Robert A. Sirico (born 23 June 1951) is an American Roman Catholic priest and the founder of the Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty. He is a well-known political and cultural commentator.
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Robert Sirico was raised in a Catholic family in Brooklyn, N.Y. (his elder brother is actor Tony Sirico), but by his early teenage years he had left the Church. He received an associate's degree from Los Angeles City College, studied at St. Mary's University College, London, and received a bachelor's degree in English from the University of Southern California. While in California, during the early 1970s, he served as a Pentecostal preacher and promoted left-wing politics, but after a time he began to realize he did not agree with the principles of socialism.[1][2]
A deeper study of the human person led to his return to the Catholic Church in 1977, and later the writings of St. Augustine and the biography of Blessed John Henry Newman moved him consider the priesthood. He received an M.Div. from The Catholic University of America in 1987 and was ordained a Paulist priest in 1989. He was assigned to the Catholic Information Center in Grand Rapids, and soon thereafter founded the Acton Institute.[1][2][3]
In 1990, in response to what he saw as an insufficient understanding of economics by religious leaders and the religious isolation of business leaders, Sirico founded the Acton Institute in Grand Rapids. With the motto "connecting good intentions with sound economics," the institute provides a vision of free market economics within a Judeo-Christian moral framework.[3] In Sirico's words:
Shorty after the institute's founding Pope John Paul II published his encyclical Centesimus Annus; some, such as Greg Burke, claim that John Paull II gave support to Sirico's economic and moral vision by taking what Sirico calls a "preferential option for liberty," and asserting that economic freedom is essential for a moral society, and makes aid for the poor more effective.[3]However, in the encyclical, John Paul II also reminded the world of the duties of the State when he wrote:
"Furthermore, society and the State must ensure wage levels adequate for the maintenance of the worker and his family, including a certain amount for savings. This requires a continuous effort to improve workers' training and capability so that their work will be more skilled and productive, as well as careful controls and adequate legislative measures to block shameful forms of exploitation, especially to the disadvantage of the most vulnerable workers, of immigrants and of those on the margins of society. The role of trade unions in negotiating minimum salaries and working conditions is decisive in this area...The State must contribute to the achievement of these goals both directly and indirectly. Indirectly and according to the principle of subsidiarity, by creating favourable conditions for the free exercise of economic activity, which will lead to abundant opportunities for employment and sources of wealth. Directly and according to the principle of solidarity, by defending the weakest, by placing certain limits on the autonomy of the parties who determine working conditions, and by ensuring in every case the necessary minimum support for the unemployed worker" [5]
so it cannot be claimed that the encyclical, or Catholicism, tends to favour capitalism over any other economic system.
Sirico's writings have appeared in The New York Times,[6] The Wall Street Journal,[7] the Financial Times,[8] Forbes,[9] National Review,[10] The Washington Times,[11] First Things,[12] the National Catholic Register,[13] the National Catholic Reporter,[14] Crisis magazine,[15] and the Journal of Markets & Morality.[16] In his writing, he addresses such topics as the ethics of political and social freedom and the history of civil rights, international trade and finance, business ethics, and bioethics.[17]
Sirico lectures around the world on economics and morality—in North and South America, Central and Eastern Europe, and elsewhere.[18][19] He is also a frequent radio and television guest.[20][21]
In November 2009, Sirico signed the "Manhattan Declaration," an ecumenical statement issued by Christian leaders in defense of the sanctity of life, traditional marriage, and religious liberty.[22][23][24]
In 1990, Sirico was inducted into the Mont Pelerin Society. He served on the Michigan Civil Rights Commission from 1994 to 1998. The Franciscan University of Steubenville awarded Sirico an honorary doctoral degree in Christian Ethics in 1999. The Universidad Francisco Marroquín in 2001 granted him an honorary doctorate in social sciences.[25] He is a member of the American Academy of Religion.
He also serves on the board of advisers for the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow and the Civic Institute in Prague.[26][27]