Archbishop José H. Gomez of Los Angeles, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has appointed Dr. Julie H. Rubio to serve on the National Review Board (NRB). The NRB was established as part of the Charter for Protection of Children and Young People and advises the bishops’ Committee on the Protection of Children and Young People adopted by the U.S. bishops in 2002 to address allegations of sexual abuse of minors by Catholic clergy.
In his letter of appointment to Dr. Rubio, Archbishop Gomez emphasized the role of the National Review Board as playing “a vital role as a consultative body assisting the bishops in ensuring the complete implementation and accountability of the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People. As stated in the Charter, ‘The whole Church, especially the laity, at both the diocesan and national levels, needs to be engaged in maintaining safe environments in the Church for children and young people.’”
Dr. Rubio is a professor of Christian Social Ethics at the Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University. She is a graduate of Yale University and Harvard Divinity School and earned a Ph.D. in Religion and Social Ethics from the University of California. She was a professor of Christian Ethics and Women’s and Gender Studies for 19 years at St. Louis University.
In addition to teaching and other speaking engagements, Dr. Rubio has an extensive list of publications she has authored, including several books and articles in professional journals. She has also investigated the ethics of sexual violence and participates in research on clerical sexual abuse.
Information on the National Review Board and its functions may be found at National Review Board | USCCB.
Julie Hanlon Rubio taught at St. Louis University from 1999-2018. Her research focuses on marriage, family, sex, and gender. Her first book, A Christian Theology of Marriage and Family (Paulist, 2003), draws on Catholic Social Teaching and emphasizes the role of the family in society. With Charles E. Curran, she co-edited Marriage (Paulist, 2009), the fifteenth volume in the Readings in Moral Theology series. Her second book, a social virtue ethic for families, is Family Ethics: Practices for Christians (Georgetown University Press, 2010, Moral Traditions series). In her most recent book, Hope for Common Ground: Mediating the Personal and Political in a Divided Church (Georgetown University Press, 2016, Moral Traditions series), she attempts to move Catholics beyond culture war divisions to dialogue on contentious issues. Her current project is titled: Feminist Theology and the Family.
