Chief of Navy Chaplains Named President of Washington Theological Union

Franciscan Father Louis Iasiello, a rear admiral and chief of Navy chaplains, will become president of the Washington Theological Union after he retires from the Navy in June.

Father Iasiello, ordained in 1978, received a master of divinity degree from Washington Theological Union that same year.

“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,” he said.

The task of preparing students for future ministry roles is critical for today’s church, he added.

Carmelite Father John Welch, president of the WTU’s board of directors, said Father Iasiello’s “extensive ecumenical and international experience” in the Navy will challenge the school “to engage in issues such as the world’s spiritual hunger, interreligious dialogue, human rights and the use of power.”

The school’s interim president, Conventual Franciscan Father John Burkhard, praised the skills that Father Iasiello brings to the school.

He said Father Iasiello’s experience of spending a pastoral year in Brazil, being a teacher, working in a parish and serving as a chaplain in the Navy prepares him to “lead a school of theology and ministry that prepares its graduates to work closely with a broad range of pastoral ministers in today’s church.”

He also said the priest’s years as a Navy chaplain bring the practical experience of working collaboratively with people of other faiths.

“In a fragile world, we can only count ourselves very blessed to have someone with such extraordinary experience in the role of leadership of the union,” Father Burkhard said.

The interim president will continue his duties at the school until Father Iasiello assumes the presidency. When that happens, Father Burkhard will return to his full-time duties as associate professor in the school’s systematic and moral theology department.

Father Iasiello received his bachelor’s degree from Saint Bonaventure University in New York State and has graduate degrees from Niagara University, also in New York, and Salve Regina College and the Naval War College, both in Newport, R.I.

In 2003, the Senate confirmed his presidential appointment as the 23rd Chief of Navy chaplains. He is the leader of more than 2,400 active and reserve chaplains and religious program specialists in the Navy, Marine Corps, Coast Guard and Merchant Marines.

Used with permission: Catholic News Service