How can we be more aware of and effective in the cities where we live and do theology? Dialogue and collaboration among theological institutions and with the secular world in our theological enterprises and ministries is an expression of the Gospel. This must be our approach if the Church is to be renewed, our preaching and teaching be effective, our mission to the world sustained, and our message proclaimed to the world with clarity, conviction, truth, joy and hope. How can we help our cities to anticipate the New Jerusalem?

Fr. Thomas Rosica, a priest of the Congregation of St. Basil (Basilian Fathers), was born in 1959 in Rochester, New York. After attending elementary and secondary school in Rochester, he received a Bachelors of Arts Degree from St. John Fisher College in May 1980 and was ordained a priest in the Congregation of St. Basil on April 19, 1986 in Rochester.He received a Master of Divinity and Bachelor of Sacred Theology from Regis College in 1985, and advanced degrees in Theology and Sacred Scripture from the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome [1991] and the École Biblique et Archéologique Française de Jérusalem [1994]. Upon returning to Canada in 1994, he served as Pastor and Executive Director of the Newman Centre at the University of Toronto and Lecturer in Sacred Scripture until 2000 when he was appointed by the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops as National Director and Chief Executive Officer of World Youth Day 2002 in Toronto. In 2003, he became the founding Chief Executive Officer of the Salt and Light Catholic Media Foundation in Canada. He will receive an honorary doctorate during the November 24 Convocation ceremony at Regis College.