HOUSTON, TX (Catholic Online) - Sister Paula Jean Miller, F.S.E., founder and director of Catholic Studies and professor of theology at UST, has a couple of noteworthy accomplishments that represent UST, academically and spiritually. Sister Paula Jean has been appointed by Pope Benedict XVI, as an expert, adiutrix secretarii specialis, for the XIII Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops on the topic, "The New Evangelization for the Transmission of the Christian Faith."

As an expert, Sister Paula Jean will attend all sessions of the Synod, listening to the presentations and discussions, and will be available during afternoon meetings for any assistance. Experts are present at all plenary sessions and meetings of the various language groups, where the groups' reporters can enlist their services.

"I am deeply honored and humbled by this request from Pope Benedict XVI to serve in this very important Synod on the New Evangelization," Sister Paula Jean said. "It is, of course, a great tribute to the Franciscan Sisters of the Eucharist, the University and the Department of Theology to have one of 'their own' chosen for this work in the Church at this critical juncture in world and Church history. I gratefully accept this nomination as a source of grace and growth for my own personal, religious and professional life."

Sister Paula Jean also has received certification as a Spiritual Leader of Pilgrimages from The Assembly of Catholic Ordinaries of the Holy Land, through the Episcopal Commission of Christian Pilgrimages. She will take a group of 19 Franciscan Sisters of the Eucharist to the Holy Land in December.

Sister Paula Jean, a Franciscan Sister of the Eucharist, joined UST in 1999 at the invitation of the Most Rev. J. Michael Miller, CSB, former president of the University, who is now Archbishop of Vancouver in Canada. Archbishop Miller wanted the visible witness of a community of religious women to be an integral part of the UST family.

Because Sister Paula Jean has lived in and been a guide in the Holy Land, she was exempt from the certification training course.Other qualifications for the certification include a vibrant spiritual life, exemplary moral conduct and a good knowledge of the geography, archeology, and ancient and modern history of the Holy Land.