July 23, 2010
Jesuit Reaches Halfway Point on 5000-mile Bike Trek for Poverty Awareness
Kansas City pastor Fr. Matt Ruhl swapped the pulpit for a bike seat as he joins a group of 15 riders going coast to coast in support of Catholic Charity USA’s Campaign to Reduce Poverty. “So far, so good,” he said in an interview. Ruhl is one of 15 riders doing the whole 5,052 mile ride in 100 days; other people are participating for part of the ride.
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June 07, 2010
Celebrating a missionary to China
Eight thousand people joined Pope Benedict XVI on May 29 to celebrate the four-hundredth anniversary of the death of a pioneering Jesuit missionary who opened a way into China through his great learning and respect for Chinese culture. Father Matteo Ricci remains one of the great and innovative missionaries of the Church. His memory is celebrated both by the Jesuits and by the Diocese of Macerata, Italy, where he grew up.
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June 01, 2010
Missouri province Jesuit shares a joke with the Pope
Father Jim Swetnam is finishing 50 years of service at Rome’s Pontifical Biblical Institute where he currently serves as directory of the school’s alumni association. Fr. Swetnam and the institute’s rector, Fr. José Abrego, had the privilege of speaking personally with Pope Benedict XVI during a Wednesday audience in Piazza San Pietro on May 5. Their sponteaneous laughter sprang from a remark that Fr. Abrego made to the Holy Father.
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May 17, 2010
Eighteenth century Spanish Jesuit Beatified
Fr. Bernardo Francisco de Hoyos, the Jesuit who is known for promoting devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus was Beatified in Valladolid, Spain, on April 19. The new Blessed entered the Jesuits at a very early age and died within the first year of his ordination, but is famous for his intense faith and devotion to the Sacred Heart.
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May 05, 2010
Father Marcouiller in Rome for Colloquium for New Provincials
Missouri Province’s provincial, Father Douglas Marcouiller is one of the 14 provincials, all in their first year in office, who have gathered at the Curia Generalizia in Rome for the Colloquium for New Provincials, which goes from May 3-15. The colloquium is a regular part of the training and preparation of a Jesuit to provide good leadership for the men in his province and aims to present a deeper understanding of the issues facing the universal Society and, at the same time, offer the opportunity to study more intensely the commitments and duties of a provincial.
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May 05, 2010
A young priest brings hope to youth gangs in Belize City
In the first year after his June 2009 ordination, Fr. Brian Christopher has begun pastoral work in a Belize City parish with a focus on youth gangs and prison ministry. He has also started planning a range of programs to address violence and open alternative paths to young people in a desperately poor setting.
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April 30, 2010
Jesuit Superior General visits Haiti
Jesuit Father General Adolfo Nicolás visited Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on April 29 to see firsthand the work Jesuits have been doing to as they accompany and serve the people of Haiti in the aftermath of the devastating January 12 earthquake.
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April 28, 2010
World-wide Jesuit higher education leaders meet
Jesuits and colleagues in Catholic, Jesuit higher education from around the world met with Father Adolfo Nicolás, Superior General of the Society of Jesus, at the Universidad Iberoamericana, the Jesuit University in Mexico City from April 22-24. Higher education presidents have met twice before, first in 1985 and then in 2001. Initially these colleagues gathered to meet with Father General to improve the content and quality of Jesuit higher education; the goal of this third meeting was to build better networking capacity.
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April 14, 2010
Regis Jesuit faculty and staff spend day serving the community
Almost all 194 Regis Jesuit High School faculty and staff members spent a day in service to over a dozen organizations in the metro Denver area. Although many RJ employees already spend time outside of work hours volunteering, the Staff Day in Service was the first time in known history where the administration intentionally set aside time in the school calendar for the staff to go out and serve the community.
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April 13, 2010
Father General visits Spain and Latin America
Father General will move from Spain to Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean during a trip that will include a beatification ceremony for a Spanish Jesuit and a world-wide meeting of presidents of Jesuit universities. Haiti is another important destination as the Jesuit leader will see first hand the effects of the January 12 earthquake and the Jesuit efforts to respond to peoples’ needs.
