Anthony R. Picarello, Jr., Esq.

Executive Director

Executive Director Anthony R. Picarello Jr. oversees the Shrine’s development and coordinates relations between the Shrine and the Knights of Columbus headquarters in New Haven.

Prior to his work at the Shrine, Anthony served as Associate General Secretary and General Counsel for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). As Associate General Secretary, he oversaw the policy and advocacy work of USCCB, and as General Counsel, he led the office that served as in-house counsel to the USCCB and administered the National Diocesan Attorneys Association. In both roles, Anthony helped to staff and otherwise support various USCCB Committees, including on Child and Youth Protection, on the Promotion and Defense of Marriage, and on Religious Liberty. In 2009, Anthony was appointed to serve a one-year term on the first White House Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.

Anthony previously served at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty for seven years, litigating major religious freedom cases on behalf of people of all faiths, and serving in various leadership roles. He began his career as a lawyer with a federal district court clerkship, followed by three-and-a-half years at the Washington law firm of Covington and Burling. He is a member of the Bar of the U.S. Supreme Court and almost all federal Courts of Appeals. In 2007, Anthony was named to The American Lawyer’s list of the top 50 litigators under age 45.

Anthony earned his law degree at the University of Virginia, where he was Essays Editor of the Virginia Law Review and won the school’s Jessup International Law Moot Court competition. Before law school, Anthony earned his A.M. in Religious Studies from the University of Chicago, where his thesis focused explored the relationship between the ideas of Bernard Lonergan and John Courtney Murray. Anthony earned his A.B., magna cum laude, in Social Anthropology and Comparative Religion from Harvard University, writing his thesis on the concept of inculturation as it relates to Catholic missions in India.