National Jesuit News

Congress’s Chaplains Try to Instill Civility in a Quarrelsome Flock

Kaitlyn McCarthy Schnieders — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 14:00:04 +0000

The New York Times recently featured the work of the two men in the unique position of Congressional Chaplain, and how, among many things, they are working to foster civility between the parties. Jesuit Father Patrick Conroy, who was sworn in the post this past fall, says he looks to the Society’s founder, St. Ignatius of Loyola, for guidance in his job, who taught the importance of recognizing “godliness in the other.”

Jesuit Father Patrick J. Conroy invited all the members of the House of Representatives and their families to the holiday reception he was hosting last month as the chamber’s chaplain. He put out hot cider, cookies and a not-quite-functional chocolate fountain, and for the benefit of the children he picked up his folk guitar to perform “The House at Pooh Corner.”

Amid the well-organized cheer, though, Fr. Conroy noticed one subtly disquieting scene. It was apparent that two of his guests, representatives from opposite sides of the partisan aisle, and both sent to Washington to do the nation’s business, had never even spoken directly to each other before.

Nearly five months before that Christmas party, the chaplain of the Senate, the Rev. Dr. Barry C. Black, offered the opening prayer for a rare Sunday session. The Senate was deadlocked along partisan lines on a measure to raise the nation’s debt ceiling. The imminent prospect of a default on government bonds or a downgrade of the federal credit rating had not been enough to overcome the fierce dispute between Democrats and Republicans.

“Save us, O God,” Dr. Black pleaded in his prayer, “for the waters are coming in upon us. We are weak from the struggle. Tempted to throw in the towel. But quitting is not an option.”

In these two episodes, one private and the other very public, one can grasp the unusual and supple roles being played by the House and Senate chaplains. At a time when Congress is stunningly unpopular, with approval ratings in various recent polls around 12 percent, Father Conroy and Dr. Black serve as pastors to what must be one of the most reviled congregations in the country.

That harsh reality puts these clergymen in the position of trying to nurture civility within this fractious flock and trying to explain to a skeptical public that all is not as dire and broken as much of the citizenry plainly believes. They encounter senators and representatives not through speeches and sound bites but as participants in prayer breakfasts and Bible studies, or in casual moments in the Capitol’s cloakroom or restaurant or gym.

Very different paths brought the ministers to their respective roles. Dr. Black, 63, a Seventh-day Adventist, spent 27 years as a Navy chaplain, rising to the rank of rear admiral, before being appointed to the Senate position in 2003. He is the first African-American to be a Congressional chaplain. Father Conroy, 61, a Roman Catholic from the Jesuit order, had devoted much of his career to college chaplaincy and social-justice work. Named to his House post last May, he is even newer to the job than the chamber’s 87 first-term members.

“I’m dealing with a Crock-Pot,” Dr. Black put it, referring to the Senate’s reputation for deliberation. “He’s got a microwave.”

In the current session of Congress, the contrast between the appliances has been less evident, with showdowns over the debt ceiling and the payroll tax extension and dozens offilibusters and cloture votes. A deeply divided electorate seems to agree only on its disdain for Congress, and President Obama appears to be designing a re-election campaign that will cast Congress as villain.

“I’m a little more philosophical,” Dr. Black said in an interview last month. “I have a long view of history. We’ve had secession from the Union. I was in Alabama in the 1960s, drinking water from fountains labeled ‘Colored.’ It took 50 years to pass meaningful civil rights legislation. So I see things as cyclical in terms of polarization.”

Over in the House, Father Conroy prepared for his job in part by reading “American Lion,” Jon Meacham’s best seller about Andrew Jackson. The bitter rivalry between Jackson and Henry Clay in Congress has provided him with some assurance that “it’s not an unprecedented thing in American politics for there to be recriminations and a lack of civility.”

