On Thursday 15 August, more than 230 people from a range of professions and industries gathered at the Park Hyatt in East Melbourne for the latest Melbourne Catholic Professionals luncheon, where international author and Catholic scholar Prof Helen Alvaré shared insights from her long and distinguished public career on the ways faith and professional life can intersect.
Currently the Robert A Levy Endowed Chair in Law and Liberty at Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University, Washington DC, Prof Alvaré has brought her gifts and qualifications in law and theology to a range of roles over a career spanning more than 40 years. She has worked at a commercial law firm, in the Church, in the media and public life, and in both Catholic and public universities.
Prof Alvaré was educated by religious sisters before going to college at Villanova University in Philadelphia. Reflecting on her student days, she said, ‘My goal was to be an attorney and wealthy, and I just went hard at that.’
Completing college early, she went on to law school and soon found herself practising at a large firm in Philadelphia. After four years in professional practice, she had what she described as an ‘earlier than midlife crisis’.
Much of the work in private practice was in church–state relations. But while her work was in the area of religious freedom, her goals at the firm were ‘strictly commercial’. At the end of the day, it was all about money, and after a while that ‘just began not to be enough’.
Newly married, and observing that there was only one woman at the firm who had children, she was concerned that working at the firm would not be conducive to having a family. ‘I really had a psychological shakedown, thinking, “Oh my gosh, is this going to be the next four years of my life?”’
You’re going to go in and take that job tomorrow that you don’t want … You’re being called.
Finding herself at a crossroads, she returned to study, enrolling in a masters of systematic theology ‘in order to have God tell me what to do next’. When she and her husband decided to move to Washington DC, ‘that was my cue to say I could have a new life,’ she said.
Taking a 77 per cent pay cut on what she had earnt at the law firm, she went to work for the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, representing them in the Supreme Court ‘on all the really controversial issues’. This involved opposing capital punishment and assisted dying, taking a pro-life stance on abortion, and advocating for religious freedom. ‘I mean, talk about a way to line up your resume and never get a job again,’ she quipped.
Nevertheless, having been given ‘free reign’ to combine her expertise in law with her love of theology, she ‘fell in love with the work’ and ‘was just very, very happy’.
Eventually, wanting to pursue more study, she transferred to Catholic University, where she finished her master’s in systematic theology and enrolled in the PhD program, specialising in Christian anthropology. The next part of her story, she says, was a ‘story of vocational call’.
The US bishops at this time were looking for someone who could ‘speak to the public in a very copious and informed way’ on abortion. Approached about taking on this very public role, she at first ‘resisted it mightily’. The bishops continued to interview for the role but, unable to find the right person, kept coming back to her.
One of the signs of vocation is you get bigger output than your input.
Explaining that she is not the kind of person who usually goes about saying that God has told her to do very specific things, she described a turning point she experienced at Mass one day, At this point she had been knocking back the role with the bishops for six months. As she was about to turn and leave the church, she had a strong sense that God was saying something to her: ‘You’re going to go in and take that job tomorrow that you don’t want … You’re being called.’
‘I’ve had one other occasion like that in my life,’ she said. ‘That’s it. I’m 63. That’s not many.’
Until that point, she said, she had done most of her work for the Church because she was a lawyer and a person of faith. This time, though, it was ‘also because I was a woman’. The prevailing narrative around the pro-life cause at that time was that pro-life supporters were ‘stupid people’ and that there were no female pro-lifers. ‘I was supposed to be a rebuke to all of that,’ Prof Alvaré said. ‘And I was willing to allow myself to do that.’
The work was ‘very, very fruitful’, she said, pointing out that ‘one of the signs of vocation is you get bigger output than your input.
I could be proud of a Church that had a consistent ethic of life.
‘[I had] tons of young women calling me. Appointments with the New York Times said I was worth listening to. More than I thought I was putting in was coming out, which was a great confirmation to me that that it was a true vocation.’
