“I said jokingly that this would be a perfect office if I were coming in to open a bank account,” said Fr. Shea, who replaced his desk and conference table with a couch and two plush chairs.

“This is where students can come in, feel relaxed, talk,” he said.

Fr. Shea, who earned his bachelor’s degree from Fordham, has previously worked at the university as a teacher in the psychology department, a psychologist in the counseling center, rector of Murray-Weigel Hall (a community of retired Jesuits from the New York Province) and associate vice president and then vice president for student affairs from 1989 until 1996.

He then continued his work in higher education, serving as president of John Carroll University and vice president for mission and ministry at the University of Scranton.

The last seven years, however, have found him in an entirely different setting. Since 2005 Fr. Shea has been the director of the East Asia Theological Encounter Program in Chiangmai, Thailand — a post he will continue to hold remotely. There, he instructed Jesuit scholastics on Eastern theology, taught English to Thai students (he speaks Thai fluently) and worked at a retreat house in Chiangmai.

“I’d wanted adventure, change,” Fr. Shea said of his experience in Asia. “I’d been in higher education for 26 years and just felt that I wanted to do something different. When this opportunity arose, I jumped at it.”

One of Fr. Shea’s goals at Fordham is to create a weekly meditation group, offering students a way to decrease stress while learning about a lesser-known practice of Christianity.

“There’s a whole tradition of Christian meditation,” he said. “It’s very much like Zen or Buddhist meditation. You sit quietly and don’t think, and if thoughts come, then you simply bring yourself back to focusing on breathing rather than going where your mind takes you. Over the years, you become much more at peace, and much more aware.”

Read more about Fr. Shea’s return to Fordham University.

Fr. Vincent O'Keefe, SJ at the 34th General Congregation of the Society of Jesus, Rome. Photo by Don Doll, SJ

Fr. James Croghan, SJ, grandnephew of Fr. O’Keefe and chaplain at Regis High School, warmly recalled his uncle and brother Jesuit as an individual whose love of God, the Church and the Society of Jesus was palpable in his relationships with friends, family and all those whom he served in his long life and career. Fr. Croghan labeled love as the constant, driving force in Fr. O’Keefe’s life. Fr. Croghan offered reflections on Fr. O’Keefe’s 90th birthday celebration two years ago at Murray-Weigel Hall, the health care center for New York Province Jesuits located adjacent to Fordham University in the Bronx, and how Fr. O’Keefe, even in his later years, served as a source of inspiration to all.

Jesuit Father Thomas H. Smolich, president of the Jesuit Conference, offered words of appreciation for Father O’Keefe’s life, saying Father O’Keefe “loved to be with people—as a host, a brother Jesuit, a storyteller, a priest.”

Father Smolich added, “Father O’Keefe was absolutely loyal: to Pedro Arrupe, to the Society of Jesus, and to the Church. He was a man of great joy, a kind of joy that only comes through intimacy with God.”

To listen to excerpts from the Mass, click here

Fr. Vincent T. O’Keefe, SJ, was president of Fordham University in 1965 when he was elected at the 31st General Congregation of the Society of Jesus to serve as one of four General Assistants to the newly elected Jesuit Superior General, Fr. Pedro Arrupe, SJ. For the next 18 years, Fr. O’Keefe was stationed at the Rome headquarters of the Jesuits and worked closely with Father Arrupe in guiding the renewal of Jesuit life in the wake of the reforms called for in the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965).

During his years in Rome, Father O’Keefe was a favored commentator for ABC News at such events as the death of Pope Paul VI in 1978 and the two conclaves that followed and elected Pope John Paul I and Pope John Paul II. He also provided commentary for ABC during many of Pope John Paul II’s trips abroad, including his visits to the United States in 1979, 1993 and 1995.

After the 33rd General Congregation in 1983, Fr. O’Keefe returned to the United States. He was appointed rector of the Jesuit community at Fordham University in 1984. From 1988-90, he assumed principal responsibility for planning Assembly 89, an unprecedented gathering of Jesuits and their colleagues from the 28 Jesuit colleges and universities in the United States held at Georgetown University as part of the celebration of Georgetown’s 200th anniversary.

