Associate Editor, America, 1972-75, 2003-09
Editor in Chief, America, 1975-84

Father O'Hare's long association with America began in 1972 after returning from several years of service in the Phillipines. After serving as editor in chief from 1975-84, he was named president of Fordham University and remained there until 2003. Father O'Hare returned to America in 2003 to serve as an associate editor. He retired in 2009 and is now involved in pastoral work.

Father O'Hare received received numerous accolades for his work at America. In 1976, 1978, 1981 and 1984 his column, "Of Many Things" was recognized by the Catholic Press Association in its annual awards as the Best Regular Column originating in a magazine. He was born in New York City in 1931 and entered the Jesuits in 1948 and was ordained in 1961. His early training as a Jesuit took place in the Phillipines where he also taught at the Ateneo de Manila University from 1955 to 1958 and again from 1967 to 1972. He earned a doctorate in Philosophy from Fordham University (1968).

While president of Fordham University, Father O'Hare served as chair of the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities (AJCU) and chair of the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities (ACCU). He is a former trustee of the Asia Society and was part of a study mission to the Philippines sponsored by that Society in 1986. He is the vice president of the Appeal of Conscience Foundation and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

From March 1986 until December 1989, Father O'Hare served on the newly-established Mayor's Committee on Appointments, a five-person citizen's committee charged with interviewing and recommending candidates for New York City commissions. He also was a member of the Charter Revision Commission of the City of New York chaired by Richard Ravitch (1986-1988). In April 1988 Mayor Edward I. Koch appointed him chair of the Campaign Finance Board, a five-member non-partisan board created to oversee a new law on voluntary public financing of municipal elections established by the City Council and Mayor Koch in February 1988. He has been reappointed to this position twice by Mayor Rudolph Giuliani in January 1994 and in April 1999.

Father O'Hare has received numerous honors including 10 honorary degrees. In 1992, he was honored by the Citizens Union with its Civil Leadership Award for his work as founding chairman of the Campaign Finance Board. In 1994 he received the COGEL Award from the Council on Governmental Ethics Law for distinguished achievement in the regulation of government ethics. In 1999, he received the "I Love an Ethical New York Award" presented by Common Cause/NY for his 10 years of service as founding chair of the New York City Campaign Finance Board.

Editor in Chief, America, June 2005-

Drew Christiansen, S.J. has been editor-in-chief of America since 2005. From 1991 to 1998, he headed the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops Office of International Justice and Peace, and from 1998-2004 he continued to serve as counselor for international affairs to the USCCB. At the request of the Holy See, he organized and staffed a coalition of bishops' conferences working in support of the church in the Holy Land.

Father Christiansen served as the lead staff person in the drafting of the bishops' 1993 peace pastoral, "The Harvest of Justice Is Sown In Peace," which provided the basis for USCCB's post-Cold War policy. He is co-author of Forgiveness in Conflict Resolution (USCC, 2004) French translation, Le Pardon en Politique Internationale (2007), and co-editor of Peacemaking: Moral and Policy Challenges for the 90s (USCC,1994) and of Michel Sabbah, Faithful Witness: On Reconciliation and Peace in the Holy Land (New City. 2009). Father Christiansen was also the U.S. bishops' principal advisor for their 1991 pastoral statement on the environment, "Renewing the Earth," and he organized and supervised the bishops' environmental justice program, which sparked parish, diocesan and regional environmental activities. He is co-editor of And God Saw It Was Good: Catholic Theology and the Environment (USCCB, 1996).

In 1996, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem invested Father Christiansen as a Canon of the Holy Sepulchre (Jerusalem) for his work for the Church in the Holy Land. Pope John Paul II appointed Christiansen as expert for the 1997 Synod of America, and he served as a member of the Holy See Observer Delegation to the November, 1999 World Trade Organization ministerial meeting in Seattle. The same year he served as an expert at the First Congress of Patriarchs and Bishops of the Middle East at Fatqa, Lebanon. In 2003, he received the Manhattan College Peace Studies Award.

Father Christiansen served a consultant to the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity for the Mennonite-Catholic Dialogue and is a consultant to the Holy See Permanent Observer Mission to the United Nations. He is a participant in the official (USCCB) national Jewish-Catholic dialogues and is a member of the current round of the U.S. Methodist-Catholic dialogue. He is also a contributing editor to The Review of Faith in International Affairs.

