HTI Alumni

Field(s) of Study: Theology & Religion and Society 

Very Rev. Raúl Gómez-Ruiz, SDS, Ph.D., has been named the tenth president-rector of Sacred Heart Seminary and School of Theology. Fr. Gómez recently completed a six-year term as vicar general and general secretary of the Society of the Divine Savior (Salvatorians) in Rome. Prior to his appointment in Rome, he served for nearly 25 years in a variety of capacities at Sacred Heart.

From 1988-2004 he was director of the Hispanic Studies Program, one of the first seminary programs in the country to specifically address the pastoral concerns of the growing Hispanic population of the Catholic Church in the United States.

From 2002-2005 he was SHSST vice-rector, and from 2005-2012 he was vice president for academic affairs and director of intellectual formation at SHSST.

Fr. Gómez left Sacred Heart in 2012 to become director of accreditation and institutional evaluation for the Association of Theological Schools in the United States and Canada. Soon after, he was elected to serve his religious order in Rome.

He has a bachelor of arts in Spanish from the University of Arizona in Tucson, a Masters degree in Public Administration from California State University in Sacramento, a master of divinity in Pastoral Theology from the Franciscan School of Theology in Berkley, CA, and a doctorate in Liturgical Studies from The Catholic University of America in Washington, DC.

He is originally from Bisbee, AZ, and professed his first vows with the Salvatorians in 1982; Fr. Gómez was ordained to the priesthood in 1987. A well-published author, Fr. Gómez has written five books and has contributed to ten others. He has also published dozens of articles and book reviews. Fr. Gómez will be the first native-born Hispanic president-rector of a major seminary in the United States.