1. Worked with the African Jesuit AIDS Network in Nairobi, Kenya, including helping to develop HIV awareness programs for local parishes and schools and supporting women living with HIV in starting their own businesses.
2. Worked at the Jesuit Forum for Social Faith and Justice in Toronto, leading discussions on social justice issues.
3. Helped launch the Ignatian Spirituality Project in Toronto, a retreat program that supports those in recovery from drug and alcohol addiction and who have experienced homelessness.
Will serve as director of Villa Saint-Martin, the Jesuit retreat center in Montreal.
While Kevin Kelly, S.J., was born in Ottawa, Ontario, he spent much of his childhood and adolescence with his two brothers and parents at their cottage in Perth, a small town located an hour from his home. Kevin was an altar server for many years at the parish there. After high school and two years of acting in local amateur and professional theatre productions, Kevin attended the Herbert Berghof Studio, a theatre school in New York City. While this was a very formative experience, Kevin decided to leave New York and begin studies in physiology and virology at the University of Toronto. After graduating, he was hired by Merck & Co., an international pharmaceutical company. Kevin held several different leadership positions during his 12-year tenure at Merck in the areas of vaccine research, sales and marketing and medication approval and access. He was also afforded the opportunity to live in many cities in Canada, the United States and Europe. Kevin met the Jesuits in Zurich, Switzerland, and entered the Canadian Province’s novitiate in Montreal in 2011. As a Jesuit, Kevin has had a number of different formation experiences. Working with AJAN, the African Jesuit AIDS Network in Nairobi, Kenya, he helped develop HIV awareness programs for local parishes and schools, assisted medical clinics in gaining access to HIV medications and supported women living with HIV in starting their own businesses. He worked at the Jesuit Forum for Social Faith and Justice in Toronto, leading small discussion groups in a spiritual conversation process on a variety of social justice issues. He also helped launch the Ignatian Spirituality Project in Toronto, a retreat program that supports those in recovery from drug and alcohol addiction and who have experienced homelessness. He attended Regis College at the University of Toronto and completed his Master of Theological Studies in 2015 and his Master of Divinity in May 2020. Kevin was ordained a transitional deacon in October 2019, and his apostolic interests include spiritual and retreat direction, integrating Ignatian spirituality into the business context and working with those in recovery from addiction. Kevin will start his new role as the director of the Jesuit Retreat Centre in Montreal, Villa St. Martin, in July 2020.
Honours Bachelor of Science, human physiology, University of Toronto; Master of Theological Studies, Regis College, University of Toronto; Master of Divinity, Regis College, University of Toronto
