The iconic downtown church dates to 1922, and in the last few months the building has gone through a transformation that’s included restoring the bell tower, painting the facade with new colors, revitalizing the interior and adding the emblem of the Society of Jesus. “We needed to modernize and attract new Catholics who have moved to the area,” says Fr. Alvarez.

Because the church is so close to the ocean, the salt residue and humidity had taken a toll on the building’s frame with cracks and other forms of dangerous deterioration, according to Jesuit Father Eduardo Barrios.

Today, there are three Jesuit priests working at the parish, which has seen growth and diversification of its parishioners, particularly following an influx of young professionals to the area.

“It now has a fresher look while maintaining its original beauty,” says parishioner Alberto Carrillo of the renovated church. “It’s very inviting if you are Catholic.”

To reaffirm the Gesu’s Jesuit identity, the IHS emblem — derived from the first three letters of the Greek name of Jesus and featured in the Society’s crest — has been emphasized throughout the church. IHS is welded to the bars on doors and windows and is also painted on the panels containing the Creed along the Stations of the Cross.

Read the full article and see more images at the Miami Herald website.

Jesuit Father Daniel Hendrickson

Two Jesuits recently returned to their respective alma maters in roles much different from their previous ones as students. Jesuit Father Daniel Hendrickson (’93) has returned to Marquette University in Milwaukee as associate vice president in the Office of the Executive Vice President, and Jesuit Father Dan White (’90) is back at Saint Louis University as pastor of St. Francis Xavier College Church, where he was ordained in 2001.

For Fr. Hendrickson one difference is he’s living at the Jesuit Residence this time. However, he wouldn’t mind returning to a dorm. He said that if the opportunity presents itself, he would like to serve as a residence hall chaplain.

“Being a resident back in McCormick (his freshman dorm) — my college buddies would love it. If that happens, they have to come visit,” Fr. Hendrickson said.

Fr. Hendrickson’s new job includes participating in the university’s reaffirmation of the accreditation process by the Higher Learning Commission. His previous job at Marquette? A lifeguard at the rec center while he was a student.

Before returning to Marquette, Fr. Hendrickson taught at two high schools and three universities, including Creighton University in Omaha and Fordham University in New York.

“I hope I can be as encouraging, supportive and inspirational as the faculty, staff and Jesuits were during my time,” Fr. Hendrickson said. “It would be terrific to be able to impact the lives of students the way I was impacted. Marquette has always been filled with tremendous mentors in its faculty and the Jesuit community. So if someday, somehow I could be someone like that to someone else — that would be a great honor and privilege.”

Jesuit Father Dan White

Fr. Dan White is back in St. Louis after spending time working in Louisiana, Belize and Australia, and he’s excited about his new job as pastor. “I love that the parish and the university are so well integrated,” he said.

“The College Church is a unique blend of so many ministries and people,” said Fr. White. “It’s a chapel and parish rooted in a university campus. The masses draw SLU students, faculty and staff along with members of the religious community, the neighborhood and beyond. Our members come from about 70 different zip codes.”

Fr. White has found it can be a challenge to engage the post-undergraduate demographic of young people.

“Culture has changed a lot,” said Fr. White.  “We need to see how to bring faith into a culture that is not as committed to institutions and is suspicious of authority.”

While the campus has expanded since he was a student, Fr. White appreciates that some things haven’t changed. “I love that it is still an urban campus, connected to the city. It is a very civically engaged place. The Jesuits have always been that way,” he said.

Fr. White also appreciates the changes he has noticed. “I have found that the university is much more intentional about being a Jesuit university. The mission of the school is more prominent,” he said.

For more on Fr. Hendrickson visit the Marquette Tribune; for more on Fr. White visit The University News.

Available for free at the iTunes App Store, the Jesuit app operates on any iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad; a similar app will soon be available at the Android Marketplace for use on devices such as the Droid, Evo and HTC Touch.

The new app allows users to locate Jesuit retreat centers, schools and parishes across the U.S., read the latest news and information about the Jesuits, and access Jesuit prayers and spirituality documents.

