Richard McBrien is professor of theology at the University of Notre Dame and a priest of the archdiocese of Hartford, Conn. He is the author of several books, including his best-selling Catholicism, Lives of the Popes, and Lives of the Saints. He is also general editor of the one-volume HarperCollins Encyclopedia of Catholicism. McBrien is past president of the Catholic Theological Society of America and winner of its annual John Courtney Murray Award for "distinguished achievement in Theology."