Father Gregory Ross, OCD, Provincial of the Oklahoma Discalced Carmelite Friars and Chair of the Board of Directors of the Carmelite Institute, has announced that the Board of Directors of the Institute has named Father John F. Horan, O.Carm., Executive Director of the Carmelite Institute. Father John is a member of the Carmelite Province of Saint Elias and was ordained to the priesthood in 1984 by Bishop Rene Valero, then the auxiliary bishop of the Diocese of Brooklyn. Father John took up his duties as Executive Director of the Carmelite Institute on September 2, 2008, when he moved from New York City to Whitefriars Hall, Washington, DC.

Father John has a bachelor of arts degree from the Catholic University of America and a master of divinity degree from the Washington Theological Union, where he also has earned a certificate in Carmelite Studies. Among his pastoral assignments Father John taught at John Paul II High School in Boca Raton, Florida, where he also served as the high school’s president. The new director of the Carmelite Institute has also been the director of development for the Province of Saint Elias, and was also for a time director of vocations for his Province as well as delegate to the Province’s Lay Carmelites.

Keith J. Egan, president of the Carmelite Institute, has enthusiastically welcomed Father John as its Executive Director. Egan has remarked on the wealth of experience that Father John brings to his new position and on his well-known enthusiasm and dedication to all things Carmelite. Father John and Keith Egan have met to plan ways in which the Institute can better serve the whole Carmelite Family in North America. They are especially keen on early planning for the major conference to be co-sponsored by the Carmelite Forum and the Carmelite Institute at Saint Mary’s College, Notre Dame, Indiana, June 15-19, 2010, with the theme “Carmel’s Quest for the Living God.”

The two officers of the Carmelite Institute are also looking for ways to welcome more students into the program in Carmelite Studies at the Washington Theological Union where persons interested in the Carmelite Tradition can take courses through a residential program and also through distance learning. Graduates of these programs have affirmed how well their participation in the Carmelite Studies program has prepared them to integrate Carmelite Spirituality into their lives. Egan and Horan have finalized plans for the annual Endowed Carmelite Lecture at Washington Theological Union, to be held on Saturday morning, March 14, 2009. The lecture will be delivered by Professor Barbara Mujica of Georgetown University. Professor Mujica will speak on the letters of Saint Teresa of Avila.

Father John Horan has expressed his eagerness to welcome all members of the Carmelite Family to the ministries of the Carmelite Institute. Father John can be reached at the Institute’s newly acquired offices at the Hecker Center, 3025 Fourth Street, N.E., Washington, DC 20017-1102. The offices of the Institute can also be reached by phone at 202-635-3534 or through e-mail at: mail@carmeliteinstitute.org