After working at the Jesuit Conference in Washington, D.C., Fr. O’Keefe returned to New York City to serve as superior of the Jesuit community and writer-in-residence at America House where the Jesuit weekly America is published. In 2007, he was assigned to Murray-Weigel Hall to pray for the Church and the Society.

Father O’Keefe, fluent in English, Italian, French, Spanish and German, was one of the best known and most-loved Jesuits of his generation. He grew up in Jersey City, N.J, the youngest of eight children. He graduated from St. Michael’s High School in Union City and entered the Jesuits in 1937 at Wernersville, Penn. After studies at Woodstock College, Md. (1941-1944), he taught at Regis High School in New York City from 1944-1947 as a scholastic. Theological studies in Louvain, Belgium followed, and he was ordained to the priesthood there in 1950.

Click here to view a blog post by America magazine editor Fr. Jim Martin, SJ, on Fr. O’Keefe. Included is a video of Fr. O’Keefe’s reflection on former Jesuit Superior General Fr. Pedro Arrupe, SJ.

Click here to view an article from Fordham University on the passing of Fr. O’Keefe.

To view a slideshow of images of Fr. O’Keefe, please visit the web site of the New York Province of the Society of Jesus

Jesuit Father Gregory Waldrop is the new executive director of the Fordham University art collection.

Fr. Waldrop, a member of Fordham’s Art History and Music Department since 2009, is an expert in Italian art from 1400 to 1600, and his scholarly research and writing deal primarily with the religious culture and iconography of the late Middle Ages and early Renaissance in Italy, with a particular focus on 15th-century Sienese painting.

He was a Rome Prize Fellow at the American Academy in Rome in 2006-2008. He has taught in both the medieval and renaissance areas and will continue his association with the Art History and Music Department.

Fr. Waldrop earned his M.A. and Ph.D. in the history of art from the University of California, Berkeley and holds an M.S. in journalism from Northwestern University and a B.A. in English, magna cum laude with distinction from Yale University.

His credentials in theology include the S.T.B., magna cum laude, from the Pontificia Universitas Gregoriana in Rome and the Th.M., with honors, from Weston Jesuit School of Theology.

In his new role, Fr. Waldrop will work collaboratively with academic units spread across the University to enhance Fordham’s prominence and visibility within New York City’s richly diverse artistic communities and cultural institutions. He will also oversee an estimated 1,000 works of fine art spread across the University’s three campuses.

[Fordham Notes Newsblog]

From my perspective as a Jesuit, I somewhat jokingly call my tandem jump a “leap of faith.” And so it was. Not, however, in the theological sense of a movement to belief in God, but in the basic sense of trust; trust in the U.S. Army, its plane, its equipment and its personnel; trust that all elements would work together for a successful jump!

How did I feel about doing this? I felt euphoric, extremely happy to be able to do something exciting I had never done before. Once in the plane and ascending to 13,000 feet, I had the sense that “this is it; the time has arrived; no thought of changing my mind now.” I had willingly boarded this plane; I will willingly tandem jump from this plane and “return to earth.”

To see all the photos and read the full post, visit the Fordham Notes newsblog.

From my perspective as a Jesuit, I somewhat jokingly call my tandem jump a “leap of faith.” And so it was. Not, however, in the theological sense of a movement to belief in God, but in the basic sense of trust; trust in the U.S. Army, its plane, its equipment and its personnel; trust that all elements would work together for a successful jump!

How did I feel about doing this? I felt euphoric, extremely happy to be able to do something exciting I had never done before. Once in the plane and ascending to 13,000 feet, I had the sense that “this is it; the time has arrived; no thought of changing my mind now.” I had willingly boarded this plane; I will willingly tandem jump from this plane and “return to earth.”

To see all the photos and read the full post, visit the Fordham Notes newsblog.

From left, San Andres parishioners Norman Goddard and Elaine Blasgen, Jesuit Father Joseph Rooney, pastor; and parishioner Tom Blasgen pose with the parish's new processional cross.

Twenty years ago, Jesuit Father Joseph S. Rooney was a physics professor at Fordham University in the Bronx, and in need of a summer assignment. Volunteering to fill in for priests of the Diocese of Salt Lake City who were away on vacation, Fr. Rooney saw an opportunity to do some apostolic work, but also focus on his hobby of photography.

