Oct. 18, 2013
Rev. Phillip J. Brown, S.S., rector of Theological College, was installed as the 75th president of the Canon Law Society of America (CLSA) at the society's annual convention in Sacramento, Calif., on Oct. 17.
Father Brown has been a member of the Canon Law Society of America since 1999. He has served as first consultor on its Board of Governors, chair of the Professional Responsibility Committee, and chair of the Canon and Civil Law Committee.
He obtained his doctorate in canon law summa cum laude from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome in 1999. Thereafter he served as pastor of St. Wenceslaus Catholic Church in Dickinson, N.D., for two years before joining the faculty of St. Mary's Seminary & University in Baltimore, Md., where he became academic dean of its School of Theology in 2004.
In 2006, he joined the faculty of the School of Canon Law at The Catholic University of America. He was appointed rector of Theological College, the national seminary of Catholic University, in 2010. He is also Économe Général (general treasurer) of the Society of St. Sulpice, whose Generalate is in Paris.
Father Brown has been a member of the State Bar Association of North Dakota since 1979, is a member of the bar of the United States Supreme Court and various state and federal courts, and is also an active member of the United States Supreme Court Historical Society.
Elected vice president/president-elect at CLSA's 74th annual convention in Chicago in October 2012, Father Brown will become past-president in October 2014 for the final year of his term. CLSA is a professional society of canon lawyers who serve the legal system of the Roman Catholic Church in various administrative and advocacy roles.