The former director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, the retired Archbishop of Washington, D.C., and a political scientist who has authored books on the relationship of law, religion and morality will be the featured speakers in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee 2007 Pallium Lecture Series, which opens Tuesday, March 6.

Lectures are free, open to the public, and begin with a prayer service at 6:30 p.m. in the Archbishop Cousins Catholic Center, 3501 S. Lake Dr., St. Francis. A reception follows all lectures.

The 2007 Pallium Lecture Series concludes Monday, June 11, with Robert George, the McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence and director of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions, Princeton University, who will present "Faith and Reason: Why We Do Good."

George is a member of the President’s Council on Bioethics and formerly served as a presidential appointee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. He is the author of several books, including “In Defense of Natural Law, Making Men Moral: Civil Liberties and Public Morality,” published in 1993 and “The Clash of Orthodoxies: Law, Religion and Morality in Crisis,” published in 2002. In 2005 George won a Bradley prize, given by the Milwaukee-based Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation for Intellectual and Civic Achievement and the Philip Merrill Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Liberal Arts of the American Council of Trustees and Alumni.

The 2007 Pallium Series is sponsored by the Archdiocese of Milwaukee with financial support from the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation and other generous benefactors.

The Pallium Lecture Series, initiated in 2003 by Milwaukee Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan, brings national and international speakers to discuss pertinent issues related to religion, faith and Church activities in the modern world.

Jim Towey, former White House assistant to the President and Director of the Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, 2002-2006 presented God and Government: Helping the Poor without Hurting the Constitution in the first 2007 Lecture on March 6.

Towey is recognized for his efforts in successfully working with Congress to generate regulatory action that benefited faith-based initiatives. Under his leadership, 10 federal agencies, including the Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Agency for International Development, established offices to help religious organizations compete for grants. Towey worked closely with the late Mother Teresa of Calcutta and the Missionaries of Charity, serving as their legal counsel for 12 years. He met Mother Teresa in 1985 and spent a year in Mexico in one of her missions. In 1990 he worked full-time in her Washington home for people with AIDS. Towey currently is president of Saint Vincent College, Latrobe, Pa.

Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, Archbishop Emeritus of Washington, D.C. presented "The Church and Its Mission: In Good Times and Bad" on Thursday, March 29.

Cardinal McCarrick is an international human rights and religious advocate who has traveled to nations around the globe, including China, Cuba, Saudi Arabia and South Korea. He served on the U.S. Commission for International Religious Freedom and received the Eleanor Roosevelt Award for Human Rights from President Bill Clinton in 2000. Cardinal McCarrick is well recognized for his emphasis on education, vocations and meeting the needs of new immigrants, particularly in the Latino community. He continues to travel on behalf of Catholic Relief Services and is active with responsibilities for the Vatican and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.