John Carr

John Carr retired on January 1, 2026, from the Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life at Georgetown University which he founded in 2013. He previously served as Director of the Department of Justice, Peace, and Human Development at the UnitedStates Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) for more than 20 years. He also was a Washington Correspondent for America, Chair of the Board of Bread for the World, and a Residential Fellow at the Institute of Politics at Harvard University.

Washington Front

A Path for the New Year

by John Carr January 7, 2016

At the end of a year of political chaos and Congressional dysfunction, something remarkable happened. Washington did its job.

Pope Francis is welcomed to the Speakers Balcony at the U.S. Capitol by members of Congress Sept. 24. (CNS photo/Doug Mills, pool)

In All Things

A Christmas miracle on Capitol Hill

by John Carr December 21, 2015

At the end of a year of political chaos and Congressional dysfunction, something remarkable happened. Washington did its job.

Washington Front

An Election Out of Focus

by John Carr November 19, 2015

What is missing from this campaign is serious discussion of work, workers and people without work.

Washington Front

Where have all the governors gone?

by John Carr November 13, 2015

Where is the focus on poverty, work and workers in the campaign?

Washington Front

Why Pope Francis is a model for politicians

by John Carr October 21, 2015

Three years after Paul Ryan and Joseph R. Biden debated as vice presidential candidates, Washington is anxiously waiting for them to make anguishing choices about their futures—whether Mr. Ryan will answer his fractured party’s pleas to serve as speaker and whether Mr. Biden has the emot

Pope Francis addresses a joint meeting of Congress at the U.S. Capitol in Washington Sept. 24. In the first such speech by a pope, he called on Congress to stop bickering as the world needs help. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)

In All Things

The pope presents a model of ‘faithful citizenship’ amid our political limbo

by John Carr October 15, 2015

Francis demonstrates how to share Catholic moral principles in ways that invite and persuade rather than alienate and push people away.

Washington Front

Faith on the Stump

by John Carr September 22, 2015

I have been searching in vain for an earlier column of mine in which I predicted that Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders would surge, Hillary Clinton and Jeb Bush would be in trouble and Ben Carson would show unexpected strength in the race for the White House.The way faith is playing out in the campai