In memoriam Very Reverend Thomas Baima

It is with sadness that the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity has learned of the death on 20 April 2022 of Very Reverend Thomas A. Baima, of the University of Saint Mary of the Lake/Mundelein Seminary, after a long illness.

Father Baima was very involved in the ecumenical life of the Archdiocese of Chicago, of which he was a former Director of the Office of Ecumenism, and Vicar of Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs.

Thanks to his fraternal relations with the Assyrian Church of the East in Chicago, Father Baima played an important role in the resumption in 2017 of the Joint Commission for Theological Dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Assyrian Church of the East, of which he was an active and valued member.

After completing his doctorate at the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum) in Rome in 2000, Father Baima was appointed a faculty member of the University of Saint Mary of the Lake, serving also as Provost from 2000-2011 and from 2019-present.

Requiescat in Pace!