The Chancellor will speak on the HHS mandate and the bishops' views on religious liberty on Monday, May 7, from 2:10-3 PM in the G. Lloyd Bunting, Sr. Theater. All parents are welcome!

Jane Belford is the Chancellor of the Archdiocese of Washington, the highest ecclesiastical or decision-making office a lay person can hold in the Church. Mrs. Belford is the first woman and first layperson to hold this position in the history of the Archdiocese of Washington. She was appointed Chancellor by Cardinal Theodore McCarrick in 2001 and was reappointed by Cardinal Donald Wuerl in 2006.

Mrs. Belford received her undergraduate degree from Manhattanville College and her law degree with honors from Georgetown University. She practiced law for many years in Washington, D.C. and was formerly a partner with Foley & Lardner, a large national firm.

Mrs. Belford has served as a two-term member of the Board of Governors of the District of Columbia Bar, chair of the DC Public Service Activities Corporation, president of the Women’s Bar Association, and president and trustee of the Research Foundation of the Bar Association of the District of Columbia. She has served on numerous committees of the DC Bar and local and federal courts in DC, including the Task Force on Gender, Race and Ethnic Bias in the DC Federal Courts, the Committee on Admissions and Grievances, Rule 911 Counseling Panel, as a mediator in the alternate dispute resolutions programs in the US District Court and US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit. She also has served on the Board of Directors of the Historical Society of the District of Columbia Circuit and as a member of the DC Access to Justice Commission.

Mrs. Belford has worked on behalf of many charitable organizations, filling many different roles as Board member, pro bono attorney, fundraiser and volunteer, including the Advisory Council of the Archdiocesan Legal Network of Catholic Charities; Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc.; Christ Child Society; Jesuit Volunteers International; the John Carroll Society; and Support Our Aging Religious (SOAR). She is a Dame of Malta and served on the Board of Directors of the Federal Association of the Order of Malta.

In recognition of her service to the Church and Archdiocese of Washington, Pope Benedict XVI granted her the Papal Honor of Dame of the Order of St. Gregory, and the Benemerenti Medal for outstanding and meritorious service to the Holy See.