Father Edward J. Griswold, a priest of the Diocese of Trenton, has been appointed vice rector of St. Mary Seminary and University, Baltimore. The announcement was made recently by Sulpician Father Thomas R. Hurst, president-rector of St. Mary.

Father Griswold is a 1972 graduate of the seminary. He was ordained in St. Ambrose Church, Old Bridge, in 1973, and then was assigned to St. Matthias Parish, Somerset. In 1980 he became the director of vocations for the Diocese of Trenton and after a seven-year term in that ministry, Father Griswold moved to Chicago to become the executive director of the National Conference of Diocesan Vocation Directors for three years.

In 1991, he became associate dean of formation in Chicago’s Mundelein Seminary. Returning to the Diocese of Trenton in 1995,  Father Griswold became pastor of St. Mary Parish, Colts Neck, for 12 years, followed by his assignment as pastor of St. Gregory the Great Parish, Hamilton Square.

In 2009, Father Griswold joined the faculty of St. Mary Seminary to teach homiletics and to direct the Pastoral Formation Program. Until his appointment as vice rector, he had also been serving as dean of students. This past Spring, Father Hurst appointed Father Griswold to the Henry J. and Marion I. Knott Chair in Homiletics in recognition of his work with the seminarians in exegetical and communications for effective preaching.

Father Griswold holds graduate degrees in theology from St. Mary and in counseling psychology from Rutgers University. He received his doctor of ministry degree in preaching from Aquinas Institute of Theology, St. Louis, in 2008.

St. Mary Seminary and University was the first Roman Catholic seminary in the United States, founded by the Society of St. Sulpice in 1791.

The seminary is one of several institutions where seminarians of the Diocese of Trenton prepare for the priesthood.

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