jesuits central and southern - spring 2015

Puerto Rico's BoldMove

Spr ing 2015

jesuitsCent ra l and Sou the r n

Sacrament of the Moment • Finding God "En Plein Air"

2 Jesuits | sPRiNG 2015

Dear Friends,

At the heart of all Christian prayer, we find a call to a very particular disposition of heart and mind called anamnesis. Sometimes people translate it as “memory,” but it represents so much more. Yes, we remember the great deeds that God has done for and through us, but we do so because this gracious God of ours continues to labor. The memory shapes our present time also as we seek God’s work now. More important still, such memory roots us in hope for the future, for the God who has richly marked our journey in faith promises to remain faithful forever.

In the following pages, you will see echoes of what has marked the life of the province and the Society of Jesus, but more importantly the continuing vigor of our ministries, a sign of hope. For example, the rich legacy of the Society of Jesus on the island of Puerto Rico now assumes a new form as the 26 Jesuits of that region have become members of the Central and Southern Province; together we will find God calling us to new ways of preaching the Good News today. And Fr. Paul Schott’s almost 65 years in the Society have yielded extraordinary fruit. As he has grown older, he has discovered new dimensions of the spirituality of St. Ignatius that help him cope, and that can help us all. We celebrate too the gift of eight young men who will be ordained priests in New Orleans in June. God indeed labors still.

Our superior, Fr. General Adolfo Nicolás, has called the province and the Society of Jesus throughout the world to prepare for the 36th General Congregation to elect his successor and chart a path for the future. This highest institution of the Society has its roots in our Constitutions, and throughout history has helped the Society respond in ever-new ways to the needs of the Church and the world. No doubt, the same task lies before the provincial congregations and general congregation that will take place over the next 18 months. The world has changed so much that the challenge we face often seems intractable. Yet, as Jesuits gather in faith, we believe that God will open for us new ways to respond creatively.

We hope you will come with us on this journey of faith. We need your prayers and your willingness to share in our ministries. So many of you already do, with gifts of talent, prayer, labor, and funds to support our work. May God bless you all richly for the ways that you help set the world on fire, as St. Ignatius dreamed.

We look forward to laboring together with you and the Lord Jesus for many years to come.

Gratefully in the Lord,

Fr. Ronald A. Mercier SJProvincial, USA Central and Southern Province

message from the provincial

Fr. Ron Mercier

contents

Jesuits Central and SouthernVolume II • Number 1

Spring 2015

EditorThomas Rochford SJ

Associate EditorCheryl Wittenauer

DesignerTracy Gramm

Advancement DirectorJohn Fitzpatrick

Jesuits is published and distributed by the Jesuits of the Central and Southern

Province of the Society of Jesus. 4511 West Pine Boulevard

St. Louis, Missouri 63108-2191314-361-7765

Please address all correspondence about stories to the editor:

[email protected]

Address all correspondence about address, memberships, and

requests to the Advancement Office: [email protected]

8

feature stories

8 | Puerto Rico Bold Changes for Future

14 | Sacrament of the Moment Ignation Spirituality

18 | Finding God "En Plein Air" Spirituality and Art

4 | Jesuit News

22 | Formation: Peter Gadalla

23 | At Work: Gary Menard

24 | Profile: Immaculate Conception

26 | In Memoriam

24

18

Cover: The church of San José in the historic district of San Juan, Puerto Rico, was founded by the Dominicans; Jesuits took it over when they arrived in the mid-19th century. Photo: Thomas Rochford SJ

14


news briefs

Spring Hill Taps Alum as its Next President

Spring Hill College has named Christopher Puto as its 37th president, effective June 1. He succeeds Jesuit Fr. Gregory Lucey, who will focus on mission and identity as a senior administrator.

Puto graduated from Spring Hill College in 1964 with a degree in economics. He earned an MBA in marketing from the University of Miami and a doctorate in business administration with a concentration in marketing from Duke University. He served on Spring Hill’s board of trustees from 2003 to 2012.

Spring Hill College in Mobile, Ala., is the third-oldest Jesuit college in the U.S.

From 2002 to 2014, Puto was dean and distinguished chair in the Opus College of Business at St. Thomas University, in St. Paul, Minn. At St. Thomas, he designed and introduced the university’s first full-time MBA program and first full-time master’s in accountancy program, and redesigned the eve-ning MBA program.

Arrupe Hall: Rockhurst U's New Academic BuildingConstruction has begun on the $25 million fully funded first

phase of a new state-of-the-art academic building at Rockhurst University in Kansas City, Mo.

Pedro Arrupe S.J. Hall will hold undergraduate and graduate classes and a 500-seat auditorium for academic and public events. It will include the McMeel Family Gallery, featuring comic strips about learning, leadership and service that are syndicated by the Kansas City-based Andrews McMeel Universal newspaper syndication company.

The university is seeking $8 million in donations to fund the project’s second phase, which will include a performance space for plays, chamber operas, student recitals and acting classes.

Before that, Puto served as pro-fessor of marketing and dean of The McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University. In 1998, he introduced a new MBA program curriculum as well as a curriculum redesign for the undergraduate business program. He also created a comprehensive strategic planning process for the school and raised $80 million in the first three years of a $150 million capital campaign.

Puto has also served as associate dean and director of the MBA pro-gram, director of doctoral studies in marketing, and professor of marketing and psychology at the University of Arizona in Tucson. He also taught at University of Michigan and Appalachian State University.

He has counseled such businesses as Bank of America, Eastman Kodak Company, and General Electric Company.

sPRiNG 2015 | Jesuits 5

Loyola New Orleans ArtsLoyola University New Orleans

has launched a new degree program and won accolades for a documentary about the Mississippi River.

This fall, the school’s College of Music and Fine Arts will offer a degree in Theatre Arts and Musical Theatre, which will combine Loyola’s theater and voice departments.

School recruiters say the lack of a degree program has cost them talented prospects in the past. They expect the program will be very popular.

Meanwhile, a documentary produced by Loyola’s Center for Environmental Communication was selected from among 12,000 entries for a bronze 2014 Telly Award for editing. Robert Thomas, professor of mass communication and director of the environmental communication center, conceived and developed the 10-year project.

“MRGOing, Going, Gone?” tells the history and offers an exclusive look at the flaws of the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet, the 76-mile shipping channel implicated in the catastrophic flooding following Hurricane Katrina nearly a decade ago.

SLU Statue on Dialogue About Race and InclusionDespite some criticism, Saint Louis University is moving ahead with a

sculpture commemorating a six-day demonstration on the campus last fall by protesters over recent police shootings of black men.

The university says it has commissioned two artists for the project, which it says is meant to capture the spirit of dialogue about race and inclusion, which resulted in the so-called Clock Tower Accords.

Protesters set up tents at SLU and debated students on race and diversity for six days in October. They left after university President Fred Pestello agreed to 13 conditions, including spending more money on black student success and the school’s African-American Studies program.

Some alumni have threatened to withhold donations if the university proceeds with the planned sculpture, which they describe as a “strong-arm” tactic.

Pestello said in a statement that there was “considerable misinformation and confusion regarding this artwork.” He said it will not be “anti-police” or honor the Ferguson protesters. Rather, it will “honor our shared Jesuit values that promote inclusion rather than division.”

Gianni Schicchi Opera Rehearsal on Jan. 21

Phot

o by

Kyl

e En

car


New Presidents at Three Jesuit High Schools Three new presidents have been tapped to lead Jesuit high schools in

Denver, suburban St. Louis and Houston.Fr. Paul Sheridan, president of Bellarmine

College Prep in San Jose, Calif., will succeed fellow Jesuit Fr. Philip Steele as president of Regis Jesuit High School outside Denver. Steele has been Regis’ president since 2006.