Father Christiansen was ordained a priest in 1972 and received his doctorate in religious social ethics from Yale University in 1982. He has twice been a fellow at the Woodstock Theological Center, Washington, D.C. (1977-1980, 1998-2002), serving as the center=s acting director in 2002. He has been associate professor of theology and staff fellow of the Institute for International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame (1986-1990); assistant professor of social ethics, Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley and the Graduate Theological Union (1981-86) and director, Center for Ethics and Social Policy, Berkeley (1982-86).

Recent articles include "Metaphysics and Society: A Commentary on Caritas in Veritate" (Theological Studies, March 2010) and "The Ethics of Peacemaking," (Journal of Ecumenical Studies, Summer 2010). Other recent articles have appeared in Civilta Cattolica and Popoli (Italy), Projet and Christus (France), Razon y Fe (Spain), Mensaje (Chile), Faith in International Affairs, Ecumenical Trends and Seminary Journal (USA) as well as America.

America was founded by American Jesuits in 1909. That year, its first weekly issue was dated April 17. The magazine was modeled on The Tablet of London, a respected Catholic weekly review. America celebrated its centenary in 2009 and is now in its 114th year of continuous publication, making the magazine older than The New Yorker, The New Republic, Time Magazine and most other U.S. journals.

The editorial rooms of America have been located at various addresses on the island of Manhattan over the years since 1909. We began life at 32 Washington Square West. In 1911 the editors moved to 59 East 83rd Street. In 1918 the editorial residence was a town house at 39 West 86th Street. Then in 1926, another move was made, this time to a double house at 329 West 108th Street, where the editors remained for 39 years. Next came a move to 106 West 56th Street, where America was headquartered from 1962 to 2016.  A very generous gift from Cardinal Richard Cushing of Boston made it possible to purchase that building, which had been New York headquarters of a national fraternity, Phi Gamma Delta. The nine-story facility contained living quarters, library, editorial and business offices, meeting halls and chapel designed by Thomas Slon, S.J. America moved to its current headquarters at 1212 Sixth Avenue in 2017, in the heart of Midtown Manhattan on The Avenue of the Americas.

Since 1909, there have been over 200 U.S. and Canadian Jesuits associated with the magazine, many for terms of only one or two years. On the other end of the scale, some editors have had long tenures. Father Charles W. Whelan was associated with this review for 45 years; Father John W. Donohue for 35 years; Father John LaFarge for 37 years; Father Vincent S. Kearney for 32 years; Father Benjamin L. Masse for 30 years and Father Paul L. Blakely for 29 years. Today, the staff of America is composed of lay people and Jesuits both.

The Founder of America was also the founder of The Catholic Encyclopedia. He heads the list of editors-in-chief:

• Rev. John J. Wynne, S.J. 1909-1910
• Rev. Thomas J. Campbell, S.J. 1910-1914
• Rev. Richard H. Tierney, S.J. 1914-1925
• Rev. Wilfrid Parsons, S.J. 1925-1936
• Rev. Francis X. Talbot, S.J. 1936-1944
• Rev. John LaFarge, S.J. 1944-1948
• Rev. Robert C. Hartnett, S.J. 1948-1955
• Rev. Thurston Davis, S.J. 1955-1968
• Rev. Donald R. Campion, S.J. 1968-1975
• Rev. Joseph A. O'Hare, S.J. 1975-1984
• Rev. George W. Hunt, S.J. 1984-1998
• Rev. Thomas J. Reese, S.J. 1998-2005
• Rev. Drew Christiansen, S.J. 2005-2012
• Rev. Matt Malone, S.J., 2012-2022
• Rev. Sam Sawyer, S.J., 2022-

Read Father Thomas Stahel's history of America from The Encyclopedia of American Catholic History.

Read the story of the founding of America here.

Read Charles Morris's two-part history of America, written for our centennial in 2009, here and here.

Browse the first issue of America from April 17, 1909.

View a video history of America from 2009.

Read episodes in the history of America.

Read the June 20, 2005 editorial on the mission of America.

This will eventually be a page of desciptions for each area with links to each section.

Current Issue

Archives

Columns:

The Word
Letters
Faith in Focus
Of Many Things
Book Reviews
In These Pages
The Catholic Book Club
Editorials
News

Blogs

In All Things
The Good Word
For Educators

Media

Video
Podcasts
Slideshows

Resouces

Vatican II
Teacher's Newsletter
America en Espanol
Editor's Pick
Holy Land

Job Listings
Retreats
Classifieds

America Magazine

About America Magazine
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