(OSV News) — A Harvard University academic whose work focuses on human flourishing told OSV News he is “honored and humbled” over his appointment by Pope Leo XIV to a Vatican research group.
Tyler J. VanderWeele, professor of epidemiology at Harvard, has been named an ordinary member of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences. The appointment was announced by the Holy See press office Feb. 16.
Promotes study of social sciences
Established by St. John Paul II in 1994, the academy promotes the study of the social sciences — particularly economics, sociology, law and political science — to enrich the Church’s social doctrine and its application to contemporary society. Research, conferences, workshops and scientific publications are among the academy’s core activities.
VanderWeele — who, like Pope Leo, was born in Chicago — is currently a faculty member at Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health. He serves as director of the university’s Human Flourishing Program and as co-director of Harvard’s Initiative on Health, Spirituality, and Religion at Harvard University.
His research draws on a number of disciplines to explore psychiatric and social epidemiology, the scientific study of diseases and disorders. VanderWeele also investigates the science of happiness and human flourishing, as well as the study of religion and health.
‘Pursuit of societal flourishing’
“Catholic social teaching has powerfully shaped the way I think about my own work, and about the pursuit of societal flourishing,” VanderWeele told OSV News by email Feb. 16. “The principles of the dignity of the human person, the common good, subsidiarity, and solidarity provide a powerful roadmap for our life together.”
He stressed that “we certainly need to retain what is distinctive about the Catholic faith, but we also need to find common ground with others, and these principles of Catholic social teaching can help us to do so.”
VanderWeele said that Catholic social teaching “also partially motivated and facilitated my own reception into the Catholic Church in 2012.
‘Coherence of Catholic teaching’
“The vision it provides and the coherence of Catholic teaching more generally all point towards its truth,” he said.
VanderWeele’s prolific work includes more than 500 peer-reviewed articles, with recent papers examining economic inequality and mental health, the need to measure human well-being, volunteering and reduced mortality, and the sociocultural aspects of pain.
In addition, he has written several books, with the two most recent — “Handbook of Religion and Health” and “A Theology of Health” — published, respectively, in 2023 and 2024.
VanderWeele also has a monthly “Psychology Today” blog on topics related to human flourishing.
Gina Christian is a multimedia reporter for OSV News. Follow her on X @GinaJesseReina.