The app’s three sections include:

Locations
Here users can find Jesuit apostolates – parishes, retreat centers, colleges and universities. It includes easy-to-use directions and contact information for any Jesuit institution in the U.S. and is searchable by apostolate name, by the user’s current location or through any address the user enters.

News
All the latest news stories from National Jesuit News are displayed here.  Users can tap on any headline to view the full story, share the link with friends or open the story in their browser.

Prayer
In this section, users can view prayers, spirituality documents and background information on the Society of Jesus.

The video below explains in more detail how the app operates. Visit the app information page here to find out more.

Jesuit Father Robert Allore, pastor and chaplain, and Jesuit Father John McCarthy, assistant pastor and chaplain, hope the new St. Mark’s Parish will grow and become an integral part of the faith and service life of UBC.

Fr. Allore said, “We actively support efforts that promote dialogue between the traditions of science and religion.”

Fr. McCarthy said, “At the same time, we hope to build bridges between sometimes separated communities that, we believe, need to work together for the benefit of all.”

St. Mark’s Parish, formed at the beginning of the year to serve students, faculty, staff and local residents, brings together the former worshiping communities of St. Ignatius of Antioch Parish and St. Mark’s College. In partnership with student support provided by the campus ministry team at St. Mark’s College, the new Parish of St. Mark will also deliver services to the UBC hospital system.

As befits a parish in an institution of higher education, Frs. Allore and McCarthy arrive at UBC well-qualified in their respective fields of science.

Fr. Allore is a geneticist who conducts research on gene therapy strategies for the nervous system, while Fr. McCarthy is an ecologist who specializes in boreal forest ecology and the biology of lichens.

While pursuing his training as a Jesuit, Father Allore worked at Montreal General Hospital’s division of Neurosurgery where he conducted research on gene therapy strategies for the nervous system. Before moving to Vancouver, he worked for several years at the Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute at Mt. Sinai Hospital, investigating the genetics of nervous system development. While serving at St. Mark’s Parish, he will continue his genetics research in the UBC Department of Zoology.

Fr. McCarthy is a specialist in boreal forest ecology and the biology of lichens, important biological indicators of environmental conditions.  He has conducted extensive studies on the ecology of old growth forests in northern Newfoundland.  He served for years as the Co-Chair of the Wilderness and Ecological Reserves Advisory Council for the government of Newfoundland and Labrador. His work in boreal forest conservation earned him the Canadian Environment Award, Gold Prize, from the Royal Geographical Society of Canada.

Aside from his parish duties, Fr. McCarthy continues his ecological research activities on the biodiversity of lichens in Newfoundland and Labrador.  His field work takes him to all parts of Canada and Europe to collect samples and meet with research collaborators.

You can read the original story on Frs. Allore and McCarthy’s newest assignments in this The Campus Resident article written by its editor, John Tompkins.

Find out more about Fr. O’Sullivan and St. Procopius Parish in the Ignatian News Network video below:

For the Jesuits who minister at the nine parishes in California, their diverse experiences of providing pastoral counseling and spiritual guidance to their parishioners is no less striking. From the palm tree lined Sunset Boulevard location of Blessed Sacrament Parish in Hollywood to Most Holy Trinity’s placement in Silicon Valley to Dolores Mission Parish’s impact on its East L.A. neighborhood, three California parish priests, Jesuit Fathers Mike Mandala, Eduardo Samaniego and Scott Santarosa, find themselves in very different locations but share a commonality of helping parishioners experience their faith and reverence to God.

In the video below, they express what makes these Jesuit parishes unique and how they serve their communities and enrich their parishioners’ faith lives.

Interested in joining a Jesuit parish yourself? View a list of Jesuit parishes in the U.S.

Still not having enough of the “Jesuit thing,” he decided to do a year of volunteer work with the Jesuit Volunteer Corps, where he ran an after-school program for youth in Newark, New Jersey. Following his year as a Jesuit volunteer, he went one step further, and joined the Jesuits in the summer of 1989.

