Religious liberty attorney named USCCB general counsel

Published: 2007-07-06

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The 37-year-old general counsel and vice president of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty has been named general counsel of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. In September Anthony R. Picarello Jr. will fill the seat left vacant by the resignation of general counsel Mark Chopko, who had held the post since 1988. USCCB general secretary Msgr. David Malloy announced the appointment July 6. A 1995 graduate of the University of Virginia Law School, Picarello holds a bachelor's degree in social anthropology and comparative religions from Harvard University and a master's degree in religious studies from the University of Chicago. He has been with the Becket Fund for seven years, after previously working at the Washington law firm of Covington and Burling, where he specialized in environmental and employment law. While there, he also participated in a challenge to a Federal Election Commission audit and in a post-conviction death penalty appeal in Mississippi.

Copyright (c) 2007 Catholic News Service /U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The CNS news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed, including but not limited to such means as framing or any other digital copying or distribution method, in whole or in part without the prior written authority of Catholic News Service .