Posts Tagged ‘Jesuit Father Gerald Blaszczak’

Jesuit Father Gerald Blaszczak

Father Alexander Santora, the current pastor of The Church of Our Lady of Grace & St. Joseph in Hoboken, recently featured Jesuit Father Gerald Blaszczak in his weekly column for The Jersey Journal. Fr. Santora, an alum of St. Peter’s Prep in Jersey City, didn’t know Fr. Blaszczak while they were high school students at Prep, as they only shared the school’s halls for one year. Following graduation, Blaszcsak entered the Society of Jesus. 

As a freshman at St. Peter’s Prep in 1966, I was in awe of the seniors who were outstanding athletes, student leaders and academic stars.

Gerald Blaszczak was among the latter and, unfortunately, I never met him personally. He entered the Society of Jesus after graduation in 1967 and through the years I used to hear about his appointment as vice president of Fordham University or pastor of St. Ignatius Loyola Church in Manhattan, their flagship parish.

Jesuit Father Gerald Blaszczak, who is currently Vice President for Mission and Identity at Fairfield University, has been appointed to serve as Secretary for the Service of Faith at the Jesuit Curia in Rome by Jesuit Father General Adolfo Nicolás.

Among Fr. Blaszczak’s new responsibilities will be the promotion within Jesuit ministries of “dialogue and reflection on the relationship between faith and reason, culture and moral issues and also between the Church and society.” He will also coordinate the Secretariat for inter-religious dialogue and work with the six conferences of the Society worldwide on Ignatian spirituality and pastoral work.

Blaszczak said he was “humbled by the scope of my new job,” and that he was also excited by the possibilities. “I am eager to be involved in projects which I deem so valuable and which have been so close to my heart throughout the years of my Jesuit ministry.”