Carl A. Anderson
Vice President
Professor of Family Law
B.A., Philosophy, Seattle University
J.D., University of Denver
Professor Anderson has served as Vice President of the Washington Session of the Institute since its founding in 1988, and was its Dean until 1998. Since 1983, he has also taught as a visiting professor at the Institute’s Rome Session at the Pontifical Lateran University. As Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus from 2000 until his retirement in February 2021, he led the world’s largest lay Catholic organization with more than 2 million members worldwide. From 1983 to 1987, he worked in the White House of President Ronald Reagan. For nearly a decade, Professor Anderson served on the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. He has been a frequent participant in international congresses on the family organized by the Holy See. In 1998, he was appointed by Pope John Paul II to the Pontifical Academy for Life. He was appointed as an auditor to three Synods of Bishops. He also served as a member of the Pontifical Councils for the Laity and for the Family, and as a consultor to the Pontifical Councils for Justice and Peace and Social Communications. He is the author of A Civilization of Love: What Every Catholic Can Do to Transform the World and co-author of Our Lady of Guadalupe: Mother of the Civilization of Love, both New York Times bestsellers. He was also the editor with Msgr. Livio Melina of The Way of Love: Reflections on Pope Benedict XVI’s Encyclical Deus Caritas Est and co-author with Rev. José Granados of Called to Love: Approaching John Paul II’s Theology of the Body. His most recent book is These Liberties We Hold Sacred: Essays on Faith and Citizenship in the 21st Century.
Select Publications
Proclaim Liberty: Notes on the Next Great Awakening in America. New York: Image Books, 2012.