“My motivation was, give me some apostolic work to do, but my hobby is photography, and this is a pretty state for taking pictures,” he said.

What he saw through the camera lens and in the people he served kept him coming back. During his many summers of service, Rooney served at almost every parish in southern Utah. When it came time for him to retire from teaching physics, Rooney knew exactly where he wanted to serve next; the Oregon Province of Jesuits provincial agreed that Fr. Rooney could help in the Diocese of Salt Lake City for a couple of years.

“And so here it is 14 years later and that ‘couple of years’ is still going,” Fr. Rooney said with a laugh.

Monsignor J. Terrence Fitzgerald, the diocese’s vicar general, said Fr. Rooney brings to Utah not only his faith, but also enthusiasm. “He certainly has the interest and the well-being of the people at heart and is willing to work for them,” he said. “I find him very generous in terms of responding to the needs of the people.”

“There’s a need for a Catholic priest here,” said Fr. Rooney, pointing out that there are 278 registered families in his entire parish, San Andres, which geographically covers an area so large that in contrast there are about 200 Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints wards in the same area; each ward has about 200 families. “There is an apostolic need.”

Although at 77 he is past retirement age, he continues working because “I’m supposed to be, just by my vows as a Jesuit, a person for others,” he said. “Eventually my health will force me out of it, but until that time occurs, there’s no reason why I shouldn’t do it.”

To read the full article about the work of Father Rooney, please visit the Intermountain Catholic.

Jesuit Father John Halligan, founder of the Working Boys’ Center (WBC) in Quito, Ecuador, was co-recipient of this year’s Opus Prize, one of the largest humanitarian awards that is designed to provide a single infusion of resources to advance humanitarians’ work and bring greater visibility to their causes.

Fr. Halligan will split the $1.1 million award with Sr. Beatrice Chipeta, director of the Lusubilo Orphan Care Project in Malawi, Africa. They were named co-recipients of the million-dollar annual prize on November 11 in a ceremony at Fordham University.

Fr. Halligan, 80, began the WBC in 1964 in the attic of the centuries-old La Compania Church in the center of Quito, Ecuador. His aim was to provide lunch and spiritual inspiration to a few dozen “shoeshine boys” who worked in the streets to support their families.

Forty-six years later, the WBC operates out of three buildings spread throughout Quito and serves more than 2,000 members annually, including whole families. The center offers daycare, primary education, vocational training, special needs services and adult literacy programs to help families be self-sustaining.

WBC is run by a team of directors, some of whom are former shoeshine boys, and enlists approximately 200 employees and 1,000 volunteers annually. It has twice been named the best technical school in the nation for its classes in carpentry, metal crafts and other trades.

At the ceremony, Fr. Halligan thanked the Jesuits for always keeping the “door open for the lower classes” and said that helped shape the path of his own life. He also encouraged students to become volunteers.

“The young volunteers make all the difference in our work, and they return from a life-changing experience in the process,” he said.

In the video below, Halligan discusses the purpose of the Working Boys’ Center and how it has help shape the lives of the poor in Quito.

Yet, like all of Fordham’s Jesuits, first and foremost they are Catholic priests. They are ordained to celebrate Mass in any parish in the New York Archdiocese and to administer sacraments that go with the title: marriages, penance, last rites, Holy Eucharist and more.

That is why, when calls for assistance come from surrounding Bronx neighborhoods and beyond, Fordham’s Jesuits are answering them.

Some 20 of Fordham’s Jesuit priests regularly celebrate Masses in parish churches and other religious communities off campus. The jobs are rarely assigned tasks; they are, many of them say, tasks of the heart, and a privilege that keeps them connected to the world beyond the leafy confines of academia.

“We are priests first of all, and this is what our mission is,” said Father Koterski. “We can be of great support to our fellow priests and to our dioceses. And people in the pews like a little variety in their sermons. The learning and spirituality that the Jesuits bring can be valuable.”

Read more about how the 60 members of Fordham’s Jesuit communities are assisting local parishes near the Fordham campus in the Bronx by going here.