Sheridan is the former president of St. Louis University High School and helped to found Loyola Academy, a Jesuit middle school for boys in St. Louis.

In 1977, he founded Boys Hope Girls Hope in St. Louis and oversaw it until 1996. Under his leadership, the program grew to include 17 homes in the U.S. and Latin America. He is on

the executive committee of the Boys Hope Girls Hope national board and is on the Cristo Rey and Nativity boards in San Jose. He starts July 1 at Regis.

At De Smet Jesuit High School in suburban St. Louis, 1990 alumnus Corey Quinn will serve as the school’s seventh president, succeeding Fr. Wally Sidney, who has been president since 2006.

Since 2008, Quinn has been president of De La Salle Middle School in St. Louis, a Catholic school that provides a holistic, faith-based education to low-income African American students.

Quinn, who once taught senior theology at De Smet, will begin his new role July 1.

In Houston, Paul Posoli is the new president of Cristo Rey Jesuit College Preparatory School, having served as interim president since July 2014. He succeeds the late founder and president, Fr. Antonio “T.J.” Martinez, who died in November. Posoli’s appointment is

effective immediately.Posoli had been involved with the school

as a long-time volunteer, teacher and supporter.Before taking the leadership role at Cristo

Rey Jesuit, Posoli spent 20 years in the energy industry. He began his career as a certified public accountant.

He is a graduate of Jesuit High School in Tampa, Fla., Northwestern University and the University of Miami.

Fr. Paul Sheridan

Corey Quinn

Paul Posoli

Jesuit Honored in El PasoFr. Harold Rahm will return in

May to El Paso to be honored for his influence during his ministry there.

The 96-year-old native of Tyler, Texas, will be named Segundo Barrio (Second Ward) Person of the Year at a fundraiser dinner for Sacred Heart Church on May 14.

Festivities will continue with a bicycle parade and unveiling of a mural on May 16. He’ll be celebrated at a Mass on May 17 at the Jesuit Parish in El Paso’s second ward neighborhood.

Rahm, who used to get around on a bicycle, served in El Paso from 1952 to 1964, before he moved to Brazil. In El Paso, he was associate pastor of Sacred Heart Parish, was director of Our Lady’s Youth Center, now known as Las Alas, and Guadalupe Refuge. He later led Guadalupe Thrift Shop and Way of Life Homes.

He has been a missionary in Campinas, Brazil since 1964.

Fr. Ron Gonzales, pastor of Sacred Heart, described Rahm as an “amazing Jesuit who is still very active in Brazil, but whose efforts here in El Paso, Texas, back in the ‘50s and ‘60s saved lives and made a big difference.”

Jesus "Cimi" Alvarado, a well-known muralist who grew up in Segundo Barrio, is painting a mural that commemorates Rahm’s time in El Paso, and recalls his many bicycle rides.

Fr. Harold Rahm


A conference this summer in St. Louis will focus on the merits of “silence” and “emptiness” to be filled by the word and spirit of God.

“Ignatian Silence: Heart of Mission” is the theme of the Ignatian Spirituality Conference July 16-19 at Saint Louis University.

It is drawn from the words of the Jesuits’ general superior, Father General Adolfo Nicolás in Rome, who has said: “We need the ability to become ourselves silence, empti-ness, an open space that the Word of God can fill, and the Spirit of God can set on fire for the good of others and of the Church.”

Saint Louis University has hosted an Ignatian spirituality conference every three years since launching one on the Spiritual Exercises in the late 1990s. The conference, presented by SLU, the Jesuits of the U.S. Central and Southern province and 15 other sponsors, has become one of the few large-scale gatherings of practitioners in Ignatian spiritualty.

It will gather experts in Ignatian spirituality from various Jesuit and Ignatian institutions.

The three keynote speakers are Colorado columnist, essayist, author and former college chaplain Melissa Musick Nussbaum; Fr. José García de Castro, a Jesuit expert in Ignatian spirituality who teaches at Comillas Pontifical University in Madrid, Spain; and Christopher Pramuk, who teaches theology and spirituality at Xavier University in Cincinnati.

Workshop leaders include Carol Ackels, a senior Ignatian Fellow at

Montserrat Jesuit Retreat House; Carlos Aedo, director of Hispanic ministry at the Jesuit Collaborative; Virginia Blass, a spiritual director, author, preacher, consultant and retreat master; Karin Botto, execu-tive director of organization devel-opment and Ignatian leadership at Saint Joseph’s University; Stephen Connor, who has worked in parishes, campus ministry and Catholic publishing for 30 years; Lauren Gaffey, Charis Ministries’ director

of administration and programs; Vinita Hampton Wright, senior editor at Loyola Press and an author; Mike Hayes, campus minister, author and co-founder of BustedHalo.com; Lillian Salmeron-Voll, who does retreats, counseling, spiritual direction and Hispanic outreach; Jerry Skoch, vice president and chief mission officer at Saint Ignatius High School in Cleveland; and Cristina Stevens, a board-certified chaplain and clinical pastoral education supervisor and director of pastoral care and

Conference to Focus on ‘Ignatian Silence’

For more information: www.ignatianspirit.org

education at Saint Louis University Hospital.

Jesuits who are scheduled to lead workshops include Fr. Michael Cooper, theology and spirituality professor who also leads retreats, pilgrimages and workshops; Fr. Bart Geger, a teacher and author; Fr. Felix Just, president and executive director of the Loyola Institute for Spirituality; Fr. Joe Laramie, director of pastoral ministry at Rockhurst High School; Fr. Matthew Linn,

an author who also trains spiritual directors; Fr. Kevin O’Brien, author, theology lecturer and vice presi-dent for mission and ministry at Georgetown University; Fr. Michael Sparough, spiritual director, retreat master, writer, speaker and story-teller; Fr. James Stoeger, president of Jesuit Secondary Education Association; Fr. William Watson, a specialist in Ignatian spirituality and the Ignatian examination of conscience.

Registration for the conference closes on June 30.


feature story

Puerto RicoJesuits Bet on Change

P uerto Rico’s Jesuits officially became part of the Central and Southern Province on Dec. 3, the feast

of St. Francis Xavier. The understated Mass and dinner that Jesuits celebrated in their San Juan residence that evening belied the drama of reaching that point.

In 2009, Fr. Mario Alberto Torres became regional superior of the 26 mostly native Puerto Rican Jesuits. As an independent region, they functioned much like a province, but with fewer men.

“I had a sense that our most important need was to come up with a common sense of mission, a common sense of who we are and why we are doing what we do in Puerto Rico,” Torres said. He started a process of meetings, study and prayer to accomplish that.

Story and Photos by Thomas Rochford SJ

The southwestern coast of Puerto Rico faces the

Caribbean at Cabo Rojo (top). Daniel Mora (above) is a Jesuit scholastic

teaching at the Colegio San Ignacio and running a program of social service and reflection.


As they were finishing the strategic discernment process, the Society of Jesus’ superior general, Fr. Adolfo Nicolás, called on Jesuits worldwide to restructure themselves, especially the smaller units such as Puerto Rico.

“We could not in any way remain a region, so we had to go looking for other possibilities,” said Fr. Larry Searles, former superior of the San Juan com-munity, and a native of Rochester, N.Y.

Torres said Nicolás encouraged them to be creative.

“His main message to us was to focus on the mission, then figure out the structure and don't worry about the way things have always been done,” he said. “He told us to be bold and propose something that might make the mission feasible.”

That challenge echoed a theme from General Congregation 35, which charged Jesuits worldwide to imagine new ways of encountering and serving God.