Particularly as a Jesuit, though, Father Conroy said he looked to the order’s founder, St. Ignatius of Loyola, who taught the importance of recognizing “godliness in the other.” (In the saint’s time, that meant Protestants, not the Tea Party or liberals.) The chaplain has also been striving to understand why the House can seem so resistant to that generosity of spirit.

“One of the things that’s true today that hasn’t been true of the past 30 years is that there are fewer civilizing forces,” he said in a mid-December interview. “The members’ families don’t live here. It’s easier on Friday to get on a plane and go home. So Congressman A’s spouse isn’t friends with Congressman Z’s. Or their kids don’t play together. You have no social bonding at all. The only relationship those congressmen have is as opponents.”

With its six-year terms and polite protocols, the Senate is at least in theory constructed for friendship and compromise. But it is also, as Dr. Black pointed out, the arena for two parties, two philosophies, two historical narratives, two analytical lenses. Its rules regarding filibuster and cloture put obstructive power in the hands of a determined minority.

“I’m amazed there’s as much civility as there is,” Dr. Black said. “I am gratified to see people of faith, who may be re-enacting the Thrilla in Manila in the chamber, holding hands at a prayer breakfast. I have a unique window that the general public doesn’t have.”

What both chaplains yearn for is a public with perspective on itself. The warring senators and representatives of Washington did not wind up there by accident or coincidence. Somebody elected them. To put it scripturally, Father Conroy said he finds himself thinking of Luke 6:41: “Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?”

“The American Congress,” he said, “represents the American people. Is it any surprise they got what they voted for? It’s easier to blame Congress than to look in the mirror.”

[The New York Times]

Jesuit Doctoral Students Plan Work Back Home in Africa

Kaitlyn McCarthy Schnieders — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 14:00:26 +0000

Jesuit Father Jean-Baptiste Mazarati spoke to students, faculty and staff about the Jesuit ministry in Africa and his plans to return to the continent after receiving a doctoral degree from Georgetown. // Photo: Georgetown University

Two African Jesuits completing their doctorates in health care at Georgetown spoke to students, faculty and staff last week about their plans to return to the country to help their communities.

The talk, “Jesuits in Africa: The Hope of International Development” was part of Jesuit Heritage Week, which began on Jan. 29 and ran through Feb. 4.

“Jesuits are working in 28 out of 54 African countries today,” noted Jesuit Father Rodrigue Takoudjou.“We African Jesuits clearly perceive health care and education as priorities in our ministries.”

Fr. Takoudjuou, of Cameroon, is getting his Ph.D. in pharmacology, plans to teach at a Jesuit medical school in Chad.

One of the main health care issues that Jesuits are helping combat in Africa is HIV/AIDS, mostly through organizations such as The African Jesuit AIDS Network (AJAN).

“AJAN’s mission is to stimulate and coordinate the work of African Jesuits in responding to HIV and AIDS in an effective, coordinated and evangelical manner, culturally sensitive and spiritually grounded,” he explained. “The African Jesuits are involved in more than 100 HIV/AIDS initiatives throughout the continent.”

Fellow panelist Jesuit Father Jean-Baptiste Mazarati, of Rwanda, will teach at the state medical school in his country when he graduates with a doctorate in tumor biology in 2012.

“Africa stands in the world as a big question mark. So who will answer that question?” Mazarati said. “It is a question of endemic poverty. It is a question of endemic disease. It is a question of endemic conflicts. It is a question of lack of leadership. …It is a question of a continent that holds so much richness, yet is struggling to take off.”

Africa also has a large population of children, he said, so there is a strong need for educational advancements.

Jesuits are sending Rwandan priests around the world to seek higher education in the sciences, social sciences and development “to make sure that tomorrow we come back to Rwanda stronger,” and ready to teach, Mazarati said.

Carol Lancaster, dean of the School of Foreign Service, moderated the event. Katherine Marshall, a senior fellow at the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs, also participated in the panel discussion.

“Jesuits have made such a contribution to this university and to the world,” Lancaster said.

