Pope Leo XIV appointed 24 new members of the International Theological Commission, including University of Notre Dame theologian Father Khaled Anatolios and Boston College professor Boyd Coolman. These appointments, announced by the Vatican on Monday, are members of an advisory body to the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith. They will not be required to move to Rome, but will periodically assist the dicastery in examining important theological questions and may publish study documents.
The members of the commission, which can number a maximum of 30, serve a five-year term that the pope can choose to renew.
Both Anatolios and Coolman are affiliated with Boston College and Notre Dame through their doctoral work or teaching careers. Anatolios is a married Melkite Catholic priest who has served as the John A. O’Brien Professor of Theology at Notre Dame since 2015. He received his doctorate from Boston College in 1996 and taught theology at the college before leaving for Notre Dame.
Also an ecumenist, he has lectured and published on several early Christian theologians, including Saint Augustine, Saint Gregory of Nyssa, and Saint Athanasius, focusing on how patristic theology speaks to contemporary theology. Anatolios, in a statement to EWTN News, thanked the pope for the appointment and praised him for his Christocentric focus.
“I am honored and humbled by this appointment,” said Anatolios. “Pope Leo has already established, in many explicit and implicit ways, a Christocentric agenda and vision to address the urgent challenges and suffering of our world today.”
“I look forward to working with the other esteemed theologians on the commission to pursue this agenda and to enter more deeply into this vision,” he added.
Coolman, who received his doctorate in church history from Notre Dame in 2001, has taught theology at Boston College since 2005.
“This is truly a surprising and humbling appointment, but I look forward to serving the Church in this capacity to the best of my ability in the days ahead,” Coolman said in a statement to EWTN News.
The appointments of Anatolios and Coolman reflect a broader trend of Notre Dame-affiliated Vatican appointments this year. In March, Pope Leo XIV appointed Father Daniel Gerard Groody, CSC, vice president and associate dean for undergraduate education at the University of Notre Dame, to the Vatican Dicastery for Integral Human Development.
In August, the pope appointed two more Notre Dame professors to the same dicastery: Father Emmanuel Katongole, professor of theology and peace studies, and Clemens Sedmak, professor of social ethics and director of the Nanovic Institute for European Studies. Leão also named Kathryn Koch, a Notre Dame graduate and member of its board of trustees.
In September, John Cavadini, professor of patristic theology at Notre Dame, was named winner of the 2026 Ratzinger Prize. He served on the International Theological Commission from 2009 to 2014.
©2026 Catholic News Agency. Published with permission. Original in English: Notre Dame, Boston College professors among new members of Vatican theological commission https://www.ewtnnews.com/vatican/notre-dame-boston-college-professors-among-new-members-of-vatican-theological-commission