Myriad MinistriesPuerto Rico Jesuits serve in a variety of ministries

including two parishes; a grade school, a high school, four non-Jesuit universities and the diocesan seminary; pastoral ministry in two universities; a youth service program in Latin America; the Spiritual Exercises; a religious anthropology museum; marriage renewal; radio programming and Christian Life Communities.

Fr. Rafael Rodríguez (top left), who works with university students, prepares for Mass in the Parroquia San Ignacio (above) on Dec. 6, when the Jesuits of Puerto Rico celebrated their joining the Central and Southern Province.

They have a strong sense of mission, and see their having educated, shaped and influenced Puerto Rico’s leaders as clear evidence that their work has made a differ-ence on the island.

A boy can study 12 years on the same campus, first in the coed primary school, Academia de San Ignacio, and then at the all-boys high school, Colegio San Ignacio. His sense of belonging runs deep. A marketing study found that alumni feel close to the school and keep that feeling throughout their lives.

One woman said she likes to visit the high school even though her son graduated. She still feels a connection.

“His (Adolfo Nicolás’) main message to us was to focus on the mission, then figure out the structure and don’t worry about the way things have always been done.

He told us to be bold and propose something that might make the mission feasible.”

~Fr. Mario Alberto Torres


Music at the high school is infectious. A small chorus of faculty led the singing at two morning Masses during Advent. When Mass ended, the chorus started another song, and then another. On another day, the musicians included three guitarists, a base player, a drummer, a keyboardist and a handful of others playing rhythm instruments.

Academia Director Luis Pino said that Jesuits at the two schools often are asked to baptize children and preside at weddings for families of the students, and in doing so, become like part of the family. Ties continue.

Puerto Ricans Leaving IslandThe high school’s students historically have done

well and some have become leaders in their community, but the island’s recent economic and social problems have prompted many graduates to leave.

A wave of Puerto Rican migrants has been leaving the financially troubled island for the U.S. South, pri-marily Florida, upending the U.S. territory’s traditional migration patterns to communities in the Northeast since just after World War II, according to the Pew Research Hispanic Trends Project. Today's emigrants are professionals and blue collar workers in their 30s to 50s, productive people who hold full-time jobs and

Taty Garay and Fr. Mario Alberto Torres (top) at the Colegio San Ignacio, where soccer (above) is a favorite pastime during breaks. Primary school students at the Academia San Ignacio de Loyola (right) cultivate plants as part of their class program.


contribute to the island's economy with their income taxes. Among them are people who would have sent their children to Jesuit schools and attend Jesuit parishes, but are leaving Puerto Rico.

Parents of three young graduates of Colegio San Ignacio who went on to study at Jesuit universities in the U.S. said their sons likely would not return to Puerto Rico because of its poor economy and lack of jobs.

Starting in the 1950s, Puerto Rico experienced an economic boom as U.S. companies opened factories on the island. The island lacks natural resources, so busi-nesses had to import all material and export finished products. That worked out well as long as U.S. federal tax law exempted companies from paying federal tax on their Puerto Rico profits. When the tax laws changed in 2006, the economy fell into an eight-year recession. Factories closed and jobs disappeared.

The Puerto Rico gov-ernment struggles with a debt of $70 billion. Bloomberg News has reported that as Puerto Rico’s population shrank

Fr. Baudilio Guzmán (left) is chaplain at the Academia San Ignacio de Loyola. Lourdes Figueroa (above) teaches math at the Colegio San Ignacio (below), the Jesuit secondary school in Puerto Rico.


and the economy contracted 16 percent since 2004, the government kept selling enough bonds to saddle each man, woman and child with $19,000 in debt.

When the government announced in 2009 that it would lay off public workers, riots broke out. An esti-mated 15,000 to 30,000 people lost their jobs. Robbery and other crimes increased in the following years.

Private streets secured by big iron gates keep strangers out of middle- and upper-class neighborhoods. The gates reflect the fear that motivates people to leave.

“Poverty in Puerto Rico is a hidden poverty,” Torres said. According to U.S. Census data, close to 50 percent of the population has an annual income below the federal poverty threshold. People find ways to get by.

Considering Their OptionsJesuits in Puerto Rico knew that they needed to

develop a new apostolic plan to address these changes. They began a long and thorough process of meetings that led to a mission statement and apostolic plan that set priorities of promoting Ignatian spirituality, working with the poor and strengthening the intellectual and educational apostolates.

They also considered ways to collaborate more widely with Jesuits and others. Options ranged from creating a Caribbean province to allying themselves with provinces in Latin America, Europe or the United States. Some

Fr. José "Cheo" Aponte (above) is pastor of El Buen Pastor Parish, in Mayagüez, a city on the southwestern coast of the island. Fr. José Cedeño (top) is chaplain at the Colegio San Ignacio. Jesuits gathered in San Juan (top right) for a special dinner celebrating the Feast of St. Francis Xavier.

WiNteR 2015 | Jesuits 13

Jesuits in Puerto Rico were afraid of losing their community’s identity in a larger province and closing the possibility of ever integrating with others in the Caribbean.

In the end, a majority of Puerto Rican Jesuits opted to join with the Central and Southern Province. Similarities in ministries, especially the emphasis on education, and parallel apostolic challenges motivated the decision for union. The historical link between Central and Southern Province and Central America was seen as something that would broaden the apos-tolic horizons for the Jesuits in Puerto Rico.

The men of the Central and Southern Province, after a short process of discussion and discernment, agreed to welcome the Puerto Rico Region, and Fr. Nicolás approved the union on Nov. 14.

How It Will Play OutUniting the Puerto Rico Region and one of the

nation’s largest provinces brings many challenges, including working in two languages. But as Central and Southern Provincial Fr. Ronald Mercier said in a letter announcing the decision, “Knowing the chal-lenges ahead, we all experienced peace in the decision to move forward, a sign of the working of the Spirit.”

1597

1858

1870s

1880

1886

1945

1952

1955

1959

1980

1987

2014

Puerto RicoKey moments of

Jesuit history

l

lMayagüez

San Juan

Atlantic Ocean

Caribbean Sea

The province of Castile splits; Jesuits from the new Toledo Province are assigned to Puerto Rico.

Blessed Charles Spinola and Jerome

de Angelis land in Puerto Rico on

their six-year- long voyage to

Japan, where they eventually will die as martyrs. They

preach to scattered settlers on the

islands.

In the 17th and 18th century, there

is no Jesuit community in

Puerto Rico.

Colegio San Ignacio splits from

the diocesan seminary and

moves to Santurce.

Jesuits leave Puerto Rico for Peru when

opponents make their work impossible.

Between 1886 and 1946, Jesuits

sporadically visit the island to do

pastoral work.

Puerto Rico becomes an "independent region" of the Society.

Puerto Rico becomes part of the New York Province.

Colegio San Ignacio begins again, first in Santurce and then in

Isla Verde.

A novitiate is established in

Caimito, an outlying working

class district of San Juan. Vocations

grow steadily.

Colegio San Ignacio moves to its current location, in Urbanización Santa Maria. Jesuits from the Antilles province — assisted by Jesuits from New Orleans, California and Mexico — staff the school during its first seven years of existence.

Fr. Antonio Quevado arrives in San Juan. Bishops entrust the minor seminary and a retreat house to the Jesuits.

Jesuits from Spain assume direction of the diocesan seminary, which accepts students not destined for the priesthood. They take over the old Dominican church in San Juan, renaming it San José. Men from the Jesuit province of Castile staff the seminary.

– Continuted on page 31

Puerto Rico becomes part of the Central and

Southern Province.


The Sacrament of the Moment

F r. Paul Schott learned early on in his 91 years that much of life is out of our control. He was just

starting sophomore year of college in New Orleans when the attack on Pearl Harbor dragged the U.S. into World War II.

