Jim Towey

Jim Towey
Former Director White House Office of Faith Based Initiatives
Nationality American
Education B.S. and J.D.
Alma mater Florida State University
Occupation President and CEO of Ave Maria University
Spouse(s) Mary
Children Five

Harry James Towey (/ˈtuːi/), better known as Jim Towey, served as Director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives and as Assistant to President George W. Bush from February 2002 to May 2006.[1]

Towey served as senior adviser to U.S. Sen. Mark Hatfield (R-Oregon) for six years, and as director of Florida's health and human services agency under Gov. Lawton Chiles (D).[2] In 1996 he founded Aging with Dignity, a national non-profit organization to help individuals and their families plan for and receive appropriate care during times of serious illness. He created the document Five Wishes, an advance directive with over 20 million copies in circulation as of 2018.[3]

During his tenure at the Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, Towey sought to remove impediments to faith-based social service organizations receiving government funding. Towey served as the sixteenth President of Saint Vincent College (Latrobe, Pennsylvania) from July 1, 2006 to June 30, 2010.[4] He has served as President and CEO of Ave Maria University since 2011.

Background and personal life

Towey grew up in Jacksonville, Florida, where he graduated from Bishop Kenny High School in 1974.[5] He earned a Bachelor of Science from Florida State University in 1978, and a Juris Doctor from Florida State University College of Law in 1981. He is a Roman Catholic and a member of the Knights of Columbus.[6]

Towey and his wife Mary have five children: James Marion, Joseph Marius, Maximilian Marian, John Mariano and Marie Therese.[7]

Humanitarian work

Prior to his 2002-06 White House service, Towey was employed for 12 years as a U.S. legal counsel to Mother Teresa (from 1985 until her death) and traveled with her on numerous occasions. He served nearly two years as a full-time volunteer in Mexico in one of her missions, and at her home for people suffering from AIDS in Washington, D.C. He has returned to Calcutta with Saint Vincent College students to work in her missions. As her attorney, he helped to ensure people were not using Mother Teresa's name to raise money without her permission, assisted in establishing AIDS clinics and homeless shelters, and coordinated immigration matters for her nuns.

Aging with Dignity

Towey has said that the experience of working with Mother Teresa motivated him to establish the non-profit organization Aging with Dignity in 1996. The Five Wishes booklet and additional resources help people express how they want to be treated if they are seriously ill and unable to speak for themselves.[8] Over 20 million copies of the group's Five Wishes document, which Towey called "the living will with a heart and soul,"[9] have been distributed worldwide by more than 40,000 organizations.[3]

"Death book" op-ed

In an August 2009 op-ed Towey argued that the Obama administration was attempting to cut costs for the medical treatment of veterans by providing them with a "death book" which pressured the veterans to "forgo critical care".[10] In an appearance on Fox News Sunday television show, Towey charged that the booklet was authored by an advocate of assisted suicide, and that it was being used to give "end of life" counseling to soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.[11] On the show, Tammy Duckworth, Assistant Secretary for the Veteran's Administration, responded that printed copies of the booklet had been pulled from the shelves in 2007 and that the Obama administration was revising it.[11] Duckworth also said that veterans were welcome to spend $5 to purchase Towey's competing book on end-of-life discussions.[11][12]

Political career

Advisor to Hatfield (1982–88)

Towey served in the office of Senator Mark Hatfield as legislative director and legal counsel between 1982 and 1988.[13]

Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services (1991–95)

In 1990, Towey joined the staff of Florida Governor Lawton Chiles,[14] who brought him to Miami in 1991 as District Director of the Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services, where he presided during Hurricane Andrew. He was named Secretary of the 40,000 employee agency in 1993.[15] He was removed from office in 1995, after having failed to be confirmed by two successive sessions of the Florida State Legislature.[14][16]

White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives (2002–06)

During his 2002-06 service as 'faith czar' (the informal name for Towey's White House position of Director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives) Towey decried what he termed "militant secularism": the view that religious considerations should be excluded from government affairs and public education.[17] At the White House, Towey served as a member of President George W. Bush's senior staff and reported directly to him on church-state and religious liberty issues, policies promoting tax incentives for enhanced charitable giving, and the implementation of individual choice in drug treatment, mentoring, housing and other federal programs.

