brief bio and partial list of publications

 

 

Vita and Publications, John Cavanaugh-O’Keefe

6510 Damascus Rd, Laytonsville, MD 20882 – 301-922-4284; cavanaughokeefe@gmail.com

 

Personal: age 73, married to Betsy (Betsy Cavanaugh married John O’Keefe), six kids, 15 grandchildren

Education: B.A. in English, Harvard University; M.A. in Education, Trinity College, Hartford CT

 

Pro-life work has included:

·         laying the foundations of the rescue movement in America and on five continents

·         helping to prevent the construction of 400 abortion clinics in Bangladesh

·         promoting a consistent ethic of life (before Cardinal Bernardin)

·         promoting a consistent ethic of hospitality

·         exposing the eugenic roots of abortion

·         working with Richard Doerflinger at USCCB to oppose human cloning

·         organizing pro-life/pro-choice dialogue, aimed at understanding and civility

 

Published articles in:

·         National Right to Life News

·         A.L.L. About Issues

·         HLI Reports

·         Homiletic and Pastoral Review

·         America

·         Notre Dame Journal of Law, Ethics, and Public Policy

·         Women’s Studies Encyclopedia

 

Quoted in:

·         New York Times and New York Times Magazine

·         New Yorker

·         Los Angeles Times

·         Wrath of Angels, James Risen and Judy Thomas: see chapter 3, entitled “Father of Rescue: John O’Keefe”

 

Publications include:

Gospel of Life: A Study Guide (American Life League, 1976)

Emmanuel, Solidarity: God’s Act, Our Response (2001)

The Roots of Racism and Abortion: An Exploration of Eugenics (2001)

McGivney’s Guests – a work in progress, including …

·         Strangers: 21 Claims in the Old Testament (2015) – a study of hospitality in the OT

·         The Persistent Other (2016) – a study of hospitality in the NT

·         The Two Stout Monks Myth (2020) – a study of hospitality in Fathers and Scholastics up to Thomas Aquinas

·         Knocking at Haven’s Door (2019) – shifting paradigms of hospitality in Scripture and Tradition

·         Restoring the Works of Mercy (2019) – separating Matthew 25 from the traditional list (following Aquinas)

·         (studies of American saints and hospitality then magisterial teaching about hospitality are not complete)

The Pope or the Pol: Whose Vision Shapes Us? (2023) – contrasting Ecclesia in America with Death of the West

Rebuilding Pro-Life Nonviolence (2024) – co-author with Elise Ketch – argues for a new pro-life movement guided by the teaching of St. John Paul II, grounded firmly in Gandhian nonviolence  

 

Publications supported by Cardinal Wilton Gregory, Abbot James Wiseman, Professor Peter Kreeft