NOVEMBER 2004 VOLUME 34, NUMBER 2 Laity, Jesu its …NATIONAL JESUIT NEWS 4 Commentary Jerry Graham...

By Julie Bourbon

Creating greater understanding betweenJesuits and lay colleagues was a theme atthe Partnership for Mission meeting in Bal-

timore. Spread overtwo days in Septem-ber and attended by13 representativesfrom across the U.S.Apostolate and theJesuit Conference, aswell as French Cana-da, the meeting washosted by the Mary-land Province.

Geared towardthose with responsibility for lay/Jesuit part-nership in spirituality, leadership forma-tion and/or apostolic initiatives, thegathering was organized by the MarylandProvince Mission and Renewal team of Fr.

Jim Connor (MAR), Kevin O’Brien and Jere-my McNamee. At present, there is no struc-ture in place for province staff throughoutthe apostolate to share their work in theseareas, and the Maryland province was oneof the first to hire a full-time staff personfor this purpose. The team was motivatedin part by declining numbers of activeJesuits available for mission, but even moreby a desire to more fully live the documentsof GC34, especially Decree 13, “Coopera-tion with the Laity in Mission.”

In his introductory comments, O’Briensaid he hoped the participants would “comeaway with a better understanding” of themany resources made available throughhealthy Jesuit-lay relations, and a greatersense of the possibilities of future collabo-ration on a national scale.

“Jesuits, through province structures,have an incentive to relate to, and workalongside of Ignatian inspired lay persons

for the purpose offuture apostolicactivities,” he said.“The Ignatian mis-sion to the Churchand the world is whatmotivates this desirefor partnership.”

The agenda cov-ered such topics asIgnatian leadershipfor mission, Ignatianformation and socialjustice, lay Ignatianformation, lay forma-tion in the CLC, theColleagues of theMaryland Province,

developing lay leadership in the ChicagoProvince, the California Province Convoca-tion 2003 and the Detroit Province Year ofPrayer. The meeting began with introduc-tions as each participant explained whatbrought them to the table and where theyhoped the conversation would lead them.

Connor made an analogy that was oftrepeated throughout the two days of Jesuitsbeing like the pilot light on a gas stove, with

the laity being the burners. “Someone needsto keep the pilot light burning,” he said,adding later: “it is not the pilot light thatheats the water and boils the potatoes. It isthe burners that do the actual service. Butthe pilot light serves the servers.” Fr. SiHendry (NOR) picked up on that themewhen he said “part of my approach has been

NOVEMBER 2004 ■ VOLUME 34, NUMBER 2

NATIONAL JESUIT NEWS

4 CommentaryJerry Graham wonders about thefuture of Jesuit parishes.

8-9 CommentaryKevin O’Brien reflects onJesuits collaborating withlaity.

20 Jesuit RelationsMichael Vjecha is a Jesuit M.D. nowresearching AIDS for the NIH.

Laity, Jesuits sharepartnershippossibilities inBaltimore

continued on page 2

The Special Medical Support program provides treatment in special clinics and rehabilitation cen-ters for 160 disabled children through the Institution for Development Aid in Mexico. See storypage 10. Photo by Bill Rickle SJ

Fr. Jim Connor

Participants at the two-day Partnership for Mission meeting.

Phot

os b

y Ju

lie B

ourb

on

NATIONAL JESUIT NEWS

ACTING EDITOR: Julie BourbonPUBLICATIONS MANAGER: Marcus Bleech

National Jesuit News (ISSN 0199-0284) is published monthly except January,March, May, July, August, September by the U.S. Jesuit Conference, 1616 PSt., NW, Suite 300, Washington, D.C. 20036-1420. Phone: (202) 462-0400/FAX(202) 328-9212. Periodicals postage paid at Washington, D.C., 20066-9602and at additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes toNational Jesuit News, 1616 P St., NW, Suite 300, Washington, D.C. 20036-1420. For undeliverable copies, please send form 3579. Copyright © 2004 bythe Society of Jesus.

Province CorrespondentsJerry Hayes SJ, CaliforniaGeorge Kearney, ChicagoJohn Moriconi SJ, DetroitJackie Antkowiak, MarylandMike Harter SJ, MissouriRichard Roos SJ, New EnglandLouis T. Garaventa SJ, New YorkKenneth J. Boller SJ, New YorkBrad Reynolds SJ, OregonDonald Hawkins SJ, New OrleansJim McDermott SJ, Wisconsin

The articles published here reflect the opinions of

the editor or the individual authors. They are not meant

to represent any official position of the Society of Jesus.

When sending in address changes include your full

address and home province.

mailto:[email protected]

Find us on the Web at:

HTTP://WWW.JESUIT.ORG

2 National Jesuit News ■ November 2004

to make priests less important and enhancethe lives of the burners, the people whoreally do the work of the church.”

Fr. David Haschka (WIS), representingthe Jesuit Conference, remarked in hisintroduction that “My sense is that theSociety of Jesus is not necessary, but it’sprecious. The Church is necessary, and theGospels.” He talked about the push-pulldynamic that some of his brothers feelwhen it comes to the subject of makingroom for laity, and the fact that the HolySpirit isn’t sending the Jesuits a lot of menright now, but is sending many motivatedlay people, dedicated to preserving thecharism of the Society, instead.

Marie Schimelfening, communicationsand public relations coordinator for theDetroit Province and former executivedirector of the Christian Life CommunitiesNational Movement, recalled that it wasjust last year that laity were invited toProvince Days for the first time. Now, shesaid, they’re calling laity “companions” inDetroit.

Detroit is planning its 50th anniversarycelebration for next summer, which coin-cides with a Year of Prayer in which Jesuitsand laity will form small groups and meet

eight times over the course of this fall andwinter, culminating in a three-day retreatin June 2005. Chris Staab, one of the coor-dinators of the Year of Prayer, called for a“rethinking” of identity, “not lay and Jesuit,but being companions on a mission.”

Chuck Thompson, director of IgnatianPrograms for the Chicago Province, sug-gested that there is some ignorance or lackof awareness of the other that can get inthe way of lay-Jesuit relations. “How willthe collaborative piece work if Jesuits andlay don’t walk in each other’s shoes?” heasked.

Thompson presented an overview ofthe Chicago Province’s Trustee Jesuit Ori-entation, a daylong program that serves asa “crash orientation course” for trustees.Sessions on the mission of the Society, thelife of Ignatius, the Spiritual Exercises,Ignatian vocabulary, the Magis and Jesuithistory are geared toward helping trusteesbecome visible and committed partners inthe Jesuit mission. The Chicago Provincealso hosts an Ignatian Themes Workshop,a program for high schools that covers thethemes of the Exercises over the course ofa weekend.

“You’re planting seeds with thesethings,” he said. “We’re just gardeners here,hoping that these things take root.”

Fr. Provincial Daniel LeBlond (GLC), whoneedlessly excused his heavily accented Eng-lish, talked about his long experience of col-laborating with lay men and women in thearts community as founder and artistic direc-tor of the Centre de Créativité in Montreal.This was his first experience in the Societyof real sharing with lay men and women. “IfI live only with the Jesuit people,” he said, “Ilive alone.”

During his session on Ignatian Leader-ship for Mission, Connor joked that duringhis time at Holy Trinity parish in Washing-ton, D.C., he supported “power to the peopleand less work for Father.” In a more seriousvein, he wondered aloud about how to getJesuits to open up to the need for change, notonly in working with laity, but among them-selves, and to support laity working with laity.He encouraged everyone present to “thinkoutside the box,” warning that “the boxes aresometimes the apostolic institutions.”

Connor talked about “motivation, mind-set and mission” and “reflection on experi-ence leading toward action,” finally asking“where are we being called? Where is the invi-tation?” Time, prayer and reflection may pro-vide the answers.

The group did not schedule a follow-upmeeting but will remain in touch with oneanother, sharing successes and failures.Haschka will make a report to the provincialsat their next meeting.

In a post-meeting message, JeanneAnderson-West, coordinator of the Califor-nia Province Mission and Vision Committee,wrote to the group: “This was a tremendousopportunity to connect inter-Province, toshare best practices and where we mightimprove. It is the power of the personal sto-ries. We must connect as a responsibility ofour baptism. ‘We’ are the church!”

(Turn to Kevin O’Brien’s reflection on layand Jesuit partnership, pp. 8-9.)

News

continued from page 1

Send change of address to:NJN, 1616 P Street, NW, Suite 300Washington, D.C. 20036-1420

MOVING?Name:

NEW address:

City, State, Zip:

Standing, from left: Chris Staab, Fr. Daniel LeBlond (GLC), Joyceann Hagen, Fr. Si Hendry (NOR), Marie Schimelfening, Kevin O'Brien, Jeanne Anderson-West, Jim DeAngelo and Fr. Jim Connor (MAR). Seated, fromleft: Chuck Thompson, Jeremy McNamee, Fr. David Haschka (WIS) and Greg Meuler.

Phot

o by

Jul

ie B

ourb

on

Enrollments at the 28 Jesuit collegesand universities for the 2004-05 schoolyear are healthy and growing, accordingto numbers reported to the Association ofJesuit Colleges and Universities. In manycases, the freshman class size representsan all-time high or the continuation of anupward trend.

Some highlights include:Applications to Boston College’s fall

2004 freshman class were the highest ever,with 22,500 students applying for 2,250spots. Just over 30 percent of the admit-ted applicants had a mean SAT score of1364.

Canisius College boasted its largestfreshman class (885 students) and thehighest number of new transfer students(162) since at least 2001.

Creighton University’s fall enrollmentis a new record high of 6,723, up 2.8 per-cent over last fall.

Gonzaga University’s total enrollmenthas increased to 5,900 students, with anexpected 94 percent retention rate fromfreshmen to sophomore status this fall,their highest ever retention rate.

Loyola College Maryland experienceda four percent growth in graduate stu-dents over last fall’s enrollment, bringingthe total to 2,715.

Loyola University Chicago projectedan all-time record high of 7,331 full-timeundergraduate students, a count that hasincreased by nearly 50 percent during thepast five years. The previous record of6,524 was set 24 years ago. In addition,there are more overall full-time students,11,558, than in the past 20 years, and theuniversity’s overall enrollment of 14,147is the highest it has been in 10 years. Thatincludes an increase in graduate enroll-ment.

Ethnic minority students made up33.8 percent of Loyola New Orleans’ fresh-men class, an increase from the 30.4 per-cent enrolled in 2003.

Marquette University’s incomingfreshman class was the most competitivein its history, with an all time record10,201 students applying for approxi-mately 1,800 available spots, a 26 percentincrease over last year, the previous recordholder. The acceptance rate dropped sig-nificantly from 83 percent in 2003 to 67percent in 2004.

The freshman class at Rockhurst Uni-versity grew by 25 percent over last year,to 306 students. It is also a more geo-graphically diverse entering class than inpast years, with students coming from 19states, including California and Alaska,

as well as three foreign countries:Cameroon, Zimbabwe and New Zealand.There are about 800 graduate students,including 27 in the new Doctor of PhysicalTherapy program.

At Seattle University, 3,475 individu-als applied for the freshman class slots;the final number enrolled is expected tobe 740, an increase of 10 percent. Trans-

fer enrollment has increased by 18 per-cent.

The entering undergraduate class is thelargest in the history of University of SanFrancisco: 1,140 students. There areapproximately 400 students on the waitinglist.

University of Scranton’s freshman classof 977 was selected from a pool of more

than 6,125 applicants, the largest ever inthe university’s history and an 8.4 percentincrease over the 2003 record-setting appli-cant pool. In the past three years, Scran-ton's undergraduate application totals haveincreased 64 percent.

The freshman class entering XavierUniversity in the fall of 2004 – 878 students– is the largest in the school’s history.

National Jesuit News ■ November 2004 3

By William Haardt

“Mr. Haardt, are you Buddhist?” a stu-dent asks one day after school.

“Why do you ask, Carla?”“Well, you start our class with medita-

tion every day, you seem to really embraceBuddhism and talk about it a lot. Not tomention you use a Korean Buddhist bowlto begin our prayer/meditation period. Youalso have various Buddhist statues, alongwith icons from other religions. It justseems like an obvious question.”

“Well, Carla, I am the world religionsteacher here, so I have decorated the class-room accordingly. But I understand yourquestion; it is not the first time I’ve beenasked. Do you have a minute, I’d be glad toexplain?”

I have been teaching 60 to 120 seniorsworld religions at St. Ignatius College Prepin San Francisco (or “World’s Wisdom Tra-ditions” modeling Huston Smith’sapproach) each year for the last three years.

I graduated from Strake Jesuit HighSchool in Houston in 1991, arrived at Col-gate University, and, after many diversions,majored in religious studies. The coursesin Hinduism and Buddhism opened upinsights that I had never been able to seeclearly within my own tradition. After ayear of graduate studies at Catholic Uni-versity of America, I decided to teach highschool and have been doing so ever since.

As a Roman Catholic, I have alwayscraved more silence and wondered whythere is not more instruction in prayerbeyond the customary petitionary prayer.I was surprised to find in the Catholic Cat-echism that prayer includes vocal, reflec-tive, and contemplative dimensions. Yet itseems the contemplative depth of our tra-dition has waned over the centuries.

Thus, my path led me to the Buddhisttradition, one founded on a contemplativepractice -- meditation. I appreciate thesacramental nature of our Christian tradi-tion but had to find a way to cultivate myneed for interior silence. I’m currentlyinvolved in the Theravada Buddhist tradi-tion at Spirit Rock Meditation Center innorthern California.

Jack Kornfield, who engages in inter-faith dialogue within the contemplativepath, leads the center. Through him I was

reminded of the vital need to devote somedaily time to silence, to prayer. In doing so,we regain a sense of ourselves, the basicgoodness and simplicity of our own being.

Thus, we can become what Ignatius ofLoyola impressed upon his companions,contemplatives in action. By grounding our-selves in our true nature (Christ for Chris-tians, Buddha-nature for Buddhists), wecan then act from this place of wholeness.Thomas Merton explains:

“Life is very simple: we are living in aworld that is absolutely transparent to Godand God is shining through it all the time.This is not a fable or a nice story. It is true.God manifests himself everywhere, inevery thing, in people and in things and innature and in events. You cannot be with-out God. It’s impossible. Simply impossi-ble.”

So I come back to Carla’s question. I donot call myself Buddhist, but rather I am aCatholic-Christian who has been toucheddeeply by other traditions, especially theBuddhist. In my World’s Wisdom course,I try to show students the “forgotten truth”of these traditions. Each in their uniqueand distinctive way expresses Merton’sreality.

He adds, “Now I realize what we all are.And if only everyone could realize this! …I suddenly saw all the secret beauty of theirhearts, the depths of their hearts where nei-ther sin nor desire nor self-knowledge canreach, the core of their reality, the personthat each one is in God’s eyes. If only theycould see themselves as they really are. Ifonly we could see each other that way allthe time. There would be no more war, nomore hatred, no more cruelty, no moregreed.”

As human beings we need a particulartradition within which to ground ourselves.Contemplation reveals to us, as it did toMerton, that God is the ground of ourbeing, and the more conscious we are ofthis reality, the more we can live from thistruth in the nitty-gritty of life, with ourfamilies and friends, with our colleaguesand students, with ourselves.

In the high school setting at SICP, kidsare under tremendous pressure to performat the highest level and often manage to dojust that. When Carla and other studentscome into my class, I begin with five min-

utes of silent prayer/meditation. I want togive these students a taste of that quiet thatallows us to listen to God, especially in aculture with cell phones, internet, and theworship of “doing” and “performance.”

The Buddhist and Christian paths con-verge as they both recognize the “fruits” ofprayer/meditation. As Christians we talkabout fruits of the Spirit. “But the fruit ofthe Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kind-ness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness,self-control. Against such there is no law”(Gal. 5:22,23).

We harvest this Spirit-fruit through thesacraments and a life of prayer. The Bud-dhist tradition emphasizes the Brahma-Viharas (Divine-Abodes) that characterizethe awakened mind -- metta (loving-kind-ness), karuna (compassion), mudita(appreciative joy), and upekkha (equa-nimity). The path to awakening is throughwisdom and compassion, which are culti-vated through meditation and the Eight-Fold Path.

Both traditions point to the awakenedlife of the Spirit and once we realize (makereal) the truth of our being, these fruitsflow out of us. I find great wisdom in howboth of these traditions understand theprocess of transformation, grounded in alife of prayer/meditation, and the resultsof that transformation.

Buddha and Christ represent what ispossible for us human beings, right hereand now. I ask my students in class to raisetheir hands “if you do not want peace, joy,love, compassion, gentleness, patience,happiness, etc…?” As humans, we all wantthese fruits that both traditions reveal areavailable to us in abundance.

I pray for every one of my students thatthey may come to know God in the wayMerton did. The Buddha and countlessothers have “awakened” through the prac-tice of contemplative prayer. Ignatius him-self had his own conversion experiencewhile in deep prayer in Manresa. As Chris-tians, we can engage other traditions andlearn the depths of our own.

