New Faculty Members

Fr. John P. Cush is a priest for the Diocese of Brooklyn, having grown up in Windsor Terrace and Park Slope. He attended Cathedral Preparatory Seminary for high school and St. John’s University, where he earned a B.A. in English and Philosophy. Fr. Cush studied for the priesthood at the Pontifical North American College in Rome and earned an S.T.B and S.T.L. from the Pontifical Gregorian University. In 2013, Fr. Cush completed his Doctorate in Sacred Theology (S.T.D.) in the field of fundamental theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University.

From 2004-2012, Fr. Cush was assigned as a full-time teacher at Cathedral Preparatory Seminary, Elmhurst, where he taught Italian, English, Fine Arts, and Religion and was the spiritual director. During these years, he also taught at the Brooklyn Diocesan Diaconate Formation Program, the Diocesan Pastoral Institute for Lay Formation, the Diocesan Liturgical Ministry Training Workshops, the Diocesan Pre-Cana Program, and as an adjunct professor for pre-theology at the Cathedral Seminary House of Formation, Douglaston, New York. Additionally, Fr. Cush was a part of the Brooklyn Diocesan Ecumenical Commission and served as a censor librorum.

In 2015, Fr. Cush joined the faculty at the Pontifical North American College in Rome, Italy as an assistant vice-rector, and then as an academic dean. He has been an adjunct associate professor of Theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University, an adjunct associate professor of Church History and Social Communications at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, and an adjunct professor of Theology at the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas. In 2016, Fr. Cush had the opportunity to study for certification as a seminary spiritual director at the Institute for Priestly Formation, located at Creighton University, Omaha, Nebraska.

Fr. Cush is a regular contributor to the Tablet, The Evangelist, Homiletic and Pastoral Review, National Catholic Register, and Church Life Journal. Fr. Cush authored The How-to Book of Catholic Theology, as well as two books on priestly formation forthcoming from Word on Fire Press and the Institute of Priestly Formation Press.

Fr. Cush joins St. Joseph's Seminary as a full-time professor of dogmatic theology and external formation advisor. In the 2022-2023 Academic Year, he will be teaching classes both in dogmatic theology and sacramental theology.

Fr. Randy Soto, SThD was born in San José, Costa Rica and became an American in 2017. In 1986, he obtained a Bachelor’s in Philosophy at the Seminario Central of San José and  a MA in Theology at Saint Joseph’s Seminary of the Archdiocese of New York (Class of 1991). In 1994, he was sent to do Biblical studies at CUA in Washington DC and to the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome (94-95). He obtained a Licentiate in Biblical Theology in 1996, as well as his Doctorate in Biblical Theology in 2003.

Fr. Soto has been a Professor of Sacred Scripture and Biblical Languages at the Pontifical North American College for the Pontifical Gregorian University and the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome (2017-2022). He has served as a parish priest; as a Professor of Old and New Testament at the Universidad Católica of Costa Rica and the Seminario Central de San José, Costa Rica (1996-2000 and 2003-2004); as Director of Faith Enculturation and Censor Librorum in the Archdiocese of San José (2003-2004); as Professor for Rensselaer College in the Permanent Diaconate Program of Lafayette, Indiana (2004-2006); as Censor Librorum, Formator and Professor of New Testament and Biblical Languages at Kenrick-Glennon Seminary in the Archdiocese of St. Louis, MO (2005-2009 and 2011-2017; as a Professor of New Testament at the Instituto Ciencias Religiosas in Toledo, Spain (2010-2011); as Professor of Dogmatic Theology and Sacred Scripture for  the on-line program of Holy Apostles Seminary, CT (2007-2022); as Founder and Editor of three Academic Journals, Theandrika (1986-1994) at the Seminario Central of San José; Vox Christi (2012-2016) at Kenrick-Glennon Seminary in Saint Louis; and Ex Latere Christi (2019- 2022) at the PNAC in Rome.

Among many other publications, he worked in the footnotes of the Edition of the Biblia de Navarra Popular, edited by MTF in 2007; he recently has published in Rome a Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament (2019) and was the editor of the Third Edition of the Manual of Prayers (2021) of the Pontifical North American College in Rome.