Date of Talk: November 30, 2016
About the Speaker: Holy Cross alumnus Mark K. Shriver '86 is president of Save the Children Action Network and a former Maryland state legislator. He is the son of Special Olympics founder Eunice Kennedy Shriver and Sargent Shriver, who was adviser to President John F. Kennedy, founder of the Peace Corps and VISTA, and architect of the War on Poverty. Mark Shriver's 2012 memoir on his dad, "A Good Man: Rediscovering My Father, Sargent Shriver" is a New York Times and Washington Post best seller.
About the Talk: Shriver speaks at Holy Cross on his new book, "Pilgrimage: My Search for the Real Pope Francis" (Random House, 2016). Inspired by the new pope's mercy and humility, Shriver traveled to Argentina, where he met with people who knew Pope Francis as a child, as a young man discerning his call in life, as a young Jesuit superior during the Argentine Dirty War, as a man sent into exile in mid-life after a polarizing term as Jesuit Provincial, and as a bishop who lived simply and was at home among the poor and powerless. Shriver shares these stories to illustrate Jorge Mario Bergoglio's journey to become the merciful, humble, joyful Pope Francis and how they helped to revitalize his own faith and renew his commitment to the Church.