Andrew P.W. Bennett

The Rev. Dr. Andrew P.W. Bennett is Program Director, Faith Communities at Cardus. He is an ordained deacon in the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church in the Eparchy (Diocese) of Toronto and Eastern Canada.

A champion of religious freedom domestically and internationally, Fr. Deacon Andrew served as Canada's first Ambassador for Religious Freedom and led Global Affairs Canada's Office of Religious Freedom from 2013 to 2016. He simultaneously served as Canada's Head of Delegation to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance -a 31-country body which leads international efforts in Holocaust education, research, and remembrance.

As Cardus Program Director for Faith Communities, Fr. Deacon Andrew works to promote religious freedom, freedom of conscience, and the importance of public faith to our common life. He also leads Cardus's engagement with faith communities across Canada and Cardus's program of public theology. Fr. Deacon Andrew is a Senior Fellow at the Religious Freedom Institute (RFI) in Washington, DC - a leading independent think-tank committed to achieving broad acceptance of religious liberty as a fundamental human right for everyone, everywhere.

Fr. Deacon Andrew holds a Ph.D. in Politics (2002) from the University of Edinburgh as well as degrees in history from McGill and Dalhousie universities. When not praying, studying, or advocating, Fr. Deacon Andrew can be found with his fly rod in a stream, listening to bluegrass or Beethoven, or reading the Church Fathers.