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March 29, 2010
Rebuilding Chile after the earthquake
Images of splintered homes and family treasures tossed and broken by the Feb. 27 earthquake in Chile are slowly yielding to new, hope-filled scenes of neighbor helping neighbor as simple homes, known as mediaguas are rising to shelter up to 30,000 families who lost their homes in the Feb. 27 earthquake. Un Techo Para Chile (A Roof For Chile) is a Jesuit-sponsored project that responds to the desperate needs of homeless families.
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March 25, 2010
Father David Fleming receives Backer Award
St. Louis University High School recognized the outstanding contribution of one its prominent alumni by conferring the Backer Award to Father David Fleming SJ (class of 1952) at an award ceremony on March 19 that took place in conjunction with the Senior Class Mass.
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March 23, 2010
New Director for Ignatian Volunteer Corps
The Jesuits of the Missouri Province have hired Mary Moloney Haggerty to be the next Director of the Ignatian Volunteer Corps: St. Louis (IVC). Haggerty currently serves as an Ignatian Volunteer at Nurses for Newborns, an IVC partner agency that works to prevent infant mortality, child abuse and neglect through home based programming for vulnerable populations. As director, Haggerty will ensure that the IVC continues to serve an increasing number of people and IVC partner agencies while maintaining the depth of Ignatian spirituality and sense of community the program is known for.
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March 17, 2010
Salazar Family Foundation grants Escuela de Guadalupe $100,000
The Salazar Family Foundation, a Denver family foundation of community philanthropists Rob & Lola Salazar, has recently granted Escuela de Guadalupe an extraordinary gift of $100,000. Half of it will support the Guadalupe Annual Fund, and the other half will go toward giving Escuela's library a substantial makeover, to include more books and a much more inviting and comfortable reading and learning atmosphere for Escuela students
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March 08, 2010
Missouri Jesuit invited to give advice to Father General
Brother William Rehg has been invited to be part of a select “reflection commission” that Father General Adolfo Nicolás has named to help him write a letter to the whole Society of Jesus later this year on the theme of the priestly character of the Society of Jesus. The commission will meet March 23-26 at the Curia Generalizia in Rome.
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March 04, 2010
Chilean Jesuits respond to the earthquake
As the enormity of the destruction that Chile suffered in last week's 8.8 earthquake becomes clearer, news about the disaster's impact on Jesuits in Chile has become available. There were no Jesuit deaths or injuries and to date there is no news of Jesuit family members, close colleagues or students who have died, but practically all of the Jesuit houses and schools have suffered some damage.
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March 02, 2010
Jesuit Partners Preview Exhibit
St. Louis friends of the Jesuits enjoyed a special reception for the opening of an exhibit of drawings, artifacts and rare books that document the new world Jesuit missionaries entered when they crossed cultural, linguistic and religious divides in the 1840s.
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February 22, 2010
“Jesuit Influence on Baroque Architecture” Exhibit
Former professor of art at Saint Louis University, Fr. Maurice McNamee worked on a pet project in his later years, traveling the world to find examples of Baroque and Baroque-inspired churches. An exhibit at the Sheldon Art Gallery presents 35 photographs from this project along with texts that explain McNamee's art theories.
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February 11, 2010
Rockhurst High School Announces New Principal
Rockhurst High School in Kansas City, MO. has selected Gregory Harkness as its new principal.
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February 04, 2010
Regis University receives Exemplary Program Award from Catholic Campus Ministry Association
Regis University’s Romero House caught the attention of the Catholic Campus Ministry Association (CCMA) which honored it with an Exemplary Program Award, “Educating for Justice.” Romero House consists of four to five students and one live-in house coordinator, who share a commitment organize their own social justice exploration, spiritual reflection, house responsibilities, and meals. Community decisions are made by a process of group discernment and consensus.
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