As Pope John Paul II wrote, “By dia-logue, we let God be present in our midst,for as we open ourselves to one another, weopen ourselves to God.”

(Haardt is religious studies teacher atSt. Ignatius College Prep, San Francisco.)

Walking a Buddhist-Christian path at St. Ignatius College Prep

Jesuits and Interreligious DialogueMore studentsseeking Jesuitcollegeexperience

By Jerry Graham SJ

Jesuit parishes are in serious trouble.Their future is in doubt.

One scholastic recently surveyed his fel-low Jesuits in formation, to find that onlyone out of 30 expressed any interest inworking in a Jesuit parish. At a recent gath-ering of staffs of six Jesuit parishes, a set ofquestions emerged—the same set of ques-tions those staffs had asked for the past fiveyears.

How do we define the differencebetween Jesuit and diocesan parishes? Howdo we inspire young Jesuits to serve inparishes? How do we balance Jesuit apos-tolic priorities with diocesan priorities?How do we negotiate the tension betweenJesuit apostolic mobility and parish stabil-ity? Can we establish forms of lay collabo-ration in the missioning of Jesuits to aparish? How can we move from the feelingof plugging Jesuit parish holes to a well-dis-cerned and researched apostolic strategy?

Nearly a decade after GC 34, there is stillno commonly understood answers to themost basic set of questions surroundingJesuit parishes. This leaves Jesuit pastorsrelying on little more than folk wisdom andcommon sense solutions mixed with a lib-eral dose of “we’ll manage to muddlethrough.”

This situation is a recipe for cultivatinga pastoral stone age—where any wisdomgained from previous experience is lost with

each new pastor or staff. Is it any wonderthe parish apostolate is not yet a “going con-cern” that inspires the best and brightest information? This is very bad news for theSociety of Jesus—which, over the past 40years, has experienced a radical, historicchange in its attitude toward parishes.

“The New Enthusiasm for ParishMinistry” -- Fr. Kolvenbach

St. Ignatius did not want Jesuits to bepastors. The Constitutions prohibitedJesuits from taking up any beneficed careof souls. Nadal gave three reasons.

First, money, houses and land wereattached to parishes in a way that conflict-ed with the Jesuit vow of poverty.

Second, the lifetime appointment ofpastors was contrary to Jesuit apostolicmobility and availability.

Thirdly, ministry in parishes meantministry to those who already had a pastorcaring for them.

For the next 400 years, then, the parish-es would belong to Peter, while Jesuitswould be like St. Paul. Only after Vatican IIwould the Society of Jesus, as Fr Kolven-bach says, “change quite radically the apos-tolic conditions of the parish apostolate.”

On November 14, 1966, GC 31 reversed400 years of Jesuit policy by declaring, “thecare of souls in a parish, in general, is nolonger to be said to be contrary to the prin-ciples of the Constitutions.”

Hardly a positive endorsement! But, whatwas new with Arrupe, was his insistence thatwhen the Society did take up a parish, itshould send its best and most qualified men.For Arrupe, the Society must develop a dis-tinctively Jesuit parish. The door was open,and by 1990, more than 3,200 Jesuits wereworking full time in more than 1,900 parish-es worldwide.

In March 1995, GC 34 declared the firstpositive Jesuit endorsement of the parishapostolate: “under certain circumstances, itis an appropriate apostolate for carrying outour mission of serving the faith and promot-ing justice.”

Finally, as Fr. Kolvenbach has said, “weare surely faithful to Ignatius in choosing tomake parish ministry one among those theJesuits can freely opt for.” How will the his-tory of Jesuit parishes become more than thestory of a missed opportunity for the king-dom of God?

An Apostolic Proposal

Let’s suppose Jesuit parishes became atruly effective apostolate in the life of thechurch. It is fairly easy to imagine what thatwould look like. It would become a discipline,an institution. The fundamental set of ques-tions that clusters around Jesuit parisheswould be systematically reflected upon, ini-tial answers developed and those answersrefined and corrected over time. We have notyet approached the Jesuit parish apostolatein the same way we have the Jesuit educa-tional and social apostolates.

Jesuit pastors and Jesuit pastoral staffscannot—while negotiating the daily roundof parish duties—conduct social and cul-tural research and analysis, organize theo-logical inquiry, systematically study pastoralissues, and work out regional strategies forlong-term progress.

Jesuits lack their own institutional sup-port for their own distinctive apostolic real-ity: the “Jesuit parish.” Jesuits pastors possessalmost no data on what works and what doesnot work in Jesuit parishes. They lack formsfor maintaining their own distinctive pro-fessional standards. All of this is why someinstitutional approach to Jesuit parish min-istry is needed.

Let’s call it, for the sake of discussion, theJesuit Institute of Pastoral Ministry. Whatwould this Institute do? To generate somediscussion, I propose a Jesuit Institute of Pas-toral Ministry would do the following seventhings.

1) Organize an Institutional BaseThe Institute’s mission would be to estab-

lish the Jesuit pastoral apostolate as a recog-nized discipline. It would need a sponsoringrelationship with a university and a facultythat includes teachers in theology and min-istry, spirituality and liturgy, administrationand management and church leadership. The

university could also provide contact, insome capacity, with representatives from thefields of philosophy, psychology, sociology,and cultural anthropology, etc.

2) Conduct Research and AnalysisThe Institute would develop an empiri-

cal approach to Jesuit parishes in a region.It would gather data, conduct research andundertake social and cultural analysis, assesscurrent trends and make recommendations.

3) Develop a Theology of Jesuit PastoralMinistry

The institute would encourage the work-ing out of the theological foundations ofJesuit parish ministry. It would define whichenterprises should fall under the term “Jesuitparish.” It would clarify what Jesuit parish-es have in common with diocesan parishesand how they differ.

4) Establish Common Doctrines AndPolicies

The Institute would develop some objec-tive standards and common understandingsto encourage common commitments andcontinual growth together.

5) Develop StandardsAn Institute would promote minimum

qualifications for Jesuit pastors and parish-es. It would set standard training require-ments and define basic skills, developevaluative tools for continual feedback andadjustment.

6) Exercise AdvocacyThe Institute would have an advocacy

arm for making public-policy statements. IfJesuits are consciously and intentionally inthe parish business, we will need to take pub-lic stands on issues affecting the church inour region.

7) Promote Interdisciplinary StudiesThe Institute would support the publi-

cation of interdisciplinary studies, perhapsby publishing its own journal.

The Stubborn Reality of the JesuitParish

GC 34 changed “quite radically” what itmeans to be a Jesuit parish. It calls for a“full, conscious and active participation”in Jesuit apostolic priorities, spirituality,traditions and charisms, while at the sametime, a “full, conscious and active partici-pation” in diocesan priorities.

We should not feel too bad about theJesuit parish apostolate—yet! The Society’s“radical change” is less than 40 years old.The Society’s first positive endorsement ofthe parish apostolate is only 10 years old.It is time for the parish apostolate to movefrom its initial stage of emergence to its sec-ond stage of development as a discipline. Ihope this article contributes to a construc-tive conversation.

(Graham [ORE] is pastoral minister atSt. Francis Xavier Church in Missoula,Mont.)


Commentary

The future of Jesuit parishes:it’s time to develop a disciplineJesuits lack their own institutional support for theirown distinctive apostolic reality: the “Jesuit parish.”

By Julie Bourbon

On a typical workday, Fr. GeorgeWilliams (NEN) doesn’t see the sun verymuch. His office, behind the cinderblockchapel, has no windows. Regulationsrequire that he lock the doors behind him.

He steps outside when going frombuilding to building, or to the cafeteria forlunch, passing the basketball court and thechain link fences topped by razor wire, butotherwise he makes the rounds inside,rarely standing still.

Every guard he passes knows his name,and knows to kid him on no longer being“Br.” George – he was ordained this sum-mer. He and the guards have an easy rap-port, but Williams takes care not to beperceived as too congenial, too much inleague with them. It’s the prisoners who arehis primary concern and the reason hespends his days in jail.

Dressed in clerics and sunglasses, withthe car radio tuned to classic rock,Williams, 47, begins his days at the Houseof Corrections (HOC) at about 9 a.m.; hespends three days a week here and the othertwo days at the county jail.

“I try not to be clerical,” he said, but thecollar helps the men to identify him. “Oth-erwise, I look like another white case work-er.” Except that he’s a little cooler than acaseworker, radiating familiarity andrespect at the same time. The men respondto that.

Once inside the prison, a modern facil-ity that he calls a great improvement on the“medieval” Deer Island, Williams moveswith ease back and forth among the wings.It is quieter than prisons in the movies, andthe guards don’t carry guns.

Williams wears an ID card on a chainthat he waves in front of the elevator sen-sor every time he goes from floor to floor,which he does often. The chapel is on one

floor, solitary confinement (“the hole”) ison another, new prisoners on still another.He knows many of the prisoners by name,and if he doesn’t know, he asks. Dressed inscrubs and sneakers, they all seem to knowhim. Some of them might pass for med stu-dents if you didn’t know where you were.

If there is such a thing as a regular dayin jail, it would consist of at least one Mass,maybe confession, a visit to the women’swing a few times a week, a visit to the fed-eral prisoners awaiting deportation in theHomeland Security wing, some good-natured intellectual sparring with the rabbi

who shares his office and haggling with aguard over the price of Bibles to be orderedand sold at the prison canteen. One is $10,the other $7.25, the cost of two cigarettes(on the black market – smoking is prohib-ited) or 15 honey buns.

“Somebody is making a nice profit offGod’s word,” Williams says. He offers Massfor the guards, too; they suffer high rates ofalcoholism, drug use and domestic abuse,and one committed suicide recently. Butmostly, Williams works for the prisoners,and he distributes small Bibles and occa-sionally rosary beads (“prison bling”) to

the men who come to Mass. His supply islimited, though, and he finds that the Biblesare treated more gently when they’re ownedrather than borrowed, which is generallyhuman nature.

It has been about 16 years sinceWilliams began doing prison ministry, firstas a novice in 1988. “I just loved the workfrom the beginning. I felt really drawn toit,” he explains.

With an undergraduate degree in socialwork and an MSW, his background pre-


A forgotten ministry, a man on a mission

see Williams, page 7

Fr. George Williams stands outside the Suffolk County House of Corrections, where he works three days a week.

Phot

os b

y Ju

lie B

ourb

on

By Thomas H. Stahel SJ

(On sabbatical as a visiting fellow of theIgnatian Spirituality Center at Boston Col-lege, Fr. Marwata (IDO) was formerly supe-rior of the Jesuit community [1995-2000] anddirector of St. Joseph High School, Dili, EastTimor [1995-2003].)

Here is a story of the difficult but delib-erate choice to stay in harm’s way. The place,East Timor. The time, 1999. I was in theright place at the right time to learn of thedetails upon meeting Fr. Ageng Marwata ata workshop in New Orleans.How did you come to be in East Timor atthat time?

Although I was born in Central Java andam an Indonesian, in 1995 the Jesuit provin-cial sent me to East Timor to be director ofSt. Joseph High School in Dili. At first, I wasjust director of the school. At the end of1995, however, the local Jesuit superior inEast Timor finished his term so at the endof that year I became the superior too.When you arrived in East Timor, whatwere your impressions of that country?

At that time, it was under Indonesianoccupation. People were so afraid and so

poor, and I heard a lot aboutpeople being abducted by

the Army. The situa-tion was tense.

As an Indonesian citizen, did you feelany conflicted emotions?

Although I love my country Indonesia,I felt in my conscience something waswrong and unjust. It seemed to me that thepeople should be given the chance to talkfreely among themselves and to be self-determining. At that time also, Indonesiawas itself dominated by the old Suhartodictatorial regime. All of us Indonesianswere controlled.When did the situation begin to deteri-orate in East Timor?

After Suharto fell, President Habibifinally gave East Timor the opportunity todetermine its sovereignty by referendum,under United Nations auspices. The provin-cial government of East Timor gave each ofits regions the right to form a militia. Thatwas in January 1999. On April 6, 1999, apro-Indonesia militia backed by the Armyattacked the church in Liquica. Until thattime I had thought of the church as being aplace of neutrality and possible refuge. Itbecame clear that things were much moreperilous.Was that when the Jesuits made theirdecision to stay on anyway?

Yes. The referendum was scheduled forAugust 1999. But before that, in July, I metwith each Jesuit individually, giving eachthe chance to leave if he thought that waswhat he should do. All of them told me thatthey had been sent to East Timor to be withthe people and that they would stay withthem, come what may. Later on, as the ref-

erendum got closer, in themiddle of August, we

had a communitymeeting. We con-

firmed our earli-er choice. Our

decision wasthe same,

to stay

no matter what, and our resolve not toleave was made even stronger by the mutu-al support we gave one another. At the timewe were 12 Jesuits. At the end of the trou-bles, we were 10.When was the referendum scheduledexactly?

It was on August 30, 1999. On August27, there was a killing not too far from ourschool. I canceled our classes and decidedto close the school for two weeks in antic-ipation of the election and the results, tobe announced on September 4. But even asI was making the announcement, peoplefrom the surrounding neighborhoodsflooded into the school and its compoundseeking refuge.

As it turned out, many refugees werewith us until mid-October. When the elec-tion results were announced on September4, it became clear that 80 percent of thepeople had voted for independence. Thatwas when the pro-Indonesia militia andthe Army began killing and burning anddriving East Timorese into West Timor,around 200,000 altogether. Of those, 15,000are still in the West, mostly family mem-bers of the pro-Indonesian groups.

September 8, the feast of Our Lady’sbirth, proved a sad and climactic day. Rightafter morning Eucharist, a religious sistercame with the news that the Bishop’s househad been attacked by pro-Indonesian mili-tia. Many were killed there and the Bishophad been airlifted out to safety. It was clearnone of us was safe in Dili.

My eyes fell on my brother Jesuits at theschool – Joao, Martins and Filomeno. Nowthey were seriously in danger so I sentthem out of the city to our agricultural cen-ter, and with added instruction to Filomenothat, if it were possible, he should try to goabroad and tell the story of what was hap-pening to us in East Timor.

As we parted, we embraced and blessedone another and prayed in Latin the Jesuit

Suscipe (“Take, Lord and Receive”) andthe Ave Maria. Only Fr. KarlAlbrecht and I stayed behind atthe residence, and I sent all of therefugees who had gathered at theschool into the hills and forestswhere they would be safer.

That afternoon, I got a callfrom Fr. Peter Hoskins, an Australian

Jesuit working for the United Nations inDili, saying they had solid information

that the church in Suai had been attackedand that all its refugees and priests, includ-ing our young Jesuit Tarcisius Dewanto, hadbeen killed.

I was dumbstruck and handed thephone to Fr. Albrecht. Then I just sat onthe floor with so many questions flood-

ing my heart: “Where are you, God? Don’tyou hear the cries of the Timorese people?”Then Fr. Albrecht joined me and, to con-sole me, said: “Dewanto gave his life to pro-

tect his people. His killing has given us aconfirmation of our decision to stay withour East Timorese people. Now we have amediator before our Lord.” Three days later,Fr. Albrecht himself was killed.How did you lose those two Jesuits?

In the city of Suai, the church was giv-ing shelter to refugees. At the time therewere three priests there, two diocesan andone Jesuit, Tarcisius Dewanto. Fr. Dewan-to was 32 years old and had been ordainedthat very July.

On September 6, pro-Indonesian mili-tia attacked the church and killed every-one in it. Fr. Dewanto was cut down with amachete. Others were shot. According towitnesses, when the militia first attacked,Fr. Dewanto stepped out of the church inan effort to confront the militia and pro-tect the refugees, and he was the first to becut down.And Fr. Albrecht?

Karl Albrecht, 75 years of age, was aGerman missionary but by this time anIndonesian citizen and director of JesuitRefugee Service in East Timor. At 9:30 p.m.on the night of September 11, I was asusual walking around the residential com-pound, checking the gates. When I cameback into the Jesuit residence, I heard threeshots very close to our house. Fr. Karl wasasleep at the time, and awakened by theshots, he left the house over my protests.It was very dark, and we had no power. Hehad a flashlight, and I followed him.

Suddenly he shouted at something thatI could not see. He shouted in Indonesian,“What are you looking for?” There camethe response, as a command, “Turn off thatflashlight.” Again, Fr. Albrecht said, “Whatare you looking for?” And again, thedemand back, “Switch off that light.” Withthat came two shots, and I saw Fr. Albrechtfall. I rushed to him but could not lift him.I put his head in my lap. He was stillbreathing, so I gave him absolution.

Running back to the house, I got threeboys who were staying with us to help me.Putting on my white cassock, and with Fr.Albrecht and the three boys in the car, Ibroke the curfew and went to the nearbymilitary headquarters and they gave us anescort to the military clinic, but Fr.Albrecht died on the way.

Again, questions flooded my heart andmind: “Lord, where are you? What kind ofGod do I have? Can you give me morefaith?”