The Jesuits’ personal stories of mission and ministry in Africa enlightened, yet posed more questions for some in the audience.

“The intersection between religion and African development is an extremely interesting field that must be further explored to fully understand the challenges and hopes of development,” said Vivian Ojo, who helped organize the event with Mariana Santos.

“The Jesuits provided some answers to some of the most difficult questions [plaguing Africa],” Ojo added. “I left the conversation with a desire to search for more answers about a topic not often explored.”

New Book Highlights Transformative Period in Holy Cross History

Kaitlyn McCarthy Schnieders — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 14:00:06 +0000

On April 4, 1968, the death of Martin Luther King Jr. shocked the nation. A few days later, Jesuit Father John E. Brooks, then a professor of theology at the College of the Holy Cross who shared Dr. King’s dream of an integrated society, drove up and down the East Coast searching for African American high school recruits, young men he felt had the potential to succeed if given an opportunity.

Among the 20 students he had a hand in recruiting that year were Clarence Thomas ‘71, the future Supreme Court justice; Edward P. Jones ‘72, who would go on to win a Pulitzer Prize for literature and Eddie Jenkins ‘72, who would play for the Miami Dolphins during their 1972 perfect season.

Now, the stories of their time at Holy Cross are being told in a new book, Fraternity, which follows the men through their college years, reporting on how their time at Holy Cross and their relationships with Fr. Brooks helped shape who they are today. In a recent interview, Fr. Brooks sat down with National Catholic Reporter to talk about the experiences that Fraternity was based on.

Jesuit Father John Brooks paused, his fork temporarily suspended above his apple crumble. The 88-year-old Holy Cross president emeritus, his West Roxbury accent clear and direct, told the National Catholic Reporter during lunch in the Hogan Campus Center, “Clarence Thomas called this morning — it was more of a joke really.” The U.S. Supreme Court justice, a former Holy Cross student of Brooks’, “wanted to know did I really have a tear in my eye.” Thomas was referring to the concluding line in an excerpt from Diane Brady’s book Fraternity, reprinted in the fall 2011 Holy Cross Magazine, that ran, “One of the students saw Fr. Brooks standing to the side, slipping out quietly with tears in his eyes.”

Joked Thomas, on the phone to Brooks, “You never shed a tear.”

Brooks hasn’t had much time for tears. Toughness was required when Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination impelled then theology professor Brooks into an East Coast recruitment drive for African-American students. Regardless of how historically salutary his decision, in the short term it brought neither tranquility nor harmony to the college.

To accomplish even the first steps, Brooks needed the support of the somewhat besieged Holy Cross president, Jesuit Fr. Raymond J. Swords. Both men engaged in a great deal of persuasive argument to eventually quell consternation among the trustees, uproar from the alumni, divisions among the faculty, and doubt, dismay and/or anger among the white students. It certainly didn’t help with the endowment drive. Not least, there was the matter of $80,000 in scholarships Brooks had promised to those he recruited.

When Brooks was growing up in West Roxbury, he said, it was all white, “and it’s still all white now.” At Boston Latin, there were perhaps a handful of black students in a 2,400-student body. His first exposure to the College of the Holy Cross, was with his dad, a New England Telephone Company divisional manager, bringing him to the football games. “Those were the days,” he said, nostalgically about the Holy Cross team. Yet when he enrolled at Holy Cross in 1942, he had one black classmate. “I don’t know how he survived the four years, the isolation.”

With World War II under way, Brooks was soon in uniform and spent three years in Europe. “The Army was segregated then.” Postwar it was back to Holy Cross, one of 300 25- to 28-year-old GI college freshmen and sophomores. He studied geophysics with a view to oil exploration, graduated, then headed to Penn State for graduate studies. “I found I missed the Jesuits for some reason, but I didn’t feel that way when I was at Holy Cross.” He applied to enter the Society of Jesus, was told to go back and finish graduate school, but to his surprise was called to enter early in 1950. It was an era, he noted, when any black Jesuits were usually assigned to Jamaica.

