Jim Towey was legal counsel and close advisor to Mother Teresa of Calcutta for 12 years and did the first reading at her Mass of Canonization in St. Peter’s Square. He has been pro bono legal counsel to the Missionaries of Charity for 38 years. He previously headed the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives under George W. Bush for four years and served on his senior staff.
His career spans the presidency of two Catholic colleges for thirteen years, a seven-year stint as a US Senate staffer, and the leadership of Florida’s 40,000-employee health and human services agency. In 1996, with Mother Teresa’s encouragement, he founded the nonprofit advocacy organization Aging with Dignity and later created the Five Wishes advance directive, which has sold over 43 million copies. He currently serves as the organization’s CEO.
Towey authored To Love and Be Loved: A Personal Portrait of Mother Teresa, published by Simon & Schuster, which is now available in five languages. All book royalties go to charities aligned with her life’s work.
Towey is the recipient of seven honorary doctorate degrees. In 2000, Pope John Paul II awarded him a papal medal for distinguished service. He currently is a trustee of The Papal Foundation.
Towey met his wife, Mary, in Mother Teresa’s Washington, DC, AIDS home where they both served as volunteers and married her in 1992. They have five children and four grandchildren and reside in Falls Church, Virginia.
