A priest of the Maryland Province of the Society of Jesus, Fr. Ryan was ordained in 1987. Before coming to Sacred Heart Major Seminary, he served as Executive Director of the Secretariat of Doctrine and Canonical Affairs at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Prior to that he served as Professor of Moral Theology and Director of Spiritual Formation at Kenrick-Glennon Seminary in St. Louis; Professor of Moral Theology at Mount St. Mary’s Seminary in Emmitsburg, Maryland; and Assistant Professor of Theology at Loyola College in Maryland.

Fr. Ryan is a member of the executive boards of the Fellowship of Catholic Scholars and the Courage apostolate, was a senior fellow of the Westchester Institute for Ethics and the Human Person, and is a past president of the Jesuit Philosophical Society.  He is currently working on a book on tentatively titled The Blessed, the Damned, and Personal Vocation: A Christological Eschatology.

The fourth of eight children, Fr. Ryan was raised in Kensington, Maryland. His brother William is a priest of the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C.