By 1963, after graduate work in theology at the Gregorian in Rome, he was back at Holy Cross. What happened while in Rome, he said, was “one of the great gifts in life God has given to me — the Second Vatican Council opened.”

Back in the United States racial tensions were rising. Then came King’s assassination. Fraternity recounts in detail Brooks’ East Coast recruiting excursions.

Asked if it was tough to convince the black students to attend Holy Cross, even with the promise of scholarships, he replied, “Yes. First they saw it as a Catholic school. Then they saw it as an all-white school. What I probably emphasized was the importance of a quality education. They were students who took academic life seriously. One of the things that bothered me was their likely isolation.” Brooks felt the only answer was to give the black students their own residence. “We received a lot of criticism — we couldn’t do anything to overcome the isolation issues without being criticized. Everyone’s goal was to make the students all the same. Well, you can’t just do that, it takes time.” It took more than that when, in 1969, to protest perceived college racism in a judicial review, 65 black students quit Holy Cross in protest.

That same year, Swords asked Brooks, now college dean, to cover alumni groups. “Because it was I and not he, they clobbered him in front of me: very blunt, hard, negative. I always defended him. I admired him. It was a good thing he didn’t hear it.” The next year, Brooks was named president.

He had a second goal: admitting women students. “The coeducation push probably generated more alumni negativity than anything. The black situation was more nasty, they said mean things, the words used. It was awful.”

Even so, Brooks prevailed. He prevailed again in his determination to keep Holy Cross as a top-flight liberal arts college.

There was one graduate program, in chemistry. As president, “I got rid of it. It was a struggle. Of the 28-29 Jesuit colleges, we’re the one that held the fort for undergraduate education. There’s always a fight. A fight with admissions to make sure you’re getting the quality of students you want. I wanted Holy Cross to be as good as, or better than Amherst or Williams.”

Brooks still teaches, and he’s still a tough taskmaster. He interviews each student he admits to his course in contemporary Christology. “I come down hard at the very beginning. I tell them I expect them to be there for every session. Expect them to do the readings. I base my acceptance on their willingness to read, their habit of reading. Each student marries a theologian — Hans Küng, [Karl] Rahner, [Edward] Schillebeeckx, [Jon] Sobrino, [Dietrich] Bonhoeffer. At the end of semester they have a two-and-a-half hour oral exam. I bring in outside examiners. They’re petrified. At the end there’s a little reception, a dinner of students and examiners — and they’re very happy, for they’ve proven to themselves they’ve learned something. I’m very committed to the liberal arts. I think we acquired a reputation for high ratings, we get them. You may disagree with them but you have to be in there.

“That’s why I was so happy with the first group [of African-American students he recruited]. They were so good academically and intellectually.”

The Fraternity five still keep in touch. As do so many of the others, black and white.

Ignatian News Network Bio: Jesuit Father Chris Devron

Kaitlyn McCarthy Schnieders — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 14:00:59 +0000

Jesuit Father Chris Devron says he has always been interested in start-ups and has an entrepreneurial personality. So it’s fitting that he’s president of Christ the King Jesuit College Preparatory School, the first all-new Catholic high school on Chicago’s West Side in more than 80 years.

Fr. Devron has come full circle in many ways. In 1995 he was a Jesuit novice in Chicago when he witnessed the beginning of the country’s first Cristo Rey school, Cristo Rey Jesuit High School, while attending the press conference announcing that the Jesuits were starting the school.

Christ the King, which follows the Cristo Rey work-study model, opened at a temporary site with 120 students in 2008, and its brand new building opened in January 2010.

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

Jesuit’s Photo Album of Titanic Scheduled for Release at Centenary of Sinking

Kaitlyn McCarthy Schnieders — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 14:00:52 +0000

When Jesuit Father Eddie O’Donnell stumbled across over 40,000 negatives belonging to late Jesuit Father Frank Browne he would not have been able to envisage the significance of what he had just discovered.

Fr. Browne, widely recognized as a skilled photographer, was often described as Ireland’s answer to Cartier-Breson. He first started taking photographs in 1897 and did so until his death in 1960.

So what was included in these negatives? The invaluable collection of photographs and mementos, which had been sitting in a Dublin basement, featured one-of-a-kind images of the Titanic, before it departed on it’s first and final voyage. Upon realizing the discovery, a collection of the images was published in 1997 known as ‘Father Browne’s Titanic Album.’ As the 100th anniversary of the boat’s sinking approaches in April, many of the photographs in the book have been digitally re-mastered and new photographs have been added for the centenary edition of the book.

As the story goes, Fr. Browne boarded the Titanic in Southampton and several days later he was ordered off the boat in Cobh, County Cork in Ireland by his Jesuit Provincial. An American couple offered to pay his fare to America, but unbeknownst to Fr. Browne, when his superior requested that he return to Dublin, his life was potentially saved.

“When Father Browne’s superior ordered him off the ship it essentially saved his life because very few men travelling in first class survived the tragedy when the boat sank,” said Fr. O’Donnell. “While he was having a meal in the first class dining room he got chatting to a wealthy American couple. They liked Fr. Browne and asked him to stay on the Titanic with them until the boat reached New York. The American couple even offered to pay the rest of his fare to New York but Fr. Browne told them that his superior in Dublin would never allow it so he had to get off the ship when it stopped in Cobh.”

“The American man said to Fr. Browne, ‘come on down to the Marconi room and we’ll send him [the Jesuit superior] a Marconigram (a message sent via radio) and we’ll tell him that we’ll pay your way to New York’. When Fr. Browne went down to the Marconi room he took a picture. It was the only picture to be taken of the room – and any films you’ve ever seen that have had the Marconi room in it based it on Fr. Browne’s photograph.”

The telegram was sent by the wealthy Americans to the Irish superior of the Jesuits but after the Titanic stopped in Queenstown in Cobh, Fr. Browne was instructed to return to Dublin. The water near Queenstown in Cobh wasn’t deep enough for the Titanic to dock so the only way it could be reached was by another boat called the Ireland.

“The Ireland set off towards the Titanic with bags of mail and the 123 Irish passengers who boarded the ship. Captain Tobin was in charge of the Ireland and he had a small envelope addressed to Fr. Browne. Inside was a note with five words on it – it read: ‘Get Off That Ship – Provincial’.”

“Fr. Browne kept the note in his wallet for the rest of his life and said that it was the only time that holy obedience saved a man’s life,” said O’Donnell

Fr. Browne used what time he had to photograph the Titanic when it arrived in Cobh. One photograph shows a man climbing one of the ship’s large funnels and at the time it was regarded as a bad omen.

“The superstitious people of Cobh said when they saw it that no good could come out of the ship’s journey and that the man in the picture was not a man at all – they claimed that he was the devil.

“The picture shows a tiny black dot on the fourth of the ship’s funnels and it’s actually been confirmed that the black dot was an Irish stowaway who boarded the ship at Southampton. Apparently he climbed down the funnel into the room where the mail was being kept and his pals put him inside one of the mail bags and he was loaded on to the Ireland and managed to get home to his native Cobh.”

Fr. Browne’s photographs have been used as evidence to support facts about the Titanic.

One of the most contentious issues which split opinion amongst Titanic experts was whether the ship divided into two after it hit the iceberg on April 15, 1912.

Dr. Robert D Ballard, the former US Navy officer who discovered the wreck of the Titanic in 1985, used Fr. Browne’s photographs to confirm that the boat had in fact split in half.

“When Dr. Ballard discovered the wreck he found that the boat was in two pieces almost half a mile apart.”

“Some survivors said that the ship split in two just before it sank whilst others said it went down in one piece. No one knew who to believe.”

