Ottawa Native Named to Senior Vatican Post
Tuesday, November 25 2003
(CCCB-Ottawa) His Holiness Pope John Paul II today named Rev. J. Michael Miller, C.S.B., as Secretary of the Congregation for Catholic Education, at the same time making him Archbishop of the titular see of Vertara. Archbishop-elect Miller is currently President of the University of St. Thomas in Houston, Texas. He will be succeeding Archbishop Giuseppe Pittau, S.J., who reached the age limit of 75.
Archbishop-elect Miller was born in Ottawa, Ontario, on July 9, 1946, and ordained to the priesthood by Pope Paul VI on June 29, 1975. He is a member of the Congregation of St. Basil that has as its principal charism the education of young people.
In 1974 he received a bachelors degree in theology from St. Michael’s College in the University of Toronto. In 1976 he was granted a licentiate “summa cum laude” in dogmatic theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. He was awarded the doctoral degree “summa cum laude” from the Gregorian University in 1979.
From 1979 – 1987, he was professor of dogmatic theology at the University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Houston, Texas. He served as Vice-President of the same university from 1987-1992. From 1992-1997, he worked in the Vatican Secretariat of State. Since 1997 until the present he has been President of the University of St. Thomas in Houston.
Among his publications are The Shepherd and the Rock: Origins, Development and Mission of the Papacy (1994); The Encyclicals of John Paul II (2002); The Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortations of John Paul II (1998); and Life’s Greatest Grace.
Archbishop-elect Miller holds dual citizenship from Canada and the United States. He is fluent in English, French, Italian and Spanish and has a reading knowledge of Latin and German.
The Congregation for Catholic Education oversees norms for seminaries, Catholic universities and colleges, and Catholic schools.
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