The University of Saint Mary of the Lake (USML) today announced the appointment of Mr. Jesse Weiler as Director of the Liturgical Institute. He succeeds Fr. Thomas Baima, who has been serving as interim director. Mr. Weiler has been a full-time member of the staff since 2015 having served in a variety of roles most recently as Assistant Director, with responsibility for recruitment, marketing & educational technology.
Fr. John F. Kartje, rector & president of USML commented, “I am pleased to welcome Jesse Weiler to the leadership team of USML as director of the Liturgical Institute. The Institute has a distinguished history since its founding nearly 20 years ago. The Transfigured Young Adult Liturgy Conferences, which Jesse directed, have reached hundreds of the next generation of Catholics with a love for the beauty of worship. The creativity which he showed in that work will help carry the Institute into a strong future.”
Fr. Thomas A. Baima, provost of USML, noted how the unique contribution of the Institute has been the way it uses sacramental theology to organize all its programs. As director, Mr. Weiler will assume the administrative direction of the Institute, overseeing its three main initiatives: advanced degree programs, conferences and online courses, and academic publishing.
At the same time, the University announced a national search for faculty in sacramental/liturgical theology. Information about the search may be found at https://usml.edu/employment/
The Liturgical Institute was established in the year 2000 by His Eminence Francis Cardinal George, O.M.I., Archbishop of Chicago, in order to prepare Catholics for a “new era in liturgical renewal.” It serves a diverse international student population of laity, religious and clergy. Monsignor M. Francis Mannion served as its founding director and established the sacramental foundation for the program that it enjoys today. The Liturgical Institute prepares its students in a context of prayer and scholarship with the Church’s future priests, deacons, pastors and ministers to bring solid theological knowledge, critical reasoning and practical skills to bear on the challenges opened by the exciting phase of liturgical renewal emerging in recent years.
The Liturgical Institute is part of the University of Saint Mary of the Lake, the theological school of the Archdiocese of Chicago, which also includes Mundelein Seminary, the Pontifical Faculty of Theology, the Institute for Diaconal Studies, the Institute for Pastoral Leadership and the Instituto de Liderazgo Pastoral.
