The election by the faculty was held March 5. The Vatican Congregation for Catholic Education confirmed the election in a letter dated June 4.
Father Sheridan, whose four-year term of office begins July 1, succeeds Father Albert Schmidt, who has served as rector for the past eight years.
Mark Sheridan earned a bachelor’s degree from Georgetown University in 1960 before joining the community of St. Anselm’s Abbey in Washington.
He was ordained a priest in 1965. He earned advanced degrees in theology, Scripture and Coptic language and literature.
He served as prior of the monastic community at Sant’Anselmo in Rome from 1983-1992. In 1990 he became professor of early monastic literature and coordinator of the Monastic Institute of the Faculty of Theology in the athenaeum. In 1998 he was elected dean of the same faculty and in 1999 became full professor.
Father Sheridan is a member of the International Joint Commission for Theological Dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Churches.