To mark the 20th anniversary of their murders, the U.S. House of Representatives passed House Resolution 761, “Remembering and commemorating the lives and work of (the Jesuit Fathers, their housekeeper and her daughter) on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of their deaths at the University of Central America Jose Simeon Canas in San Salvador, El Salvador.” The resolution was sponsored by Rep. James McGovern (D) of Massachusetts.

Killed in the attack were Ignacio Ellacuria, S.J., 59; Amando Lopez, S.J., 53; Joaquin Lopez y Lopez, S.J., 71; Ignacio Martín-Baró, S.J., 50; Juan Ramon Moreno, S.J., 56; Segundo Montes, S.J., 56; Julia Elba Ramos, 42, the housekeeper of the Jesuit residence, and her daughter Cecilia Ramos, 15.

In remembrance of those who lost their lives, various Jesuit apostolates, including colleges, universities and parishes, are commemorating November 16th, 2009 with memorials, Masses and religious services. A list of institutions participating appear below with events listed if available. Please check back regularly as this list is ever growing.

Xavier University:
http://www.xavier.edu/news/Xavier-commemorates-the-20th-anniversary-of-six-Jesuit-priests-martyred-in-El-Salvador.cfm

• Saturday, Nov. 14, at 7:00 p.m. in Bellarmine Chapel: A live feed from El Salvador allowing viewers to see the procession and vigil in San Salvador in remembrance of the Jesuit martyrs.
• Sunday, Nov. 15, at 4:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m.: Student Masses in Bellarmine Chape with Mass petitions for the Jesuit martyrs in El Salvador.
• Monday, Nov. 16, from 1:15 p.m.-3:30 p.m. on Xavier’s Academic Mall: Human display of martyred Jesuits.
• Monday, Nov. 16, at 8:00 p.m. in Room 330 of the Gallagher Student Center: Showing of the film “Question of Conscience” to learn more about the six Jesuits and what they died for.
• Tuesday, Nov. 17, at 7:30 p.m. in Kelley Auditorium in Xavier’s Alter Hall: Brian Derouen discusses his act of civil disobedience crossing the line at the School of the Americas and how it has affected his life.
• Thursday, Nov. 19, at 8:30 p.m. in Bellarmine Chapel: Solemn procession and reflective vigil. Those traveling to Georgia for the annual School of the America’s protest from Nov. 20-Nov. 22 are meeting at Xavier’s Brueggeman Center and processing to Bellarmine Chapel in remembrance and to reflect on their role in this struggle.

Fordham University:
http://www.fordham.edu/Campus_Resources/eNewsroom/topstories_1711.asp

University of San Francisco:
http://www.usfca.edu/usfnews/news_stories/Stand4Conference.html

The Stand 4 Conference, with events scheduled from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., will provide a forum to discuss issues of justice, workshops, and a candlelight vigil on Monday, November 16, 2009.
•    9 a.m. – A Reflection on Ignatian Spirituality, Jesuit education, and the martyrs of UCA. (Maraschi Room, Fromm Hall)
•    10:30 a.m. – Mass of Commemoration by Fr. Privett (St. Ignatius Church)
•    12:30 p.m. – Keynote speaker Kevin Burke, S.J., academic dean and acting president of the Jesuit School of Theology in Berkeley, and author of The Ground Beneath the Cross: The Theology of Ignacio Ellacuria. (St. Ignatius Church)
•    1:45 p.m. – Workshops: A series of workshops on lobbying, advocacy, civil rights, and litigation presented by the Leo T. McCarthy Center for Public Service and the Common Good, the Central American Resource Center, and the Center for Justice and Accountability. (McLaren Complex)
•    6:00 p.m. – Candlelight Vigil: Procession from St. Ignatius Church to Lone Mountain.

Creighton University:
http://www.creighton.edu/publicrelations/newscenter/news/2009/november2009/november122009/martyrsnr111209/index.php

On Monday, Nov. 16, Creighton University, along with Jesuits and the world-wide Catholic community,will commemorate the 20th anniversary of the assassination of six Jesuits, their housekeeper and her daughter in El Salvador. A special 5 p.m. bilingual Mass will be held at St. John’s Church on Creighton’s campus.
On Saturday, Nov. 14, at 4 p.m., students will construct a Martyrs Memorial on the church steps that will include visual displays honoring the victims and their commitment to faith. The memorial will be available for viewing over the weekend through Monday, Nov. 16.