“When Robert Ballard found the boat it was solved for all time. Ballard used photographs taken by Fr. Browne to explain why the boat split in two. It was because of the grand staircase that the boat split – it was nine stories high and was the weakest part of the ship. If the Titanic was going to split anywhere it was going to be where the grand staircase was.”

“The Titanic actually split down the middle of where Fr. Browne’s room was because his bedroom was in one half of the wreckage and his living room was in the other half almost half a mile away. Fr. Browne’s documentation of the Titanic was so concise that Oscar winning director James Cameron used his photographs as a reference when designing the ship’s bridge for his 1997 movie ‘Titanic’.”

“A friend of mine is the secretary of the Titanic Historical Society and was advisor to James Cameron’s movie about the Titanic. He had all of Fr. Browne’s photographs and told Mr. Cameron that he had forgotten to consult them when designing the set. Mr. Cameron then used Fr. Browne’s photographs to redesign the bridge of the boat.”

He added: “I hope people still enjoy the book. It’s a wonderful documentation of life on the ship before it sank. It’s poignant that we have released it again to mark the 100th anniversary.”

[The Derry Journal]

Jesuit Named to Loyola University Maryland’s First Endowed Jesuit Chair

Kaitlyn McCarthy Schnieders — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 14:00:29 +0000

Jesuit Father Jean Turgeon, honorary professor in the department of mathematics and statistics at the University of Montreal, has been named Loyola University Maryland’s first Jesuit Chair, an endowed position for a visiting Jesuit teaching scholar made possible by contributions from the Jesuit Community at Loyola.

A small percentage of the $1.5 million endowment will fund the chair in perpetuity and bring in a new Jesuit scholar from another institution for one semester each year. The chair will have the opportunity to do research, attend conferences, network with faculty across departments, and deliver a public lecture. The chair will also teach one course; for Fr. Turgeon, it’s a history of mathematics class in the Spring 2012 semester.

“Accomplished outside experts like Fr. Turgeon bring new perspectives, new ideas, new life to Loyola,” said Jesuit Father James J. Miracky, dean of Loyola College, Loyola’s school of arts and sciences. “As a Jesuit, he understands our tradition and mission, and he’s rooted in our spirituality. I am confident he will make an immediate connection with our faculty and the rest of the Loyola community.”

Fr. Turgeon has taught at the University of Montreal since 1970. He received a Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of Toronto and has published dozens of books, chapters, and articles in his career. Fr. Turgeon joined the Society of Jesus in 1956, was ordained in 1971, and took his last vows as a Jesuit in 1978. He is fluent in English and French.

Loyola actively recruits Jesuits who are in the early stages of their careers, and the chair, which reaches out to established professors, adds experience to that mix.

“While the Jesuit tradition at Loyola is still active and thriving within our teaching, scholarship, and conversations, we are constantly challenging ourselves to improve and we value having Jesuits on campus who have had the primary experience and learning associated with being a Jesuit,” said Timothy Snyder, Ph.D., vice president for academic affairs at Loyola. “With that experience, Fr. Turgeon will make vigorous contributions to conversations already taking place at Loyola.”

Jesuit Historian to Speak at Fairfield University about Composer Olivier Messiaen

Kaitlyn McCarthy Schnieders — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 14:00:06 +0000

Jesuit Father Stephen Schloesser will discuss the early years of Olivier Messiaen, one of the most influential composers of the 20th century, when he delivers Fairfield University’s Bellarmine Lecture on Wednesday, February 1. This “concert lecture,” free and open to the public, will feature a gripping story of love and love lost, interspersed with songs for soprano and piano. Works to be performed include Messiaen’s “The Smile,” and “La Fiancee perdue,” from his “Three Melodies,” “Action de Grace,” and “Priere exaucee,” as well as two songs by his wife at the time, Claire Delbos.