Miraculously, day by day, we grewstronger in our faith and hope – and in ourvocation. We had more courage to face themilitias, and our community has grownmore solid and is now blessed with newvocations.

(Stahel [NOR] is superior and pastor ofHoly Name and Immaculate Conceptionparishes, New Orleans, and a former asso-ciate editor of America Magazine.)


commentary

Ageng Marwata SJ: Blessed are they who do not cut and run

“Miraculously, day byday, we grew strongerin our faith and hope”


By Joseph R. Hacala SJ

Long before he set foot on campus at what was tobecome Wheeling College, Clifford M. Lewis SJ dreamedof a Jesuit institution in West Virginia that would “ ... pro-vide independent enlightenment to tomorrow’s problems.”

As a native West Virginian, as a Jesuit priest, and as theseventh president of Wheeling Jesuit University, I am hon-ored to lead the university as we celebrate the 50th anniver-sary of our partnership between the Roman CatholicDiocese of Wheeling-Charleston, and the Society of Jesus ofthe Maryland Province, bringing to life the first – and only– Jesuit, Catholic college in West Virginia.

At our inception in 1954, wecommitted to providing the menand women of Appalachia “an edu-cation for life, for leadership and forservice, with and among others.”Our commitment to that missionand those people remains strongand at the center of our effortstoday, a half-century later.

On the occasion of the 50thanniversary of the incorporation ofwhat is today Wheeling Jesuit Uni-versity, the only one of the 28 Jesuit

colleges or universities to bear “Jesuit” in its name, we cel-ebrate the university and the people whose work andprayers have made it a living force for the common good,educating men and women for others and letting our lightshine for all (Luceat Lux Vestra) – the university motto.

Wheeling College, with a staff of 12 Jesuits, four lay pro-fessors and 90 students, opened on September 26, 1955,offering 25 courses in 12 majors. Fifty years later, we renewour commitment to providing a Jesuit, liberal arts educa-tion to the people of this region.

The university recently enrolled 350 students, thelargest freshman class in its history. Some one half of our

students are the first in their families to pursue highereducation. U. S. News & World Report now ranks Wheel-ing Jesuit University 15th in the “Best Master’s Universi-ties in the South,” making it the highest ranked institutionin West Virginia in that category for eight consecutiveyears, and the highest ranked school in the Ohio Valley.We offer more than 30 undergraduate programs of studyand six graduate degrees to 1,500 students each year. Ourstudent-to-faculty ratio is 14:1, and we now field 18 inter-collegiate NCAA Division II athletic teams.

From those early days, our campus has grown toinclude 15 modern buildings, including the multi-milliondollar Acker Science Center, and a modern recreation andathletic facility that includes a soccer/track and field com-plex. The campus is home to the Robert C. Byrd NationalTechnology Transfer Center, the Erma Ora Byrd Center forEducational Technologies, a Challenger Learning Centerand the Clifford M. Lewis SJ Appalachian Institute. In this,our anniversary year, we opened the Service for SocialAction Center, to focus and coordinate our service andservice-learning programs and activities, keeping true toour original mission.

Our mission, not our facilities, remains at the heart ofwhat we do and who we are – Catholic and catholic (uni-versal), educating our students to love and serve God andtheir neighbor. Our past is really the foundation for thisincredible educational institution, because, and in spiteof, our successes and struggles. That foundation then,rooted in our original Jesuit mission to integrate the ser-vice of faith and the promotion of justice, will provideexpanded, new educational opportunities for the next half-century.

Archbishop John J. Swint of the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston provided an opportunity for students from theregion to receive an education rooted in traditional, reli-gious, Catholic, Jesuit and liberal arts values. Focusing andliving that opportunity has brought us to today, and willcarry us into our future. While the campus has new build-

ings and a new name, our original mission has endured.In our recommitment to that mission, we will strengthenand grow, with the help of God, in collaboration with thiscity, this area and my native state of West Virginia.

Merely celebrating 50 years of “success,” and holding aseries of events during this jubilee year, though, will makeus no different than any other college or university mark-ing a golden anniversary. We mark a half-century of trans-forming mere achievement in the classroom, in athleticsor activities, into longer-lasting service to the world inwhich we live, here in Wheeling, and wherever our livestake us.

Father General Peter-Hans Kolvenbach SJ emphasizes,“The measure of Jesuit universities is not what our stu-dents do, but who they become, and the adult responsi-bility they will exercise in the future towards theirneighbor and their world.”

Our 50th anniversary celebration stands solidly on thelong-term value of a Jesuit education – learning to dis-cern God’s will in our lives, in all that we are, in all thatwe do. We rejoice that all that we have done reflects oursocial concern, our commitment to the real developmentof people – our students, the people we serve in the region.Our original vision and mission remain strong: to educatemen and women for others, men and women who make areal difference.

Standing on our past, lighting our way to our future,we dedicate this anniversary year to recommitting to thevision, the mission, of our founders, recommitting to thisregion, recommitting to the place and the people we serve.

(Fr. Hacala, a native of Charleston, W.V., joined the Soci-ety of Jesus from Wheeling College in 1962. Missioned twiceby the Jesuits as rector of the Jesuit community, he wasappointed president in 2003. The Wheeling Jesuit Univer-sity Board of Trustees, the Board of Directors and the Soci-ety of Jesus held a celebration of re-commitment to missionand installation of the seventh president, October 28-29,2004.)

Recommitting the institution to its mission

Fr. Joseph Hacala

pared him well for ministry with the incar-cerated. Most of the men Williams workswith are addicts, and he will see some ofthem when their sentences are up, at BridgeHouse, the halfway transitional home wherehe also works as an addiction counselor.“What I like about prison ministry is thatit’s so on the edge. A lot of the denomina-tion issues don’t matter. It’s about survival,not theology,” he says

Williams entered the Society in 1987,after a stint in the Air Force. He was sta-tioned in Germany, Saudi Arabia and remoteIndian Mountain in Alaska, operating radarand doing air traffic control. It was a stress-ful, lonely post, and one he was probablyassigned to as punishment for a smartremark he made to a superior. It was therehe had his “ah-ha” moment, which led to ayear of JVC in Nome. “Growing up, I neverknew that Catholics could think.” Then hemet the Jesuits.

Williams has been going to the SuffolkCounty House of Corrections since 1993. Hetook a hiatus starting in 2000 when hedecided to become ordained. “At the time,”

he recalls, “I was a brother, and happily. Butthe inmates wanted confession. I thought ‘Iknow these men better than the priests do.’”He spent three years getting his M.Div.,working at the halfway house as a counselor,studying spiritual direction. He’s been backat the prison full time since July.

“It kind of happened through them (theprisoners),” he says of his ordination. Nowhe is able to preside at baptisms, confirma-tions and first communions for the men heworks with. “That means a lot to them, toaccomplish that while they’re here.”

At the first of four Masses on a brilliantlysunny Monday in September, Williamsmeets some of the new men. They haven’tbeen assigned yet to their permanent cellsand are all housed together in one wing. Itis an adjustment period, although less so forsome of the men, who have been here before.

Things were a little rowdy on the floorthat day, so the two wings had separateMasses in the cafeteria, the first a little hur-ried to allow time for the second. By the timethe second Mass was nearly over, the menon that wing had returned to their cells;recreation time was up, but not for thosewho had come to church. The guards didn’tseem inclined to interrupt.

Williams asks the men what theybrought with them to Mass that day andtells them whatever it is, it will be harderwithout God. The reading is from 1Corinthians, about faith, hope and love. Hetells them that Paul wrote it from a prisoncell. “What’s there not to believe?” he asksthem.

There are five new men at the first Mass,all African American, mostly in their 30sand 40s or older. They don’t seem to knowthe Mass well, but bow their heads whenWilliams suggests they pray for their chil-dren. The second group is bigger and a lit-tle more confident about the readings. Thereare a few Boston Irish Catholics, andWilliams knows at least one from transi-tional housing, which is where he thoughthe was going, but the judge had other ideas.

The two discuss it for a minute beforeMass begins. The men complain that theyhaven’t had razors in a month, or they wouldhave shaved before church. One asks forsanity during the prayers of the faithful.

“The hardest part is people feel reallylonely and disconnected,” Williams sayslater, making the rounds. “Jail separatesthem from family, friends, God. So you wantto restore those connections.”

During the day, he visits Sean, a prison-er in solitary confinement who will bereleased at the end of the week. He’s in theproverbial hole – which actually gets quitea bit of sunlight coming in on all sides – forhis own protection; he can’t hold his tonguebut he can’t fight well, either.

Another inmate recently smashed himacross the nose with a hot pot for boilingwater, resulting in what promises to be avery ugly scar. Williams is setting up aphone call between Sean and Bridge House,to arrange his stay there. He also deliversbooks, “A Tale of Two Cities” being the mostrecent and nearly completed. He promisesto bring another before Friday.

On the regular floors, the men areallowed visitors three afternoons a week, forabout 1.5 to 2 hours, and a crowd of womenand children gathers in the lobby, awaitingtheir turn. Men in solitary are not allowedvisitors. A rules sign, posted prominently inseveral places outside the visitation room,says “no kissing.” In type. And in pen on thewooden frame holding the rules. And in penagain, in another color ink, just in case youmissed it the other times. This is to prevent


Williams

see Williams, page 12

By Kevin O’Brien

Tony is a special assistant to the presi-dent of a university. Carol is a high schoolteacher. Pat is a woman religious doingretreat work and spiritual direction. Allthree share a common bond that some seeas a model for the future of ministry andmission in the Church.

They and approximately 25 other laywomen and men have come together toidentify themselves as the Colleagues of theMaryland Province (COMP).

Tony, Carol, Pat and the others are eachconnected to a Jesuit institution or apos-tolate in the province, but their link witheach other goes beyond the institutionalaffiliations. They have chosen to make

themselves and their gifts available forgreater collaboration and partnership inmission with the Society of Jesus. Each hasarrived at this place through an under-standing and experience of Ignatian spiri-tuality and feels compelled to make thisoffer as a grateful response for what theyhave received.

As the ranks of people experiencing theSpiritual Exercises of Ignatius expand, ded-icated lay colleagues such as these areincreasingly making themselves moreavailable for mission alongside their Jesuitcolleagues. This is not surprising, since thegoal of the Exercises is to prepare peopleinternally to live a life of service and mis-sion within the context of their life cir-cumstances.

It stands to reason that those whoalready have a relationship with Jesuitsand/or their apostolic works feel called toa deeper partnership with them.

It is important to point out thatlay/Jesuit (or lay/religious in general) col-laboration is not a new thing.

Extensive collaboration within indi-vidual works, particularly in educationalinstitutions, has been for some time. Thereare also other religious orders, particular-ly of women, who have been testing thesewaters for several years. What is cominginto creation now is the development ofregional and province-wide opportunitiesfor sharing responsibility and ownershipof the Ignatian mission with Jesuits.

Some of the benefits of this sharing ofthe mission are practical and obvious. Morecommitted people are available for devel-oping new initiatives, and leadership with-in current works is strengthened, forinstance. However, this movement goesbeyond the immediate, practical need forqualified personnel. Collaboration and col-leagueship are absolute requirements formoving the church forward today.

Collaboration: What is it?

Before getting into the reasons why thisis, we need to explore what it is. For our pur-poses, L. Sofield and C. Juliano, in their book“Collaboration: Uniting Our Gifts in Min-istry” have an appropriate definition.

For them collaboration, within the con-text of ministry, is “the identification,release, and union of all the gifts in ministryfor the sake of mission.” A benefit of look-ing at it in this way is that it draws attentionto the desired outcomes of the relationship,rather than defining the relationships them-selves. Of course roles need to be addressedand clarified, but this conversation can takeplace without necessarily slowing the devel-opment of collaborative efforts.

Sofield and Juliano also describe fourlevels of collaboration that evolve through adevelopmental process. These levels are co-existence, communication, cooperation andtrue collaboration. There can be some con-fusion between cooperation and true col-

laboration. The latter requires recognitionof interdependence that cooperation doesnot.

More importantly, true collaborationalso requires an acknowledgment of sharedownership of a common mission. With own-ership comes shared discernment and deci-sion-making.

Another pitfall is confusing collabora-tion with empowerment. In many placesJesuits and other religious congregationshave developed lay leadership and turnedover the functioning of institutions andother works to them. They then eithermoved on or stayed as the owners and/ ordecision makers.

This is an example of empowerment,which is in itself something to be valued. Itis not true collaboration unless shared dis-cernment and decision-making are also partof the relationship. This true collaborationis what individuals like Tony, Carol and Patfeel called to, and what a group like COMPhopes to facilitate.

Collaboration: Why?

Why lay/Jesuit collaboration, and whynow? The simple answer is that we are sup-posed to. While it is tempting to look at thisas a way to fill openings as the number ofactive Jesuits declines, it is important to stateunequivocally that there is something muchmore profound happening.

(Of course this is not to say that thereare no connections between the drop inordained men and an increase in thereliance on lay leadership.) All, lay andJesuit, are called to collaboration by theChurch, by the Jesuits’ own congregationaldocuments, and by our own consciences.

The Church wants it. Among the resultsof Vatican II was the acknowledgement that,by our baptism, all faithful have a respon-sibility for the mission of the Church and,“…they are in their own way made sharersin the priestly, prophetical, and kingly func-tions of Christ; and they carry out for theirown part the mission of the whole Christ-ian people in the Church and in the world.(Lumen Gentium, #31).

In the intervening years, various churchcommissions, popes, bishops, and otherleaders have added their voices to the callfor collaboration. Cardinal Roger Mahonyof Los Angeles, for example, wrote in a 1984pastoral letter to his diocese, “Our commonbaptismal vocation, our mutual need of eachother’s charisms and our co-responsibilityfor the church’s ministry, impel us to a lifeof collaboration.”

Jesuits want it. The documents of the34th General Congregation in 1995 containan entire section titled “Cooperation withthe Laity in Mission.” Among the pertinentpassages:

“Jesuits are both ‘men for others’ and‘men with others.’ This basic characteristicof our way of proceeding calls for an atti-tude and readiness to cooperate, to listenand to learn from others, to share our spir-itual and apostolic inheritance. To be ‘menwith others’ is a central aspect of ourcharism and deepens our identity” (GC 34,334).


Commentary

The Desire for Partnership: Thoughts onJesuit /Lay Collaboration

Joyceann Hagen reads conference materials while Jim De Angelo, center, chats with conference organizer Kevin O'Brien.

“...the goal of the

Exercises is to prepare

people internally to

live a life of service

and mission within

the context of their

life circumstances.”

Phot

os b

y Ju

lie B

ourb

on


“The Society of Jesus places itself at theservice of this mission of the laity by offer-ing what we are and have received: our spir-itual and apostolic inheritance, oureducational resources, and our friendship.We offer Ignatian spirituality as a specificgift to animate the ministry of the laity” (GC34, 337).

“Cooperation with laity in missionrequires the formation and renewal of allJesuits. Initial formation must develop ourcapacity for collaboration with both laity andfellow Jesuits by means of education andexperiences of ministerial cooperation withothers. Ongoing formation in apostolic sit-uations – if we listen to others, learn fromtheir spirituality, and face together the dif-ficulties of genuine cooperation – will deep-en this capacity. Both in our initial and

ongoing formation, lay people can help usunderstand and respect their distinct voca-tion as well as appreciate our own” (GC 34,339).

Lay colleagues want it. As stated earlier,a growing number have done the SpiritualExercises and feel called to sit at the table astrue colleagues. The identity statement of theCOMP group states these desires succinctly:

“We find ourselves at a graced momentin the history of our Church and of the Soci-ety of Jesus. We have been invited by Jesuitsto share in their mission through a varietyof apostolic ministries. We have been formedin Ignatian spirituality and supported byrelationships with Jesuits who have helpedto inspire and animate our work and witness.Our identity as Colleagues of the MarylandProvince is grounded in grateful participa-

tion in the Ignatian vision.“We offer our unique

perspectives and gifts inpartnership with the Mary-land Province to respond tothe apostolic challenges weface. We offer our support toJesuits and to each other. Weoffer our discernment of themovement of the Spirit inour work, in our church,and in our world.”

Collaboration: Whatdoes it look like?

It is one thing to writeconvincingly about whyworking as partners andcolleagues in true collabo-ration is the right thing todo. It is more difficult topoint out how this paradigmshift can be realized inaction.

Again, in many institutions, collabora-tion is a way of life among Jesuit and lay col-leagues. One COMP member working in aJesuit high school stated that there “hasalways been a sense that I work with, not for,Jesuits.” Outside the context of a particularministry, however, the realization is slowerin coming. The teacher went on to say that,until very recently, attending province widegatherings was like “going to someone else’sclass reunion.”

The COMP group has been mindful thatthe relationship with the Maryland Provinceis bi-directional. The group has participat-ed in projects initiated by Jesuits of theprovince and has itself invited Jesuits intopartnership into their projects.

Examples of the former include assist-ing the provincial in developing a jobdescription for a province staff position, andparticipating in the development and pro-motion of the bi-annual Province Days pro-gram.

COMP-initiated events that were part-nerships with Jesuits include a series of oneday gatherings for lay and Jesuit colleaguesto explore “Our Way of Proceeding,” and thedevelopment of a two year formation pro-gram in Ignatian spirituality and leadershipfor fellow lay colleagues.

Collaboration: the Future

This is still an early stage in this new wayof relating to one another, the “growing edge”as one person put it. There are still obstaclesto overcome. Most lay colleagues still don’tknow one another very well, outside of theirimmediate contexts. Jesuits are still used toworking primarily Jesuit to Jesuit.

One told me, “We Jesuits need to give uppositions of authority with a little more con-fidence in our lay collaborators.” Over timewe will better learn how to accompany each

other on the path towards true collaborationfor common mission. In Ignatian spiritual-ity, lay and Jesuit colleagues have the advan-tage of a shared common language andorientation to the world.

In “The Way of Transition” WilliamBridges writes, “Most people don’t resistchange. What we resist is transition. Changeis a situational shift … Transition is theprocess of letting go of the way things used tobe and taking hold of the way they subse-quently are. In between there is a chaotic butpotentially creative neutral zone.”

We as a church and as colleagues are inthis neutral zone today. Just one example: Inconversations with members of COMP, therewas a great sensitivity to the vast demo-graphic changes the Society of Jesus is goingthrough here in the United States. Given thevast amount of physical and emotionalresources that are being expended as itsmembers grow older, it is remarkable andtremendously consoling that Jesuits are com-mitted to laying the groundwork for a futureof collaboration and partnership.

In a talk to lay colleagues of Jesuits inVenezuela, Father Peter-Hans Kolvenbachgets at the heart of the task at hand. “It isnothing less than inviting the laity to searchfor what God wants of the Company of Jesusin Venezuela in the third millennium. Doingthis means choosing a long and difficult jour-ney: that of communitarian discernment,that of the shared search for the will of God.Indeed, this entails an invitation into theheart of the Company of Jesus, into the greatsecret of the Jesuits—actually, the onlysecret!”

And it is this communitarian discern-ment that can bring the whole of the Church,laity and ordained, to the shared ownershipof its mission and, thus, true collaboration.

(O’Brien directs the Ignatian Partner-ships Program for the Maryland Province.)

Frs. David Haschka (WIS) and Daniel LeBlond (GLC) take a break.

Kathleen Haser of the Jesuit Volunteer Corps East talks aboutCOMP.

Chris Staab and Marie Schimelfening traveled from Detroit for the meeting.

FEATURE


By Jim Stormes SJ

As migrants continue to flow fromCentral America and Mexico toward “ thenorth” in hope of a better life, some 50Jesuits and their colleagues from CentralAmerica, Mexico, the U.S.A. and Canadagathered in Mexico City to continue theireffort to improve the Society’s ministry to“vulnerable people on the move.”

The third of such meetings, this gath-ering had special significance since itincluded most of the U.S. and Canadianprovinces’ Jesuit Commissioners for Socialand International Ministries (JCSIM), whocoordinate ministry to migrants through-out the various North American provinces.The goal of the meeting was to improveministry to migrant peoples through moreeffective coordination among Jesuit min-istries in the countries of departure, tran-sit and destination.

To begin the meeting, each provincereported on the efforts in its respectiveregion and province in connection withmigration. The reports were organized intothree important areas: (1) pastoral accom-paniment; (2) research and education; and(3) advocacy and legal assistance. Thereports reflected that a significant amountof work in these areas is already wellunderway.

For example, teams in northern LatinAmerica are being formed to work withmigrants in each of three specific “flows”– Central America/Mexico to the U.S.(especially the southwest and New York);the Caribbean to the U.S. (especially Miamiand New York); and South America to bothEurope (especially Spain) and the U.S.

The treatment of Central Americanmigrants in transit through Mexico is ofsignificant concern to these teams giventhe brutality of the migratory experienceand the pressure the Mexican government

is under from the U.S. government to keepmigrants clear of the border.

In response to this issue and othersimilar concerns, the UniversidadIberoAmericana will host a wide-ranging

conference on migrationin October 2005 to fur-ther research and advo-cacy efforts.

By way of a NorthAmerican example, manyparishes in the U.S. andCanada with Latin Amer-ican migrants offer ser-vices tailored to theirparticular needs. In someprovinces, many of thoseservices must accommo-date the additional andspecific needs of Asianand African immigrants.

Often, the education-al needs of first genera-tion immigrant childrenare met through CristoRey and Nativity schools.Research is being done inmany Jesuit schools in theU.S. – Fairfield Universi-ty will host a conference

on migration this summer to better coor-dinate that work.

The Jesuit Conference, with a long his-tory of advocating on behalf of migrants,will soon join the United States Confer-ence of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) andother Catholic groups in a renewedCatholic campaign for immigrationreform in the U.S.

After the reports were presented, theassembly divided into three working-groups, one for each of the ministry areasnumbered above, and discussed concretesteps which could be taken in view ofmore effective coordination in that group’sgiven area.

The pastoral accompaniment groupwas the largest and focused on bettercommunications including directories ofavailable service providers as well as theneed for training of pastoral agents.

The advocacy group focused on workin Washington, D.C., and suggested a fol-low-up gathering in Washington of LatinAmerican advocates and partners in theU.S. The research group focused on thedissemination of relevant studies amongthe provinces as well as possible futuremeetings during the Fairfield andIberoAmericana conferences.

Latin American and U.S. Jesuits MeetRegarding Migration

Participants at a liturgy in a garbage dump in Mexico City, from left, Fr. Jack Dister (DET), JCSIM, John Sealy, WISJCSIM, Gilma Perez, UCA, Luis Enrique Bazan, USF, Fr. Bryan Pham (ORE), JCSIM, and Fr. David Eley (CSU), JCSIM.

Youngsters from the Fundacion para la Asistencia Educativa (FAE) I.A.P., a Jesuit-founded program that provides education and medical care. Itcelebrated its 15th year in 2004.

Phot

os b

y Bi

ll Ri

ckle

SJ


All participants believed that thesewere useful suggestions and that the con-tacts made during these conversationswould provide the basis for future, as yetundreamed, possibilities.

Of course, each group’s recommenda-tions must be tailored to meet the needsof the particular migrant flow, region andprovince involved. This has led to a clos-er relationship among the provinces oneither side of the U.S.-Mexico border.

In fact, a meeting of representativesof the New Orleans, California and Mexi-co Provinces preceded this meeting inMexico City. Additionally, the AntillesProvince is developing relationships with

Puerto Rico and NewYork to cooperate in min-istering to those migrat-ing from the Caribbean.

Beyond the scope ofthis meeting, it wasreported that Jesuits fromsouthern Latin Americaare collaborating withgroups in Spain tounderstand and care formigrants. In many ways,this level of cooperationseems the most effectiveand practical.

The Mexico meetingbuilt upon thesuccesses of ameeting of theprovincials of theAmericas held inMiami last Mayand relied uponthe document,“Migration in theAmericas,” whichwas approved bythe provincials of

both North and South America atthe Miami meeting.

The Mexico meeting also tookplace at a time of great interest anddiscussion about migration. Recentevents include a conference at NotreDame on the theology of migration,with a keynote talk by GustavoGutierrez, and an upcoming con-ference on law and migration atFordham University, as well asorganizational efforts by the USCCB,Catholic Relief Services, and others.

In addition to the meeting,JCSIM visited several social-inter-national ministries of the Mexican

Province. Eucharist was celebrated withpeople who work in the massive garbagedumps of Mexico City, digging out recy-clable and usable material for sale. Therepulsion felt in those working conditionswas overcome only by the faith andhumanity so evident in those who wel-comed us. Particularly touching was theringing of bells found among the refuseover the years by the women gathered insolidarity at the Eucharist.

The solidarity among the workers hasyielded better living conditions not farfrom the dumps, where there are schoolsand assistance is provided for handi-capped children. JCSIM also visited the

Miguel Pro Human Rights Center, whichfor 30 years has provided legal assistanceand advocacy based on nationally recog-nized research into human rights abusesof all kinds.

For further information on the workwith children, please e-mail the Funda-cion para la Asistencia Educativa [Foun-dation for Educational Assistance] at:[email protected]. For informationon the Miguel Pro Center, see their web-site: www.sjsocial.org/PRODH/eng-lish/main_english.htm.

(Stormes [MAR] is Secretary of Socialand International Ministries at the JesuitConference.)

Ordinandi

View of a dump from roof of Chimalhuacan day care, Mexico City, where some make their liveli-hood digging out recyclable and usable materials for sale.

Primary school children have access to the library and computers, and receive tutoring over the summerholidays.

A woman sews in the handicraft workshop , a project that creates jobs for women with children.

About 500 children under the age of six participate in early edu-cation programs.


Province Briefs

MISSOURI NEW ORLEANS

■ It is appropriate, given hisinterest in Eastern Christianity,that Fr. General Peter-Hans Kol-venbach visited our province afew weeks after Hurricane Ivan theTerrible. Fr. General celebratedthe Mass of the Holy Spirit atSpring Hill College in Mobile asthe college prepares to celebrate its175th anniversary. In NewOrleans, he presided at Eucharist,enjoyed a meal, and led a “townhall” meeting at Jesuit HighSchool. At Grand Coteau, heenjoyed the newly renovatedprovincial’s room, had dinner withthe community and presided at amorning Mass. The provincialstaff was busy for weeks, coordi-nating the visit.

■ Ivan was one of fourhurricanes to batter Florida thisseason. Fortunately, the tworemaining province institutionsthere, Sacred Heart Church andJesuit High School, both inTampa, escaped the storms’ fury.Twenty-five years ago, Spring Hillsuffered severe damage in Hurri-cane Frederick, which passedslightly west of the campus. Ivan,which made landfall on the easternshore of Mobile Bay, was muchgentler with the college, but thestorm played havoc with theprovince villa at Perdido Bay,just west of the Florida state line.Br. Ferrell Blank, villa supervisor,based at Spring Hill College, willbe assisting in making an evalua-tion for the future.

■ Fearful because of HurricaneIvan forecasts that predicted direconsequences for New Orleans, theretirement community at IgnatiusResidence evacuated to Our Ladyof the Oaks Retreat House inGrand Coteau. Eighteen retiredDominican Sisters from NewOrleans were also refugees there.

■ In light of the new constructionand renovation on campus, it wasa blessing that Spring Hill, thethird oldest Jesuit college in thenation, following Georgetown andSLU, escaped real storm damage.Within the last three years, Fr.Greg Lucey (WIS), president, hasoverseen the renovation of St.Joseph’s Chapel, almost a centuryold; Quinlan Hall, the main class-room building; and Walsh Hall, aresidence hall. New buildingsinclude a state-of-the-art library, aresidence hall and a field house.Additional renovation andconstruction are about to begin.

-- Donald Hawkins SJ

■ Eight Jesuits joined the facultyand staff of Saint Louis Universi-ty this year: two administrators,Frs. Jack Callahan and DaveSuwalsky; two campus ministers,Frs. Pat Quinn and Frank Reale;and four full-time faculty, Frs.Roger de la Rosa, Peter Lah,Doug Marcouiller and Gary Seib-ert.

■ Bellarmine House has a lucky13 new members this year, drawnfrom seven provinces.

■ Fr. Dan White has assumedthe role of pastor of St. Martin dePorres Parish in Belize. Fr. JackStochl, pastor for the past nineyears, is now beginning a newcareer in prison ministry. He tookup residence at Melhado Hallalong with Polly his parrot.

■ Br. Bill Rehg gave the Presi-dential Address for the JesuitPhilosophical Association meet-ing in Miami. His topic was“Autonomy, Dependency, and Dig-nity: Philosophical Reflections onPedro Arrupe's Prayer.”

■ Hispanic Awareness Week atSLU featured Fr. Jon de Cortina(CAM), founder of the AsociaciónPro Búsqueda, an organizationthat uses DNA profiling to locatechildren abducted during the civilwar in El Salvador. During theweek Cortina, who is on the facultyof UCA, gave several lectures andcelebrated the Sunday evening stu-dent liturgy.

■ Fr. Bill Hutchison recentlyattended the Governor’s Confer-ence on Housing in Kansas City.He also met with the director ofthe Missouri HousingDevelopment Commission to dis-cuss Northside Community Cen-ter’s (NCHI) proposal to build 20new homes in the area. NCHIunveiled a plaque honoring thelate Monsignor John Shocklee,after whom 20 other new homeswere named.

■ Archbishop Charles Chaput ofDenver blessed the new building atRegis Jesuit High School. The 850boys moved into the new facilityand the girls occupy the renovatedolder building, which will serve750 girls at capacity. Chaput alsopresided at the Mass of the HolySpirit for Arrupe Jesuit HighSchool, the Christo Rey school inDenver, to begin its second year.

-- Michael Harter SJ

a visitor from transfer-ring drugs or other con-traband to a prisoner viahis mouth.

“You’re sort of robbedof most of your pridehere,” Williams sayswryly. “What’s one moreindignity?” Williamshimself had a brief jailexperience in Spokane in1989, after the Jesuitsand their companionswere murdered at theUniversity of CentralAmerica. Part of a protestoutside Rep. Tom Foley’soffice, Williams wasarrested and spent 30hours behind bars. Withcharacteristic under-statement, he pronouncesit “really unpleasant.”

Before the day is out, and before Williams headsover to the halfway house for a planning meeting,he presides at one more Mass, his fourth, for theforeign national prisoners housed in another wing,run by the Department of Homeland Security.They’re here on a combination of immigration anddrug charges. Although there is a rabbi, two Bap-tist ministers and a Sunni Muslim representingother faiths at the HOC, Williams is the only chap-lain to visit this wing. For these occasions, he printsout the readings in multiple languages.

Thirteen men come to Mass, among them anArmenian, a Czech covered with Maori tattoos, aCuban, a Pole and a Portuguese. Williams apolo-gizes for not having all the languages representedon his printed sheets. The other men on the floorwatch television next to the room where Mass isheld; visible through the windows (there are win-dows almost everywhere, and very little privacy),they don’t get much of a recreation period outsideof their cells, and by the time the service is over,it’s time for them to head back. One of the men asksfor a private blessing first; another, the Czech, tellsWilliams that he had been in seminary as a youngman. Then they are gone.

“It’s sort of a forgotten ministry,” Williams willsay later, when he talks about recruiting volunteersfrom Weston, Boston College and Harvard Divini-ty School. About 10 each year will do an internshipwith him, and he hopes to teach a course at West-

on next year to train theology students for prisonministry. “I wish more Jesuits were interested in it.”

“Doing God’s work in the devil’s house,”Williams calls it. He wants to open a Jesuit halfwayhouse for men coming from prison and strugglingwith addiction. He imagines it in the rectory of aBoston parish where he volunteers; the parish is oneof many that will soon be closed by the Archdio-cese. Williams thinks the Society is a natural forthis kind of work. “Ultimately, addiction is a spiri-tual disease.”

On the drive to the halfway house, Williams ison the phone with one of the directors, going overthe phone call he had set up earlier for the prison-er in solitary, getting her side of the conversation.She will already be done for the day by the timeWilliams arrives there, greeted by a few familiarfaces of men he has seen in jail, now trying to staysober and start their lives again on the outside. Hehas dinner in the dining hall with them before head-ing home for the evening.

Pointing out a Brazilian restaurant he particu-larly likes (he spent a few years in Brazil while information), then cruising past Fenway Park,Williams misses the exit for the airport and has toturn around. If he is tired, he doesn’t show it.

“I really like what I do, so it doesn’t seem likework,” he says, before heading home for the night,something the men he spends each day with won’tbe doing for months or even years. “Being in jailtakes a lot of energy.”

HenriNouwen.orghttp://www.henrinouwen.org

Web Resource

Williams

This site focuses on one of the mostpopular Catholic spiritual writers of the20th century, Dutch priest Henri Nouwen(1932-96). It is actually the site of theNouwen Society, which aims to promotehis spirituality of solitude, community andcompassion. It contains little of hiswritings, or even studies of his writings.But there is good information about hislife and the retreats and programs thatare in place to continue his legacy.


Fr. George Williams presides at Mass for new prisoners.

Phot

o by

Jul

ie B

ourb

on


WISCONSIN

■ Three men pronounced theirFinal Vows during the visit to Ore-gon by Fr. General Peter-HansKolvenbach in October. Frs. MarkMcGregor, Josef Venker (MIS)and Chris Weekly pronouncedvows at an afternoon liturgy cele-brated by Fr. General on October 12at St. Ignatius Church in Portland.The Mass was followed by a recep-tion and dinner next door, at Loy-ola Jesuit Center.

■ Fr. Kolvenbach also celebrateda liturgy at Jesuit High School onOctober 14 for the students of bothJesuit and St. Andrew NativitySchool. The directors andrepresentatives from Jesuit aposto-lates in the Portland area were alsoon hand and attended a receptionfor Fr. General after the Mass.

■ Two Oregonians were ordainedto the transitional diaconate inOctober. Mr. Sean Raftis, astudent at Weston Jesuit Schoolof Theology, was ordained inCambridge, Mass., on October 9,and Mr. Denis Donoghue wasordained in Oakland on October23, with other students attendingthe Jesuit School of Theology atBerkeley. Both men will beordained priests in Spokane thiscoming June.

■ Fr. Provincial John Whitneyand Fr. Tom Murphy (NEN), aprofessor of history at Seattle Uni-versity, spoke at an open forum on“Discerning Democracy: Votingwith a Faith that Seeks Justice.” Theevent, co-sponsored by the JesuitSpirituality Center and JesuitHigh School, was held in theschool’s theater on October 7 andwas moderated by one of Portland’sTV news personalities.

■ Fr. Kevin Connell, foundingpresident of Portland’s St.Andrew’s Nativity School, beganhis sabbatical this fall in chains. Heperformed the lead in “PrometheusBound,” produced by the ClassicGreek Theatre of Oregon. Connellcast off his shackles in time for adinner honoring his efforts at start-ing up St. Andrew’s.

■ Gonzaga Prep, in Spokane,used the occasion of the school’sMass of the Holy Spirit on Septem-ber 10 to install their newpresident, Mr. Al Falkner. Whitneywas on hand for the installation andconcelebrated the liturgy withSpokane’s Bishop William Skylstad.Falkner, formerly principal of theschool, replaced retiring president,Mr. John Traynor.

-- Brad Reynolds SJ

■ Fr. John D. Murphy hasreturned after three years of servingthe church as Director of SpiritualFormation at the North AmericanCollege in Rome. John is now a pro-fessor of religious studies at SantaClara.

■ In early August, Fr. Dave Flem-ing (MIS) delivered truly inspiringand enlightening talks to some 80members of the province for theannual retreat at El Retiro RetreatCenter in Los Altos.

■ Frs. Jim Hanley and Phil Blakespent a week on a working cattleranch in Yerrington, Nevada. It isnot clear how much work they did,but rumors abound that Phil devel-oped great skills at the poker slotmachines while Jim enjoyed thesunshine poolside.

■ Fr. Chris Cartwright arrangedfor several young theologians fromJSTB to give a retreat to young peo-ple at the University of Hawaii.Jesus Palomino, George Witt(NYK) and Peter Otieno (AOR)tore themselves away from theirimportant studies to assist in thisendeavor.

■ Fr. Mike Turnacliff let it slipthat he had successfully completed3,000 hours of counseling for hiscertification as a therapist. Not oneto let such a fete go unnoticed, Fr.Kevin Ballard let fly with whatappeared to be his attempt at a fes-tive parade in Mike’s honor.

■ Frs. Leo Hombach and SteveOlivo were somewhat involved inthe “breathtaking” sights andsmells of the recent Gilroy GarlicFestival. However, both were mumon how much of the stinking rosethey actually gulped down.

■ Trung Pham traveled to Viet-nam earlier this year to teach cate-chism in a rural village there. Withthe decrease of imminent danger,more Vietnamese scholastics aretraveling “home” to share theirfaith with their families. Trung andhis mother, who went with him,also visited his maternalgrandmother.

■ A few of the more active mem-bers of the Sacred Heart JesuitCommunity in Los Gatos venturedby steam train through theRedwoods of Northern California.The Roaring Camp in Felton wastheir destination, where theysavored the experience with aleisurely picnic under the “trees”and a walk around the grounds.

-- Jerry Hayes SJ

■ Fr. General Peter-Hans Kol-venbach visited the Omaha area atthe beginning of October. Duringhis visit he received the final vowsof Fr. Peter Etzel, pastor of GesuChurch in Milwaukee. Great cele-bration ensued after the vows, andis said to have included brats, beer,polka music and Fr. General andEtzel doing a Lambeau Leap.

■ Fr. Earl Kurth recently visitedHoly Rosary Mission, where hewas director and later minister,after moving last year to the St.Camillus Jesuit Community.Kurth reportedly tested the newlybuilt elevator in the Jesuit commu-nity, and approved of its “smoothride.” Upon leaving, Kurthinformed superior Fr. Pat Burns, “Iwill be back.”

■ The Marquette UniversityBoard of Trustees has agreed toconsider changing the school’s ath-letic team name back to theWarriors. The university changedthe name to Golden Eagles in 1994,out of concern that its Native Amer-ican Warrior imagery was inappro-priate. While agreeing to reopen thenickname question, the board alsoresolved at its fall meeting that theuniversity shall never return to itspast use of Native American imagesin its athletic logos.

■ After a summer of construction,Creighton University has finishedthe remodeling of its central mall.Along with new landscaping, thecentral cobblestone walkway hasbeen replaced with smoothconcrete. Student response hasbeen very positive, calling it “per-fect for skateboarding.” Requestsfor a halfpipe at the far end of themall have thus far goneunanswered.

■ Marquette University is one ofa number of Jesuit universities thatwill present the world theatricaldebut of the play Dead Man Walkingthis November. Tim Robbins, direc-tor of the Academy Award winningfilm, wrote the script and offered itto the 28 U.S. Jesuit colleges anduniversities before releasing it to thegeneral public. Marquette hastapped Fr. George Drance, artist inresidence at Fordham’s LincolnCenter campus, to direct the piece.

■ Wisconsin theologians CaseyBeaumier and Mark Carr wereordained deacons along with 11classmates October 9 at St. Peter’sChurch in Cambridge, Mass. BishopFrank Irwin presided at the celebra-tion.

-- Jim McDermott SJ

OREGON CALIFORNIA

World Youth Day 2005 will be in Cologne,Germany from August 15-21.

The Magis (Jesuit pre-WYD) activ-ities are taking place in a varietyof places from August 8-15 end-ing up with some activities atLoreley (on the Rhine Riversouth of Cologne where WYDwill be held) including a Masswith Fr. Peter-Hans Kolvenbach, SJ.

The USA pilgrimage as part of the Magis activities will be apilgrimage with Archbishop Dolan of Milwaukee to SacredHeart shrines in France before World Youth Day 2005. Formore information about these retreats and the pilgrimage,contact Fr. Will Prospero, S.J. at:

[email protected]

2005World Youth Day

Official website of the XX World Youth Day, 2005http://www.wjt2005.de/index.php?id=6

Magis - Ignatian Project for the 2005 World Youth Dayhttp://www.magis2005.de/

The motto of thisWorld Youth Dayis taken from theGospel according toMatthew: “We havecome to worshipHim.”

Magis is acombinationbetween pilgrimageand group retreat:3000 youth andyoung adults fromover 20 countrieswill be split up into100 internationalgroups for a week.

PresidentNativity Jesuit Middle SchoolMilwaukee, WI

The president of NJMS is the overall spiritual leader of the schoolcommunity. The president is also the CEO, accountable to the Boardof Directors. The president is ultimately responsible for the religiousand educational vision, the management and supervision of thestaff, and the financial health of the school, which serves 6th, 7thand 8th grade Latino boys.

Send a letter of interest, including a brief statement of your philos-ophy of education, and a resume by December 1, 2004. Please sub-mit all applications electronically to:

Anthea Bojar, Chair Search [email protected]

ANNOUNCEMENT


PROVINCE BRIEFS

■ This summer the city of Chicagonamed the stretch of Ashland Avenuein front of Loyola Press theHonorary “Fr. George A. LaneWay.” Lane has served at LoyolaPress since 1967 and as its presidentsince 1989.

■ Fr. Provincial Edward W.Schmidt welcomed author and for-mer Jesuit Chris Lowney to theChicago Province CompanionsDinner, held annually in both Chica-go and Cincinnati to thank theprovince’s friends and benefactors.Fr. Timothy A. Howe offered ablessing before the meal and Fr.Mark Link concluded the eveningwith a benediction. Lowney, a Jesuitfor seven years before a successfulinvestment banking career at J.P.Morgan, spoke about his book “Hero-ic Leadership,” which details howfour principles central to the identityof the Society of Jesus —love, hero-ism, self-awareness and ingenuity—translate into dynamic leadershiptoday.

■ At the Companions Dinner,Schmidt also announced plans toopen Chicago Jesuit Academy, aNativity-model middle school in theNorth Lawndale neighborhood on theWest Side. Currently, Schmidt andFr. James A. Stoeger are working tosecure approval from theArchdiocese. If approved, the Acade-my will open in fall, 2005, as the 16thJesuit Nativity School in the U.S.

■ Fr. James J. Donnelly recentlyauthored a short entry on the Jesuitpresence in Nepal for the Dictionaryof South Asian Christianity.

■ Fr. Joseph D. Folzenlogen,director of Claver Community Mis-sion in Cincinnati, has worked close-ly with community members and Frs.Michael D. Class and Daniel L. Fla-herty to develop a ministry center forthe Mission. Folzenlogen expectedthe center to be fully operational bylate October. Its three-year planfocuses on developing local leader-ship and working collaboratively onissues like education, street cultureand employment.

■ Crossroad Publishing Companyrecently published “Holy FatherSacred Heart: The Wisdom of JohnPaul II on the Greatest Catholic Devo-tion” by Fr. Carl J. Moell. The bookis a collection of speeches from PopeJohn Paul II on devotion to the SacredHeart. Fr. Kenneth R. Overberg alsorecently published articles in Spiritu-ality, ParishWorks, and the Mirror ontopics ranging from end of life ethicsto following Jesus in an election year.

-- George Kearney

■ At the Jesuit Retreat House inCleveland, the director, Fr. ClemMetzger, began a ConfirmationRetreat program for parishes andschools. The stars of the programare a senior boy from St. Ignatiusand a senior girl from Magnificathigh schools. Each gives a witnesspresentation of about 12 minuteson some aspect of our faith andreligion, followed by small groupdiscussions. Now in its third year,more than 1,000 kids will gothrough the program this year.

■ Fr. Charlie Sweeney hasmoved to the University of DetroitMercy from St. John's HighSchool in Toledo. He will tutor inthe Learning Center and teachchemistry. Also still active tutoringin the Learning Center at age 95 isFr. Herm Muller.

■ Fr. Gerry Stockhausen beganas president of UD Mercy July 1. Aweek of activities led up to hisOctober 1 inauguration, including aconcert by Ruben Studdard ofAmerican Idol fame, the LawSchool Red Mass, a day of service, asymposium on how location affectsthe mission of a Catholic universi-ty, the Mass of the Holy Spirit and agala dinner-dance at the DetroitOpera House.

■ On September 27, Taking Stock,a musical group that existed forthat night only, opened the Ameri-can Idol Concert in Calihan Hall atUDM. Taking Stock was made upof Stockhausen, UDM rector Fr.Gary Wright, Fr. Provincial BobScullin, and Jesuit novices TrevorMeyer and Tony Stephens. Speak-ing for himself only, Scullinbelieves that this appearance washis “15 minutes of fame."

■ Last spring, the Sisters of theHumility of Mary and the DetroitProvince formally endorsed thework of St. Martin de Porres HighSchool, a Cristo Rey style school, inCleveland.

■ Fr. Richard M. Mackowskipresented two lectures entitled“Two Contemplatives in Action: (1)Mary In The Magnificat” (Lk. 1:14-55) on September 8, the Feast of theNativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary,and (2) “Jesus in the EphesiansChristological Hymn” (Ephs. 1:3-10), on September 14, the Feast ofOur Lady of Sorrows. Both lectureswere sponsored by the St. ElizabethRoman Catholic Church,Wyandotte, Michigan.

-- John Moriconi SJ

CHICAGO DETROIT

■ Fr. Vincent Novak of FordhamUniversity received the 2004 GoodShepherd Award from the Archdio-cese of New York for his enormousservices to catechetics in the Arch-diocese. Vin retired as dean this pastsummer from Fordham’s GraduateSchool of Religion and ReligiousEducation. He, along with his broth-er Joe and Jack Nelson founded theschool 40 years ago.

■ Fr. Bob McGuire’s dramatic pre-sentation of the life of Saint IsaacJogues was featured this month atthe Shrine of the North AmericanMartyrs at Auriesville, NY. Bob’sgoal is to revitalize the story of thegreat Jesuit missionaries for the pre-sent generation.

■ Fr. Ben Fiore was honored forhis 25 years of service to CanisiusCollege. The citation honored Benfor his teaching and New Testamentscholarship, and also made mentionof Ben’s other myriad talents, amongthem, calligraphy, cooking, his infec-tious laughter, his work as modera-tor of Alpha Sigma Nu, and his carefor others in Western New York andin Poland.

■ McQuaid Jesuit High School’schapel was completely and beautiful-ly renovated over the past summer aspart of the school’s 50th anniversarycelebration. Fr. Leon Hogenkampserved as the administrator of theproject, which was solemnly dedicat-ed by Bishop Matthew Clark of theDiocese of Rochester in late Septem-ber.

■ Fr. Tom Feely and Mr. GeorgeWitt led 21 members of the provinceon a retreat at St. Ignatius RetreatHouse, Manhasset NY. One of themajor facets of the retreat was itsfocus on the province’s priority:evangelization of culture throughlearned ministries. The retreat housealso hosted a summer internshipprogram for the fifth summer and iscontinuing with renovations to thebuilding.

■ Fr. Walter Modrys continues hiscareful renovation of the Church ofSaint Ignatius Loyola in Manhat-tan. Among other projects completedthis summer were the renovation ofthe church steps, the beautifulbronze doors facing Park Avenueand the cleaning and renovation ofthe glorious mosaics in the sanctu-ary. Saint Ignatius Loyola School,under the expert care of the Sisters ofCharity and their lay colleagues, willcelebrate its sesquicentennial thismonth.

-- Kenneth J. Boller SJ

-- Louis T. Garaventa SJ

NEW YORK

MOBILE, Ala. (CNS) -- Calling upon students, faculty and staff tocommit their lives “to work with courage and generosity,” Fr. Peter-Hans Kolvenbach challenged the Spring Hill College community inMobile “to live as one family, in solidarity.”

As part of his first visit to Spring Hill, Fr. Kolvenbach addresseda gathering where he urged audience members to embrace the dif-ferences in society and to work together toward building the king-dom of God.

As the college approaches its 175th anniversary in 2005, he said,it must look to the spirit of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and of thefirst African-American students who entered Spring Hill 50 yearsago, so that students are taught “the courage to be bearers to the worldof a transforming love, co-creators of a more deeply human world.”

After touring campus and greeting students, Fr. Kolvenbach cel-ebrated Mass at St. Joseph Chapel, where he called on the congrega-tion to be “salt and light to the world.”

His Oct. 4 visit to Spring Hill came during a trip to the U.S. thatincluded visits to Loyola High School in New Orleans, the Jesuit novi-tiate in Grand Coteau, La., and Creighton University in Omaha, Neb.He also met in Portland, Ore., with the 10 Jesuit provincials.

While at Spring Hill, Fr. Kolvenbach attended a public convocationwhere he received the college’s first Fons Sapientiae Award.

The name of the award comes from the Latin phrase on the col-lege’s seal, “in colle exaltatus fons sapientiae,” or “a spring of wisdomlifted up on the hill.” It was created to honor individuals who havebeen examples of practical wisdom inspired by living faith.

“As superior general of the Society of Jesus, the Very Rev. Peter-Hans Kolvenbach has provided consistent and determined leader-ship to Jesuits throughout the world, in their efforts to live moreeffectively and courageously the Gospel vision of the service of faithand promotion of justice,” said Fr. Gregory F. Lucey (WIS), SpringHill president, as he presented the award.

“Fr. Kolvenbach inspires all of us to be more, do more, learn moreand to serve better in the spirit of St. Ignatius,” the president added.“He has instilled in us an attitude of cooperation, a readiness to lis-ten and to learn from others and to share our spiritual gifts.”

In an address to the audience at the public convocation, the supe-rior general, continuing his theme of solidarity, said the solution toinjustice in society requires a spiritual conversion of one’s heart. Italso requires a cultural conversion “so that humankind, with all thepowerful means at its disposal, might exercise the will to change thesinful structures afflicting our world,” he said.

In Portland, Fr. Kolvenbach addressed a gymnasium full of JesuitHigh School students, urging them to offer their hearts for the Gospel.

“Jesus refuses our lip service, the cold logical reasoning of ourheads,” he said. “He simply asks from us the gift of our hearts.”

The Dutch-born priest appealed to the youths, saying Jesus is likea beggar, “asking from us something only we can give him - our faith,our love.”

(Contributing to this report was Ed Langlois in Portland.)

Continuing on his October tour of the Assistancy, Fr. General Peter-HansKolvenbach blessed the new sculpture of Ignatius by Creighton associateprofessor of sculpture, Littleton Alston. It was commissioned by Fr. JohnSchlegel (WIS), CU's president, to commemorate Creighton's 125thAnniversary. (Photo by Don Doll, SJ.)

