The Becket Fund For Religious Liberty - Organizational History

Organizational History

The Becket Fund was founded in 1994 by Kevin Hasson, who had previously worked at the Office of Legal Counsel at the Justice Department and the Washington law firm Williams & Connolly, in which capacity he became well-known and controversial for defending Catholic University's decision to fire Charles Curran for his opposition to Church doctrine despite his being a respected moral theologian.

Hasson named The Becket Fund after Thomas Becket, who was murdered in 1170, after a possible misunderstanding and a long series of altercations and events between the English monarch and state, the papacy, other clergy and Becket.

In January 2007, Becket Fund Vice President and General Counsel Anthony Picarello, Jr. was named by American Lawyer magazine as one of the fifty most promising young litigators in the United States. Picarello became General Counsel of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops in late September 2007.