Positions in academia

Saint Vincent College (2006–10)

Towey became the sixteenth President of Saint Vincent College, a small Catholic university in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, on July 1, 2006.[18] During his tenure as President, Saint Vincent College made the Young America's Foundation list of top ten conservative colleges in the United States for the first time.[19][20] Prior to his tenure, the school had received honorable mention on the list.[21] During the years of his presidency, the college saw record levels of applications and enrollment as well as new pledge commitments; three consecutive budget surpluses; and the initiation of the most expensive construction and renovation project in the college’s history. Towey made a priority of recruiting minority and international students. He also created a new Office of Service Learning through which hundreds of Saint Vincent students experienced serving those in need. Towey presided over a somewhat controversial reaccreditation of the college by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools in 2007.

Towey faced some difficulties in his relationships with faculty members at St. Vincent.[22] In February 2008, nearly three quarters of the tenured faculty signed a letter of concern to the college's board of directors regarding Towey.[20] In April 2008, Towey attributed much of the dissension to a clash of cultures with a predominantly Benedictine faculty unaccustomed to rapid change, and to the fact that he was "new to academia".[20] One vocal faculty critic, Brother Mark Gruber, was accused of sexual indiscretions involving digital pornography. Gruber was found guilty by the Catholic Church and subsequently dismissed from the Benedictine Order and banned from functioning as a Catholic priest. Police dismissed the claims made against Mark Gruber because the computer in question was in a common area and was accessible by the public.[23] Mark Gruber had been previously the only voice to publicly oppose Jim Towey's hiring decisions. Gruber's appeal to Rome was unsuccessful.[24][25] Towey stepped down as President on June 30, 2010.

Ave Maria University (2011–present)

Towey assumed the role of President of Ave Maria University from Nicholas Healy on July 1, 2011.

Rift statement

On August 29, 2018, Towey issued a statement in response to Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò's August 25th letter.[26][27] In this letter, Viganò accused Pope Francis and other members of the hierarchy of the Catholic Church of having known of Cardinal Theodore McCarrick's alleged sexual misconduct and yet having failed to enforce sanctions against him.[28] In his response, Towey characterized the Viganò allegations as baseless, calculated to harm the reputation of the pope, and founded upon a flawed understanding of religious conservatism.[29] Towey's remarks met with a swift backlash both from Ave Maria University alumni and from other Catholics, many of whom interpreted the statement as dismissive of the victims of the alleged sexual abuse.[30][31] On August 30, 2018, Towey revised the rift statement, removing an allegation that Cardinal Raymond Burke's support for the Viganò letter was motivated by Burke's frustrated career ambitions, and issued a second statement in which he affirmed his fidelity to the Catholic Church and sympathy for victims of sexual abuse and exhorted the critics of Pope Francis to resolve their differences privately, rather than through the issuing of public statements.[32][33][34]

Public recognition and awards

Towey has received honors for his public service including six honorary doctoral degrees, the Omicron Delta Kappa Grad Made Good Award from the Florida State University Alumni Association,[35] and the Archbishop John Carroll Award from the Archdiocese of Miami. Towey was awarded the Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice Papal Cross by Pope John Paul II on September 5, 2000, the third anniversary of the death of Mother Teresa.[36] He was recognized by President Bush for his work to improve the lives of those in need. The Cuban Association of the Order of Malta awarded Towey the 2009 Tuitio Fidei Award for his work with the poor and infirm.[37]

See also

Political offices
Preceded by
Buddy MacKay		 Florida Secretary of Children and Families
1993–1998		 Succeeded by
Kathleen Kearney
Preceded by
John DiIulio, Jr.		 Director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives
February 1, 2002–May 31, 2006		 Succeeded by
Jay Hein
Academic offices
Preceded by
James F. Will		 President of Saint Vincent College
July 1, 2006–June 30, 2010		 Succeeded by
Br. Norman W. Hipps, O.S.B.
Preceded by
Nicholas J. Healy		 President of Ave Maria University
July 1, 2011–present		 Incumbent

