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Pontifical Gregorian University — news, coverage & facts — IJR

Current era

Today the Gregorian University has some 2750 students from over 150 countries. About 70% of the students are foreign nationals, with 65% of them coming from non-European Union countries. Most students are priests, seminarians, and members of religious orders. After the Second Vatican Council, the first women to earn doctoral degrees at the university were Sandra Schneiders, IHM and Mary Milligan, RSHM. Both graduates became authorities in New Testament theology and Christian spirituality.

The Gregorian faculties are about 60% Italian and mainly Jesuit priests. In recent years, there has been an increase in laity in both the faculties and the student body; today, diocesan and religious priests represent about 45%, seminarians 25%, lay men and women 22%, and nuns 8% of the student body. Around 1970, the Gregorian discontinued Latin as the principal language of instruction by lecturers and examiners.

Since the Gregorian is a pontifical university, the Holy See accredits its curriculum, and its degrees have full effect in canon law. Its licentiates in philosophy and theology are conferred by some Jesuit universities worldwide, entitling recipients to teach in major seminaries.

With the chirograph of 17 December 2019, Pope Francis decreed that the Pontifical Biblical Institute and the Pontifical Oriental Institute, while retaining their own names and missions, be joined to the Pontifical Gregorian University so as to be part of the same legal entity. The new statutes of the Pontifical Gregorian University with the incorporation of the two pontifical institutes were ratified and approved by the Dicastery for Culture and Education on 11 February 2024, and came into force on 19 May 2024. From 19 May 2024, therefore, the Pontifical Biblical Institute does not have its own rector, being governed by the sole rector of the Pontifical Gregorian University, but is represented by a president. By decree of the Minister of the Interior of the Italian Republic dated 28 September 2024, the canonical measure was given civil effect.

Michael Dougherty, a plagiarism expert of Ohio Dominican University, accused the university of "systematic failure to maintain academic integrity at the doctoral level at the Gregorian University in specific disciplines during a relatively recent period." His 2024 book focused on violations of academic integrity at the university from 1995 to 2014, arguing that nine dissertations were severely deficient. Among the works Dougherty analyzes were dissertations submitted by the bishops Paul Kariuki Njiru, Fintan Gavin, and Stephen Robson. Earlier accounts of plagiarism in published doctoral dissertations were documented in review articles in The Catholic Biblical Quarterly and Analecta Cisterciensia. The university commissioned a special three-member panel, which concluded that Robson's dissertation did not contain plagiarized material, clearing him.

Notable alumni and faculty

Gregorian's alumni include 17 popes, such as Pope Gregory XV, Pope Urban VIII, Pope Innocent X, Pope Clement XI, Pope Leo XIII, Pope Pius XII, Pope Paul VI, and Pope John Paul I. Eight of the last eleven popes were alumni of the Gregorian. Other students include 72 saints and beatified persons including Saint Robert Bellarmine, Saint Aloysius Gonzaga and Saint Maximilian Kolbe. Former Gregorian professors include Joseph Ratzinger, later Pope Benedict XVI, a visiting professor in the faculty of theology from 1972 to 1973.

Gregorian alumni and professors include:

Bartholomew I, Greek Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople and New Rome

Mar Joseph Kallarangatt, Indian theologian and bishop of the Syro-Malabar Catholic Eparchy of Palai

Simona Brambilla, Italian nun and member of Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life

Roger Boscovich, Ragusan Jesuit priest, physicist and mathematician

David Cairns, Scottish politician

Christopher Clavius, German Jesuit priest and inventor of the Gregorian calendar

Brenda Dolphin, psychologist, Sister of Mercy and Postulator for the Cause of Catherine McAuley

Friedrich Dörr, German priest, professor and hymnwriter

Jules Mazarin, French cardinal and prime minister to the French monarchy

Joseph Perumthottam, Indian Metropolitan of the Syro-Malabar Catholic Archeparchy of Changanacherry

Reginald Foster, American priest, Latinist and professor

Filippo Grandi, Italian Commissioner-General of UNRWA

Peter Henrici, Swiss Jesuit priest, philosopher and Auxiliary Bishop of Chur

Wilhelm Imkamp, German priest, theologian and professor

Francesco Lana de Terzi, Italian Jesuit priest and aeronautics scientist

Bernard Lonergan, Canadian Jesuit priest, philosopher, theologian and economist

Heinrich Maier, Austrian priest and resistance fighter against Nazi Germany

Mary McAleese, former President of Ireland

John Navone, American Jesuit priest, professor, theologian and author

Denis Fahey, Irish priest and theological writer

Athanasius Kircher, German Jesuit priest, scholar and polymath

Hans Küng, Swiss priest and theologian

Charles Curran, American priest and moral theologian

Vincenzo Riccati, Venetian Jesuit priest and inventor of hyperbolic functions

Luca Valerio, Italian Jesuit priest and mathematician

Paul Guldin, Swiss Jesuit priest, mathematician and astronomer

Óscar Romero, Salvadoran archbishop and activist

Gian Vittorio Rossi, Italian poet, philologist and historian

Andrea Salvadori, Italian poet and librettist

Henricus Smeulders, Belgian Procurator General of the Cistercian Order

John Wijngaards, Dutch theologian and former priest

James V. Schall, American Jesuit priest, writer, philosopher and professor

Francis A. Sullivan, American Jesuit priest, theologian and professor

Anderson Sunda-Meya, Congolese-American physicist and educator

David Tracy, American priest, theologian and professor

Niccolò Zucchi, Italian Jesuit priest, astronomer and physicist

Patrick Augustine Kalilombe, Malawian theologian and Bishop of Lilongwe

Samuel Ruiz, Mexican theologian and bishop of San Cristóbal de Las Casas

Ademar Agostinho Sauthier, Brazilian theologian

Sandra M. Schneiders, American theologian, writer and professor

Princess India of Afghanistan

Mary Milligan, theologian and professor. First woman to graduate from the Gregorian

Paolo Benanti, Franciscan priest, theologian and professor

Aquilino Cayuela, Spanish writer and professor specializing in moral philosophy, politics, bioethics, and theology

Giovanni Cesare Pagazzi, titular archbishop of Belcastro

Anthony Kenny, philosopher

The majority of the church's leaders graduated from the Gregorian; one-third of the current College of Cardinals studied there at one time or another, and more than 900 bishops worldwide are among its 12,000 living alumni.