Rev. Michael B. Wurtz, C.S.C., S.L.D.
Assistant Professor of Theology
michaelwurtz@kings.edu
Michael Wurtz, C.S.C. began teaching at King's College in the Fall of 2019. After receiving his BA and MDiv from the University of Notre Dame he professed Final Vows in the Congregation of Holy Cross and was ordained a priest in 2004. After serving for three years as Associate Pastor of a South Bend parish he earned an MA in Liturgical Studies from St. John's University, Collegeville (MN). Having assisted for a year at the Notre Dame Center for Liturgy and taught in Notre Dame's theology department, he began doctoral studies in Liturgical Studies at the Pontifical University of Sant'Anselmo, Rome. His doctoral dissertation reviewed the recent textual history of liturgical formation for the priesthood and how it interacts with the theological approaches of A. Schumann, A. Kavanagh, and D. Fagerberg.
Wurtz serves as an officer on the board for the Society for Catholic Liturgy, provides chaplaincy service to the Notre Dame Center for Liturgy Summer Program, is moderator of the King's College Aquinas Society, and since 2021 serves as the chair for the Annual Moreau Lecture. Additionally, Wurtz regularly provides sacramental assistance in area parishes including the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter's parish and their English Usage of the Mass.
Fr. Wurtz typically teaches Introduction to the New Testament as well as Ecclesiology. As needed, he teaches a Liturgical Theology course to theology majors and a course in the King's Honor Program.
Fr. Wurtz's main theological interest is in Liturgical Theology which wonders at the mystical relationship between Heaven and Earth, the engagement of the loving God with a yearning humanity. Or, as the late great Fr. Romano Guardini said in reference to Michelangelo's famous scene of God gifting life to Adam with an outstretched arm,
Liturgy is that small but significant gap between the grace-filled finger of God who hopes to give life and the hope-filled finger of Adam who longs to be one with the Father.