Very Rev. Mark Doherty, S.T.L.

Bio

Fr. Mark Doherty, the third of Patrick and Marie-Annick Doherty’s four sons, was born in Tacoma, Washington on August 28, 1980. Fr. Doherty’s first years of life were spent in west Africa (Sierra Leone and Burkina Faso), where his father worked for Catholic Relief Services. In the summer of 1982 the family relocated to San Francisco. Mark and his brothers attended the Lycée français, St. Monica School, and Sacred Heart Cathedral Prep. 

At the end of his second year at the University of California at Davis, Mark put a halt to his studies to enter the novitiate of the California Province of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits). In the course of his ten years as a member of the Society of Jesus Fr. Doherty studied at St. Louis University (B.A. History), Centre Sèvres - facultés jésuites de Paris, Fordham University (M.A. in Philosophical Resources), and Stanford University Hospital and Clinics. Among other things, he also taught for three years at Jesuit High in Carmichael, interned for the Holy See Mission to the United Nations in New York, and taught English at Colegio Sao Jose in Dili, East Timor. 

After his departure from the Society of Jesus, Mark taught at Marin Catholic High School for one year before entering St. Patrick Seminary to resume his studies for the priesthood. At the end of three years of study at St. Patrick, Fr. Doherty was ordained to the priesthood in June 2014. 

For the next two years Fr. Doherty served as parochial vicar of St. Peter and St. Anthony of Padua parishes in the Mission District of San Francisco. He also served as chaplain to San Francisco General Hospital as well as his alma mater, Sacred Heart Cathedral Prep. In September 2016 Fr. Doherty moved to Switzerland to resume graduate studies at the Université de Fribrourg. Having earned his License in Sacred Theology in 2018, he was appointed ‘assistant diplomé’ to the Chair in Fundamental Moral Theology as he pursued work on his dissertation. In the course of his four years in Switzerland, Fr. Doherty also took on a number of pastoral charges, including serving as priest responsible of the English language Catholic community of Bern, and chaplain to Philanthropos (Fribourg). 

In the summer of 2020 Fr. Doherty resigned his position as assistant at the Université de Fribourg to return to St. Patrick Seminary, where he was to assume the role of director of liturgy while continuing work on his dissertation. On October 1st, 2020, Fr. Dan Donohoo having resigned his post as rector of the seminary for health reasons, Archbishop Cordileone appointed Fr. Doherty interim rector-president of St. Patrick’s. On February 24th, 2021 the Board of Trustees voted to appoint Fr. Doherty to a five-year term as rector of St. Patrick Seminary and University.