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Denver Catholic Charities head, former Christendom College VP named to prominent USCCB position

September 18, 2012

Jonathan Reyes, director of social ministry for the Archdiocese of Denver and president and CEO of the archdiocese’s Catholic Charities and Community Services, has been named executive director of the Department of Justice, Peace and Human Development of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Reyes replaces John Carr, who retired after 25 years in his position.

Reyes, a father of seven, served as a history professor and vice president of academic affairs at Christendom College, as well as director of Christendom Press, before becoming vice president for campus ministry and leadership formation of the Fellowship of Catholic University Students (FOCUS). Reyes then became founding president of the Augustine Institute, a Denver-based theological institute, before going to work for the archdiocese.

In his work for the Archdiocese of Denver, Reyes supervised an agency that serves 45,000 persons every year and cofounded Christ in the City, which according to its website “aims to form college-age Catholics as missionaries in keeping with the teachings of Jesus Christ and the Magisterium of the Catholic Church.”

“We believe that Christ in the City is a program oriented towards serving the poor in all of their needs: the spiritual works of mercy, the corporal works of mercy,” Reyes said in a 2010 interview. “To help them, to befriend them, to serve them, is a testimony that the Holy Father is calling for.”

 


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  • Posted by: unum - Sep. 19, 2012 7:46 AM ET USA

    Unfortunately, Mr. Reys' policy changes have to be approved by the politician-bishops in the USCCB who have thus far shown little inclination toward energizing the faithful to bring Christ to the needy. Their attention has been directed toward energizing Congress and the White House to provide social justice, a laughable objective.

  • Posted by: Athelstan - Sep. 18, 2012 8:03 PM ET USA

    The appointment of Jonathan Reyes as executive director of the Department of Justice, Peace and Human Development of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops is a gift from Heaven. The USCCB will have sounder policies henceforth than it has had for the past half century. Deo gratias!

  • Posted by: joancollins507161 - Sep. 18, 2012 6:12 PM ET USA

    Mr. Reyes' bio sounds encouraging. Maybe their support will again go to worthwhile causes in sync with Church teaching.