MOSAIC Fall 2016 | Page 31

What Sacred Heart ’ s students encounter in course after course are highly skilled , enthusiastic teachers who encourage personal holiness in their students and in themselves , foremost . Reason and faith do not clash in a Sacred Heart classroom ; instead they work in unison .
Jesuit theologian Fr . Peter Ryan brings to the faculty dual expertise in teaching and seminarian formation .

MORAL

THEOLOGY

Is Specialty of New Faculty Member

What Sacred Heart ’ s students encounter in course after course are highly skilled , enthusiastic teachers who encourage personal holiness in their students and in themselves , foremost . Reason and faith do not clash in a Sacred Heart classroom ; instead they work in unison .

To teach according to the mind of the Church — while encouraging the highest standards of academic excellence — is asked of each of Sacred Heart ’ s professors , and they joyfully respond . Maintaining a faculty of the highest caliber is one of the foremost components in forming the highest caliber of ordained and lay leaders for your parish .
The seminary ’ s most recent faculty member exemplifies this attractive combination of academic expertise , love of Catholic truth , and commitment to personal holiness .
Fr . Peter Ryan , SJ , comes to Sacred Heart from the Maryland Province of the Society of Jesus by way of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops . Since 2013 , he has been serving the U . S . bishops as the executive director of their Secretariat of Doctrine and Canonical Affairs . Previously , he was director of spiritual formation and professor of moral theology at Kenrick-Glennon Seminary in Missouri . Before that , he was professor of moral theology for a decade at Mount St . Mary ’ s Seminary in Maryland .
Among his many academic degrees , Father Ryan holds a doctorate in theology from the Gregorian University in Rome . He excels in the area of bioethics — he was once senior fellow at the Westchester
Institute for Ethics and the Human Person — and he is expert on the work of the renowned moral theologian Germain Grisez , with whom he has collaborated on various publishing projects . Father will reside at Sacred Heart , teach in the Graduate School of Theology , and assist in the spiritual formation of seminarians .
Father Ryan and his Jesuit brother , Fr . Michael McDermott , professor of theology at Sacred Heart , have a longstanding friendship . Father Ryan was once a student of Father McDermott ’ s in Rome , “ and despite or perhaps because of my course ,” Father McDermott says , “ Father decided to major in moral theology and he has not looked back .
“ We even butted bodies on the basketball court at the time ,” laughs Father McDermott , who for years coached the Sacred Heart Lions basketball team . “ Jesuit confraternity does not hinder sharp elbows on the court !”
“ We are delighted that the Maryland Province released Father Ryan for service at Sacred Heart ,” says Msgr . Todd Lajiness , “ and we welcome him warmly .”
shms . edu 29