Conlin, John A.

John A. Conlin, S.J., a Philadelphia native who spent much of his ministry working in Scranton, died March 10 in Merion Station, Pa. on Tuesday, March 10, 2009. Fr. Conlin, who was 86, was a Jesuit for 67 years and a priest for 54 years.

A Mass of Christian burial will be offered at Manresa Hall Friday, March 14 at 10:30 a.m., followed by burial at Sts. Peter and Paul Cemetery, 1600 Sproul Road, Springfield, Pa.

Fr. Conlin was born to John James Conlin and Margaret Mary Doody of Philadelphia, Pa. on August 31, 1922.  He was one of four children.

Following graduation from St. Joseph’s Preparatory School in Philadelphia, he entered the Society of Jesus July 30, 1941. He took his first July 31, 1943.

From 1948 to 1951, Fr. Conlin, as a Jesuit scholastic, taught freshman English and civics at Scranton Preparatory School, Scranton, Pa.  After continuing his studies at St. Mary’s College, St. Mary’s, Kansas, from 1951 to 1952 and at Woodstock College, Maryland, from 1952 to 1955, he was ordained to the priesthood in the Woodstock College Chapel by Jerome D. Sebastian, auxiliary bishop of Baltimore on June 19, 1954.  He made his final profession in the Society of Jesus on April 22, 1978 at St. Joseph’s Preparatory School.

Following ordination, he was a teacher of Latin, English and religion at Scranton Preparatory School from 1956 to 1966.  In 1966, he was assigned as minister of the Jesuit Community at Woodstock College in Maryland and in 1967 became the superior there until 1969.  After returning to Scranton for a year as student counselor at Scranton Preparatory School, Fr. Conlin served as superior at the Provincial’s residence in Baltimore and Director of Personnel in the Province Maryland from 1970 to1972.  He was then appointed rector of St. Joseph’s Preparatory School in Philadelphia until 1978.

Following a sabbatical year at the Gregorian University in Rome where he studied theology, Fr. Conlin was appointed the Rector of the Jesuit Community at the Scranton Preparatory School and Director of Tertians in the Maryland Province from 1979 to 1985.

For the next three years, he served as a Director of the Spiritual Exercises at Manresa-on-Severn Retreat House, Annapolis, Md. and then from 1988 to 2005 engaged in pastoral ministry as a Parochial Vicar, Senior Priest and retreat director at St. Aloysius Church in Washington, D.C.

Due to failing health, Fr. Conlin was transferred to the Jesuit community at Wernersville, Pa. in 2005 and the following year to Manresa Hall, where he prayed for the Church and the Society until his death.

Fr. Conlin is survived by five nieces and nephews, 15 great nieces and nephews and seven great-great nieces and nephews. All reside in the Philadelphia area.