“For me, the Jesuit community is the support for my spiritual life and my apostolic commitment. Thanks to it, I am gradually able to fully integrate Ignatian discernment into my daily and apostolic life. In this sense, community discernment represents a great tool for my progressive integration into the body of the Society of Jesus.”
Will serve at Sainte Thérèse de Carrefour-Charles Parish in Jérémie; as treasurer of the Jérémie Jesuit community; as a professor at the University Notre-Dame of Haiti; and as a coordinator of an Ignatian youth ministry program.
Ketler Lysius, SJ, was born in Saint-Louis du Sud, Haiti, into a Catholic family of four children. He grew up attending Sainte Anne Parish, where he was active in a choir he founded with young people. After completing his secondary education at Collège Notre-Dame du Perpétuel Secours de Cavaillon, Ketler studied philosophy at the Grand Séminaire Notre-Dame and then theology at Centre Inter-Instituts de Formation Religieuse (CIFOR).
As a young theology student, he discovered the spirituality of the Society of Jesus through Fr. Jean Denis Saint-Félix, SJ, who taught his introduction to theology course. Ketler then began a long process of discernment with Fr. Godefroy Midy, SJ, and Br. Marcel Charélus, SJ. As a candidate for the Society while completing his undergraduate studies in theology, he worked with destitute children at the Foyer de Charité de Sainte Marie community, giving lessons in catechism, math and French. In August 2017, he entered the novitiate of the Society of Jesus in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
After two years of spiritual formation in which he grew in his knowledge of Jesus and the Society, he professed first vows on August 6, 2019. He then served as minister and bursar of the Ignatius Loyola community in Canapé-Vert, while teaching philosophy and methodology at Collège Saint-Ignace in Croix-des-Bouquets, Institution Mère Délia in Delmas and Institution Mixte Sainte Marie Guadalupe in Canapé-Vert. At this stage of his formation, Ketler also engaged in pastoral work with the children and young people of the Kiro Group of Sainte Marie. During this time, he discovered the presence of Jesus as a servant among disadvantaged people, which gave him a lot of joy in his simple service to people.
In November 2020, he was sent to Colombia to continue his formation. It was an opportunity for him to discover and experience the universality of the Society. During his theological studies, Ketler worked with candidates of the Society in the Colombian Province.
This valuable experience in Latin America led him to El Salvador in January 2022, in the footsteps of the martyrs of Central American University (UCA), for Arrupe Month — a formation program of spiritual deepening in preparation for priesthood in the Society. His experience at the Sainte Therese Parish of Carrefour-Charles was an opportunity for him to confirm his vocation as a priest in the Society and in the Church. The Universal Apostolic Preferences are for him a great source of inspiration in his mission among people, which is why he spends a lot of time in training groups and supporting young people for a better structuring of Jesuit parish pastoral ministry.
Ketler was ordained a deacon on August 5, 2023. Since his return from Colombia, he has been on mission in the Diocese of Jérémie, Haiti, working in the parish of Sainte Thérèse de l’Enfant-Jésus in Carrefour-Charles. He coordinates Ignatian youth ministry, is treasurer of the Carrefour-Charles Jesuit community and is a teacher at the Université Notre-Dame d’Haïti (UNDH-UDERS de Jérémie). It is in this diverse environment that he exercised his diaconal role in preparation for ordination to the priesthood, and he will continue this work after ordination.
Bachelor’s degree, philosophy, Grand Séminaire Notre-Dame d’Haïti; Licentiate, theology, Centre Inter-Instituts de Formation Religieuse; Licentiate, dogmatic theology, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana; Master’s degree, systematic theology, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana
