Archive for the ‘Governance’ Category

Saturday marks the 20th anniversary of the death of Jesuit Father General Pedro Arrupe. Fr. Arrupe led the Society of Jesus through the tumultuous decades of the 1960s and 1970s when both society and the Church were experiencing a tremendous period change.

Arrupe’s legacy of social justice and working for the disenfranchised has resonance today,  almost three decades after he resigned as superior general of the Jesuits when he was debilitated by a stroke.  Considered one of the most profound leaders of the Jesuits since St. Ignatius of Loyola, Arrupe has been called “The Second Founder” of the Society of Jesus.

In the spirit of St. Ignatius, who 450 years earlier rejected a monastic lifestyle to follow a spirituality engaged in the world, Arrupe leaves a legacy that enriches not only Jesuits, but the Church, at large. It is a legacy of “men and women for others,” comitted to human dignity, the common good and the Jesuit mission defined as the service of faith and the promotion of justice.

Jesuit Father Vincent O’Keefe served as one of Arrupe’s assistants in Rome for the entire 18 years that Arrupe served as superior general of the Jesuits. Now 92, Fr. O’Keefe reflects on the mark that Arrupe left on the Society of Jesus in the video piece below.

Jesuit Father Michael F. Weiler has been appointed by Father General Adolfo Nicolás as the next provincial of the California Province of the Society of Jesus.

Fr. Weiler succeeds Jesuit Father John McGarry who has served as provincial of the California Province since 2005. Weiler will take office on July 31, 2011.

Weiler currently serves as Director of Novices and Superior of Ignatius House Novitiate, a position he has held since 2005.

Weiler is a graduate of Bellarmine College Preparatory, Loyola Marymount University, Gonzaga University, Jesuit School of Theology and California School of Professional Psychology. He entered the Society of Jesus in 1975, was ordained in 1988 and received his final vows in 2005.

Following ordination, Weiler served as an associate pastor at Dolores Mission in Los Angeles and then as an instructor in counseling psychology and a psychologist at Santa Clara University.

Jesuit Father Thomas Lawler has been appointed to be the next provincial of the Wisconsin Province of the Society of Jesus. The appointment was made by Jesuit Superior General Father Adolfo Nicolás, and it will take effect in June 2011. Fr. Lawler will succeed Jesuit Father Thomas Krettek.

Fr. Lawler, 46, is the Vocations Director for the Wisconsin Province and will continue in that role until June. He is a native of Wauwatosa, Wis. and graduated from Marquette University High School in Milwaukee and the University of Dallas in Irving, Texas. He entered the Society of Jesus in 1987. After studies at Creighton University in Omaha and Gonzaga University in Spokane, he taught at Creighton Preparatory School in Omaha.

He studied theology at the Weston Jesuit School of Theology in Cambridge, Mass. and was ordained a priest in 1999.  He earned a degree in social work at Loyola University in Chicago, and then was missioned to work at the Sioux Spiritual Center near Plainview, S.D.  In 2005, he joined the province staff in Milwaukee as Assistant for Pastoral and Retreat Ministry, and he became Vocation Director for the province in 2006.

The Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) at Georgetown University announced this week that Jesuit Father Thomas P. Gaunt has been named its new executive director.

“Father Gaunt brings to CARA a wealth of experience in administration and marketing and public relations as well as research experience, which will further CARA’s mission in service to the Church,” said Bishop Gerald F. Kicanas, Chair of the CARA Board of Directors.

Father Gaunt most recently served as Socius/Executive Secretary for the Jesuit Conference in Washington, DC from 2001 to 2010. He has also served previously as a pastor, Director of Planning and Research for the Diocese of Charlotte, and as the Assistant Provincial for Formation and Studies for the Maryland Jesuit Province.

“I am excited at this opportunity to join CARA and be part of its long service to the Church. In particular,  I look forward to CARA’s responding to the need for practical social science research on current issues,” said Father Gaunt.

Father Gaunt has conducted research for the Jesuit Conference; the Jesuit Volunteer Corps; the Daughters of Charity; the Immaculate Conception Province, O.F.M. Conventual; the Society of the Divine Word, Chicago Province; the Archdiocese of Atlanta; and the dioceses of Charleston, Charlotte, Palm Beach, and Raleigh.

On July 31, Jesuits will celebrate the feast of their founder,  St. Ignatius of Loyola, who, with his early companions, founded the Society of Jesus in 1540.

St. Ignatius Loyola was born in 1491 to a family of minor nobility in northern Spain. As a young man, Ignatius Loyola was a soldier and dreamed of doing great deeds. But in 1521 Ignatius was gravely wounded in a battle with the French. While recuperating, he experienced a conversion while reading of the lives of Jesus and the saints.

St. Ignatius’ collection of insights, prayers and suggestions in his book the Spiritual Exercises is considered one of the most influential books on the spiritual life ever written. When Ignatius conceived the Jesuits, he wanted them to become  “contemplatives in action.” This is also an ideal for those  who are guided by Ignatian spirituality and who continually strive to follow St. Ignatius’ motivation to “find God in all things”.

Interested in finding out more about St. Ignatius of Loyola? Loyola Press has a collection of biographical materials, works of St. Ignatius, videos and reflections on their website.

Marquette University has also created this short video piece on the story behind the founder of the Jesuit order as told by  Stephanie Russell, executive director of Marquette University’s Office of Mission and Identity.