Boston College:
http://www.bc.edu/offices/pubaf/news/Jesuit_Murders_Anniversary20091028.html

Wednesday, Nov. 4, 7 p.m., Gasson 100: Boston College Chancellor J. Donald Monan, SJ will moderate a program titled “Living Legacies: the 20th Anniversary of the Martyrs of El Salvador.” The panel will include Rodolfo Cardenal, SJ, former vice rector at the University of Central America who lived with the six Jesuits; Elizabeth Lira, a faculty member and director of the Centro de Etica at Universidad Alberto Hurtado in Santiago, Chile; and US Rep. James McGovern (D-Mass.), who as an aide to the late US Rep. Joseph Moakley (D-Mass.) was instrumental in reshaping American policy toward the nation where the murders occurred.

Monday, Nov. 30, 4:30 p.m., Robsham Theater: Fr. Monan will moderate a discussion with historian Noam Chomsky and University of Central America co-founder Jon Sobrino, SJ — who was away from the Jesuit residence the night of the murders — titled “Memory and Its Strength: The Martyrs of El Salvador.”

Loyola New Orleans:
http://www.loyno.edu/news/story/2009/11/13/1970

•    Martyr’s Mass, Sunday, Nov. 15, 9 p.m., Ignatius Chapel in Bobet Hall.
•    General LUCAP Meeting, Monday, Nov. 16, 5– 6 p.m., Magis Lounge, with torture survivor Carlos Maurico and friends, who will speak about their experiences and the School of the Americas peace vigil caravan, Journey for Justice.
•    “Refugees and Asylum Seekers: Human Rights and Catholic Social Teaching” lecture, Danna Student Center St. Charles Room, 7:30 p.m., with Katrine Camilleri, Ph.D., assistant director, Jesuit Refugee Services, Malta.
•    “Romero” film screening, Wednesday, Nov. 18, 7 p.m., Magis Lounge.
•    Prayer Service for Peace, Thursday, Nov. 19, 5:30 p.m., Peace Quad.

Holy Cross:
http://www.holycross.edu/publicaffairs/features/2009-2010/el_salvador_anniversary

“Twenty Years Later: A Reflection on Holy Cross in Light of the University of Central America Martyrs” on Monday, Nov. 16 at 7:30 p.m. in Rehm Library.

Seattle University:
http://seattleu.edu/events/detail.asp?sID=26800

The greater Seattle University community, including alumni, students, faculty, staff and the public, is invited to this event to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the tragic murders of six Jesuit priests and two women at the University of Central America in El Salvador. Please be sure to join us in this very special commemorative event.�
When: Monday, November 16, 2009  (7 PM – 9 PM)
Where: Student Center
(LeRoux Room and Chapel of St. Ignatius)

University of Scranton:
http://matrix.scranton.edu/news/elsalvador/index.shtml
Banners commemorate Jesuit Martyrs: http://matrix.scranton.edu/news/articles/2009/11/Banners-Commemorate-Jesuit-Martyrs.shtml

Spring Hill College:
http://www.shc.edu/news-and-events/news/2009/november-2009/spring-hill-college-to-commemorate-20th-anniversary-of-jesuit-martyrs

Rev. Ted Arroyo, S.J., rector of the Jesuit community, will present “Reflections on the Martyrs of El Salvador” at a Table Talk luncheon on Wednesday, Nov. 11.
The student liturgy at 9 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 15 will remember the 20th anniversary of the Jesuit martyrs. The Mass will commission students, faculty and staff to participate in the Ignatian Family Teach-In in Columbus, Ga., Nov. 20-22.

LeMoyne College:
http://www.lemoyne.edu/JESUITHERITAGE/tabid/482/Default.aspx

Grewen Hall at Le Moyne College in Syracuse, New York
Monday November 16 2009, 5-6 p.m.
 All are welcome at a candle vigil at dusk and brief ceremony to be held in solidarity with the Society of Jesus and the UCA-JSC, as we mark the 20th anniversary of the massacre in El Salvador and commemorate all who give their lives in the long struggle for justice. 