He ended up in the Navy and was within days of taking part in the Normandy invasion when a mine dis-abled his landing craft and kept him from going. He saw God’s hand in his life then, and he still does now as he lives quietly in a community of older Jesuits after having had a long and successful career as high school president, pastor and administrator.

ignatian spirituality

Story and Photos by Thomas Rochford SJ

His first assignment after ordination in 1960 was Montserrat Retreat House in Lake Dallas, Texas. In 1965, he was named rector and president of Jesuit High in Dallas (now Jesuit College Prep).

“We had a brand-new school and no money to do anything,” he recalled.

The Jesuit who had set up the school charter estab-lished a foundation to support the school, and made the first contribution of $500.

Schott initiated an annual fund-raising event and alumni drive, which were innovations at the time. Donations increased a bit each year.

Then the provincial asked him to do the same thing at Jesuit High in New Orleans. Over the course of five years, Schott assembled a strong fund-raising effort, especially the alumni drive, which utilized a phone-a-thon. “Now those programs have developed so much,” he recalled proudly.

Schott held other leadership positions. He directed Manresa Retreat House in Convent, La., from 1979 to 1983. For seven years, he served as the executive assistant, or “socius” to two provincials. To his surprise, he served three parishes, St. Rita in Dallas and Holy Name of Jesus and Immaculate Conception in New Orleans, for years.

“When I entered the Society, I deliberately made the choice that I did not want to be a parish priest,” he said. “And I ended up in my career spending 25 years as a parish priest, which was a great experience. I’m con-vinced that’s where it really begins. If you want to touch all the crossroads of all the people, that’s where you’re going to meet them, in the parish. Birth to grave and all that happens in between. I enjoyed the parishes very much. I was very blessed. I enjoyed my career.

Schott moved in 2012 to St. Alphonsus Rodriguez Pavilion, a residence for older Jesuits inside the campus of St. Charles College in Grand Coteau, La., after the school was renovated.

Schott said his health is relatively good.“I still have my mind, thank goodness,” he said. “My

internals are just perfect, but my externals are falling apart.” He said his hearing and eyesight are diminished, and

a brace supports one ankle. “The internals are most likely to put you away, so I put up with all this,” he said.

He finds Ignatian spirituality helps him cope with diminishing health.

“Goodness gracious,” he said. “We give everything to God. My prayer is constantly that. In fact, it’s the one thing that motivates me.”

Fr. Paul Schott


He said he often recalls the words of Fr. Pedro Arrupe, the 28th superior general of the Society of Jesus, who was forced to resign after a debilitating stroke in 1981. “More than ever I find myself in the hands of God,” Arrupe had said in a prayer that was read aloud at a meeting of his Jesuit brothers. “This is what I have wanted all my life from my youth. But now there is a dif-ference; the initiative is entirely with God.”

Schott said God is making decisions for him too. “He’s given me this to bear, so that’s it,” he said. “The

Society of Jesus taught us to always seek the will of God and do it. No question, this is God’s will for me at this time, and it’s a kind of blessing, but at the same time, it is not going to make it easy.

“I have come to be grateful. We call this a privileged time in our lives when you can look back and see all that

Continued on next page


neck, he could hear but not understand, and was isolated. “That is one of the things that God is asking me to

give up,” he said. “You know the “Suscipe” (the prayer St. Ignatius includes in the Spiritual Exercises) takes on a great deal of meaning in our life at this point. ‘Take, Lord, and receive all my liberty, my memory, my understanding . . . You have given all to me. To you, Lord, I return it.’”

Five of Schott's seven siblings are still alive, and he has lots of nieces and nephews. He is grateful for the blessing of still having family.

He visited many nursing home residents when he was a pastor, and he learned from the older Jesuits who he used to nurse when he was a novice.

“I think the kind of people who impressed me did what I myself finally did,” he said. “They reached a point in life where they knew they had to give up independence and go where they could be cared for. When they got there, they were so adjusted. They didn’t complain.”

Ten years ago, he took a major step toward surren-dering independence when he gave the keys to his car to his provincial. He also knew when it was time to move into assisted living.

“That’s why I say that I am blessed, I don’t know who taught me that.”

God has done for you and realize that you still have something to do. Our mission is being sent to pray for the church and the society. Praying is not just formal prayer, but the biggest prayer is saying yes to God about the circumstances he has asked you to bear at this time.

“I have come to grow in what they call the ‘sacrament of the moment,’ here and now is all that matters. The past is gone, the future we don’t have any control over. So the only thing we can do is to say yes to God right now in everything.

“I think that’s Jesuit spirituality. That’s what we were taught to be as novices, what we try to live out in our active life, trying to do God’s will for his honor and glory. I have always been blessed in the sense that I have never lost my desire for prayer and my habit of prayer. Now I have more time for it, and I try to use more time for formal prayer.”

He is aware that just a fourth of the men in his community are capable of a conversation. “Dementia is a very difficult thing,” he said. “I find that there are no relationships. I find a bit of loneliness that results because people can’t carry on a relationship.”

He said his own poor hearing limits his interactions. Before he got a hearing device that hangs around his

For years, they taught classes, preached sermons,

administered the sacraments.

Now their mission is praying for the Church

and the Society of Jesus.

You can support their mission

and express your gratitude by contributing to

the care of older and infirm Jesuits

at St. Alphonsus Rodriguez Pavilion in

Grand Coteau, La., and Fusz Pavilion in St. Louis.

Make a difference. Support the mission of the Jesuits.

Use this envelope to make a gift or contribute online at

Jesuitscentralsouthern.org/supportus


He often reflects on God’s role in his life and how it turned out.

He was a sophomore at Loyola New Orleans when life changed for everyone after the Pearl Harbor attack.

“For the first time, we had no choice to make,” he said. “The only choice was to enter this or that program to avoid the draft and finish college.”

Schott joined the Navy after graduation and went to Europe just before the Allies landed in Normandy.

He was in charge of a landing craft that was destined for the invasion. Two weeks before D-Day, the Germans dropped mines into the harbor where it was moored, and the next day, a ship bringing sailors to his landing craft hit the mines, prompting an explosion that blew up the engines.

“My (craft) was dead in the water, a week before I was supposed to load up and go to Normandy,” he said.

“God saved me. No telling what would have happened if I had gone to Normandy.”

Schott spent more time in England and France before being sent to the Pacific where he was supposed to take over an infantry landing craft as part of the invasion of

Japan. A series of snafus kept him from connecting with his craft, which eventually was moored at the Bikini Atoll where the U.S. detonated nuclear devices. Schott returned to the States and spent 10 years working in his family’s meatpacking business. His annual retreats at Manresa House of Retreats helped him develop his spirituality. Eventually, he felt called to join the Society of Jesus.

Now he sees old age as a privileged time. “That doesn’t mean it is without pain and inconvenience. All sorts of things come with being 91.”

“I always prayed to do God’s will, but I never put it into context as much as I do now,” he said. “We are the mystical body . . . suffering with Christ, making up in our suffering what is lacking in the suffering of Christ.

That notion gives meaning to anything that happens to me.

“It gives me purpose much more than before. Your purpose outside, when you are working, is to do what you are doing. Your purpose here is to give your prayer some significance, a focus. It has changed, but in a sense, it has only expanded in my understanding. I pray more and I pray regularly. I enjoy it, I must admit. I don’t just fall asleep like many do.

“My favorite prayers are like, ‘My soul is longing for the Lord; when shall I see him face to face?’ and ‘Thirsty is my soul, like the deer for running water.’ Those kind of things mean a lot to you.”

He said nearly every Jesuit in his community attends daily Mass, regardless of health issues.

