Christine Curran
Institution: Ignatian Spirituality Project
Title: Executive Director
Location: Chicago
Do you have any other Jesuit institutional connections?
I was regional director of Ignatian Volunteer Corps Chicago.
What does your job entail?
I see my most important role as inspiring and encouraging our board, staff and volunteer community to do our best each day in living out Ignatian Spirituality Project’s (ISP) mission and helping to provide us with the resources to do so!
What is your favorite part of your job?
I have met the most interesting and inspirational people through my time at ISP: from our wonderful alumni and participants to our volunteers, staff, board members and benefactors. These individuals make it so that my work never feels like work.
What is one of the challenges you’re facing right now?
One of the perennial challenges of leading a ministry like ISP is to heighten people’s awareness of the poor and marginalized in our society — the homeless, the addicted, the incarcerated. They also have spiritual needs. These are the people Jesus spent time with, and yet these are the folks many of us wish to avoid.
How could the Jesuits and the church as a whole foster women’s leadership more effectively?
The Society of Jesus should strengthen its use of women leaders, teachers and mentors in the training and formation of Jesuit priests and brothers.
The Society of Jesus should consider lending support to the cause of women’s ordination to the deaconate. This is an important next step in our church.
