Canadian named secretary for Catholic Education in Rome.

Ottawa -- Pope John Paul II has named Rev. J. Michael Miller, c.s.b., as Secretary of the Congregation for Catholic Education, at the same time making him archbishop of the titular see of Vertara. Father Miller is currently president of the University of St. Thomas in Houston, Texas. He will be succeeding Archbishop Giuseppe Pittau, S.J., who reached the age limit of 75.

Father Miller was born in Ottawa in 1946, and ordained to the priesthood by Pope Paul VI on June 29, 1975. He is a member of the Congregation of St. Basil that has as its principal charism the education of young people.

In 1974 he received a bachelor's degree in theology from St. Michael's College in the University of Toronto. In 1976 he was granted a licentiate summa cum laude in dogmatic theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. He was awarded the doctoral degree summa cum laude from the same university in 1979.

From 1979 to 1987, he taught dogmatic theology at the University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Houston, Texas. He served as vice-president of that university 1987-1992. From 1992 to 1997, he worked in the Vatican Secretariat of State. Since 1997 until the present he has been president of the University of St. Thomas in Houston.

Among his publications are The Shepherd and the Rock: Origins, Development and Mission of the Papacy (1994); The Encyclicals of John Paul II (2002); The Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortations of John Paul II (1998); and Life's Greatest Grace.

Archbishop-elect Miller holds dual citizenship from Canada and the United States. He is fluent in English, French, Italian, and Spanish and has a reading knowledge of Latin and German.

The Congregation for Catholic Education oversees norms for seminaries, Catholic universities and colleges, and Catholic schools. (CCCB, Nov. 25/03)