Gesu Parish Detroit:
(in partnership with their SHARE Sister Community) will be have a commemoration of the 20th anniversary on November 16th at 7:00pm;  A recollection will be offered by Bishop Tom Gumbleton.

by Peter Feuerherd
New York Province of the Society of Jesus

As he sat, literally and figuratively, in the chair of the late Cardinal Avery Dulles, S.J., Jesuit Father Patrick Ryan, S.J., reflected about following in the footsteps of a Catholic theological giant.

Father Ryan, 70, occupies the office and holds the chair as the Laurence J. McGinley professor of religion and society at Fordham University, a position held by Cardinal Dulles from 1988 until his death in 2008. A former student of Cardinal Dulles, Father Ryan, in the afterglow of Vatican II’s outreach to non-Christians, was urged by the theologian to pursue doctoral studies in comparative religion at Harvard.

He responded with a doctoral dissertation based in part on his own experience in Nigeria. As a young Jesuit teacher in Nigeria, Father Ryan got to know the Yoruba people, a group roughly half Christian and half Muslim, who have long experienced interfaith understanding.

The Yoruba are a model in a post-9/11 world, wrote Father Ryan in the February 2006 issue of National Jesuit News.

“The Yoruba Christians and Muslims, despite some efforts by a handful of fanatic on both sides in recent years, have learned not only to tolerate each other but even to join in each other’s moments of sorrow and moments of conviviality,” he wrote, citing their interfaith families and friendships. Among the Yoruba, Christians and Muslims routinely join together for weddings and funerals.

While an academic, it is the sights and sounds of Africa that animate Father Ryan, not the ivy-covered walls of an American college campus. “I return to Africa every night at 8 p.m. My imagination is still there,” he said in an interview shortly after his return to the U.S. It’s still true, he now says, even if he has made some accommodation to American life.

Besides 11 years in Nigeria, Father Ryan spent another 15 years in Ghana. Living there, he said, “I began to see the world the way many Third World peoples saw it.” A Jesuit for 52 years, Father Ryan spent half of that time in Africa.

Fr. Ryan with General Yakubu Gowon,  a former Nigerian head of state

In some ways, the American experience has become foreign to him, as he finds himself still adjusting to supermarkets bulging with aisles of dog food and paper towels, and life in a country where a health crisis now revolves around an abundance of food, unlike the relative scarcity of Africa. He still goes back to Nigeria and Ghana as often as he can, reconnecting with friends whose children he baptized and parents he buried. In 2005, after 60 students from Loyola Jesuit College were killed in a plane crash, he went back to Nigeria to pray with and console families and loved ones.

Cardinal Dulles used his forum as the McGinley scholar – named for a former Jesuit president of Fordham – for public presentations on doctrinal concerns. Those lectures attracted big crowds, particularly after he was named a cardinal in 2001.

Father Ryan comes to the McGinley chair with a different perspective, honed in Africa and also in academia, where he has mostly taught courses with a focus on the Islamic world. He intends to use the prestige of the new post to further many of his acquired interests. Besides his extensive contact with the Muslim world, as a native New Yorker he is familiar with Jewish culture and maintains close friendships with many Jews.  He will continue the McGinley lecture series with a focus on interfaith understanding among Jews, Christians, and Muslims. His first lecture, on Nov. 18 at Fordham’s Lincoln Center campus and Nov. 19 at its Bronx campus, is titled “Amen: Faith and the Possibility of Jewish-Muslim-Christian Trialogue.” Respondents will be Rabbi Daniel Polish, a Jewish scholar Father Ryan came to know at Harvard, and Professor Amir Hussain, a Canadian Muslim and professor at Loyola-Marymount University with family roots in Pakistan.

The hope is to encourage discussion and friendship among Jews, Christians, and Muslims, focused on what unites the three great faith traditions. As a starting point, Father Ryan will focus on how all three religious communities put their faith in a God who reaches out to humanity in a covenant relationship that has its roots in the biblical Abraham.

Fordham’s New York location is the perfect vehicle for such discussions, says Father Ryan. In a city that prides itself on diversity, “I am hoping we may be able at Fordham to provide a place here in the capital of the world where Jews, Christians and Muslims can engage in intellectual exchange.”

Again he harkens back to Africa. “I sometimes think we could learn a lot from those multi-religious Yoruba families I first met in Nigeria in 1964,” he says.