Jesuit Headlines: Jesuits Search for Migrants on Border, New School Leaders and More

January 15, 2025 — Here’s the latest news from the Jesuits in Canada and the United States.

Jesuits Search for Migrants’ Remains in Arizona Desert

Fr. Brad Mills, SJ, celebrates Mass in the Sonoran Desert.

Eleven Jesuits and three laypeople from six countries took part in a search and rescue mission in Arizona’s Sonoran Desert in late December 2024. The group was in search of migrants who crossed the Mexico border into the United States, and they came across eight areas that had remains of missing people.

The team included several U.S. Jesuits, including Jaret Ornelas, SJ, who invited his fellow Jesuits on the mission. Ornelas, who currently studies theology at the Boston College Clough School of Theology and Ministry, has been a volunteer for the past three and a half years with Battalion Search and Rescue, a humanitarian nongovernmental agency.

A volunteer looks at a skull, believed to be the remains of a migrant who died in the desert during a border crossing into the U.S. from Mexico.

“You don’t get used to it,” Ornelas said after finishing the mission. “It’s still heartbreaking every time. Usually, how it works for me when I first spot something, a pit will form in my stomach, but then, there’s a little shot of adrenaline and you get about doing your work. And it’s later, sometimes a couple hours, sometimes a couple days later, that it really hits you.” Read more.

U.S. Jesuits’ Work with Refugees in Beirut Highlighted in New York Times

Fr. Daniel Corrou, SJ, celebrates Mass at St. Joseph’s Church in Beirut, Lebanon. (Photo courtesy of Jesuit Refugee Service)

Two U.S. Jesuits serving with JRS in Lebanon, Fr. Dan Corrou, SJ, and Michael Petro, SJ, were part of a recent New York Times article, “The Discarded Women of Lebanon,” which focuses on the nearly 200,000 migrant workers in Lebanon, mostly women, who have been mistreated and now left abandoned. Fr. Corrou was also featured in the Diocese of Albany’s The Evangelist in the article “Exactly Where I Need to Be.”

“We still have 70, 80 people living in the church here in shelter because they are migrants and wouldn’t be allowed in any of the official shelters,” Fr. Corrou said. “We have since opened one of our retreat houses north of Beirut as another shelter, and we have two or three other monasteries in the mountains that serve as other shelters because every night that first week another group of 150 would show up.”

New School Leaders

Fr. John Fitzgibbons, SJ, has been named interim president of the University of San Francisco, succeeding Fr. Paul Fitzgerald, SJ, whose last day in office was December 31.

Fr. Fitzgibbons is the former president of Regis University and served USF most recently as its chancellor and chief mission officer.

Fr. Randall Gibbens, SJ, is the new president of Cristo Rey Jesuit College Preparatory School of Houston. Missioned to Cristo Rey in 2019, he has served as chaplain, director of student life and an instructor of biology, geometry and AP environmental science before becoming president on January 1.

“Cristo Rey Jesuit plays an essential role in the educational landscape of Houston,” Fr. Gibbens said. “Through the generosity of our benefactors and corporate work-study partners, we are able to make a Catholic, Jesuit education accessible to all.”

Fr. Vincent Giacabazi, SJ, has been named the next president of Jesuit High School of Tampa. Fr. Giacabazi, currently the principal at Rockhurst High School in Kansas City, Missouri, has been a member of Tampa Jesuit’s board of trustees for eight years.

Fr. Giacabazi graduated from Saint Louis University in 2004 and joined the Society of Jesus in 2005. He served at De Smet Jesuit High School in St. Louis before Rockhurst High.

Diocese of Brooklyn Honors Fr. Michael Davidson, SJ

Fr. Michael Davidson, SJ, director of the Montserrat Coalition at Boston College, was recently honored by the Diocese of Brooklyn, New York, for his work with students of color and underrepresented groups.

Through his advocacy, he has paved the way for student success stories that transcend the boundaries of financial hardship at Boston College. Fr. Davidson will be among the honorees for the 2025 Gala of the Vicariate of Black Catholic Concerns Youth Leadership Ambassador Program.

A Model Church

Br. Bob Macke, SJ, with the model he built of the Church of St. Ignatius of Loyola in Rome

Br. Bob Macke, SJ, a U.S. Jesuit who works as an astronomer at the Vatican Observatory, created a model of the Church of St. Ignatius of Loyola in Rome — complete with the original astronomical observatory. The model is on display in Rome for the Jubilee year.

Jesuits at SEEK Conference

Patrick Saint-Jean, SJ, was the Deacon of the Word on January 1, 2025, at the SEEK conference in Salt Lake City.

The Jesuits were at SEEK 2025 conferences in both Salt Lake City and Washington, D.C., the first week of January. Deacon Patrick Saint-Jean, SJ, served at the opening Mass of the SEEK conference in Salt Lake City on January 1, 2025. The conference, put on by FOCUS Catholic, brings together 20,000 Catholic university students each year.

Jesuits West Men in Formation Gather Together

More than 40 members of Jesuits West who are in formation gathered at the Jesuit Retreat Center in Los Altos, California, shortly after Christmas.

More than 40 members of Jesuits West gathered at the Jesuit Retreat Center in Los Altos, California, shortly after Christmas to pray and celebrate liturgies together. The Jesuits who attended are all in formation — from novices in the early stages of their journeys to those preparing for ordination this year.

They received updates on the province’s many sectors, including higher education, parish ministry, vocation ministry, and justice and ecology. Fr. Sean Carroll, SJ, provincial of Jesuits West, also provided an informal “State of the Province” report through the lens of the pope’s Jubilee Year of Hope.

Meet the Oldest Midwest Jesuit

Br. James Small, SJ

Br. James Small, SJ, of the Midwest Jesuits, celebrated his 103rd birthday on January 10, 2025. Br. Small, the oldest Midwest Jesuit, spent most of his Jesuit life serving at Loyola Academy in Wilmette, Illinois, and painted whenever he had a spare moment. Over the course of several decades at Loyola, he dedicated his considerable skills as a painter to raising more than a million dollars for tuition assistance.  Read more.

Final Vows

Fr. Ryan Rallanka, SJ, provincial assistant for formation for the Jesuits West Province, pronounced final vows in the Society of Jesus on December 27, 2024, in Rossi Chapel at the Jesuit Retreat Center in Los Altos, California.

Fr. Ryan Rallanka, SJ (center), with family members and fellow Jesuits after pronouncing final vows

Fr. Joseph Riordan, SJ, who will become president of Campion College at the University of Regina in Canada this July, pronounced final vows in the Society of Jesus on January 4, 2025, at the Loyola Jesuit Center in Morristown, New Jersey.

Fr. Joseph Riordan, SJ, with family after pronouncing final vows

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