The Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt (KU) has been maintaining contacts with the CUA for several years. Together with three other Catholic universities from Australia, Chile and South Korea, the universities founded the “Catholic Consortium for International Higher Education” in 2017 with the aim of establishing a close cooperation in the areas of research and teaching. Marco Benini came into contact with the CUA at an international conference in Belgium, where he was speaking on his habilitation project. Afterwards, he was approached by a representative of the American university who asked him whether he could imagine taking over the role of a guest professor in Washington. “I am very much looking forward to this exciting task and challenge”, says the 36-year-old priest, who was a chaplain in Raitenbuch and Pfraunfeld while simultaneously preparing his habilitation and also worked as cathedral vicar in the Bischofskirche. The Bishop of Eichstätt, Gregor Maria Hanke, released Benini from his work at the cathedral so that he can now dedicate himself to his new task in Washington.
Marco Benini studied theology in Eichstätt and Rome and was ordained a priest in 2008. He obtained his doctoral degree in 2015 and was awarded the Kardinal-Wetter prize of the Catholic Academy in Bavaria for his doctoral thesis in liturgical studies on the Easter circle in the Ingolstadt parish register of Johannes Eck. He submitted his habilitation thesis on the topic “Holy Scripture in the horizon of the church service – liturgical biblical hermeneutics” this year.