Priest Rejected as House Chaplain To Speak Here

Father O'Brien's appearance on the program for the March 17 dinner was announced by Patrick J. Sheridan, society president.

The founder and director of the Marquette University-Les Aspin Center for Government in Washington, D.C., Father O'Brien made national headlines when House Speaker Dennis Hastert and Majority Leader Dick Armey, the top two GOP leaders, rejected his bid to become the official chaplain of lawmakers and their families.

The decision, announced in the waning hours of the 1999 congressional session, flew in the face of a lengthy selection process which saw an 18-member committee composed of nine lawmakers from each party sift through the applications and recommend that Father O'Brien get the job.

While his name was just one of three the committee forwarded to the House leadership for consideration, officials in both parties made it clear that Father O'Brien was the committee's preferred choice.

"Father O'Brien was the top vote getter by Republicans and Democrats," said U.S. Rep. Anna Eshoo, a California Democrat who served on the committee.

After the top two Republicans in the House rejected Father O'Brien's candidacy in favor of the Rev. Charles Wright, a Presbyterian minister, more than a few people charged that anti-Catholic bias was at work.

Among those voicing that opinion were Rep. Eshoo and Father O'Brien himself.

"I think there are tones of (bias) involved (in the selection,)" said the California congresswoman, adding: "I do not say this gladly."

Father O'Brien was even more direct.

"I am convinced that if I were a mainline Protestant minister and not a Catholic priest, I would be the candidate," he told the Associated Press in an interview several days after Speaker Hastert announced he had picked the Rev. Wright to succeed retiring House chaplain James D. Ford, a Protestant minister who has held the job for the past two decades.

His nomination by the bipartisan committee to become chaplain marked the first time in American history that a Catholic priest had been in that position.

Father O'Brien, who is from the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Milwaukee, is also a professor of political science and American politics at the Aspin Center, which is named after Lee Aspin, a former Secretary of Defense and Marquette University professor of international policy.
Father O'Brien, a native of Eden, Wisc., was ordained to the priesthood in 1969.

For five years he served as a parish priest in Milwaukee before doing graduate work in theology and political science at The Catholic University of America in Washington.

Upon completion of his doctoral work, Father O'Brien served on the staffs of two different archbishops as director of the Office for Liaison for Social Concerns. During that period he also served as visiting professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee and at Marquette University.

In 1978 he became the national director of communications for the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, where he directed a ground-breaking national study and co-authored a book on inner city private schools and produced the critically acclaimed television documentary, "Miracle in the Inner City."

In 1982, Father O'Brien joined the full-time political science faculty at Marquette. His teaching and research are focused in the areas of religion and politics and American politics, with specialties in congressional behavior and interest group politics.

Father O'Brien in 1988 began a summer congressional internship program for 30 students. Since that time the summer programs have evolved into academic semester programs and, with the hiring of former Secretary Aspin in 1994, into the establishment of a full-time Washington academic program. Upon Secretary Aspin's death in 1995, the Washington center was named in his honor.

The center, which is located on Capitol Hill, educates students from around the world and conducts study programs in Europe and Africa.

In addition to Father O'Brien's work in the academic sphere, he has regularly worked in parishes on weekends and for the past 29 years has served as a chaplain in the U.S. Army Reserve, where he holds the rank of colonel.

Father O'Brien has received numerous honors and awards for his service to his church and country, including the prestigious "Pope John XXIII Award for Distinguished Public Service" from Viterbo College in Wisconsin.

The U.S. Senate and House of Representatives have acknowledged his efforts in creating a value centered educational program and for the promotion of the ideals of public service.

The local dinner he will address will be the 95th annual gathering of the Friendly Sons.
It will be conducted at Genetti Manor in Dickson City.

Subscribe to The Times-Tribune