Archive for the ‘Governance’ Category

Jesuit Father Michael Linden has been appointed by Father General Adolfo Nicolas as the new Superior of the Jesuits in Jordan and Iraq. Fr. Linden brings to this unique position years of service in Jamaica, work with the Jesuit Refugee Service, and long experience as the Provincial Assistant for International Ministries in the New England Province office.

He will continue in this role while overseeing the work of the Jesuit Center in Amman and coordinating with the Jesuits of the Near East Province to explore ways in which the New England Province can help in meeting their needs and in working together in this area. Linden succeeds Jesuit Father Al Hicks, who has served the province and the church in Jordan and Iraq as superior for the past eight years.

Earlier this month, Pope Benedict XVI announced the appointment Jesuit Father Juan Vicente Cordoba as the new bishop of the Fontibon district in Bogota, Columbia.

Born in Quito, Ecuador in 1951, Fr. Cordoba went on to study philisophy, technology and history at Bogota’s Pontificia Javeriana University, before specializing in clinical psychology at Rome’s Pontificia Gregoriana University.

Cordoba has held numerous academic positions, including rector of San Pedro Claver College in Bucaramanga, and dean of the faculty of medicine at Bogota’s Pontificia Javeriana University.

Cordoba remains secretary general of the Colombian Episcopal Conference as he replaces Enrique Sarmiento as bishop, who the Vatican confirmed handed in his resignation on the grounds of age.

In November, over 1,100 students, teachers, parish members and others passionate about faith-inspired social justice gathered in Washington, DC for the 14th annual Ignatian Family Teach-In for Justice sponsored by the Ignatian Solidarity Network.

For this year’s Teach In, Jesuit Father Agbonkhianmeghe Orobator, provincial of the East African Province of the Society of Jesus, was the keynote speaker who discussed the issues facing his province today. During his time at the Teach In, National Jesuit News interviewed Fr. Orobator about the challenges that the Society of Jesus faces in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Ethiopia and the Republics of the Sudan in the North and South.

“I think the unique mission of the Society of Jesus is that we are able to think ‘outside of the box’.” I think that is very unique to Jesuits,” says Fr. Orobator. “We can work in parishes, we can run schools, we can run communications centers, we can run many different apostolates, but we can do it in a way that is unconventional.”

The theme of this year’s event was “The Gritty Reality: Feel It, Think It, Engage It,” derived from a speech given by former Jesuit Superior General, Father Peter-Hans Kolvenbach, in 2000 entitled, “The Service of Faith and the Promotion of Justice in American Jesuit Higher Education.” Kolvenbach said, “students, in the course of their formation, must let the gritty reality of this world into their lives, so they can learn to feel it, think about it critically, respond to its suffering and engage it constructively.”

You can watch National Jesuit News’ interview with Fr. Orobator below.

Jesuit Father James Gartland, the president of Cristo Rey Jesuit High School in Chicago, has been named as the new rector of the Blessed Peter Faber Jesuit Community at the Boston College School of Theology and Ministry. He will succeed Jesuit Father Brad Schaeffer in August 2012.

A member of the team that founded Cristo Rey Jesuit High School in 1996, he taught theology at the school from 2000 until 2004, when he was appointed to his current role as president.

“I love being a Jesuit, so the thought of working with Jesuits in formation is a privilege and honor for me,” said Fr. Gartland. “I am looking forward to moving to Boston.”

Gartland will be responsible for the community’s Jesuits, who come from various parts of the United States and as far away as Europe and Africa.

Prior to his post at Cristo Rey, Gartland was pastor of St. Procopius Church, a Mexican immigrant parish in Chicago.  He earned his bachelor’s degree from Xavier University, master’s degrees in philosophy and religious education from Loyola University Chicago, and a master’s in divinity from the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley.

Jesuit Father General Adolfo Nicolás has appointed Jesuit Father Michael Garanzini to serve as the Secretary for Higher Education for the Society of Jesus. Fr. Garanzini’s new role began September 1, and he also continues to serve as president of Loyola University Chicago.

As the Secretary for Higher Education, Garanzini will assist Father General Nicolás on a part-time basis, coordinating and championing Jesuit higher-education issues around the world.

Garanzini succeeds Jesuit Father Ronald Anton.