Catholic Theological Union (CTU) is a

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

graduate school of

theology Theology is the study of religious belief from a Religion, religious perspective, with a focus on the nature of divinity. It is taught as an Discipline (academia), academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itse ...

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

, Illinois, United States. It was formed in Hyde Park as a union of schools from three Catholic

religious institute In the Catholic Church, a religious institute is "a society in which members, according to proper law, pronounce public religious vows, vows, either perpetual or temporary which are to be renewed, however, when the period of time has elapsed, a ...

s and has since been sponsored by 23 institutes. It is one of the largest Catholic graduate schools of theology in the English-speaking world, training men and women for both lay and ordained ministry within the Catholic Church.

History

It was founded in 1968, when three religious institutes—the

Franciscans The Franciscans are a group of related organizations in the Catholic Church, founded or inspired by the Italian saint Francis of Assisi. They include three independent religious orders for men (the Order of Friars Minor being the largest conte ...

Passionists The Passionists, officially named the Congregation of the Passion of Jesus Christ (), abbreviated CP, are a Catholic clerical religious congregation of pontifical right for men, founded by Paul of the Cross in 1720, with a special emphasis on ...

, and

Servites The Servite Order, officially known as the Order of Servants of Mary (; abbreviation: OSM), is one of the five original mendicant orders in the Roman Catholic Church. It includes several branches of friars (priests and brothers), contemplative nun ...

—united their separate theology programs to form one school. The institution has since gained the sponsorship of twenty-three religious communities.

Academics

CTU is run and staffed by religious and lay men and women. International students constitute nearly one-third of the student body. The main library of CTU is the Paul Bechtold Library, named after CTU's founding president. Distinctive collections in the library include in Catholic religious communities, dialogue across ecumenical and inter-religious lines, and pastoral theology.

Publications

* ''New Theology Review (NTR)'' * ''Theophilus: The Student Journal of Catholic Theological Union''

Notable theologians and faculty

* Claude Marie Barbour, scholar of world mission * Stephen B. Bevans, scholar of mission and

culture Culture ( ) is a concept that encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and Social norm, norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, Social norm, customs, capabilities, Attitude (psychology), attitudes ...

* John Dominic Crossan, scholar of the New Testament * Edward Foley, scholar of spirituality, liturgy, and

music Music is the arrangement of sound to create some combination of Musical form, form, harmony, melody, rhythm, or otherwise Musical expression, expressive content. Music is generally agreed to be a cultural universal that is present in all hum ...

* John Jefferson Gros, scholar of Christian ecumenical studies ( adjunct faculty member) * Leslie J. Hoppe, scholar of the Old Testament * Daniel P. Horan, scholar of systematic theology and spirituality * Kevin J. Madigan, scholar of

church history Church history or ecclesiastical history as an academic discipline studies the history of Christianity and the way the Christian Church has developed since its inception. Henry Melvill Gwatkin defined church history as "the spiritual side of t ...

* Steven P. Millies, professor of public theology * John T. Pawlikowski, scholar of social ethics * Robert J. Schreiter, scholar of theology and culture * Wayne Robert Teasdale, scholar and practitioner of interreligious dialogue (adjunct faculty member) * Zachary Hayes, professor of systematic theology

Notable alumni

Pope Leo XIV Pope Leo XIV (born Robert Francis Prevost, September 14, 1955) has been head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State since May 2025. He is the first pope to have been born in the United States and North America, the fir ...

, MDiv 1982, 267th pope * Saleha Jabeen, MA 2014, MDiv 2020, first female Muslim chaplain in the

United States Department of Defense The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD, or DOD) is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government charged with coordinating and superv ...

References

External links

Official website
{{Coord, 41, 47, 52, N, 87, 35, 09, W, type:edu_region:US-IL, display=title Universities and colleges established in 1968 1968 establishments in Illinois Seminaries and theological colleges in Illinois Catholic seminaries in the United States Graduate schools in the United States Universities and colleges in Chicago