Fr. Kolvenbach urges collegeaudience to work with courage,generosity


■ Georgetown Prep and Gonza-ga met on the football field onSeptember 19, for the first timesince 1988. Proceeds from ticketsales, programs and concessionswent to benefit the WashingtonJesuit Academy. More than 5,000fans saw a great contest goingdown to the wire with Gonzagawinning on a field goal in the finalminutes, 17-14.

■ The 1957 Woodstock Collegegraduating class gathered atJogues Retreat in Cornwall, NY tocelebrate 60 years in the Society ofJesus. Visiting the old St.Andrew-on-Hudson, now thefamous Culinary Institute ofAmerica (CIA), was a highlight.The 12 friends parted with plansto reunite in three years tocelebrate their anniversary ofOrdination.

■ Fr. Tom McDonnell isofficially back as a part of theJesuit Community of St. Peter’sin Charlotte, NC. McDonnell wasstudying spirituality in St. Louisfor the last eight months.

■ Old St. Joseph’s in Philadel-phia hosted a group of Muslimand Hindu journalists from Indiaand Pakistan on September 24.Sponsored by the U.S. StateDepartment, they were visiting tosee firsthand examples of Ameri-ca’s religious tolerance and free-dom of religion.

■ Fr. Robert (Rocky) Dullahancelebrated his 60th anniversary inthe Society with a “roast” by fel-low Jamshedpur colleagues. TheWernersville Jesuit Center host-ed the event with Fr. Richard(Dick) Norman as M.C. and Fr.Frank McGauley preaching.Other invited guests, Frs. EdgarGraham, Joseph Kennedy,Edward Nash, James Keogh,Bernard O’Leary, Eugene Power,William Sneck and theWernersville Jesuits all had anevening to remember.

■ Wheeling Jesuit Universitykicked off its 50th Anniversaryyear celebration with two events.The first was a re-enactment of avisit of Fr. Joseph Bonnecampsto the Wheeling area in 1749. Thesecond event was a picnic, preced-ed by talks during which aerialphotographs were taken of theaudience whose chairs werearranged in the pattern of the uni-versity seal.

-- Jackie Antkowiak

■ Fr. Thomas Massaro of West-on Jesuit School of Theology,motivated by a 10-day visit to Cubawith the church-based interfaithgroup Witness for Peace, had letterspublished in The Boston Globe andThe New York Times in response tothe Bush administration’s latesttightening of trade with Cuba andrestricting of American travel there.In early October, Tom joined withJoan Rosenhauer of the USCCB topresent Wyoming Bishop DavidRicken and his diocesan Commis-sion on Social Justice with a series oftalks on Catholic social teaching, themethodology of social analysis andthe principles of effective social min-istry.

■ Boston College’s Fr. Michael J.Buckley (CFN) has written Denyingand Disclosing God: The AmbiguousProgress of Modern Atheism (NewHaven and London: Yale University,2004). Michael warmly dedicated hisbook to his Jesuit brother, Fr. TomBuckley (CFN).

■ Frs. T. Frank Kennedy andJohn J. Paris, both of Boston Col-lege, were the featured presenters ata four-day Regional PlanningMeeting of the South AfricanJesuits in Johannesburg. T. Frank isan expert on Baroque music and, inparticular, Jesuit music of the SouthAmerican missions. John’s field ofexpertise is legal and medical ethics.Together they helped the SouthAfrican Jesuits, in John’s words,“look deeply into their traditionsand talents and go forward with con-fidence that the Lord will bless theproject.”

■ Fr. Robert Daly, also of BostonCollege, presented a paper,“Eucharistic Origins,” in Bangkok,Thailand, at the SecondInternational Meeting of Jesuits inthe Liturgy. It is slated to appear inthe March 2005 issue of TheologicalStudies.

■ Fr. Gerhard Böwering (GSU), amember of the Fairfield UniversityJesuit Community and professor ofIslamic Studies at Yale since 1984,will be giving the prestigious NotreDame Erasmus Lectures this year.

■ Fr. Phil Pusateri, pastor of SS.Peter and Paul Parish in Norwich,Conn, was behind bars in a local“Lock Up” to raise money for theMuscular Dystrophy Association.His parishioners came through withover $600 to “bail” him out. Phil wastold that he could have raised a lotmore if the parishioners were askedto donate to keep him locked up!

-- Richard Roos SJ

MARYLAND NEW ENGLAND

With Eyes Fixed on Jesus: SundayReflections for Laypeople, Cycle ABy John Chambers SJJesuit Communications Foundation, Inc.,Manila, Philippines, 2004184 pp., paperISBN: 971-0305-18-2

This is a series of reflections on aspects of theChristian life with references to phrases mentionedin the Sunday readings. Intended for the laity, the bookis available through JCF, Inc., Sonolux Bldg, Ateneo deManila University, U.P.P.O. Box 245, 1101 Diliman, Que-zon City, Philippines. Email: <[email protected]> Theauthor is a high school religion teacher, student coun-selor and chaplain in the Philippines.

The Questions of Jesus: Challenging Ourselves toDiscover Life’s Great AnswersBy John Dear SJDoubleday/Image, New York, 2004240 pp., paper, $11.95ISBN: 0-385-51007-1

The book presents questions asked by Jesus in theGospels and follows each with a brief reflection about itscontent, its meaning for Jesus, and its meaning for con-temporary readers. Fr. Dear is a retreat leader, author,and peace activist currently pastoring several church-es in northeastern New Mexico.

continued on page 19

B O O K S

Joan Knowshttp://www.vaticanradio.org/inglese/105/en_joan.html

Web ResourcesJoan is the English language editor for theVatican Information Service. Her dedicatedweb page is put forward as the font of allknowledge about the Vatican and thepage actually invites browsers to ask herquestions.

Virtual Rosaryhttp://www.virtualrosary.org

The site offers free software that teachesthe uninitiated how to pray the Rosary. Forthe more experienced, the programincludes images, music, reminders, and alink to the site's PrayerCast worldwideprayer network. Prayercast enables you toadd your intention, which is displayed sothat other visitors to the site can pray forit. In the past Mac users have reportedproblems.

Joseph P. Carroll SJ(California) Fr. Joseph Patrick Carroll, 93, died March

30, 2004 at Regis Infirmary, Sacred Heart Jesuit Center,Los Gatos. He was a Jesuit for 74 years and a priest for62 years. Joe was born in San Francisco on July 27, 1910,attended St. Ignatius High School, and entered the Soci-ety at Los Gatos on August 2, 1929.

He continued his studies atMount St. Michael’s, Spokane,where he earned a Master’s inPhilosophy (1936) and at AlmaCollege, receiving his STL in 1942.He was ordained to the priest-hood in San Francisco on June 7,1941. Regency was spent at St.Ignatius High School, 1936-38,where he taught English and his-tory. Joe completed his trainingwith tertianship at PortTownsend, Wash., 1942-43. He

pronounced his final vows in New York on February 2,1944.

His first assignment was to America magazine, NewYork, where he served as business manager, 1943-50.He oversaw the finances and promoted circulation.

In 1950 Joe was assigned to the treasurer’s office atthe University of San Francisco. In 1955 he went in asimilar capacity to Loyola University, Los Angeles. In1958 he was named Superior of the Jesuit Community, adeparture from the usual form of governance of Rector-President.

Joe was pastor of Blessed Sacrament Church, Holly-wood, 1963-66, then minister at Alma College, 1966-68.In February 1968 he became assistant to the president,moved to Berkeley, and prepared for the relocation ofthe theologate to the Graduate Theological Union.

He remained in public relations and developmentwork until 1975, when he went to St. Joseph’s Hospital,Phoenix, as head of the Pastoral Care Department. Hereturned to the Bay Area in January 1979 when he wasappointed Secretary for Research and Planning for theDiocese of Oakland. He worked closely with Bishop JohnCummins and accompanied him on trips to Europe,Africa and Asia and worked closely with him as a con-fidant. Joe served in diocesan parishes until failinghealth brought him to Regis Infirmary in 2003.

As a superior, Joe’s ability to listen and give eachmember of the community individual attention was par-ticularly appreciated. As a fund-raiser and public rela-tions man, he was praised for his ability to network andconsult with a wide range of groups, relating the the-ologate to the local church and the wider communitythrough his personal knowledge of people and resourcesand through his availability to others. He was very pas-toral and was much beloved in the parishes in which heserved.

-- Dan Peterson SJ

Terrence E. Koch SJ(California) Fr. Terrence Earl Koch, 74, died April

29, 2004 in Regis Infirmary, Sacred Heart Jesuit Center,Los Gatos. He was a Jesuit for 57 years and a priest 44years.

Terry was born in Evanston, Ill., December 29, 1929.The family relocated to Van Nuys, Calif. and Terry wentto Loyola High School, graduating in 1947. He enteredthe Society at Los Gatos on August 14 of that year andafter novitiate and juniorate, studied philosophy atMount St. Michael’s, Spokane, 1950-54.

He did his regency teaching at St. Ignatius HighSchool, San Francisco, 1954-57, where he taught math-ematics. Theology was taken at Alma College, Los Gatos,1957-61 and he was ordained a priest at Blessed Sacra-ment Church, Hollywood, on June 16, 1960. Tertianshipwas done at Port Townsend, Washington. He pronouncedhis final vows at Loyola High School, August 15, 1963.

In 1979 he was assigned to the California mission inMexico. Don was pastoral assistant at our Guadalupeparish in Jalapa 1979-81, Sagrada Corozon church in Chi-huahua, 1981-83, then to Nuestra Señora de Los Ange-les church in Mexico City, 1983-92. In each of these placeshe did a variety of work in busy urban parishes.

In 1992, Don was assigned to the Instituto Teologi-co in Mexico City, where he took up duties as assistantlibrarian. At the same time he took care of the library ofthe Provincial Curia until 1996. He remained working inthe theologate despite declining health until he died.

As noted by his fellow Jesuits of the Mexican Province,Don was seen as a good man with a childlike simplicity,who enjoyed life and whose strong character was tem-pered by his sense of humor. He was known for his wordplay, which kept the community laughing. Over the yearsin all the places he was assigned, Don took special delightin teaching English to the children of the area.

Don’s remains were interred in the crypt of theImmaculata Chapel in the Sagrada Familia Church inMexico City.

-- Dan Peterson SJ

Richard J. Coakley SJ(New England) Fr. Richard J. Coakley, 95, died at

Campion Center in Weston, Mass., May 15th, 2004. Hewas born in Waltham, Mass., and attended Boston Col-lege High School. After graduation in 1926 he enteredthe Society at Shadowbrook in Lenox, Mass.

After Shadowbrook he came to Weston College forphilosophy, followed by a year of regency, teaching at B.C.High. In 1934 he went to Rome for theology at the Gre-gorian, and also for Russian studies, with a view to engag-ing in pastoral work in Russia.

During this time a few U.S. Jesuits had managed toget into Soviet Russia and recover the mortal remains ofSt. Andrew Bobola and bring them to Rome, where Fr.Coakley viewed them and was doubtless reaffirmed inhis desire to serve in Russia. For various reasons thisRussian Program was suspended after two years.

He returned to the U.S. in 1936 to finish theology andaccept ordination followed by tertianship at Pomfret,Conn., in 1938-39. He then went to the Jamaica Missionand served for the next eight years at St. George’s Collegein Kingston as teacher and as dean of the extensionschool. He came back to the U.S. for a year of teaching atBC High, then returned to Jamaica to do seven years ofpastoral work in various parishes. He was very open todoing parish work, unlike many Jesuits of his time.

In 1955 he returned to teach theology at Boston Col-lege for five years, after which he became the first rectorat the province’s Xavier Oratory in Boston, and thenserved at parishes in Pittsfield and Boston until 1975. Inthat year he began service as parochial vicar at a parishin the gritty Charlestown section of the city and remainedthere for 12 years, until worsening macular degenerationmade it impossible for him to drive a car. He kept busynonetheless and served for the next two years in localministries and as guestmaster for our large communityat the Immaculate Conception Church in Boston.

His increasingly impaired vision along with otherhealth problems required him to come to Campion HealthCenter in 1989 but he remained very much intellectual-ly alive and well informed.

He was a serious thinker and a seriously spiritualman. He was a man of calmness and equanimity and truesimplicity – qualities nourished by a faithful and seri-ous prayer-life.

-- Paul T. McCarty SJ

Joseph T. Lawless SJ(Missouri) Fr. Joseph Timothy Lawless, 76, died May

16, 2004 in Denver, Colorado. He was a Jesuit for 55 yearsand a priest for 42 years.

Born in Denver, he attended St. Thomas Seminaryand Regis College for one year each before entering the

Terry’s first assignment was to Loyola High School,Los Angeles, where he taught algebra, geometry andphysics and moderated the radio club, 1962-1977. Hethen left the classroom and relocated to El Retiro JesuitRetreat House, Los Altos, where for four years he put hisknowledge of electronics to use, securing broadcastingequipment for the missions.

In 1982, he became a retreat director at El Retiro,while also serving as sub-minister of the community.From 1990 on, he engaged in various pastoral ministries,both at Los Altos and, in 1999, at Sacred Heart JesuitCenter. His health declined and in 2001 he retired, pray-ing for the church and the Society.

Terry was an avid ham radio operator and he lovedto travel around the country attending radio conventions.His other hobby was repairing antique fountain pens. Hewas well known by dealers and collectors all over thecountry. He set up his table at conventions to sell spe-cialized repair tools of his own design and to offer hisexpert advice. He contributed many articles on repairtechniques to pen hobbyist magazines and he himselfwas featured in several articles in specialist magazines.

Terry was a very gentle person with a dry sense ofhumor. His pen catalogs and postcards were filled withhis cartoons and wry takes on the scene. He was affa-ble, related well to others and quietly attended to hisduties and activities without drawing attention to him-self. His gentleness and patience were evident throughthe last year of his life as he struggled with the cancerthat had spread through his body.

-- Dan Peterson SJ

Donald J. Poetzl SJ(California) Br. Donald J. Poetzl, 75, died in the

Province Infirmary in Mexico City on May 1, 2004. Hehad been a Jesuit for 49 years.

Don was born in San Francisco on September 11,1928 and attended schools in San Francisco and SanJose. He worked in a variety of jobs ranging from a bowl-ing alley to Western Union and had been working in theAlma College kitchen for two years when he applied asa postulant in 1954. He arrived at the novitiate on August8, 1954 and started his noviceship on February 9, 1955.After he pronounced his first vows on February 15, 1957,Don was assigned to manage the chicken and rabbitstocks at the Novitiate, providing a steady source of foodfor the large community.

He remained in this job until 1963, when he wasassigned to the maintenance staff at Brophy CollegePreparatory, where among his other duties, he becamethe school’s locksmith. He made his tertianship atColombiere College, Clarkston, Mich., 1967-68 and pro-nounced his final vows in the Brophy chapel on Sep-tember 8, 1969.

MEMORIALS



Society at St. Stanislaus Seminary in Florissant in 1948.After philosophy at Saint Louis University, regency atRegis High School in Denver, and theology at St. Mary’s,Tim was ordained in 1961. He was a teacher of history,both in high schools and parishes.

By the mid-‘70s, having taught in every high schoolin the province and two beyond, Tim decided to cast hisnet elsewhere. He concluded, “When one has done all hecan, it is time to hand it on to Someone Who sees fur-ther and more generously into something else.”

After two years of historical research in Nepal, hereturned to his native Denver. There Fr. Joe O’Malley, pas-tor of the Church of the Risen Christ, invited Tim to shapean adult education program for the parish, and gave himthe freedom and resources he needed. The program wasa model of vision and creativity.

He recruited local Jesuits and other scholars to teach,arranged college credit through Regis, and by its thirdyear was attracting over 4,000 people to various pro-grams. Tim considered this his happiest assignment.Sadly but predictably, a change in pastors spelled the endof such an extensive commitment on the part of oneparish. Tim continued to develop adult education cours-es for the Archdiocese and in various parishes for thenext several years, but without the strong encouragementand support he had enjoyed at Risen Christ.

Tim took some fairly leisurely pastoral assignmentsin Arizona. Years of heavy smoking began to take theirtoll. His move to the Xavier Center in 1995 virtuallyspelled the end of his active ministry. But his good-natured humor strengthened him for his struggle withcancer of the throat; his gentle acceptance surprised andinspired his companions.

Toward the end he wrote, “As I move more and moreinto contact with God through my days of quiet, I findHim touching my life in ways that would never have hap-pened had I been free to do what I wanted; what wouldhave happened then, I don’t know; but He is touching mein other ways I could scarcely have imagined. I don’t knowwhere He is leading me; but I will try to remain availablefor whatever it is to be.” We trust that Tim now knowswhere God was leading him!

-- Philip G. Steele SJ

James N. Chevedden SJ(China, orig. California) Fr. James N. Chevedden, took

his own life in San Jose on May 19, 2004 after a longstruggle with mental illness. He had been a Jesuit for 37years and a priest for 25.

