Jem Sullivan, associate professor of practice, catechetics, has been re-appointed by Pope Leo XIV to a second term as a consultor member on the Vatican’s International Council for Catechesis in the Dicastery for Evangelization. The International Council for Catechesis was established by St. Pope Paul VI in 1973 as a consultative advisory body for the universal Church; the council is now located within the mandate and activities of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Evangelization.
“It will be a privilege to represent The Catholic University of America and to share our catechetical research and projects with the consultor members at the Council’s meetings in Rome,” said Sullivan, a full-time professor in the School of Theology and Religious Studies since 2019.
The council studies and proposes pastoral initiatives on catechetical issues, analyzing opportunities and challenges that bishops, pastors, and lay catechetical leaders and catechists are experiencing around the world. Sullivan is one of more than a dozen members who will advise on key issues in the Church’s catechetical efforts around the world.
Beyond this appointment, Sullivan teaches courses on the history and practice of evangelization and catechesis. She serves as director of the M.A. in Evangelization and Culture program, launched at the University in collaboration with the Word on Fire Institute. She also serves as principal investigator/project lead for Welcoming Children in Worship, a liturgical catechesis project funded by a generous grant award from the Lilly Endowment for the Nurturing Children in Worship and Prayer Initiative.
She also is an alumna, earning her Ph.D. in religious education at the University in 1999.