His Jesuit life has taken him to the Bronx, New York for philosophy studies; Bellarmine College Prep in San Jose for three years of teaching; Berkeley and Mexico City for theology studies and pastoral ministry. Currently, Santarosa is the pastor at Dolores Mission parish, a small but vibrant Jesuit parish in the lowest income section of Boyle Heights, Los Angeles. He served there as a newly ordained priest back in 2000 where the good parishioners there taught him how to be a priest. His time there planted the seed of desire to do parish work, so he is happy to be there now full-time, doing pastoral work, much of it in Spanish. He feels humbled and grateful to see God in the people of that community.

Ignatian News Network met up with Fr. Santarosa to learn more about the man behind the collar.

St. Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Society of Jesus, always envisioned Jesuits and their partners as being “contemplatives in action.” He asked his first companions to reflect and pray in order to detect the presence of God in their lives. Then, through discerning Christ’s call, to carry out His mission through action.

Jesuit Father Jack Vessels has been called to the border of Texas and Mexico as the chaplain of the Sacred Heart Parish in El Paso. Before coming there, he was missioned to Brazil for over 20 years then headed to Rome to become the international leader of the Apostleship of Prayer, whose mission it is to encourage people to pray daily for the Church and for the pope’s intentions.

Today, Fr. Vessels says Mass daily at the parish, and many times at the parish’s food banks in Juarez, Mexico, the Our Lady’s Youth Center (OLYC) community, and at the Lord’s Ranch in New Mexico. He hears confessions for many hours each week and goes to the homes of the sick and elderly to give them the sacrament of the sick.

Vessels recently wrote this piece for the New Orleans Province of the Society of Jesus’ magazine Southern Jesuit on the work of the Our Lady’s Youth Center with the poor  who live along the border of Texas and Mexico — both in El Paso and across the Rio Grande river in Juarez, Mexico. You can read more article about the work of the Jesuits of the New Orleans Province by visiting Southern Jesuit’s online magazine.

Two years ago, because of my fluency in Spanish and my experience in the formation of ecclesial communities in Brazil, I was assigned to Sacred Heart Parish in El Paso to assist in the work of Our Lady’s Youth Center and at The Lord’s Ranch which is in Vado, New Mexico, just across the state line from El Paso. It serves as residence for several volunteers who have dedicated their lives to feeding and serving the poor on the border. It also serves as a guest house for volunteers who occasionally return to assist in the community’s ministries or to spend time in restful reflection.

Truly ecclesial and international, the Our Lady’s Youth Center (OLYC) community – now known as Las Alas or “The Wings” – is a community of contemplatives in action: by faith, united in prayer and action; no prayer without action, and no action without prayer! Through service to the poor, both volunteer residents and visitors contribute to the life of the universal Church in the three particular churches where it serves: El Paso, Texas; Juarez, Mexico; and Las Cruces, New Mexico.

“Go to the poor,” Christ told the OLYC community in its group discernment of scripture. It was across the Rio Grande in Juarez that the cry of the poor was most demanding, where well over a million people lived in poverty worse than any experienced in El Paso. Many of the members of the community were bilingual, with friends and relatives living in Juarez. They went “to see,” confident the Holy Spirit would enlighten their vision. Visiting the city’s municipal garbage dump, they found the poorest of the poor, feeding themselves and their children, sleeping in shelters made from trash, collecting whatever might be usable and sellable on the streets. Praying and discerning Christ’s words, “…when you have a banquet, invite the poor…,” (Luke 14:13) the community did just that at the dump on Christmas Day of 1972, often remembered as “the miracle of Juarez” because of the inexplicable multiplication of food that day, and they have been going back weekly ever since.

For years at The Lord’s Ranch, crops were grown and livestock were raised to provide food for the poor of Juarez, but eventually it was discerned in prayer by its resident volunteers that such was not as practical as accepting contributions from local wholesalers and purchasing whatever else was needed at the markets in Juarez for weekly distribution. In this way the volunteers living at the ranch are available for ministries that were developing in both El Paso and Juarez.

