Austen Ivereigh

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Austen Ivereigh is a Catholic journalist and is currently co-ordinator of the Citizen Organising Foundation's Strangers into Citizens campaign.

[edit] Education and writing

Ivereigh was born in 1966. He was educated at the Benedictine public school, Worth, and was at one point in his life a novice member of the Society of Jesus.

In 1989 he joined St Antony's College, Oxford as a postgraduate student. In 1993 he completed a D.Phil. thesis for the University of Oxford entitled Catholicism and Politics in Argentina: an Interpretation, with Special Reference to the Period 1930-1960. This led to the subsequent publication Catholicism and Politics in Argentina, 1810-1960 (New York: St Martin's Press; Basingstoke: Macmillan in association with St Antony's College, Oxford, 1995).

He has edited The Politics of Religion in an Age of Revival: Studies in Nineteenth-Century Europe and Latin America (London: Institute of Latin American Studies, 2000) and Unfinished Journey: the Church 40 Years after Vatican II: Essays for John Wilkins (New York; London: Continuum, 2003).

He has been Deputy Editor of The Tablet.

[edit] Work for the Archbishop of Westminster

In 2004 Dr Ivereigh was appointed Director of Public Affairs to the Archbishop of Westminster. As such, he was the Archbishop's main policy adviser. He has been credited with boosting Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor's public image, which was damaged by the news that in his previous office as Bishop of Arundel and Brighton he had appointed a known paedophile, Michael Hill (jailed for sex offences in 1997 and 2002), to be Chaplain to London Gatwick Airport. He accompanied the Archbishop to Rome for the conclave that elected Pope Benedict XVI. He was co-ordinator of The Da Vinci Code Response Group (the other members being the Right Reverend Dom Christopher Jamison OSB, Abbot of Worth; Jack Valero, Communications Director, Opus Dei UK; Clare Czerwinke, Opus Dei; Fr John Hemer, Lecturer in Scripture, Allen Hall; Fergal Martin, General Secretary, Catholic Truth Society; Dr Janet Martin Soskice, Jesus College, Cambridge; Maggie Roux, Senior Lecturer in Film, Leeds Trinity and All Saints College; Melissa Morton, Opus Dei; and Fr Peter Scally, SJ, Jesuit Media Initiatives).

On 18 July 2006 Dr Ivereigh resigned as the Cardinal's director of public affairs, following allegations by the Daily Mail. The allegations are the subject of legal proceedings commenced by Dr Ivereigh in the High Court of Justice. The Daily Mail is defending the action.