In his lecture entitled, "The Church's 'Common Doctor': Thomas Aquinas and the Contemporary Catholic University," Archbishop Miller will discuss the encouragement that is found in recent papal documents, including those of Benedict XVI, for the study of St. Thomas Aquinas in seminaries and universities and the importance of such study at this critical juncture in the history of Catholic universities in North America and worldwide.

Former University of St. Thomas president Archbishop J. Michael Miller, CSB, was named the archbishop of Vancouver in January 2008. 

Archbishop Miller was born in Ottawa July 9, 1946. He earned his Bachelor of Arts at the University of Toronto and his master’s at the University of Wisconsin in the field of Latin American studies. He taught high school for a year, completed his Master of Divinity at the University of St. Michael's College in Toronto, then spent from 1974 to 1979 in Rome, where he was ordained to the priesthood in 1975 by Pope Paul VI. He earned his licentiate in 1976 and doctorate in 1979 in theology at the Jesuit-run Pontifical Gregorian University.

In 1979, Archbishop Miller joined the faculty of the Department of Theology at the University of St. Thomas, and subsequently, served as its chairman and as dean of the School of Theology at St. Mary’s Seminary. In 1990 he was named the University’s vice president for Academic Affairs.

In 1992 Archbishop Miller was called to Rome, where he worked in the English-language section of the Secretariat of State of the Holy See until 1997, when he returned to Houston as president of the University of St. Thomas. Pope John Paul II appointed him Secretary of the Congregation for Catholic Education in 2003, and he was ordained an archbishop at St. Peter's Basilica on Jan. 12, 2004. He continued working at the Holy See until being appointed coadjutor archbishop of Vancouver.

He is a specialist on the papacy, modern papal teaching, and Catholic higher education, and has published seven books and more than 150 articles, scholarly, popular, and journalistic. His books include The Shepherd and the Rock: Origins, Development, and Mission of the Papacy (1995); and The Encyclicals of John Paul II (2nd ed., 200l).