John A. Ryan - Education and Academic Life

Education and Academic Life

Ryan attended secondary school at the Christian Brothers School in 1887, and continued his studies at the St. Thomas Aquinas Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota, now named the University of St. Thomas. He graduated valedictorian of his class in 1892. Ryan was a member of the inaugural class at the St. Paul Seminary in 1894, which is now the School of Divinity of the University of St. Thomas. Graduating in 1898, Ryan received his holy orders from Archbishop John Ireland and moved to Washington, DC, to pursue graduate studies at the Catholic University of America the same year. At the Catholic University of America, Ryan received his licentiate in literature in 1900 and his doctorate in Sacred Theology in 1906.

Ryan saw his own vocation as the teaching of moral theology and economic justice to the U.S. electorate, emphasizing in particular his influence on Catholic voters and politicians. While much of his instruction emerged from the numerous articles and pamphlets he wrote throughout his lifetime, Ryan also held official professorships. He taught moral theology at the St. Paul Seminary from 1902–1915, and then returned to Washington where he served as a professor at the Catholic University from 1915 until 1939, teaching graduate level courses in moral theology, industrial ethics and sociology. During his tenure at the Catholic University, Ryan also taught economics and social ethics at Trinity College in Washington, now known as Trinity Washington University.