On Sunday, Catholic Theological Union inaugurated its ninth president, Fr. Enzo Del Brocco, CP, and Fr. Mark Francis, CSV, Provincial, the school’s seventh president, provided the invocation.
Fr. Francis delivers the invocation from the lectern. (Fr. Del Brocco was seated behind him.)
“We thank you especially for your provision of a new president, Enzo Del Brocco. As you have led this institution in the past, so now lead us into the future through his ministry and leadership,” Fr. Francis said. “May CTU thrive as a place of deep learning and bold witness. Knit us together so that we may bear witness to your vision of justice, love, and peace in our fractured and fragile world.”
CTU is owned and governed by a corporate union of men’s religious communities, including the Viatorians. CTU’s leaders and professors come from these congregations as well as peer women’s congregations, many of which send members here for studies. The school has long been characterized by the dynamism and character of religious life and religious women and men, even as more and more lay students came.
Fr. Francis was a CTU professor from 1987 to 2000. Then, after two terms as Superior General for the Viatorians, he returned to serve as president of CTU, from 2013 to 2020, following in the footsteps of his late brother Viatorian, former CTU President Fr. John Linnan, CSV.
Sr. Reid placed the CTU medallion on Fr. Del Brocco, a ritual for inaugurating him as her successor in leadership of CTU.
Fr. Del Brocco now takes the helm at CTU from Fr. Francis’ successor, Sr. Barbara Reid, OP, a longtime professor and dean who served as president from 2020 to 2025. Like Fr. Francis, Fr. Del Brocco follows predecessors from his own community in his late brother Passionists, Fr. Donald Senior, CP, for whom the campus is named, and Fr. Paul Bechtold, CP, for whom the library is named.
Fr. Francis thanked God for the gift the of the school and all the formation it has given to countless religious and lay students, and he asked God for continued blessings as Fr. Del Brocco stewards the ministry into the future. “Give us wisdom, creativity, and perseverance, inquiring minds and searching hearts, to serve those whom you have called to theological and ministerial formation,” Fr. Francis said. “Guide in us the way of holy friendships across lines and borders to unite us in hope and love. In communion with all your holy prophets, bold teachers, and silent witnesses, may all we do bring glory to your holy name.”
As Fr. Del Brocco moves into his term, he will start with six Viatorian students there this year. As our theologate, Viatorians turn to CTU for theological studies and ministerial formation.
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Fr. Del Brocco addressed the gathering, which also included Viatorian students Br. Peter Lamick, CSV, and Br. Marc Innocent Prophète, CSV.