Reverend Monsignor Gerard H. McCarren, S.T.D., was named Interim Rector/Dean of Immaculate Conception Seminary School of Theology for a period of one year, effective July 1, 2022.  Following a national search, on March 27, 2023, the Archdiocese of Newark and Seton Hall University announced Monsignor McCarren's appointment as Rector/Dean of Immaculate Conception Seminary School of Theology.  Monsignor McCarren earned a B.A. from Yale University with majors in History and in Philosophy (Psychology track), an M.Div. from Immaculate Conception Seminary School of Theology, and an S.T.L. and an S.T.D. in Systematic Theology from The Catholic University of America.  He was ordained to the priesthood in 1991.  Monsignor McCarren’s study at CUA focused on John Henry Cardinal Newman.  His doctoral dissertation is titled “Tests” or “Notes”?  A Critical Evaluation of the Criteria for Genuine Doctrinal Development in John Henry Newman’s Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine.  Monsignor McCarren served on the Board of the Newman Association of America from 2001 to 2016, and served as vice president in the year 2014-2015 and as program director for its annual conferences from 2002 to 2006 and again in 2016.  He was elected an emeritus member of the board in 2016.  As Associate Professor of Systematic Theology, he has taught such classes as Worship of the Church, Liturgical Practicum, and Sacraments of Initiation, and is a member of the theological faculty of the Pastoral Provision.  Monsignor McCarren has given ten papers at academic conferences and has published in Josephinum Journal of Theology, Newman Studies Journal, Seminary Theology II:  Theology and Spiritual Direction in Dialogue, and The Cambridge Companion to John Henry Newman.  He was named Spiritual Director for the Seminary effective July 1, 2004.  In Spring 2005, Monsignor McCarren was named Chaplain to His Holiness.  During summers, he has served as a spiritual director and often as a teacher for the summer seminarian program of the Institute for Priestly Formation, Omaha, NE, from which he received the Our Lady of Guadalupe Award in 2013 in acknowledgement of exemplary service to the mission of IPF.  From 2007 to 2016 he served as a Vatican appointee to the Joint Commission for Dialogue between the Roman Catholic Church and the World Methodist Council.  Monsignor McCarren served as president of the Federation of Seminary Spiritual Directors (United States and Canada) from 2018-2022.  He has long served as a weekend assistant priest at Holy Trinity Church in Westfield.

View Monsignor McCarren's video on the New Roman Missal »