“It is the one time that we really are one though it is expressed not in words but in presence and action, by attendance. For me, it means a lot.” Jesuits in the Pavilion gather for prayer before the evening meal.

“Praying is not just formal prayer, the biggest prayer is saying yes to

God about the circumstances he has asked you to bear at this time.”


Finding God “En Plein Air”

Story and Paintings by Thomas Rochford SJ


I n the last few years, my approach to painting has evolved as I switched from working in a studio

to painting landscapes on location, what has become known as “plein air” painting. The term comes from the French painters who took advantage of a technological innovation, the paint tube, which freed them to paint outdoors.

My normal practice is to complete a painting in one session of at most three hours. You have to decide what interests you in a scene, and choose where and how to focus your efforts. Once you start painting, you work quickly, intensely. The paintings tend to be smaller than a studio work, as the sun’s movement across the sky changes shadows and limits how long you have to finish.

I was never aware of how fast the sun moved before I began painting outside. And that’s the point. This direct approach requires a sensitivity and awareness that are very close to my own spiritual heritage as a Jesuit.

Over the course of almost five centuries, many Jesuits have devoted themselves to the arts, including painters Andrea Pozzo and Giuseppe Castiglioni, musician Domenico Zipoli and a long line of theater directors. Ignatius himself counted Michelangelo as a personal friend who offered to design the church Ignatius wanted built in the heart of Rome, for free.

A deep involvement in the arts contradicts the stereotype of the Jesuit as a severe ascetic, but it flows directly from one of Ignatius’ seminal experiences — his mystical prayer on the bank of the Cardoner River near Manresa, Spain. It happened one day when he was walking alone toward a small shrine outside town.

In his autobiography, Ignatius spoke of himself in the third person as he recalled: “One day he went to the Church of St. Paul, situated about a mile from Manresa. Near the road is a stream, on the bank of which he sat,

and gazed at the deep waters flowing by. While seated there, the eyes of his soul were opened. He did not have any special vision, but his mind was enlightened on many subjects, spiritual and intellectual.”

My friend, Fr. Joe Tetlow, explains the story this way: “He had an insight into how all contingent things — the river flowing past, all creatures that come and go — come from God’s eternity, moment by moment. Eternity is not before and after time, but time is nested in eternity. So all things are coming from God, moment by moment.”

spirituality and art

Drops of water beaded on stems of grass revealed the touch of the Creator at work in that very moment. The water, the grass, the sky — all revealed God’s presence.

From that mystical prayer comes the Jesuit tradition of “finding God in all things,” whether in a church, scientific research, legal advocacy, teaching, hospital ministry — or art.

Being a plein air painter means spending hours standing in one spot gazing intensely at a scene, responding

Stages in the development of a painting of a creek in St. Louis’ Forest Park; the rough sketch on the portable easel-box shows the beginning.


to the light, trying to understand the shapes and masses, the colors, the rhythm of the land. It means feeling the sun and wind, being part of the scene. If a plein air painting has snow, it means the artist was standing in the snow.

The process is as important as the final result. You don’t know what you will end up with when you choose a location. You move around seeing possibilities, sensing your own interest, searching for some connection that makes the hours worth-while. Where a casual visitor might give a passing look at a landscape, the artist sees it in depth. The first step is selecting what you want to paint and what you want to leave out. There are some obvious formal criteria such as design and an interesting mix of lights and darks, but the subject matter per se is not so important. I could capture that in seconds with a camera. Seeing is much slower.


Plein air painting has a prayerful aspect, not so much in the subject matter, which can seem mundane. Paying attention to the world is a way of feeling the presence of the one who created it. Like singing, painting is a way of praising the creator.

The Jesuit poet, Gerard Manley Hopkins, (himself an amateur sketcher), wrote, “The world is charged with the grandeur of God. It will flame out, like shining from shook foil.”

I sometimes think of plein air painting as the search for God’s fingerprints, but that metaphor misses the awareness of God’s ongoing, in-this-moment creative presence. The world is not inert, but vibrating with its creator’s grandeur shining forth from drops of water or blades of grass.

The discipline of paying deliberate attention to something — a tree, the water flowing around a rock, a hillside in shade — leads to deeper under-standing of what is in front and inside of you. In this, it resembles Ignatian prayer. The Jesuit mystic taught people to listen for the subtle movements of the Spirit, the whispering voice that spurs you on. Rather than an operatic, explicit religious subject matter, Ignatian spirituality encourages a prayerful response through being aware of God’s presence in the world.

The subtle beauty of a landscape means that I don’t need to paint great panoramas or travel to exotic locations. I can find God all around the city of St. Louis, in parks and empty lots, provided I know how to see. Dry grass in the wintertime along a frozen canal offers all I need for a wonder-filled painting.

Ultimately, the process should result in work that has a sense of spiritual depth, of peace, of appreciating the value of the ordinary. It does not need to shout out religious messages. I don’t do paintings about religious themes or about my prayer life. My painting and prayer life are part of the same current. Spirituality is a quality intrinsic to a piece that satisfies me.

Seeing is different than looking, and seeing really is a way of believing.

To see more paintings visit:jesuitscentralsouthern.org/features

M O R E we bON THE

Fr. Tom Rochford at his easel in Forest Park, St. Louis, at work on the finished painting to the left. Mitchell Lake in Colorado (above)


formation

Peter Gadalla: One Jesuit: Different WorldsBy Cheryl Wittenauer

Peter Gadalla, who claims both the Middle East and United States as home, was designing propulsion plants for U.S. Navy ships his first two years out of college when a persistent internal voice finally got his attention.

Gadalla, a Coptic Christian, had daydreamed since childhood of becoming a missionary and priest, so he left a career in mechanical engineering to give the Society of Jesus a try. “I thought it would take two months to finish the day-dream, wake up, and realize ‘this is not for me,’” he said. “It’s been seven years. I finished the daydream. I’m living the dream. I am a missionary.”

Gadalla, 32, is one of a nine-man community of Jesuits from the Netherlands, France, Italy, Israel, Vietnam, India and the U.S. who are split between two houses in the Holy Land. Gadalla, who was born in Houston and raised in his parents’ home country of Egypt, is the only one in the community with a room in each house in Israel and Palestine, places that are sepa-rated by only a few miles but a chasm of cultural, social, religious and political differences.

Back and forth, he rides buses that are stopped by Israeli soldiers who tightly control borders. His religious visa usually keeps him from being hassled.

To teeter-totter between the two cultures would seem a natural progression for a man who spent 17 years in Egypt and 15 in the U.S., who identifies with neither and both countries.

“When I am in Egypt, they call me the American Jesuit,” he said. “When I am in the U.S., they call me the Egyptian Jesuit. It’s confusing, I have to deal with it. I’m Egyptian. I am American, I am not bound by either.”

Gadalla is in his second year of regency, a period of Jesuit formation, teaching English to business students, and professional ethics, and leading a dizzying number of student clubs in campus ministry at the Catholic, co-educational Bethlehem University, the first institution of higher education in Palestine and the only Catholic

university in the Holy Land. All of the students at the De La Salle Christian Brothers school in Bethlehem are Palestinian; 70 percent are Muslim; 30 percent are Christian.

The university once served as a Christian Brothers novitiate, then a high school and in 1974 became a university at the request of Palestinians. It has been closed 12 times by the Israeli military. Fr. Peter Du Brul, a Jesuit from Cincinnati, has taught at the university since 1975 and founded its department of religious studies.

Gadalla also is a campus minister, officially the assis-tant coordinator of institutional values, which means he organizes and leads students in movie and book clubs, a Christian Life Community, meet-ups over coffee or dinner for talks, First Friday visits, play and homework ses-sions with Down Syndrome children and spiritual exercise excursions for Christian students to the desert, Jericho, or Galilee for self-reflection and getting to know God.

