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Dear catholic.com visitors: This Catholic Answers website, with all its free resources, is the world’s largest source of explanations for Catholic beliefs and practices. We receive no funding from the institutional Church and rely entirely on your generosity to sustain this website with trustworthy, accessible content. If every visitor this month donated $1, catholic.com would be fully funded for an entire year. If you’ve never made a gift, now is the time. Your donation will be matched dollar for dollar this week only. Thanks and God bless.

Francis J. Beckwith

Contributor

Francis J. Beckwith is Professor of Philosophy & Church-State Studies at Baylor University. He also teaches courses in the Departments of Political Science and Religion as well as the J. M. Dawson Institute of Church-State Studies. In addition, he is a Resident Scholar in Baylor’s Institute for Studies of Religion.

A graduate of Fordham University, with both a Ph.D. and M.A. in philosophy, he also holds the Master of Juridical Studies degree from the Washington University School of Law in St. Louis. His books include Politics for Christians: Statecraft as Soulcraft, Return to Rome: Confessions of an Evangelical Catholic, and Defending Life: A Moral and Legal Case Against Abortion Choice. He has presented academic papers, chaired sessions, and offered commentaries at the conferences of a number of professional societies. In January 2008, he was selected as the 2007 Person of the Year by Inside the Vatican Magazine.

He and his wife, Frankie, are parishioners of St. Joseph’s Catholic Church, and live in Woodway, Texas.

More by Francis J. Beckwith

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