Newsroom

January 14, 2019

The Archdiocese of San Francisco announces that the Most Reverend Robert Christian, O.P., Auxiliary Bishop of San Francisco, has been appointed Rector-President of St. Patrick Seminary, effective January 14, 2019. Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone said, “I am excited that Bishop Christian, a man of deep love for the Church and extensive academic achievement, will be leading the seminary during its next phase of development and growth.”

Bishop Christian is a highly respected theologian and professor, holding teaching and administrative positions at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas (the Angelicum) in Rome over the past 35 years. From 1997 to 1999 he served as vicar provincial of the Western Dominican Province headquartered in Oakland, California, and in 1990 was a participant in the preparation for the Synod of Bishops on “The Formation of Priests in the Circumstances of the Present Day” and served as a peritus (expert) at that same Synod.

For the last several years Bishop Christian has served the Church as a member of the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission and as a consultor to the Pontifical Commission for the Promotion of Christian Unity. During the three years before his ordination as a bishop in 2018, he served the Western Dominican Province as Student Master and as adjunct professor at the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology. He will continue to serve the Archdiocese as Auxiliary Bishop, but with responsibilities accommodated to his role as seminary rector.

Archbishop Cordileone also thanked outgoing Rector-President Fr. George Schultze, S.J. “I wish to extend my deep gratitude for Fr. Schultze’s wonderful service as President-Rector for the last year-and-a-half. He has done outstanding work in building up the spiritual life of the Seminary and in his leadership in stabilizing and strengthening it during this time of transition. He is and always has been a man of integrity, faithful to his Christian and priestly calling in his personal and ministerial life.

“Fr. Schultze was also the right man to shepherd the Seminary at this critical moment of its history. In collaboration with the excellent staff around him, he has assembled an exemplary teaching faculty and has positioned the Seminary for continued future growth in excellence in priestly formation. I will forever be grateful to him for his willingness to take on this assignment.”

Prior to his term as President-Rector Fr. Schultze served on the seminary faculty for eleven years in various roles: an adjunct faculty member of moral theology and social ethics, director of the pastoral year formation of the seminarians, collaborator with many and varied administrative tasks, and a highly sought-out spiritual director. With selfless generosity he has provided pastoral care to staff and students at the Seminary as well as to religious and parish communities in the area. He has also always been responsive to the many requests he receives to offer days of recollection to priests and other groups of the faithful throughout the Bay Area.

After taking some time for prayer, study and personal enrichment, Fr. Schultze will return to his vocational calling of spiritual direction, providing critical assistance especially to priests in pursuing excellence in serving the Church as an alter Christus for God’s people.

Fr. Schultze said, “I thank God for what we have accomplished at St. Patrick’s during this last year-and-a-half that I have served as rector, and I am delighted with the choice of Bishop Christian for the next rector. His academic experience and skill in dealing with seminarians prepares him well for this role at this time in the life of the Seminary. I am looking forward to returning to my work in spiritual direction so that I can continue serving the Church as best I can in keeping with the abilities that God has entrusted to me – all for the salvation of souls and the greater glory of God.”

St. Patrick’s Seminary has been forming priests for the West Coast and Pacific Islands since 1898. The Seminary is committed to a second century of forming priests after Christ’s own heart.

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Media Inquiries

Mike Brown
Director of Communication
Archdiocese of San Francisco
One Peter Yorke Way
San Francisco, CA 94109
(cell) 650-387-1160
(desk) 415-614-5636
brownm@sfarch.org