Over the years, four centers have developed for the weekly food distribution and other services to meet the spiritual and material needs in different areas of Juarez. The first began at the garbage dump itself. When the dump was moved to another site, the people of the neighborhood began to build on the old site, concrete block by concrete block, a center for the services provided: not just food distribution, but volunteer medical and dental care, a pharmacy, nursery for the children, and religious and spiritual formation for those of all ages. Volunteers now come from both Juarez and El Paso, and no service is rendered or received without prayer and the desire to fulfill God’s will. Misión Espíritu Santo is the fitting name of the old dump, with true new life abundantly available. As the Misión matured with its own volunteers and patrons, a new center called The Lord’s Food Bank was opened in the expanding western periphery of Juarez. A large vacant area was made available, and the now-experienced community of volunteers shifted their time and energies to this new challenge, where storehouse, clinic, pharmacy, chapel, classroom, nursery and prayer now provide for the spiritual and urgent needs of the poorest. Another newer center, Las Alitas, has recently been initiated on the southeastern extension of Juarez in an area where electricity has arrived, but not yet water – only the Living Water of the Word, with Love. And, the fourth location for prayer and food distribution has been established at a parish church, Nuestra Señora de Los Angeles.

Las Alas – still officially OLYC – is a prayer center with its own weekly schedule of spiritual training, prayer for healing, occasional workshops, seminars and conferences. It also serves as home base for the volunteers’ almost daily visit to Juarez, the storage area for supplies, and the offices coordinating the ever-expanding number of ministries.

My own work as a member of this faith community is saying Mass weekly with all the Juarez communities served, hearing confessions before and after Mass, visiting the sick and incarcerated prisoners with the volunteers and doing all I can to encourage, strengthen and console the volunteers themselves. The most enriching part of my experience is being immersed in the goodness and faith of simple, poor people who draw their strength purely from their love of God and His for them. All they have is their faith, and because the Word of God congregates people around it, we don’t “give out” to the poor. We share with them. And, it is good to think that, God willing, I will spend the rest of my priestly ministry among them.

One such group are the Lakota Indians of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. On the reservation, which covers a 5,000 square foot swath of land in the southwestern corner of South Dakota, staggering poverty and an unemployment rate that hovers around 80% leave the children of the Pine Ridge facing an uphill struggle as they learn and grown up on the reservation. The Jesuits have been ministering to the Lakota of the Pine Ridge since the late 1800s, when they founded the Red Cloud Indian School.

20/20 recently profiled the Pine Ridge, and some of the young people who live on the reservation, including a few students from the Jesuit’s Red Cloud Indian School.

How to Help: Organizations Working to Improve Life at Pine Ridge

St. Peter's Church, Charlotte, NC / Photo by lumierefl

2011 marks the 25th anniversary of the arrival of the Jesuits at St. Peter Church in Charlotte.

The parish celebrated with a series of events which concluded with a Jesuit-concelebrated Mass on June 26. St. Peter Church was built in 1851 in what was then the southern tip of Charlotte. It was later rebuilt after an explosion at a nearby factory damaged the building’s walls and foundation. As the city grew and more Catholic churches were built, the parish’s population diminished. In 1970, St. Peter Church ceased being a parish.

Then, in 1986, the church regained parish status and the pastorate was assumed by Jesuit priests of the Maryland Province. As the population in the urban area of Charlotte has swelled, the uptown parish has continued to grow as a community deeply concerned with outreach to those in need.

The pastor of St. Peter Church, Father Patrick Earl, was the principal celebrant at the anniversary Mass, celebrated on the Feast of Corpus Christi. Father Earl pointed out the appropriateness of the anniversary celebration being held together with the celebration of the Body and Blood of Christ:

“We celebrate the Feast of the Body and Blood of our Lord, our nourishment in our lives as disciples of Jesus. And we remember the arrival of the Jesuits here at St. Peter’s in 1986. We remember those who have accompanied us on our journey as disciples of Jesus.”

The Jesuit concelebrants at the Mass were Jesuit Father Joseph Sobierajski, long-time pastor of St. Peter; Jesuit Father Thomas Gaunt, one of the first Jesuits to come to St. Peter; Jesuit Father Vincent Alagia and Jesuit Father Timothy Stephens.

[Catholic News Herald - Diocese of Charlotte]