SW News: Pope Francis has named Father Mark Lewis, an American Jesuit, as the rector of the Pontifical Gregorian University. The Florida-born priest has been serving as the academic vice-rector since 2019. He will assume office on September 1.

Born November 5, 1959, in Miami, he joined the Society of Jesus in 1980 and was ordained a priest in 1991. Father Lewis lived in Rome from 1996 to 2004, working at the Jesuit History Institute. He was its director for six years. After serving as the provincial superior of the New Orleans Province of the Jesuit congregation, he joined the Gregorian University in 2017 as a professor in Church History and Cultural Heritage.

Fr Lewis studied History at the Spring Hill College in Alabama and earned a Master’s in Philosophy from St Louis University. He also has a Master’s in Divinity and Historical Theology from Regis College in Toronto apart from a doctorate in history from the University of Toronto.

His appointment follows the nomination of another American, Father Thomas Joseph White, as principal of St. Thomas Aquinas University (Angelicum) in Rome in 2021.

The Gregorian University, originally known as the Roman College, was founded by St. Ignatius Loyola in 1551 and continues under Jesuit leadership. Its philosophy and theological chair were approved by the Pope in 1556 and became the first institution founded by the Society of Jesus. When Pope Gregory XIII gave it a new home, it was renamed the Gregorian University.