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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MEDIA ADVISORY
Catholic PRWire

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Catholic PRWire

Reverend Louis V. Iasiello, OFM, PhD, has officially assumed the presidency of the Washington Theological Union, a Roman Catholic Graduate School of Theology and Ministry.

Last month, Fr. Iasiello retired from the Navy after 25 years of service. Retiring at the rank of rear admiral, he served most recently as Chief of Navy Chaplains, the community leader for almost 2500 chaplains and enlisted personnel serving the Navy, the Marine Corps and the Coast Guard in the Department of Defense and Homeland Security.

Fr. Iasiello is a member of the Order of Friars Minor, commonly referred to as the Franciscans. He entered the Franciscans in 1973 and was ordained to the priesthood in 1978. Fr. Iasiello is an alumnus of the Washington Theological Union having received his master of divinity degree from the Union in 1978. “I’m indebted to the Union for empowering me for ministry,” he said.

But Fr. Iasiello acknowledged that the education he received in the 70s is quite different from the education that ministers – lay and religious – need today. “Things have changed since my graduation three decades ago. Students are now trained to preach, to celebrate and to do theology in an integrative way. And for that, I thank God.” He speaks passionately about the need for students not only to receive “a superior orientation in theology” and have “a lifelong thirst for knowledge and a true love of theology,” but also to be “well-prepared to preach, celebrate the sacraments, and to lead a congregation.

“I am humbled and honored to have been selected to serve as President of this great institution – one that prepared me so well for positions of pastoral ministry and leadership in the Church and in the government. I can think of no task more critical for the Church than to prepare its clerical and lay students for 21st Century ministry. I look forward now to working with the great staff and faculty of the Washington Theological Union, and assisting them in that critical task.”

Fr. Iasiello’s formal inauguration will be held on October 27th during celebrations for the school’s Founders’ Day and ten-year anniversary of the new campus building.

Washington Theological Union educates men and women to provide the Church with pastors and lay ministers worthy of the people they serve. Our students come from all backgrounds and age groups in the spirit of the Second Vatican Council. Some are fresh out of college while others are embarking on second careers. Some are studying for the priesthood while others are studying out of their love for theology and for their own personal enrichment. Students are steeped in the Church’s rich theological tradition and trained in the pastoral practices that will enable them to extend Christ’s call to relationship to the people of today.

One of the finest graduate schools of ministry in the United States, the Union carries out its mission to educate and train priests and lay ministers answering the call for service, witness, mission and leadership in the Church.

Fr. Iasiello received his bachelor’s degree from St. Bonaventure University and has graduate degrees from Niagara University (Education), Salve Regina University (International Relations) and the Naval War College (National Security and Strategic Studies). He also earned his doctor of philosophy degree in humanities from Salve Regina University with his dissertation “Jus In Bello: Key Issues for a Contemporary Assessment of Just Behavior in War.”

In July 2000, the United States Senate confirmed his presidential appointment as a flag officer, the first to be assigned as chaplain of the Marine Corps and in July of 2003 he was confirmed as the 23rd Chief of Navy Chaplains serving as community leader for more than 2400 active and reserve chaplains and religious program specialists in the Sea Services of the Navy, Marine Corps, Coast Guard and Merchant Marines.

[Photographs available. Please call Kathy Dempsey at 202-541-5235.]

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