The event, presented by the University’s Center for Catholic Studies, will take place in the Egan Chapel of St. Ignatius Loyola at 8 p.m.

In a talk entitled, “Olivier Messiaen: Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man,” Fr. Schloesser, associate professor of history at Loyola University Chicago, will chronicle the young life of this artist who was greatly inspired by his Catholic beliefs. He will start by exploring Messiaen’s parents, especially his mother Cecile Sauvage and her poetry, punctuating the talk with Messiaen’s compositions while emphasizing the evolution in his writing. The lecture will provide attendees with an intricate look at Messiaen, his mother, and his wife Claire, and how their relationships so deeply affected the composer’s early works.

Educated at Stanford, Fr. Schloesser has explored such intriguing subjects as Jazz Age Catholicism and Mystic Surrealism as Contemplative Voluptuousness. He was a faculty member of Boston College, a Bannan Fellow at Santa Clara University, and an adjunct professor in the Department of Church History at the Weston Jesuit School of Theology.

The Bellarmine Lecture series was set up to bring distinguished Jesuit Scholars in a variety of disciplines to Fairfield. For information on other Center for Catholic Studies events, visit http://www.fairfield.edu/cs/.

[Fairfield University]

Jesuit Father Ed Reese Discusses Brophy Prep’s Loyola Academy in This Month’s NJN Podcast

Kaitlyn McCarthy Schnieders — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 14:00:13 +0000

In this month’s National Jesuit News podcast, we speak with Jesuit Father Ed Reese, who currently serves as the president of Brophy College Preparatory in Phoenix, Arizona

A recent addition to Brophy is Loyola Academy, which provides a Catholic, Jesuit education to 6th, 7th, and 8th grade boys who demonstrate academic promise but have had limited educational opportunities. Loyola Academy currently serves one class of sixth grade boys, and will add a new sixth grade class for the 2012/2013 school year.

Fr. Reese recently spoke with us by phone from Phoenix to discuss the work of Loyola Academy and about his own background as a Jesuit. You can listen to our podcast with Reese via the player below.

Read All About It! The Jesuit Post Launches

Kaitlyn McCarthy Schnieders — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 14:00:28 +0000

Last week, a group of young Jesuits launched a new website called The Jesuit Post. Content will range range widely, with hopes of covering ”Jesus, politics, and pop-culture…the Catholic Church, sports, and Socrates.”

The first set of articles include pieces on Dr. Who, the New Translation of the Romal Missal, Tim Tebow, yoga, Paula Deen, and health care reform.

“It’s about making the case for God (better: letting God make the case for Himself) in our secular age,” says editor-in-chief (and Jesuit) Patrick Gilger.

To check out the Jesuit Post, they can also be found on Facebook and Twitter.

White House Honors Three Jesuits as Leaders in Catholic Education

Kaitlyn McCarthy Schnieders — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 14:00:42 +0000

On Wednesday, January 25th, Jesuit Father Charles L. Currie, Jesuit Father John P. Foley and Jesuit Father William P. Leahy were three of the nine leaders in Catholic education from across the country who was honored at the White House as Champions of Change for their service to their communities and our nation.

These extraordinary individuals have made a significant impact on the students, families, and educators through Catholic schools and universities throughout America. Their innovative ideas and dedication to students and to the wider community, demonstrate the strong commitment to ensuring that every child has an opportunity for greatness.

“We are thrilled to recognize these extraordinary Champions in Catholic Education at the White House. Each of these nine leaders embody the values of education, innovation and service through their stellar contributions to Catholic schools and the wider communities they serve,” said Alexia Kelley, Senior Policy Advisor White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. “These Champions, like their colleagues in Catholic education across the country, inspire all of us to build up our communities and our nation’s young people.”

The Champions of Change program was created as a part of President Obama’s Winning the Future initiative. Each week, a different sector is highlighted and groups of Champions, ranging from educators to entrepreneurs to community leaders, are recognized for the work they are doing to serve and strengthen their communities.