“I love it, more than I thought I would,” he said. “The joy is overwhelming, but I don’t get to sleep much. There’s a lot of organization.”

He spent his first year of regency last year at Belen Jesuit Preparatory School in Miami teaching theology and providing spiritual counseling to a mostly Cuban-American student body. He was impressed by the students’ level of intelligence, academic rigor and maturity. He discovered that every conversation there ends with the political situation in Cuba.

“They say ‘one day we’ll go back,’” he said. “It’s their holy land.”

Peter Gadalla (in white) with students on a hike near the Dead Sea


at work

While in theology studies at Berkeley, Calif., in 1997, Fr. Gary Menard got a chance to visit the first Cristo Rey School in the country, newly opened in Chicago, and saw it as the most exciting thing in Catholic education.

He never forgot it, but nearly 10 years would pass before he got an opportunity to be a part of the education experiment, now a network of 28 Catholic, college preparatory high schools for underserved urban youth. Under the model, students prepare for success in college and life with academic rigor and real-world work experience.

Since 2006, Menard has been assistant principal of Arrupe Jesuit High School in Denver, what he calls “the best job ever,” working with kids, most of whom are the first generation in their family to attend high school.

Many of their parents emigrated from Mexico or Central America, left school to go to work, speak Spanish in the home, and struggle financially with construction or cleaning jobs. “They want a better life for their children,” he said.

More than a crisis of ability, Menard says, the kids face a crisis of confidence. They can’t point to anyone in their family who has attempted what they’re trying to achieve.

By contrast, Menard grew up in a family with a legacy of university education. His grandfather was the founding dean of the business school at Loyola University New Orleans and his father was the dean of admissions there before moving the family to St. Louis for a similar position at Saint Louis University in 1971. His mother was an academic advisor at SLU for 20 years.

Menard had been accepted at SLU’s medical school but was having doubts about that path. He’d grown up knowing and admiring Jesuits and wanting to be like them.

While a graduate student in computer science at University of Wisconsin-Madison, he received spiritual direction at Marquette University in Milwaukee. In 1988, Menard entered the Society of Jesus.

As a Jesuit, Menard has had interesting assignments: computer programming at the Vatican Observatory for a study of the icy moons of Jupiter and Saturn and training staff in software at Jesuit Refugee Service outposts in Kenya and Ethiopia. He taught math and computer science at Regis Jesuit High School dur-ing formation and earned a master’s degree in private school administration at the University of San Francisco. He

taught math and was pastoral director at Rockhurst High School from 1999 to 2005. A year later, he was approached about working at Arrupe, which had opened in 2003, and jumped at the chance.

Menard won’t compare his experience at Arrupe with that at the more traditional Rockhurst and Regis.

He only says, “I really love this school and these kids we serve. It’s the deep channel of the Society’s mission.”

St. Ignatius told his followers to go where the need is greatest and the chance for bringing about real change is best. Menard says Arrupe and other Cristo Rey schools are doing just that: stopping the cycle of poverty while educating a generation.

Menard takes some credit for Arrupe’s coming into being. After he visited Cristo Rey School in Chicago in 1997, he shared his excitement with fellow Missouri Province Jesuits and recommended that the province consider opening one.

The timing and financing wouldn’t be right for several more years. Arrupe opened in 2003 with 60 freshmen. Menard arrived in 2006 after six months in El Salvador learning Spanish and helping in a parish.

Arrupe has a wide spectrum of kids, from the aca-demically strong to those who struggle. Their families range from incredibly supportive to those who don’t come around.

“We don’t define students by what they don’t have,” he said. “They’re awesome kids, with great desire for something more, and ability. We give them a really safe place to go to school and encouragement.”

Gary Menard: Excited About ArrupeBy Cheryl Wittenauer


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F r. Tom Clark served in an African-American parish in Boston before coming to Baton Rouge eight years ago to

serve as pastor of Immaculate Conception Parish. He is a veteran pastor who enjoys this parish because of “the closeness and warmth of the community, its hospitality. They have a vibrant and dynamic faith and a deep spirituality,” he said.

Jesuits have been at this parish on the north side of Baton Rouge since 1983; Josephites founded the parish in 1953. It is one of three “personal” parishes dedicated to serving African-American Catholics from throughout the city. The neighborhood itself is poor, but the parishioners are mostly middle-class profes-sionals, including many from nearby Southern University.

With around 700 families, the parish is a manageable size for a single priest. There is one Mass on Saturday afternoon and two on Sunday morning. The main Sunday liturgy at 10:30 has two different choirs. One features more traditional Gospel-style music, while the other is more contemporary. Clark is very proud of the refurbished Hammond B3 organ that the parish recently bought. It is a staple of Southern Gospel music.

The congregation is receptive to Clark's in-depth preaching about theology and Ignatian spirituality.

A large and active St. Vincent de Paul Society cares for people needing help with food and bills for housing and utilities. The parish itself takes up a monthly collection to provide funds to allow the St. Vincent de Paul Society to care for those in need.

Immaculate Conception Parish:

A Vibrant and Dynamic Faith

Leola Jones sings a solo at a Sunday morning Mass.


parish profile

Members of the Knights of Peter Claver, Ladies Auxiliary (Top left: left to right) Yvonne Jackson, Jackie Hunt and Evella Quiett; Jackson held a national leadership position in the nation's largest and oldest continually existent predominantly African-American Catholic fraternal organization. Lawrence Williams and Aubrey Dubriel (top right, back row) are members of the Knights of Peter Claver; Andrew and Ashton Thomas are part of the Junior Knights. Fr. Tom Clark (center and above). Melvin Chavis (left) plays bass guitar while Nina Gray plays the organ.


I n Memor i am Bro. Richard P. MayRichard May died Nov. 1, 2014 in Denver, Colo.,

after 50 years as a Jesuit. He was 71.The Conway Springs, Kan., native joined the Society

of Jesus in 1964 straight off the farm in rural Kansas.He was a skilled carpenter and both built chapels

and helped Mayan villagers construct chapels and schools in Belize, where he worked for 21 years, inter-rupted only by a four-year assignment at St. Stephen’s Mission in Wyoming.

He spent the last 21 years maintaining buildings and financial accounts at Sacred Heart Jesuit Retreat House in Sedalia, Colo.

Fr. LissonBro. May

For if we have been united with him in a death like his,

we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.

We know that our old self was crucified with him so that

the sinful body might be destroyed, and we might no longer

be enslaved to sin. For he who has died is freed from sin.

But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him.

–Romans 6:5-8

Jesuit cemetery at St. Charles College


Fr. Martinez Fr. Bergin Bro. Landry Fr. Burtschi

Fr. Edwin LissonEdwin Lisson died Nov. 21, 2014 in St. Louis after

58 years as a Jesuit. He was 76. The Kansas City, Kan., native joined the Society of Jesus in 1956 and was ordained in 1969.

He held degrees in philosophy, sacred theology and historical theology, all from Saint Louis University, and also studied at Gregorian University in Rome, and did post-doctoral research in Houston.

He taught all of his working life: theology at Parks College in the early ‘70s, and moral theology at SLU for 35 years and at Gonzaga University in Spokane, Wash., for a year.

Fr. Antonio “T.J.” Martinez

Antonio “T.J.” Martinez died Nov. 28, 2014 in Houston after 18 years as a Jesuit. He was 44. The native of San Antonio and Brownsville, Texas, entered the Society of Jesus in 1996 and was ordained in 2007.

He held degrees in political science, communica-tions, law, philosophy and theology. But with a master’s degree in school leadership from Harvard University in 2008, he founded Cristo Rey Jesuit College Preparatory of Houston the following year and led it until recently.

