Mark Franzen, Director

Mark Franzen is the inaugural director of St. Gregory’s Hall. He and his wife, Lauren, have been parishioners at St. Gregory since 2008. Before helping to found St. Gregory’s Hall, Mark managed programs for over a decade at the Lumen Christi Institute, a Catholic intellectual apostolate serving the University of Chicago. His interests range from baseball to modern European philosophy, liturgical theology to monastic spirituality. Mark received a BA in art and philosophy from North Park University and an MA from the University of Chicago Divinity School.

Kevin Allen, Artist & Composer-in-Residence

Kevin Allen is a well-known composer. His works, sacred and secular, have been performed in churches and concert halls throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia. Based in Chicago, he is the founding director of the Collins Consort, American Composer’s Project, and Schola Immaculata. Mr. Allen is also the director of Schola Laudis at the Benedictine Monastery of the Holy Cross.

Sarah Crow, Artist-in-Residence

Sarah Crow received her BFA in painting and minor in creative writing from the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) in 2013, and an MFA in painting from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) in 2016. She currently lives and works in Chicago where she has also taught as a part-time lecturer at SAIC in the Painting and Drawing Department. Sarah entered the Catholic Church in 2017 and seeks to use her talents to serve Mother Church. You can learn more about her work here.

Stephanie Held, Communications Coordinator

Stephanie Held studied communication and history at Westminster University and earned her Bachelors of Arts in 2019. She has worked in nonprofit communication since graduation and spent four years living in Catholic intentional community — first as a Jesuit Volunteer and then as a Catholic Worker at St. Francis House of Hospitality. Stephanie enjoys outdoor adventuring, cooking, and going to the movies. She has been a parishioner of Mary, Mother of God parish since 2022.

Lauren Franzen​,
​Catechesis of the Good Shepherd Coordinator

Lauren Franzen has been involved with the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd program at St. Gregory since its inception in 2015–first as a parent, then an assistant, and for the past two years as a Level 1 Catechist. She has seen the fruits of the program in the lives of her own children and many others in the atrium. She is passionate about building community and creating a loving space for young children to encounter the Christ as the Good Shepherd. Lauren also volunteers with the Solidarity Gardens Project at Mary, Mother of God Parish and supports new families as a doula and lactation counselor. 

Scott D. Moringiello, Scholar-in-Residence

Scott Moringiello is Department Chair and Associate Professor of Catholic Studies at DePaul University, where he teaches classes on Catholic theology and religion and literature. He holds a PhD in Theology from the University of Notre Dame, an MPhil from the Divinity Faculty at the University of Cambridge, and a BA in Philosophy and Classics from Williams College. His research interest include religious themes in contemporary literature and the history of biblical exegesis. He and his family are former parishioners of St. Gregory the Great.

Fr. Bob Sprott, OFM, Scholar-in-Residence

Fr. Bob Sprott, OFM, is a member of the Order of the Friars Minor. He holds a PhD in linguistics from the University of Chicago, and his work in ministry has led him to the American Southwest, working with Pueblo and Hispanic villages, the Canadian Arctic, working in the Diocese of Churchill-Hudson Bay, and Guatemala, teaching and providing spiritual direction at a minor seminary run by the Benedictine monks near the city of Quetzaltenango. In 2000 he returned to the U.S. and began ten years in Chicago, many of which were spent at St. Peter’s in the Loop. He has taught numerous adult education courses at the Newberry Library and at area parishes.