Dr. Carl Anderson
Biography

As Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus for the past eight years, Carl A. Anderson is the chief executive officer and chairman of the board of the world's largest Catholic family fraternal service organization, which has more than 1.75 million members.

Mr. Anderson has had a distinguished career as a public servant and educator, holding various positions in the Executive Office of the President of the United States, including special assistant to the President and acting director of the White House Office of Public Liaison. Following his service at the White House, he served for nearly a decade as a member of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.

From 1983 to 1998, he taught as a visiting professor of family law at the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family at the Pontifical Lateran University in Rome. In 1988, became the founding vice president and first dean of the Washington, D.C., session of this graduate school of theology now located at The Catholic University of America.

He has been appointed by the Holy Father to advisory positions for the Pontifical Academy for Life, the Pontifical Council for the Laity, the Pontifical Council for the Family, the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, and the Pontifical Academy for Life.

Since Mr. Anderson assumed the responsibilities of supreme knight in 2000, the Knights of Columbus has achieved new heights in charitable giving, providing in its latest year more than $144 million directly to charity and 68 million hours in voluntary service.

Mr. Anderson holds degrees in philosophy from Seattle University and in law from the University of Denver. He and his wife, Dorian, are the parents of five children.

Synopsis
The Civilization of Love

In his address, Carl Anderson will discuss the foundation of a civilization of love that is rooted in the most basic desire of the human heart, and how young people can help build this civilization by the choices they make and the witness they give to their peers. Each person has a vocation to love, a call from God to act with generous self-giving for the good of others. To respond to this call, and thus to find true happiness in life, everyone is called to embrace the culture of life by recognizing the inherent dignity of each human person and defending those who are most vulnerable to attack or neglect. In exploring these themes, Dr. Anderson will suggest how this focus on individuals and their fundamental vocation to love can influence political and cultural life and provide an answer to the 'clash of civilizations' that sets populations with different backgrounds and beliefs on a collision course of history.