Pope names US Jesuit to be rector of Gregorian University in Rome

Pope Francis has named a US Jesuit, Fr. Mark Lewis, to be the next rector of the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome.

Lewis, 62, has taught church history at the Jesuit-run university since 2017 and has served as academic vice rector since 2019. He will take up his new post Sept. 1.

Born in Miami Nov. 5, 1959, he entered the Society of Jesus in 1980 and was ordained to the priesthood in 1991.

He studied history at the Jesuits' Spring Hill College in Mobile, Alabama, earned a master's degree in philosophy from St. Louis University, a master's of divinity and a master's in historical theology from Regis College in Toronto and his doctorate in history from the University of Toronto.

In 1996, he joined the staff of the Jesuit Historical Institute at the Jesuit headquarters in Rome and also taught church history at the Gregorian. He was director of the historical institute, 1998-2004.

He served as interim director of the Institute of Catholic Studies at John Carroll University in Ohio in 2004-05 and taught at Spring Hill College in 2005-08.

From 2008 to 2014, he was provincial of what was then the Jesuits' New Orleans Province. In 2015-16, he served as director of the St. Thomas More Institute for Catholic Studies at Rockhurst University in Kansas City, Missouri. He returned to the Gregorian University's Faculty of Church History and Cultural Heritage of the Church in 2017.