An engaging history of a revolutionary period in the contemporary Roman Catholic Church. Catholic Theological Union is the largest Catholic school of ministry in the United States. Inspired by the Second Vatican Council, it was founded amidst the momentous changes sweeping the church & country in 1968. Paul Bechtold was the school's first president & he uses his historian's skill to trace CTU's formative years: the dynamism of the post-conciliar church; the transformation in Catholicism's way of training its priests & ministers; the tension & energy of the church of Chicago under its then Archbishop John Cody; & the unprecedented ecumenical collaboration begun with Hyde Park's Protestant seminaries & the Divinity School of the University of Chicago. In his Foreword to the volume, Fred Hofheinz of the Lilly Endowment notes that the last half of the 1960s was a "defining period for the church & the nation for the late 20th century." CTU was born in that "defining period" & has grown to be a premier institution of Catholic theological education. This absorbing history leads the reader through that definitive chapter of American Catholic life. To order: Catholic Theological Union, 5401 S. Cornell Ave., Chicago IL 60615. Phone: 312-324-8000; FAX: 312-324-8490.