Jim was born in Los Angeleson May 19, 1948, graduated fromLoyola High School and enteredthe Society at Montecito on Sep-tember 7, 1966. Following phi-losophy studies in Spokane, Jimwas assigned to the China mis-sion. He studied Chinese at Cha-banal Hall, Hsinchu, 1972-74, andspent a year of teaching in Taipei.

Following theological studiesat Fu Jen University, Taipei, he

was ordained to the priesthood on July 31, 1978. Aweek later he arrived in Tainan for his first assignmentas Assistant Director of the Beda Tsang Student Cen-ter and assistant pastor of Sacred Heart Church.

Jim returned to the U.S. and took a theology degreeat JSTB, 1980-82. He returned to Taiwan, becomingAssistant Director of the retreat house in Changhua.He pronounced his solemn vows on August 15, 1983and was formally transcribed into the China Province.During this time he also began the study of the Tai-wanese language.

In 1986 Jim was assigned back to Tainan as direc-tor of the Beda Tsang Center and assistant pastor. In1990 he took up a parish assignment in Kaohsiung.Mental health problems curtailed his activities and he

returned to the U.S. in August 1995 for medical care.In the fall of 1996 he was stationed at Sacred HeartJesuit Center, where he worked as pastoral ministeramong the Chinese communities in San Jose and Fre-mont, for whom he celebrated the liturgy, taught cat-echism and worked with youth groups. In addition tohis ministry, Jim audited theology classes, developedan interest in Judaism and began Hebrew lessons. Healso attended seminars and conferences in philosophy,political science and Eastern Christianity.

Jim was a man of many talents and widespreadinterests. His first love was China, but he was alsoknowledgeable and widely read in philosophy, historyand art. He played the piano and composed liturgicalmusic in Chinese. He had an interest in the Montessorimethod of education and saw links with it and the Spir-itual Exercises and Ignatian pedagogy, which he triedto implement in his work with middle school children.His appreciation of Eastern Catholicism led him toestablish a web site on various aspects of liturgy andspirituality.

Throughout all these years, Jim struggled with thestate of his mental health. Apparently able to cope withmedication, Jim continued his activities. On the dayof his death, Jim celebrated the Eucharist at the 11:00a.m. Infirmary Chapel Mass and responded to a callfor jury duty in San Jose. About 4 p.m. he jumped tohis death from a parking structure near the courthouse.May he rest in peace.

-- Dan Peterson SJ

Paul L. Cioffi SJ(Maryland) Fr. Paul L. Cioffi, 76, of the Jesuit Com-

munity at Georgetown University died Friday, May 21,2004. He was a Jesuit 58 years and a priest 45 years.

Paul was born July 21, 1928, in Brooklyn, N.Y., butearly on the family moved to Summit, N.J. Followinggraduation from Seton Hall High School, he entered theSociety at Wernersville August 14, 1946. After profess-ing his vows on August 15, 1948, he was engaged in phi-losophy studies at Woodstock College and the final yearat Bellarmine College, Plattsburgh, N.Y.

There followed three years of teaching French andreligion to juniors, 1953 to 1956, at Loyola High School,Towson. He did his theology studies at Woodstock,where he was ordained June 21, 1959. Tertianship wasmade at Drongen-bij-Gent, Belgium. In 1973 he earneda doctorate in theology from Catholic University.

After a year of liturgical studies at College Saint-Michel in Brussels, he was assigned in 1962 to George-town University, where he was to spend the rest of hislife, first as a professor of theology, and then, from 1992,as the director of the Institute for Pastoral Renewal.

He was also on the staff of the Institute for Contin-uing Theological Education at the North American Col-lege in Rome. From 1986 to 1988 he was director ofGeorgetown’s Florence Program in Fiesole, Italy.

In 2001, he co-authored with William P. Sampson,S.J., “Gospel Spirituality and Catholic Worship: Inte-grating Your Personal Prayer Life and Liturgical Expe-rience” in which he addressed the role of the priest inholiness of life, liturgy, and preaching.

For Paul, contemporary liturgists rarely focused onprivate prayer, and spirituality rarely focuses on litur-gy. Paul endeavored through his teaching and retreatsto help priests to integrate those two dimensions of theirpriestly life. In his book and in his many retreats fordiocesan clergy and through his ministry at the Insti-tute for Pastoral Renewal, Paul helped priests to getunderneath what we are really doing in preaching, pre-siding, and celebrating the great signs of our redemp-tion.

He truly shared his faith, simply saying that livingin faith and love with Jesus Christ brings healing,strength, and salvation to priests and to those whomthey serve.

John R. Olson SJ(Missouri) Br. John Roger Olson, 60, died sudden-

ly on May 22, 2004 in Denver. He was a Jesuit for 41years and a Brother for almost 29 years. He pronouncedhis final vows as a Brother on April 27, 1981.

John was the quintessentialbig-family country boy fromKansas. The son of a railroadman, he came across as simple,genuine, gentle, and down-toearth. From the beginning hefelt strongly committed to theSociety, but before long hebegan to question whether hewas being called to the priest-hood. He feared the burden ofpeople’s expectations of priests;he lacked a certain personalself-confidence; and he was not eager for further stud-ies.

Yet, despite all that, the decision was not an easyone; in fact, his regency stretched into six years in threedifferent schools (St. John’s College in Belize, Regis inDenver, and De Smet in St. Louis) before he was final-ly ready, in 1975, to request a change of grade to Broth-er.

With a new sense of relief, John continued teach-ing science and math at De Smet until 1984. After ayear at Bishop Connolly High in Fall River, Mass., hetaught at St. Louis U. High for five years. When thecomputer revolution hit John jumped on board enthu-siastically. He was a dedicated and diligent teacher,always well prepared — although his style tended tobe somewhat formal. No teacher enjoys keeping disci-pline, and it was no doubt a source of tension for John.So in the mid-80s he welcomed the change to college-level teaching, and he spent 18 prime years in the class-rooms and computer labs of Rockhurst University.

John cultivated a remarkable number of interestsoutside the classroom. He was an avid swimmer. Nodoubt that allowed him to indulge his love for food;and wherever he went he was instrumental in forminga group committed to meeting once a month to try adifferent (usually ethnic) restaurant together.

He was a good amateur photographer. He loved totinker. Always ready for the challenge of fixing things,he described himself as “clever if given a wrench orscrewdriver.” His wake in Kansas City surfaced manycherished stories of John’s hidden friendship, help, andadvice — from how to deal with a crashed hard driveto the best way to feed hummingbirds. He was truly agood and gentle man, a dedicated teacher, a loyal Jesuit,a caring son, friend, companion, and Brother.


Neil C. Poulin SJ(New York) Fr. Neil Charles Poulin, 69, died on May

28, 2004 in New York. He was a Jesuit for 51 years anda priest for 37 years.

Neil was born in Amsterdam, N.Y. on May 27, 1935.He entered the Society of Jesus at St. Andrew-on Hud-son on July 30, 1953, did juniorate studies at BellarmineCollege, Plattsburgh, N.Y., and philosophy at LoyolaSeminary, Shrub Oak, N.Y.

He was sent to Canisius High School for regency toteach Latin and English, and completed his theologi-cal studies at Woodstock College in Maryland. He wasordained a priest at Canisius College, Buffalo, on Sep-tember 6, 1966. He made tertianship at Auriesville, N.Y.in 1967-1968.

His entire priestly ministry was spent on the atollof Yap in the Caroline Islands. He was superior of Yapand was pastor, successively, of St. Mary’s Church andSt. Joseph’s Church on the same island.

-- Louis T. Garaventa SJ


memorials

Eugene T. Bannin SJ (New Orleans) Fr. Eugene T. Bannin, 89, died in New

Orleans on May 30, 1994 in the fifth year after his arrivalat Ignatius Residence. A native of Brooklyn, N.Y., and a

1934 graduate of Brooklyn Prep,Gene entered the Society at GrandCoteau in 1937, after two years ofcollege studies at St. Peter’s, N.J.,and one year at Spring Hill. Later,in 1970, Gene would earn his MAin education at Fairfield Univer-sity.

On June 14, 1950, Genereceived holy orders at St. Mary’s,Kansas, having completed hisphilosophy studies at Spring Hilland theology at St. Mary’s. In

1951 he went to Our Lady of the Martyrs Shrine inAuriesville, N.Y., for tertianship. Gene also taught at JesuitHigh School, New Orleans, during his years of regency.

His years of priestly ministry began in 1952 at St.Joseph Church in Macon, Ga., which the famous JesuitBrother Cornelius Otten had built in 1899. Four yearslater he was in high school ministry as a student coun-selor, first in Tampa (1956-66), then in Shreveport (1966-75).

After three years of pastoral ministry at St. IgnatiusChurch, Spring Hill (1975-78), Gene began a 16-yearstretch as a hospital chaplain in Lafayette, La., where hedeveloped a special friendship with Fr. Ignatius Fabach-er, a fellow Jesuit who was diocesan director of hospitalministries in Lafayette. For four years during those yearsGene found the time to help with the prison ministry.

In 1994-96 Gene was resident chaplain at the Mari-anites of Holy Cross convent in Algiers, not far fromIgnatius Residence, but when the sisters moved to theiroriginal foundation in New Orleans Gene went to WestPalm Beach and worked for three more years at St. Ann’sand at the huge Noreen McKeon nursing home complex.In 1999, now 84, he was back in Algiers.

Gene was the kindest and gentlest of Jesuits in NewOrleans. The white hair of his senior years only enhancedhis distinguished appearance. His death was as peacefuland holy as his life had been.

-- Louis A. Poché SJ

Pablo E. Hernández SJ(Missouri) Br. Pablo Eduardo Hernández, 86, died

June 2, 2004 in St. Louis. He was a Jesuit Brother for 53years. He pronounced his final vows as a Brother onAugust 15, 1961.

Pablo considered his Jesuit vocation a remarkable actof providence. As a young man he worked at the Jesuit

residence in his hometown ofMerida, Yucatan, Mexico. Therehe encountered Missouri provin-cial Joe Zuercher, who at that timehad to pass through Merida toboard a small plane for Belize.

In 1948 Pablo acceptedZuercher’s invitation to visit theU.S. For two and a half yearsPablo lived and worked at theprovincial offices in St. Louis, allthe while diligently studying Eng-

lish. Finally, with new provincial Dan Conway’s support,Pablo moved to Florissant to begin his life as a JesuitBrother.

Pablo became a tailor because that was where theneed was at the time. For over 15 years he was the firstBrother most novices met. His cheerful banter as hechalked off final cassock measurements put many a ner-vous young man at ease.

He told the story of one novice who came into the tai-lor shop and asked him if he could curse. Pablo said, “Goright ahead.” After letting out a string of expletives the

young man said, “Thank you, Brother.” Pablo replied,“You’re welcome. Come back again.”

Pablo’s second career placed him in a number of com-munity treasurer’s offices, most notably Fusz Memorialand later Bellarmine House of Studies in St. Louis. Onceagain, he found himself thrust into a field for which he hadno previous training; and once again his determination,intelligence, and meticulous eye for detail made him aquick study.

For nearly all his apostolic life Pablo lived in houses offormation. His was a common-sense voice of joyful wis-dom; for many he became a kind of informal spiritualdirector: one who could listen, understand, and say whatneeded to be said — but not from a position of authority.More than a few Jesuits credit Pablo with “saving” theirvocations by the peace and perspective he was able to com-municate.

As he matured in the Society, Pablo grew increasinglyoutspoken about the Brothers’ vocation. In word and inpractice, he stood for a Society in which all members wouldbe treated with equal respect.

His life and ministry among those in formation helpedhim keep his own youthfulness — and he was proud ofthat. Perhaps that touch of pride explains why he did notfind it easy to accept his diminishment.


Charles W. Dullea SJ(California) Fr. Charles W. Dullea, 87, died June 8, 2004

at Regis Infirmary, Sacred Heart Jesuit Center, Los Gatos.He had been a Jesuit for 69 years and a priest for 56 years.

Charles was born in San Francisco on July 7, 1916,graduated from St. Ignatius High School, and entered thenovitiate at Los Gatos on August14, 1934. Following Juniorate stud-ies at Los Gatos, 1936-38, and phi-losophy studies at Mount St.Michael’s, Spokane, 1938-41, hetaught philosophy and English atUSF, 1941-44. Theology was madeat Alma College, 1944-48 and hewas ordained to the priesthood onJune 16, 1947. Tertianship wasmade at Port Townsend, Wash.,1948-49. He made his final pro-fession on August 15, 1951.

Upon completion of tertianship, Charles was appoint-ed Regional Secretary for the American Assistancy at theGeneral Curia in Rome, a post he held until 1954. Return-ing to Los Gatos, he served as socius to the master ofnovices for a year before being named rector-president ofBellarmine College Preparatory, San Jose, in 1955.

On August 15, 1958, Charles became rector of USF, apost he would hold for 11 years. In January 1963 he alsoassumed the office of president of the university. In addi-tion to his university duties, Charles served three provin-cials as a province consultor, 1955-68.

In 1969 he left the Hilltop and at the age of 53 took abiennium in fundamental theology, earning a S.T.D. at theGregorian University in Rome. His dissertation, a study ofBilly Graham’s theology of conversion, was later publishedas “A Catholic Looks at Billy Graham” (Paulist, 1973). Uponcompletion of his doctorate in 1971, Charles was namedsuperior of the Pontifical Biblical Institute, Rome.

He returned to USF in 1976, first as assistant directorof the St. Ignatius Institute and theology teacher, 1976-77,chancellor, 1977-91, and chancellor emeritus, 1991-99.His association with SI/USF as student, teacher and admin-istrator lasted 41 years. In 1999 Charles retired to SacredHeart Jesuit Center, praying for the Church and the Society.

During his tenure as rector and president of USF, St.Ignatius Prep was separated from the university both as aJesuit community and school, co-education was intro-duced in all departments, the enrollment doubled, and theHilltop campus was transformed from a collection of WorldWar II era barracks into a modern facility with the con-struction of six major buildings. The 1960s were a very

turbulent time for American universities but Charles pro-vided a steady hand at USF. As chancellor, he helped raiseover $28 million to keep the university competitive withnew programs and facilities.

Charles was an avid and strong swimmer and duringhis USF years, he was a regular in the cold waters of SanFrancisco Bay. The Olympic-size pool at USF’s Koret Cen-ter was named for him upon his retirement from the uni-versity. In his last years at Los Gatos, he swam daily as longas his health permitted.

-- Dan Peterson SJ

Lenox C. Day SJ(California) Fr. Lenox C. Day, 77, died June 12, 2004

in Regis Infirmary, Sacred Heart Jesuit Center, Los Gatos.He had been a Jesuit for 53 years and a priest for 41 years.

Len was born in Hollywood onSeptember 9, 1926. He graduatedfrom Hollywood High School in1945 and spent two years in theArmy in the Philippines during thefinal months of World War II andin the occupation forces in Japan.After separation from the service,he attended Loyola University, LosAngeles, for two years and workedat a variety of jobs.

Len entered at Los Gatos onAugust 14, 1950. Philosophy studies were made at MountSt. Michael’s, 1954-57. Regency was spent at BellarmineCollege Prep, San Jose, teaching general science and fresh-man English as well as helping as a boarder prefect. Hewas known as a teacher who could make the lessons comealive with vivid descriptions of ancient and modern war-fare and who could provide his science students with inven-tive projects in fire fighting to illustrate principles ofphysics.

Len studied theology for one year at West Baden, Indi-ana, and finished his studies at Alma College. He wasordained a priest in Hollywood on June 12, 1963. Tertian-ship was made at Port Townsend, 1964-65. He made hissolemn profession on October 15, 1979.

Len’s ministry was centered on chaplaincy. His firstassignment was to Brophy College Prep, Phoenix, as stu-dent chaplain, 1965-67. From there he went into hospitalchaplaincy at two major hospitals. He spent 11 years atSan Francisco General Hospital (1967-78), one of thelargest and busiest trauma centers in the country.

After a stint as retreat director at Manresa RetreatHouse, Azusa (1978-86), Len returned to the hospital cor-ridors, this time at Valley Medical Center, San Jose, wherehe labored for 13 years until his health required him toretire in 1999. In looking back over his life, Len said ofhimself, “In summary, I was good at chaplaining in hos-pitals--cut out for its demands physically and spiritually,able to go miles and hours.”

Len saw himself as a soldier and often used militaryterminology in describing his life and work. He also tookpride in his expertise as a fire fighter, both at the Mountand at Alma College, and he kept up with the latest equip-ment as a hobby. His last few years were spent at SacredHeart Jesuit Center, where he was a model of patience ashe battled the cancer that ultimately killed him.

-- Dan Peterson SJ

James A. P. Byrne SJ(Maryland) Fr. James Aloysius P. Byrne, 89, died at

Manresa Hall in Philadelphia on June 14, 2004. He was aJesuit for 70 years and a priest for 57 years.