During her tenure at the Bishops’ Conference, Prof Alvaré learnt invaluable lessons about advocacy and integrity. She discovered, for instance, that she loved representing the Church and being able to draw on the Church’s record of Catholic social services.
When, during a television interview, it was put to her that the Church doesn’t care about people after they are born, she was able to say, ‘very explicitly, “Actually we’re the largest private charity in the United States. We serve 12 million single mothers a year.”
‘I could be proud of a Church that had a consistent ethic of life,’ she said. ‘I could be proud of a Church that was in Sudan, in Gaza, in Madagascar, doing the work they were doing.’
Another thing she learnt was ‘the faith and reason side of the Church’. Representing the Church in highly public and often contentious debates demanded absolute truthfulness and precision. ‘You cannot be one percentage point off,’ she said. ‘You have to be truthful at all times.’
All of my training in performance, all of my training in theology, all of my training in law—God used every bit of it.
This pressure could have become an unbearable burden had she not come to an important realisation. ‘I realised: Okay, God, you’ve prepared me for this. That’s what law school was for,’ she said. ‘All of my training in performance, all of my training in theology, all of my training in law—God used every bit of it. And that’s an interesting thing to think about when you contemplate your current work or any work that you aspire to.’
She also learnt ‘the art of speaking with faith and reason’, including the importance of ‘being truthful, being principled and being Catholic, listening to both sides, [making] arguments from reason. Some things might be mysterious in our tradition, but they’re never irrational,’ she pointed out.
Along with using reason, she came to see that being principled and polite goes a long way in winning people over. Resisting the temptation to respond to criticism in a snide or sarcastic way wasn’t always easy, she admitted, but even when she appeared in the media and ‘barely got a word out because the other side was talking all over me and contradicting, if I was pleasant and said even the little I could say with dignity and truth, the fan mail just poured in that they were proud—people were proud to be Catholic.’
Through experiences such as these, Prof Alvaré learnt the value of ‘playing the long game and being the principled broker,’ she said. By the end of ten years with the Bishops’ Conference, she said, ‘I could say that the New York Times would call me an honest broker in the debate, or that National Public Radio would allow me to do briefing papers for them on difficult issues. It took time to build that up.’
Nevertheless, after 10 years, she felt she was becoming ‘a talking head’ and the time had come to move on. She had always been drawn to academia, and with three small children by this time, the greater flexibility that came with working in a university was appealing. As an academic, she has worked at both a Catholic and a public university, finding that ‘you can be every bit the careerist; you can be every bit the status-seeker, [even] when you’re working for the Church.’
I’m here to teach you both sides of the questions, and to help you understand that some of this is difficult stuff.
Her history of engaging publicly on contentious issues has not always made it easy for Prof Alvaré in academic life. While she admits to still struggling with the refusal of many prestigious journals to publish her work, she says she is learning ‘the hard lesson of getting over myself’ and has found other ways to get her work ‘out there’.
She believes that being a good teacher and performing her job to a high standard is one way to challenge the scepticism and bias she sometimes encounters in academic circles. She also remains dedicated to presenting both sides of contentious issues fairly in her classes, telling her students, ‘I’m not here to deal with you politically or personally or culturally. I’m here to teach you both sides of the questions, and to help you understand that some of this is difficult stuff.’
As Prof Alvaré reflected on her career, she expressed a desire to deepen her service to the Church. The recent loss of her husband and her children growing up have prompted a renewed gratitude for her closest relationships. ‘The work was good, honest, and maybe we’ve made some small contributions, but never at the cost of these other things,’ she remarked, highlighting the importance of focusing on what truly matters.
These days, in addition to a busy academic career, Prof Alvaré dedicates significant time to her parish, teaching RCIA classes, mentoring young Catholics and even serving as a seamstress. ‘I fix all the priest’s vestments,’ she revealed with obvious pleasure, showing that faithful service takes many forms.
