Posted August 10, 2011

By Lou Baldwin
Special to the CS&T

Steven Bozza, who has just been appointed director of the archdiocesan Respect Life Office, brings strong credentials to the table, especially in the field of medical ethics.

Most recently he has been director of Family Life/Respect Life Office for the Diocese of Camden, and as such was responsible for developing and coordinating workshops, retreats, seminars and conferences geared toward families at every stage of the life cycle.

He holds a master’s degree in moral theology from the Religious Studies division of St. Charles Borromeo Seminary. Currently he is finishing work on a licentiate in bioethics from the Pontifical Athenaeum “Regina Apostolorum” in Rome and will then go on to the doctoral program, which after completing his thesis, he hopes to finish in a year and a half. {{more}}

Bozza, 56, is a member of St. Rose of Lima Parish in Haddon Heights, N.J., but he was born in South Philadelphia, baptized at St. Thomas Aquinas and began school at St. Nicholas of Tolentine before the family moved to New Jersey when he was 7. However, he always kept close ties with Philadelphia through his cousins who attended St. Maria Goretti and St. John Neumann High Schools.

His undergraduate degree is from Glassboro State College (now Rowan University) and it is in journalism, a good start for anyone who is spreading the word of God and the teachings of His Church.

He stayed in journalism only briefly at a small local paper, although later in his career he did work in the advertising department of the Camden Star Herald, the diocesan newspaper.

In the early 1980s he was active in the Charismatic Re

newal Movement through which his knowledge of the faith deepened, and that is how he met his wife, Janice. They married in 1986 and have ministered together ever since, especially through their parish RCIA and marriage preparation programs.

He wanted to take his own religious education another step but hadn’t decided where until a priest friend encouraged him to enroll in the Religious Studies Program at St. Charles.

“It was the richest spiritual time in my life,” he said.

Bozza also serves as an adjunct professor in biomedical ethics at Immaculata University, and he has lectured, coordinated symposiums and written fairly extensively on bioethics and marriage and the family, from the Catholic perspective – including some pamphlets for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

He has been active in all the life issues including assisted suicide.

He’s delighted to be back working in Philadelphia.

“My family is here, I spent a lot of my youth here, and when I serve the Archdiocese, I feel I’m serving my family,” Bozza said.

Among his goals as director of the Respect Life Office is to “find new and innovative ways to teach on the Gospel of Life,” he said.

“I’ll be working to get involved with social media – Twitter, Facebook, along with working with the priests and parish coordinators,” Bozza said.

“We have to engage the people in all five counties. We need to educate people why such things as assisted suicide are wrong, and they can take that to the ballot box and make a difference.”

Lou Baldwin is a member of St. Leo Parish and a freelance writer.