As a younger Jesuit, he taught theology and served as director of community service and social justice at Jesuit College Prep in Dallas.

Fr. John J. “Jack” BerginJohn Bergin died Nov. 30, 2014 in St. Louis after

60 years as a Jesuit. He was 78. The Maplewood, Mo., native joined the Society of Jesus in 1954 and was ordained in 1967.

He held degrees in philosophy and American history from Saint Louis University. He taught at Rockhurst

High School in Kansas City, Mo., Regis Jesuit High School in Denver and De Smet Jesuit High School in St. Louis.

He also did pastoral work at Sacred Heart Jesuit Retreat House in Sedalia, Colo., and for De Smet students and alumni.

Bro. Gerald J. LandryGerald J. Landry died Dec. 6, 2014 in Grand

Coteau, La., after 55 years as a Jesuit. He was 81. The Jeanerette, La., native served in the U.S. Air Force and attended college before pursuing religious life.

He entered the Society of Jesus in 1960 and took final vows in 1978.

He cared for Jesuits at infirmaries in Grand Coteau and Mobile, Ala.

He later ministered to the Loyola University Jesuit community in New Orleans before returning to Spring Hill College as director of student activities.

He also was minister of the Jesuit Community at Strake Jesuit College Prep in Houston and minister and assistant in the business office at Jesuit College Preparatory in Dallas.

Fr. Richard J. BurtschiRichard J. Burtschi died Dec. 8, 2014 in St. Louis

after 53 years as a Jesuit. He was 79. The Chickasha, Okla., native joined the Society of Jesus in 1961 and was ordained in 1971.

He held degrees in speech communication and instructional development and specialized in developing instruments adapted to the human body. He developed a variable-pitch artificial larynx to aid communication among those who could not speak.

He also taught at Saint Louis University and Loyola University in Chicago and worked in hospital ministry.


Fr. A. Gerard FineranGerard Fineran died Dec. 12, 2014 in Grand Coteau,

La., after 77 years as a Jesuit. He was 94 and had been a missionary in Brazil nearly half his life.

The native New Orleanian entered the Society of Jesus in 1937 and was ordained in 1950.

He was assistant to four provincials and a vice provincial, and was secretary to the American assistant in Rome. He also headed pastoral works for the New Orleans Province.

In 1970, he answered a call for missionaries in Brazil, and stayed for 42 years.

Fr. Andrew P. WhitmanAndrew “Andy” P. Whitman died Jan. 7, 2015 in

Lafayette, La., after 63 years as a Jesuit. He was 88 and had been a priest for 51 years, working mostly as an academic and researcher.

The native of Detroit entered the Society of Jesus in 1951 and was ordained in June 1963.

A mathematician, he taught at Loyola University New Orleans, the University of Houston, the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro and the College of the Holy Cross.

He was a researcher and a research scientist and mathematician at the Vatican Observatory in Tucson, Ariz.

Bro. Gebhard R.M. FröhlichGebhard “Geb” Fröhlich died Jan. 17, 2015, in

Grand Coteau, La., after 50 years as a Jesuit, teacher and artist. He was 93.

He served in the German Army from 1941 to ‘45, building, then destroying railroads and bridges on the

Russian Front to facilitate the German advance. He immigrated to the U.S. in 1949 and lived and worked in Miami, where he met a Jesuit and entered the Society of Jesus.

He studied in Europe and taught art and art history at Loyola University New Orleans’ Department of Fine Arts where he chaired the Department of Visual Arts in the 1970s. He retired from Loyola in January 2014.

Fr. Louis J. Lambert Louis Lambert died Jan. 29, 2015 in Grand Coteau,

La., after 61 years as a Jesuit, teacher, formation superior and pastor. He was 79.

The Sanford, Fla., native and his brother, Jim, were ordained together in 1966.

He worked at the novitiate in Grand Coteau and later led formation efforts for the former New Orleans Province. He later worked in Africa, at the Jesuit spirituality center in Nairobi and helped the superior of the East Africa Province.

He put his Spanish to use in his final parish assignment, Sacred Heart in El Paso.

Fr. Francis V. Ferrier Francis Ferrier died Jan. 31, 2015, in New Orleans

after 66 years as a Jesuit, teacher and chaplain. He was 84.The native New Orleanian taught at Jesuit high

schools in New Orleans, Tampa, and Houston and at Spring Hill College and was registrar at Strake Jesuit in Houston.

He later worked as a chaplain at hospitals and nursing homes in Texas and Louisiana, and in Marriage Encounter and Retrouvaille.

Fr. Fineran Fr. Whitman Bro. Fröhlich Fr. Lambert Fr. Ferrier


Fr. Ferlita Fr. Veltrie

Fr. Ernest “Ernie” FerlitaErnest Ferlita died Feb. 4, 2015 in Grand Coteau,

La., after 64 years as a Jesuit and 52 years as a priest. He was 87.

The Tampa, Fla., native taught drama and speech at Loyola University New Orleans. He also chaired the department and served on the university’s board of directors. He was a prolific writer, penning plays, books and operas.

He was a Fulbright lecturer and visiting professor here and abroad, as well as a chaplain who entered the Society of Jesus in 1950 after two years of service in Italy with the U.S. Army.

Fr. James V. VeltrieJames Veltrie died March 15, 2015 in St. Louis after

62 years as a Jesuit. He was 80 and had been a priest for 49 years.

The Denver native entered the Society of Jesus at St. Stanislaus Seminary in Florissant, Mo., in August 1952.

He had a bachelor’s degree in philosophy and letters and a master’s degree in speech, both from Saint Louis University. He was ordained in June 1965 and pro-nounced his final vows in September 1978.

He taught communication arts and counseled stu-dents at Rockhurst High School in Kansas City, Mo., from 1967 to ’79 and briefly taught at Cardinal Ritter High School in St. Louis.

Mostly, he worked with Jesuits in formation, serving as vocation director and superior of scholastics for the Missouri Province while doing campus ministry at SLU’s law school.

He also served as assistant to the director of under-graduate admissions at SLU.

For his part, Torres said he is excited about new possibilities.

“You're a province looking to expand your horizons and develop a closer relationship with Latin America,” he said. “If we work this right, we can establish a model of how Jesuits from different cultures can work together and live together, being diverse yet, at the same time, sharing a common mission. That's very exciting to me.”

The province already has a significant Hispanic ministry. Jesuits in El Paso, Texas, for instance, serve Catholics on either side of the border with Mexico.

Puerto Rico

This latest move pushes the province to be even more multi-cultural.

The island of Puerto Rico is a U.S. territory in the Caribbean with a well-defined identity and history that predate the pilgrims’ arrival in the United States.

“We are proud of our history, both the Spanish and the American elements. We know who we are,” Torres said.

This summer, Fr. Flavio Bravo will move from Strake Jesuit High School in Houston to become the superior of the Puerto Rico community.

Torres said he hopes the Puerto Rico Jesuits joining with brothers on the U.S. mainland will renew the Society of Jesus in both places.

“The ‘we’ will get larger and more culturally diverse and more creative about meeting the needs of God’s people,” he said.

“I think we can come up with better answers in terms of what do we do to help the people all over the province.”


