Welcome Back Students and Faculty

August 6, 2021

Signs proclaiming, “Welcome back!” can be seen all around Chicago, in stores, churches, schools, and places of entertainment, as people are so anxious to resume gathering in person to pray, learn, shop, and relax. The same is true of CTU, as we eagerly anticipate welcoming faculty, staff, and formation directors on August 30 to our first in-person assembly since March 2020. On September 7 we will welcome our new and returning students for the first day of class. We will have much to share about what we have experienced in the past 18 months and what we have learned. 

Despite the desire to return to what was before the pandemic, we know that cannot happen. Ways of teaching and learning have changed. Ways of being with each other have changed. The Church has changed. All the world has changed. Alongside the delight of being physically together again are the challenges of learning to be equally present to those who join us from a distance. Hand in hand with our joy is a weariness and a wariness as the uncertainties with new variants of the virus unfold. As we emerge from what has felt like an exile, we take to heart the words of the prophet Isaiah to the Israelites coming out of their Babylonian exile: “See, I am doing something new; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?” (Isa 43:19). While the new things God is doing may not yet be clear, we proceed on this faith journey with trust and courage toward a future full of hope. 

Sincerely,

President

Catholic Theological Union