Fr. Gasper F. Lo Biondo, S.J., was recently appointed director of Georgetown’s Woodstock Theological Center. Lo Biondo officially assumed the position on Sept. 3.

For the last four years, Lo Biondo has headed the Woodstock Center’s Global Economy and Cultures project, which, according to its Statement of Purpose, aims to promote deeper understanding of how global economic processes affect local cultures, and more specifically, the poor in those cultures. To accomplish this goal, the project coordinates communication, grassroots research and analysis between more than 40 Jesuit social research centers worldwide.

Lo Biondo has also led international research seminars in the Philippines, India, Africa and Latin America. Some of his published papers have been delivered at annual Latin American Jesuit philosophers’ seminars.

“I am delighted to implement Woodstock’s mission of fostering the Jesuit approach to theological reflection on today’s burning human problems,” Lo Biondo said in a press release announcing his appointment. “I will energetically enhance Woodstock’s working relationship with Georgetown University, and with other centers of Jesuit higher education and social research, in the United States and around the world. Woodstock is uniquely suited to work in close collaboration with Georgetown University, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and key people at other institutions located here in our nation’s capital and elsewhere.”

Michael Curtin, chair of Woodstock’s board of directors, announced Lo Biondo’s appointment. “Fr. Lo Biondo is a highly respected Woodstock senior fellow. He is eminently equipped to serve Woodstock with the kind of Jesuit leadership that is needed at this time in the center’s history,” Curtin said in a press release.

Lo Biondo earned his master’s and bachelor’s degrees from Boston College, both in philosophy. He then went on to earn a doctorate in economics from American University in Washington, D.C.

Before becoming a member of the Woodstock Center in 1991, he served as the social-pastoral ministries assistant to the Maryland Jesuit Provincial. Lo Biondo previously served as director of the National Office of Jesuit Social Ministries of the Jesuit Conference in Washington, D.C. He was also an associate pastor in an inner-city Jesuit parish in Santiago, Chile, taught informal adult education in an agricultural district in Chile and taught high school in both Chile and Philadelphia, Penn.

The former director of the Woodstock Theological Center, James L. Connor, S.J., held the position from 1987 until June 2002. During his term as director, the center strengthened its reputation concerning topics such as business ethics, public policy, spirituality in the work place and issues of the church and social justice.

Fr. Drew Christiansen, S.J., served as the center’s acting director during the interim before Lo Biondo’s appointment.,.

The Woodstock Theological Center, housed on Georgetown’s campus, is a nonprofit independent research institute sponsored by the Society of Jesus. The center’s focus is to address issues of economic, social, political and ecclesial importance from an ethical and theological perspective.