Former Vatican ambassador Mary Ann Glendon to speak on 'Universal access to religious freedom' at CSLR

Mary Ann Glendon, Learned Hand Professor of Law at Harvard University and former U.S. Ambassador to the Vatican, will tackle the challenges of the universal right to religious freedom in a world of diversity, Sept. 20, 7:30 p.m. at Emory University School of Law.

This year’s Harold J. Berman lecturer, Glendon headlines the 2011-2012 “When Law and Religion Meet Lecture Series” presented by Emory University’s Center for the Study of Law and Religion. Her lecture, Religious Freedom – A Second Class Right?, is co-sponsored by Emory’s Aquinas Center of Theology and is a highlight of the Aquinas Center’s silver anniversary celebration.

President of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, Glendon is the first woman to be named president of one of the major pontifical academies. She has held numerous high-ranking appointments, including head of the Vatican delegation to the U.N. Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995 and member of the President's Council on Bioethics during the Bush Administration. She is one of the world’s leading scholars of comparative family law, religious freedom, and human rights.

The “When Law and Religion Meet Lecture Series” brings distinguished scholars to the podium to confront difficult legal, moral, and theological issues facing religious communities. This year’s series features five lectures on critical questions creating battles in today’s courtrooms, legislatures, and places of worship: genetic cloning and other bio-medical advances, religious freedom in a diverse world, Islamic family law in the West, Jesus and the law of marriage and divorce, and same-sex marriage. Other lectures in the series:

Decalogue Lecture

• September 13, 7:30 p.m.
• Rabbi Michael J. Broyde, Professor of Law at Emory University and CSLR Senior Fellow
• "The Bioethical Future: Some Jewish Thoughts on Reproductive Ethics"

Don S. Browning Lecture

• January 25, 12:30 p.m.
• John Witte, Jr., Jonas Robitscher Professor of Law, Alonzo L. McDonald Family Foundation Distinguished Professor at Emory University, and CSLR Director
• “Shari`a in the West? What Place for Religious Family Laws in America and Other Western Democracies?”

Alonzo L. McDonald Lecture in Christianity and Law

• February 8, 12:30 p.m.
• Luke Timothy Johnson, Robert W. Woodruff Professor of New Testament and Christian Origins at Emory University and CSLR Senior Fellow
• “Jesus and the Law of Marriage and Divorce"

Overton and Lavona Currie Lecture in Law and Religion

• March 21, 12:30 p.m.
• Michael J. Perry, Robert W. Woodruff Professor of Law at Emory University and CSLR Senior Fellow
• "Freedom of Religion, Same-Sex Marriage, and the Catholic Church"

All lectures take place at Emory University School of Law. They are free and open to the public, and no registration is required. Parking for evening events is available free of charge in the Lowergate South Parking Deck, located behind Emory Law.  Parking for lunchtime events is available in the Lowergate/Visitor Parking Deck, located across the street from the Lowergate South deck.

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