Jim was born in Philadelphia on May 26, 1915. Aftergraduating from St. Joseph’s Prep in 1933, he studied atSt. Joseph’s College for one year before entering the Soci-ety of Jesus at Wernersville on August 14, 1934.

After pronouncing his first vows in the Society onAugust 15, 1936, he pursued Juniorate studies at Wern-

The Spiritual Life: Recognizing the HolyBy Robert Fabing SJPaulist Press, New York/Mahwah NJ, 2004138 pp., paper, $14.95ISBN: 0-8091-4209-0

The author examines thespiritual life as an emotionaljourney toward self-knowl-edge in the company of God.It contains spiritual and psy-chological resources, expla-nations of the problems andstages of the spiritual journey,end-of-chapter questions andbibliographies. Fr. Fabing isthe founder and director ofthe Jesuit Institute for Fami-

ly Life Network in Los Altos, Calif.

The St. Louis German CatholicsBy William Barnaby Faherty SJReedy Press, St. Louis, 2004138 pp., paper, ISBN: 0-9753180-0-4

The author traces the set-tlement, growth, and impactof the German community inSt. Louis beginning with theexperiences of GodfriedDuden, a travel writer fromCologne who published a nar-rative in 1827. Fr. Faherty haswritten more than 40 booksabout the history of the St.Louis region and Catholicism.

Experiencing Jesus: Ten Meditations for aChanged LifeBy Michael Kennedy SJCrossroad, New York, 2004144 pp. with CD, paper, $19.95

A book and a CD thatoffer meditations to bringreaders and listeners into thepresence of Christ, each sec-tion includes a reflectionquestion, gospel reading andpoetic meditation. The CD isnarrated by Martin Sheen andJanne Shirley. Fr. Kennedy ispastor of Dolores Mission inEast Los Angeles, Calif.

Christ in a Grain of Sand: An EcologicalJourney with the Spiritual ExercisesBy Neil Vaney SMAve Maria Press, Notre Dame, Ind., 2004192 pp., paper, $14.95ISBN: 1-59471-017-1

An innovative approachto the Spiritual Exercises, thebook explores the connectionbetween ecology and theExercises, revealing their rel-evance in our contemporaryage. The author is a lecturerin Christian ethics at GoodShepherd College, Auckland,New Zealand


ersville from 1936-1938 before studying philosophy at Inis-fada, N.Y. from 1938-1939 and Woodstock College, Mary-land from 1939-1941.

Over the next three years (1941-1944), Jim made hisregency at Loyola High School, Towson, Md., where hetaught English grammar. From 1944-1948, he studied the-ology at Woodstock College and was ordained to the priest-hood in the chapel at Woodstock College on June 22, 1947.

Following completion of theological studies at Wood-stock College, he made tertianship at Auriesville, N.Y. from1948-1949. He made his Final Profession in the Society onAugust 15, 1951 at the Church of the Gesu, Philadelphia.

Jim pursued graduate studies in classical languages atHarvard University from 1949-1954 and from 1957-58.From 1954-57 and 1958-62, he taught Latin and Greek tothe juniors and novices at Wernersville. Following fouryears (1962-1966) as professor of Latin and Greek litera-ture at Loyola Seminary, Shrub Oak, N.Y., he returned tothe Juniorate faculty at Wernersville from 1966-1969 andthen taught classics for one year at Loyola College, Balti-more.

He then spent the next 32 years (1970-2002) in a fruit-ful and inspiring ministry at Georgetown PreparatorySchool. Here, he taught Latin, Greek, religion, and Englishto high school sophomores, juniors and seniors and servedas acting superior of the Jesuit community from July 1996to June 1997.

In 2002, Jim took up residence at Old St. Joseph’sChurch, Philadelphia, where he dedicated himself to thepastoral care of the parishioners.

Francis P. Ernst SJ(Maryland) Fr. Francis Paul Ernst, 77, died on Thurs-

day, June 17, 2004 at Sinai Hospital in Baltimore, Md. Hewas a Jesuit 59 years and a priest 47 years.

Frank was born in Baltimore on March 11, 1927. Aftergraduating from Loyola High, Towson, Md., he entered theSociety of Jesus at Wernersville on February 14, 1945 andpronounced his First Vows on February 15, 1947.

After the completion of his Juniorate studies at Wern-ersville in 1948, Frank pursued philosophical studies(1948-1951) at Woodstock College, Md., and then beganhis Regency assignment at St. Joseph’s Prep, Philadelphia,where he taught history and English from 1951-1954. Hereturned to Woodstock College for theological studies(1954-1958) and was ordained a priest in the WoodstockChapel on June 23, 1957.

Following his studies in theology in 1958 and a yearof tertianship at Auriesville, N.Y., Frank was assigned toteach theology at St. Joseph’s College, Philadelphia, from1959-1971. Here he made his Final Profession as a Jesuiton August 15, 1962.

In 1971, he left St. Joseph’s College to engage for almostall of the next 33 years in pastoral ministry, except forassignments as minister and assistant minister of the Jesuitcommunity at Loyola College (1974-1976). From 1971-1974, he served as associate pastor at St. Jane FrancesChurch, Riviera Beach, Md., and held the same positionat Our Lady of Victory Church, Baltimore from1976-93.

Following a sabbatical at the Jesuit School of Theolo-gy at Berkeley, Ca., in 1993, he was pastor at Good Shep-herd Church, Lebanon, Va., from 1994-1995, assistantchaplain at Good Samaritan Hospital, Baltimore (1995-1996), and associate pastor at St. Ignatius Church, Balti-more, from 1996-1998.

In 1998, he came to live at Colombiere Residence, Bal-timore, from which he continued his parish ministry inSt. Augustine’s Parish, Elkridge, Md., and St. Mark’s Parish,Catonsville, Md., until his death.

John C. Choppesky SJ(Missouri) Father John Cornelius Choppesky, 91, died

after a long illness June 19, 2004 in St. Louis. He was aJesuit for 72 years, and died three days short of his 60thanniversary as a priest.

Born in Fort Smith, Ark., he entered the Society at St.Stanislaus Seminary in Florissant in 1931. After philoso-phy at Saint Louis University, regency at Rockhurst HighSchool, and theology at St. Mary’s, John was ordained in1944. His priestly life was divided almost equally betweenadministration and pastoral work.

Superiors spotted John’s organizational talents early,and as a young priest he was given several administrativeassignments. That experience, plus his background in Eng-lish, seemed to be a perfect fit for Nirmala, the Society’snew college in Delhi. But the politics of the day turned outto be unfavorable toward U.S. Jesuits — in the country,the school, and even the Jesuit community.

So “Chops” returned to more familiar territory, andbegan nearly a decade as regent of Saint Louis Universi-ty’s newly-acquired Parks Air College. There he was instru-mental in forging a Catholic identity for the school, both interms of academic requirements and pastoral services.

It was John’s term as rector-president of St. Louis U.High that solidified his reputation as a hard-nosed (andsomewhat inflexible) administrator. Some wags accusedhim of choosing “No” as his favorite word. Characteristi-cally, with determination and zeal “Chops” embraced everychallenge the Society put before him. As rector-presidentof SLUH he was charged with facilitating the funding andestablishment of the province’s new high school in St. LouisCounty. He did not favor the location that had beenplanned; so he used his Parks connections to arrange afly-over. He spotted what he considered an ideal piece ofland near the intersection of two interstates. In a real senseJohn Choppesky became the father of De Smet Jesuit HighSchool.

The second half of John’s apostolic life was spent in thepastoral arena. A decade in retreat work was followed by hislongest — and what turned out to be his last — assign-ment. He returned to his native Arkansas to become thesuccessful and beloved pastor of St. Michael’s Parish inVan Buren. Pastoral sensitivity — and the realism ofdecreasing energy — mellowed his authoritarianism, andhe developed a fresh appreciation of the laity, calling them“the sixth glorious mystery.”

With their support he spearheaded the building of anew church and, later, a parish hall. He was over 80 whenhis eyesight and energy finally gave out. A debilitatingstroke shortly after he moved to White House precipitatedhis assignment to the Pavilion, where he prayed for us fornearly 10 years.


The following Jesuits have died since the NJN lastpublished and prior to our October 8 deadline.Their obituaries will appear as space andinformation become available.

Anable, Richard J. (NYK) September 24Diskin, John J. (NEN) September 7Griffin, Robert H. (CHN/CFN) May 9Humbert, Bob (CHI) June 25Linz, Lester (CHI) June 21Logan, Francis A. (ORE) October 8Mahan, George S. (NEN) October 3Moltesz, Joseph E. (HUN/NYK) September 15Moriarty, Frederick L. (NEN) October 5O’Brien, J. Paul (CHG) September 12Price, Basil M. (KOR/WIS) September 29Riedinger, Francis J. (NOR) September 17

BOOKScontinued from page 15

By Julie Bourbon

The lobby of Fr. Mike Vjecha’s buildingis full of people waiting for flu shots. A visitto his office at the V.A. Hospital in Wash-ington, D.C., means passing through anunusually crowded, atrium-like entranceas veterans, mostly men, most in their 60sor older, many in wheelchairs, mill about,waiting for the vaccine. Nurses yell out theirnames, put thermometers in their mouthsor ears, move them along to the next line,which leads presumably to the next. It isnoisy and chaotic.

The lobby istypically almostempty, Vjecha(DET) said. Hisoffice, on theinfectious diseasewing, is quiet,nearly devoid ofdecoration. It isdown a labyrinthof hallways andstairwells – theelevators are too

slow, he said. There don’t seem to be anypatients on his floor; for the most part, thepatients Vjecha deals with these days comefrom 30 countries, and he doesn’t havedirect interaction with any of them.

Tall, graying, with glasses and a goa-tee, Vjecha, 49, has a boyish energy thatshould serve him in good stead in his lat-est project. Since May, he has served as theexecutive coordinator of the CPCRA Strate-gies for Management of Anti-RetroviralTherapy, or SMART Study, a massive, NIH-funded AIDS study that will track 6,000infected patients over an eight to nine yearperiod.

“It’s the largest randomized study inHIV treatment to date, the longest andmost expensive HIV trial that NIH has everfunded,” Vjecha said. The study comparestwo strategies of treating patients withHIV: the current way, suppressing virusthrough a continuous supply of drugs, ver-sus a strategy of drug conservation: giv-ing drugs only intermittently, enough toprevent opportunistic infections, but stop-ping when cell counts are at a high enoughlevel. The study will end when a statisti-cally predetermined number of patientsdie or develop an AIDS-defining illness,what researchers call “clinical endpoints.”At that point, the advantages and disad-vantages of the two treatment strategieswill be compared.

“Current medical practice is to keeppeople on treatment all the time,” saidVjecha. Continuous treatment is expensiveand can be difficult to follow. The drug con-servation strategy will likely reduce thetoxic side effects of drug treatment, which

can include heart disease, neuropathy anddisfiguring fat loss, and will be cheaper –if it is effective.

Vjecha’s task is to work with study lead-ership from four regional centers: the U.S.,Australia, London and Copenhagen. Thestudy will be done at 350 treatment sites in30 countries, with more than 150 of themin the States. The network of U.S. sites isunique in that the majority are communi-ty-based clinics where women, blacks, Lati-nos and IV drug users have an opportunityto participate in research at the same placethey receive their care. The U.S. study sam-ple accurately reflects the face of AIDS inthe community, and that outreach partic-ularly appeals to Vjecha as a Jesuit.

“It’s a direct mandate for the socialapostolate of the Society,” Vjecha said, not-ing that there is a moral dimension to thisresearch in that it impacts directly on thepoor and those who are otherwise shut out.“Even though it’s in the secular world, itsscientific aims are wholly consonant withthe faith and justice aims of the Society.”

How did a Jesuit who speaks French,Spanish and German and is familiar witheight other languages, ranging from Swahilito Pidgin, end up at a V.A. Hospital con-ducting an AIDS study? In 1976, after grad-uating from Holy Cross with a degree inphilosophy, Vjecha made two applicationsthat would change the course of his life: tomedical school and to the Society of Jesus.

He was accepted to both and deferredadmission to Case Western Reserve to goto the novitiate. In the three years beforemedical school, Vjecha volunteered withthe Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta,taught high school algebra, biology, phi-losophy and theology, and interned as ahospital chaplain, among other things.

According to Vjecha, Case Westernattracts what they call “bent arrows,” stu-dents who have done other training aftercollege and have unusual backgrounds. Asa future priest, “I definitely fit into that cat-egory,” he said wryly. Initially intent onstudying psychiatry, Vjecha instead endedup drawn to infectious diseases and geo-graphic medicine, each a noted specialtyat Case.

After working on his M.Div. in theol-ogy at JSTB, Vjecha completed his resi-dency in internal medicine and a fellowshipin infectious diseases. His summers atJSTB, however, found him at a mission hos-pital in Papua New Guinea as a staff physi-cian with the Mission Doctors Associationand in refugee camps for Eritreans innortheastern Sudan, working for the Amer-ican Refugee Committee (ARC) as theircountry/medical director. He later wrotehis S.T.M. thesis on “Missiology for a Post-modern World: The Refugees of Eritreaand Ethiopia.”

His work with ARC would bring himto Makerere University in Kampala, Ugan-da to continue training as a fellow in infec-tious diseases. “Case had just started acollaboration with Uganda on HIV,” saidVjecha, noting that the collaboration con-tinues to this day. He found himself orga-nizing a study on TB treatment in HIVpatients, an experience for which he had“no training … in medical school or resi-dency.” It was trial by fire; Vjecha endedup spending five years there before becom-ing ARC country director/medical coordi-nator in Goma, Zaire (now DemocraticRepublic of Congo).

While working in Goma with Rwan-dan refugees who had fled the genocidetwo years earlier, Vjecha and other “essen-tial personnel” were evacuated during a1996 insurrection. Trapped in the cross-fire for four hours as Kabila’s troops invad-ed the city on All Saints Day – like a “lineof thunderstorms” coming from the Easttoward the camps, he recalled – Vjechaand others escaped the next day to safety,but returned two weeks later, travelingmountainous roads as Rwandan Huturefugees trudged home in a massive repa-triation.

Mugunga Camp, where Vjecha hadbeen medical coordinator for nearly a year,had been emptied entirely of its 200,000inhabitants. Vjecha and his team thenopened a nutritional rehab center, treatingmore than 1,200 children in the next sev-eral months, half of them severely mal-nourished after a long trek into thewilderness and abandonment by theirfamilies – many of whom were genocideperpetrators fleeing justice and retribu-tion. “Caring for these kids was one of themost moving and significant experiencesof my life,” Vjecha said.

It was often impossible to distinguishthe perpetrators of ethnic violence fromthe victims. “You didn’t know who wasinvolved in what,” Vjecha said, calling it a“horrendous grey area.” When he talksabout Goma, Vjecha’s voice slows and soft-ens. “I found it difficult to function as apriest in that situation, because there wassuch un-reconciliation.” His work therehad been primarily secular to that pointand he preferred that it remain that way.

Nothing that came after his experiencein Goma could match its intensity nor,Vjecha reflected, would he want it to. Hecontinued a while longer with ARC inKenya, Burundi, Guinea and Iran beforereturning to the States. He did some pas-toral ministry and ended up putting hisAfrica experience to work for him as a con-sultant for the Office of Social and Inter-national Ministries at the JesuitConference, working on Africa and AIDSissues.

Vjecha has been with the NIH studysince May, although his office doesn’t quitelook lived in yet. And while he found thatreconciliation was difficult in Africa, work-ing with the many researchers involved inthe SMART study has presented chancesfor just that. “My job is to deal with all thepersonalities. There are opportunities towork with reconciliation,” he said, with ahint of the mischievous in his administra-tor’s eye.

“What’s so apostolic about adminis-tration? I don’t know. Ignatius was a greatadministrator,” Vjecha concluded with alaugh. “We don’t talk about that.”

Jesuit Relations


na

tio

na

l je

suit

ne

ws

1616

P S

t. N

W, S

uit

e 3

00

■W

ash

ing

to

n, D

C 2

00

36-1

420

Apostolic administrator: learningto balance two worlds

PERI

OD

ICA

LS

Fr. Mike Vjecha

Phot

o by

Jul

ie B

ourb

on Pontifical Institute for Arabic and Islamic Studieshttp://www.pisai.org/inglese/

english.html

The Institute is a study and researchcentre that aims to promote

interreligious dialogue with Muslimsthrough a deep knowledge of the

Arabic language and Islamic studies.Pope Paul VI rejuvenated the

mission of the Institute in 1964. Thewebsite provides a good overview of

the Institute, and links to otherwebsites with larger collections of

resources.

Web Resource

NOVEMBER 2004 VOLUME 34, NUMBER 2 Laity, Jesu its …NATIONAL JESUIT NEWS 4 Commentary Jerry Graham...

Documents

Transcript of NOVEMBER 2004 VOLUME 34, NUMBER 2 Laity, Jesu its …NATIONAL JESUIT NEWS 4 Commentary Jerry Graham...