Mr. and Mrs. William R. Baker, IIIMr. William M. BarbieriMr. and Mrs. Robert L. Berner, JrMr. and Mrs. Joseph P. BorstMr. and Mrs. J. Michael BrunoMr. and Mrs. Joseph P. CastellanoDr. Deborah J. CohenMr. Richard L. ConlonMr. and Mrs. Daniel O. Conwill, IVMr. and Mrs. Steven O. CordierMr. and Mrs. Thomas G. DalyDr. and Mrs. F. Ralph DauteriveMs. Marie L. DavidsonDr. and Mrs. Leopoldo J. DiazDr. and Mrs. Dale E. DoerrMr. Donald H. FeirtagMr. James R. FienupMr. Paul M. FlynnMrs. Nancy S. FontenotMrs. Frances GarciaMr. and Mrs. Peter M. GehanDr. and Mrs. John P. GoltschmanMr. and Mrs. Frank W. Gorman, JrMr. Joseph J. Gross, JrMs. Mary W. HanleyRev. William C. HanleyMr. and Mrs. John O. Hebert, JrMr. James HeineMr. and Mrs. Scott R. HildebandtMrs. Mary A. JolleySenator Timothy Kaine & Ms. Anne HoltonMr. James G. KelleyMr. and Mrs. Michael J. KochMr. and Mrs. Joseph C. KochanskiMr. and Mrs. Eric P. KoettingMr. and Mrs. Paul J. KutzMr. Henry M. LambertHon. Judge & Mrs. Moon LandrieuMr. and Mrs. Jonathan S. LeeMr. and Mrs. Glen L. LinvillMr. and Mrs. John S. MadiganMr. Michael M. ManningMrs. John MaynardMs. Ellen D. McCarthyMr. Robert McCarthyMr. Lawrence A. McConvilleDr. and Mrs. Patrick P. McDermottMr. and Mrs. Patrick J. McGrawDr. George MeadMr. and Mrs. Timothy J. MenardMs. Barbara J. MiddletonMr. and Mrs. William F. Miller, JrMr. Leo V. MitchellDr. Jeanne P. MoonMr. and Mrs. James F. MooreMr. and Mrs. Stephen J. MooreMr. and Mrs. Vernon H. Moret, SrMr. and Mrs. Edward N. Morris, JrMr. Rene J. MouledouxMr. Hugh R. MullerMr. and Mrs. Herbert W. MundhenkeMr. and Mrs. Louis G. MuninDr. and Mrs. Donald J. Murphy

Mr. and Mrs. Joseph C. Murphy, JrMr. and Mrs. Robert E. Murphy, JrDr. and Mrs. Robert A. Murray, JrDr. Vincent A. MuscarellaMr. and Mrs. Gordon F. NearyDr. and Mrs. Ralph C. NeebMr. Michael E. NolanMs. Elizabeth D. OakesMr. and Mrs. William F. O’HaraMrs. Margaret L. O’NeillDr. Andrew D. OrestanoMs. Kathleen M. OsbergerMr. and Mrs. James B. OustaletMrs. Joan M. PavlicekMr. and Mrs. Howell B. Payne, JrDr. Michael J. Prejean, SrMrs. Janet M. PriceMr. and Mrs. George E. ReidMr. and Mrs. Michael L. ReidyMr. and Mrs. I. Steve RestrepoMr. and Mrs. Brad RigdonMr. and Mrs. E. James RobertsonDr. and Mrs. Leonard J. RolfesMr. and Mrs. Edward J. RuppertMr. Martin J. RyanDr. and Mrs. Lucio SanchezMr. and Mrs. John C. Saunders, JrMrs. Odessa M. SchallerDeacon and Mrs. William J. SchusterMrs. Maureen M. SeaburyMr. Joseph E. SnyderMr. and Mrs. Odeviz SotoMr. Paul J. StandevenMr. John W. Steck, JrDr. and Mrs. Mark F. StrobleMr. and Mrs. Timothy J. SweenyMr. Brian L. TaylorDrs. Mulry and Lisa TetlowMr. and Mrs. Newel C. ThomasMr. Robert M. TynanMr. and Mrs. John C. Vatterott, SrMr. and Mrs. John ViciniMr. and Mrs. Hunter O. Wagner, JrDr. and Mrs. Paul M. WalkerMrs. Ellen WarnerCapt. and Mrs. Leonard R. WassMrs. Rosemary H. WiltschMichael Woods and Joan Pepin

Mr. and Mrs. J. Andrew Bahlinger (Trust)Conrad Family FoundationCouch Family Foundation, IncFreeport McMoRan Matching GiftImmaculate Conception ChurchLauricella Land Company FoundationProject SalvadorSaint Elizabeth Seton Catholic ChurchSaint John’s AbbeySaint Thomas Aquinas ParishShrine of The Sacred HeartThe Magnolia Foundation

Companions Honor RollWe are grateful to all who support the Society of Jesus through their gifts of prayer, time and resources. The following donors have joined the Companions of St. Ignatius and the Companions of St. Francis Xavier by making contribu-tions from Nov. 1, 2014 to Feb. 28, 2015. A cumulative list of all donors can be viewed at the province website: jesuitscentralsouthern.org/supportus

donors

Companion of St. Ignatius Loyola($5,000 or more per year)AnonymousMs. Mary Elizabeth BrinsonMr. James M. CarewMr. W. Joseph ConnollyDr. and Mrs. James E. EbelMr. and Mrs. Kenneth G. FollansbeeMrs. Elizabeth G. HallMrs. Anna HuttonMr. and Mrs. Craig E. LaBargeMr. and Mrs. Mark J. LaBargeDr. and Mrs. Robert J. LuchiMrs. Frances L. McCaulDr. Marvis C. McHughMr. Louis N. Medgyesi-MitschangMs. Monica S. MerchantMrs. Norma R. MungenastMr. and Mrs. Thomas H. NelsonMr. and Mrs. Louis G. RaymondDr. Francis X. RiedoMr. and Mrs. Donald L. RossMr. and Mrs. George G. ShawMrs. Irma K. ShortMr. and Mrs. Thomas J. SlatteryMr. and Mrs. Francis A. StrobleMs. Trudy Busch ValentineMr. Richard F. WelteMr. and Mrs. Mark A. Wilhelm

AnonymousCarl Hill FoundationEye, Ear, Nose & Throat FoundationGood Shepherd ChurchGreater Saint Louis Community SupportJesuit Conference of Canada and the U.S.Mildred B. Bancroft TrustSaint Joseph ParishShaughnessy Family FoundationStrake FoundationT. Danis Charitable TrustThe Frank B. Stewart, Jr. Foundation

Companion of St. Francis Xavier($1,000 to $4,999 per year)AnonymousMr. and Mrs. Robert B. Anderson, Jr

Jesuit missionaries from the New Orleans and Missouri provinces helped build the Church in the U.S.

and in Belize, Sri Lanka and Africa.

Their creativity and commitment continue in young Jesuits preparing to meet today's needs.

Express your gratitude and support our futureby contributing to the training of young Jesuits

preparing to serve the Church as priests and brothers.

Could you make a difference?Use the envelope in this magazine to make a gift or contribute online at

Jesuitscentralsouthern.org/supportus

Bishop Robert Hodap SJ leads an Our Lady of Guadalupe procession in Belize City, Belize.

Jesuits Central and Southern4511 West Pine BoulevardSt. Louis, Missouri 63108-2191

NON PROFIT ORGU.S. POSTAGE

P A I DSt. Louis, MO

Permit No. 495

"Ignatian Silence: Heart of Mission" Inspired by the call of Father General Adolfo Nicolás to "recover a spirit of silence," the confer-ence will offer keynote addresses and workshops by Ignatian experts including Fr. José Garcia de Castro of Comillas Pontifical University in Spain, Christopher Pramuk of Xavier University in Cincinnati and Colorado author Melissa Musick Nussbaum.

Jesuits and colleagues in Jesuit works, and all who are drawn to Ignatian spirituality, will enrich their knowledge and experience in the Ignatian tradition.

Presented by the Jesuits of the Central and Southern Province, Saint Louis University and 15 other sponsors

July 16-19, 2015

www.ignatianspirit.org

jesuits central and southern - spring 2015

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