nbcenter.org.