Patrick Whelan MD PhD is the Executive Director of the Catholic Democrats, a national network of state-based groups standing up for Catholic values in the public arena.  He has written widely on the medical issues that dominate the interface between Catholicism and American political life, and contributed to faith-based efforts to bring an end to the immoral war in Iraq.  Dr. Whelan is a Eucharistic Minister in his parish, a member of the Dominican Lay Scholars Community in Boston, serves on the board of Massachusetts Pax Christi, and is on the pediatrics faculty at Harvard Medical School.