Rev. John Paul Walker, O. P.
Instructor of Pastoral Studies
B.S., University of Illinois
M.S., The Johns Hopkins University
S.T.B./M.Div., Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception
S.T.L., Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception
S.T.D. (Cand.), Pontifical University of St. Thomas (Angelicum)
Biography
Fr. Walker was born in southern Illinois and raised in the suburbs of Chicago. After undergraduate and graduate studies where he specialized in the field of environmental chemistry, he entered the Order of Preachers in 1995 and was ordained to the priesthood in 2002. After completing his Licentiate in Sacred Theology under the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception in 2003, he was assigned to Providence College in Providence, Rhode Island, where he served as an Assistant Chaplain in the Office of Campus Ministry. During that time he also served as an Instructor in the Department of Theology, teaching the college’s primary undergraduate ecclesiology course, “The Church in Today’s World.” He joined the Pontifical Faculty in January 2011 when he was named Director of Pastoral Formation. In that position he teaches several courses in pastoral ministry and pastoral theology as well as supervises the pastoral ministry field placements of the clerical students of the Pontifical Faculty. His academic and pastoral interests include campus ministry, the engagement of the Church with contemporary culture, the complementarity and cooperation of the clergy and laity in the evangelical mission of the Church, and the pastoral image of the priest as a shepherd of the flock.