A full academic procession heralded the inauguration of Fr. Mark Francis, CSV, as the seventh president of the Catholic Theological Union. The ceremony drew more than 400 people and took place at the historic Kam Isaiah Israel Congregation synagogue in Hyde Park, outside Chicago.
The formal platform party included Bishop Joseph Tobin, CSsR, Archbishop of Indianapolis and Bishop Francis Kane, Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Chicago, as well as Fr. Donald Senior, CP, immediate past president.
In assuming the presidency, Fr. Francis leads the largest Roman Catholic graduate school of theology and ministry in the United States. The former Superior General of the Viatorians worldwide , who also taught liturgy at CTU for 12 years, and served in Bogotá, Colombia before living in Rome, pleged to prepare 
ministers for a global, Catholic church.
“We no longer educate ministers to return to cul-de-sacs — closed enclaves where everyone is largely the same,” Fr. Francis said in his remarks. “Instead, we are challenged to prepare ministers to engage at the crossroads of our cities and our world . . .where they will come into contact with many religions and cultures.”