References

  1. ↑ "President names Towey as Director of the Faith-Based & Community Initiatives", February 1, 2002. Jim Towey White House bio.
  2. ↑ Bumiller, Elisabeth (13 May 2002). "White House Letter; Faith, Politics and One Eye on Heaven". The New York Times. Retrieved 8 October 2018.
  3. 1 2 Sonnenberg, Maria (4 September 2018). "Here's how to 'Finish Strong' when your time is up". Florida Today. Retrieved 13 October 2018.
  4. ↑ "Saint Vincent College President Jim Towey to Step Down at End of Academic Year". Saint Vincent College. 2009. Archived from the original on 2010-05-28. Retrieved 2009-10-14.
  5. ↑ "Around the diocese" (PDF). St. Augustine Catholic. Vol. 11 no. 4. Victor Galeone. March–April 2002. p. 26. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 August 2003. Retrieved 13 October 2018.
  6. ↑ "President discusses compassionate conservatism in Dallas", georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov; August 3, 2004; accessed February 6, 2014.
  7. ↑ Towey family profile, St. Vincent College website; accessed February 6, 2014.
  8. ↑ Five Wishes official website
  9. ↑ Silva, Mark, "Living Will With Heart Now Available", Miami Herald, July 24, 1997.
  10. ↑ "The Death Book for Veterans", The Wall Street Journal, August 18, 2009.
  11. 1 2 3 Berger, Joseph and Henry, Derrick. "Lieberman Suggests Health Care Reform May Have to Wait", New York Times, August 24, 2009; accessed February 6, 2014.
  12. ↑ Chris Wallace, Jim Towey, Tammy Duckworth (23 August 2009). "Fox News Sunday With Chris Wallace".
  13. ↑ Husty, Denes (4 April 2011). "New CEO gets early start at Ave Maria". News-Press.
  14. 1 2 Cooperman, Alan (15 February 2005). "A Faith-Based Mission for Change". Washington Post. Retrieved 13 October 2018.
  15. ↑ Kennedy, John (8 July 1993). "Former Chiles Aide To Head Troubled Hrs". Sun Sentinel. Retrieved 8 October 2018.
  16. ↑ Sexton, Christine (11 March 2016). "Before John Armstrong, there was Jim Towey". Politico. Retrieved 13 October 2018.
  17. ↑ " Faith Czar Towey blasts 'militant secularism' at Catholic men's event", "Church and State", March, 2005. "Archived by Webcite".
  18. ↑ President, accessed 26 December 2009
  19. ↑ "2006-2007 Top Ten Conservative Colleges". yaf.org. Young America's Foundation. Archived from the original on 7 February 2007. Retrieved 4 October 2018.
  20. 1 2 3 Lederman, Doug. "Too Catholic, Even for Many Monks", 'Inside Higher Ed, April 22, 2008. Archived by WebCite.
  21. ↑ "Group names top 10 conservative colleges". 16 December 2005. Retrieved 4 October 2018.
  22. ↑ Garazik, Richard "St. Vincent faculty quietly revolts", Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, April 3, 2008. Archived by WebCite
  23. ↑ http://www.counterpunch.org/2009/12/25/fear-and-loathing-at-st-vincent-college/
  24. ↑ Rodgers, Ann (2013-07-31). "Vatican bars Benedictine priest who taught at Saint Vincent College". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Retrieved 2013-08-30.
  25. ↑ Gazarik, Richard (July 31, 2013). "Defrocked priest says he'll appeal to pope". Tribune-Review. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Retrieved 2013-08-30.
  26. ↑ Towey, H. James (29 August 2018). "Statement by President Jim Towey Regarding The Rift Within The Church". Ave Maria University. Archived from the original on 29 August 2018. Retrieved 2 October 2018.
  27. ↑ Hammerschlag, Annika (29 August 2018). "Ave Maria University president issues statement in support of Pope Francis". Naples Daily News. Retrieved 2 October 2018.
  28. ↑ Pentin, Edward (25 August 2018). "Ex-Nuncio Accuses Pope Francis of Failing to Act on McCarrick's Abuse". National Catholic Register. Retrieved 2 October 2018.
  29. ↑ "Ave Maria president denounces 'defiance' of pope by 'conservative Catholics'". Catholic News Agency. 30 August 2018. Retrieved 2 October 2018.
  30. ↑ Hammerschlag, Annika (6 September 2018). "Ave Maria University president criticized for his defense of Pope Francis". Naples Daily News. Retrieved 2 October 2018.
  31. ↑ Cummings McLean, Dorothy (30 August 2018). "Ave Maria University president slams Viganò, Cardinal Burke". Life Site. Retrieved 2 October 2018.
  32. ↑ Towey, H. James (30 August 2018). "President Towey's letter to friends of Ave Maria University". Ave Maria University. Retrieved 2 October 2018.
  33. ↑ Cummings McLean, Dorothy (31 August 2018). "Ave Maria University president apologizes for Cdl. Burke hit but doubles down on Viganò". Life Site. Retrieved 2 October 2018.
  34. ↑ "Ave Maria president amends statement denouncing 'defiance' of pope". Catholic News Agency. 31 August 2018. Retrieved 2 October 2018.
  35. ↑ "Grads Made Good". FSU Alumni Association.
  36. ↑ "Saint Vincent College website"
  37. ↑ "White Cross Gala 2009". Order of Malta Cuba. Retrieved 10 October 2018.
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