Brian Williams, anchor and managing editor of NBC Nightly News, will replace Tim Russert, his recently deceased colleague, as presenter of the Philip J. Murnion Lecture for the Catholic Common Ground Initiative June 27 at 8 p.m. at the Pryzbyla Center of the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.
Mr. Russert, who was to give the public lecture, died of a heart attack June 13. Mr.Williams’ talk is titled “Tim Russert, the Political Process, and Common Ground for the Catholic Church.”
According to a news release from the Catholic Common Ground Initiative, it was begun in 1996 by the late Cardinal Joseph Bernardin, Archbishop of Chicago, who was concerned that “unnecessarily polarizing differences among church leaders and members hinders efforts to build the church community and to carry out its mission.”