The view that author Rocco Danzi, SJ, has from his residence at St. Ignatius Church in Brooklyn includes the Jesuits' Brooklyn Prep, now a city college, across the street. He takes his place in a tradition of Jesuit ministry to the borough's residents that stretches back decades. 
Brooklyn will always be the home of the Dodgers, even though they have long since moved on. It will always be the home of the Dodgers' Ebbetts Field, though it no longer exists. Brooklyn will also always be the home of generations of Irish, Italian, and Eastern European Jewish immigrants, their Brooklyn memories living on in their stories that their children pass on to grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
The Dodgers may be a Brooklyn memory, and their Ebbetts Field is now the site of a housing complex. But Brooklyn is still home to immigrants, who today come mostly from the Caribbean rather than from County Mayo or Calabria or Warsaw.
Yesterday's Brooklyn was also home to Jesuits, and so is today's. Jesuits there have had different identities and works over the years. But when they asked through the years what work there was to be done, they successfully came up with answers.
The first generation of Jesuits came to Brooklyn with a definite purpose: to open a boys' high school that would offer the sons of Brooklyn's Catholic immigrant families the rigorous Jesuit curriculum to prepare them to face America's challenges.
From 1908 to 1972 Brooklyn Prep educated thousands of first- and second-generation Irish, Italians, and Germans. The Jesuits there ran an excellent school, one that grew during its 64 years from one building over on Carroll Street to another on Nostrand and a third on Crown.
But the many changes that were occurring throughout Brooklyn's Crown Heights neighborhood in the 1960s affected the prep deeply. Fr. Jack Alexander, SJ, the prep's last president and currently the director of its alumni association, recalls, "We were told several years before the school's closing that for reasons of money and Jesuit manpower, the prep must close." In 1972 the school did close, and New York City bought its buildings for Medgar Evers College.
Brooklyn Prep Jesuits had accomplished their purpose. Their school was impressive and so are its graduates. Alumni, who still remember the prep and its teachers with affection, gather annually to support the scholarship activities of other Jesuit schools, a generosity and commitment that mirror the dedication of the Jesuits who served the school.
Brooklyn Prep closed, but the Jesuits kept St. Ignatius Church next door (founded the same year as the prep), a large hall, a residence, and parish offices. They began asking, What does the Church here need now? No one was better prepared to answer this question than Fr. Ivan Nikolic, SJ.
Fr. Nik, a Croatian, had worked at the prep and wanted to stay in the neighborhood and work at St. Ignatius. An immigrant himself, he had entered the Society of Jesus in 1929. Fr. Nik had journeyed to Italy, then to Argentina as a missionary, and to Mexico before arriving in New York in 1952.
At St. Ignatius Parish Fr. Nik found himself surrounded by a sea of new faces and languages. These new immigrants must have constantly reminded him of his own first bewildering days in America. The sensitivity he had for their plight was matched by a gift for languages, and before long Fr. Nik was ministering in Spanish and French. Many older Haitian parishioners fondly recall that St. Ignatius was one of the first churches in Brooklyn to offer masses in French for Haitians; they also remember that it was Fr. Nik who celebrated them. "He was someone always ready to listen and help," says Emilia Barbosa, a parishioner for 34 years who had immigrated from Portugal. "He treated everybody with dignity and respect."
I did not know all of this background when I first journeyed to Brooklyn in 1991 as a Jesuit novice to spend several months in Crown Heights. I felt shock and fear as I traveled by subway from familiar Manhattan to unknown Brooklyn. After the Borough Hall stop I realized that I was the only white person in the train. As I exited the President Street station I heard different accents and saw different complexions. I was a stranger in a place far different from anywhere I'd ever been.
Adding to my fears was the fact that I did not know what I was supposed to do here. Before I joined the Jesuits I was a teacher. This was a parish. What could I possibly do?
It didn't take me long to find out. Everywhere I turned there were teens interested in forming a church group. Never in my years as a teacher had I found such alive and interested young people. Before I left, Fr. John Hyatt, the pastor, and I took the group on a day retreat in New Jersey. As that day unfolded I became more and more emotional. These were special teens who were open to the Spirit. They felt deep pain, daily witnessing neighborhood youth, sometimes their friends, choosing drugs and violence over school and jobs. Many faced situations at homes that included fatherless families, joblessness, and alcohol and drug abuse. Still, they wanted to believe and to live in hope. I began to dream about what we could do together if I had more time.
Dreams do come true. In 1993, two years after that novice experiment, I returned to Brooklyn as a regent. For about three years now I've been relying on help from Fr. Hyatt and the other Jesuits at St. Ignatius, including Cuban-born Fr. Alfredo Quevedo, and Fr. Steve Pugliese, both associate pastors, and the young people of St. Ignatius Parish to discover what I can do as a Jesuit in Brooklyn.
Toney Reid, the first president of St. Ignatius Parish's youth group, tutors Tiffany Justiniani and Junior Fortin at the after-school program.
Our parish youth group consists of about 60 very dedicated teens with whom we conduct weekend retreats, tutoring, and recreation and sports programs. We've created an after-school program complete with tutoring for parish grade schoolers. And we've organized a summer day camp so that our teens, together with Jesuits, candidates for the Society, and parish adults, work with over 100 children to give them educational enrichment and plain old summer fun.
I've learned a lot from listening to our young people. College sophomore Elizabeth Youance has been in the youth group for two years. "It was a way to get to know other parish teenagers who I only knew by face. It also got me involved in activities the group did as a large family," she says.
Fegins, Elizabeth's brother, says that the group allows him to block out the violence and drugs of the neighborhood. "I feel like I'm in another world when I'm in a group activity, helping out at the after-school, or serving at mass."
Dagma Octavia Charles, who tutors at our after-school program, echoes these responses: "Helping my three little boys at the after-school has helped me to develop as a person. It's also taught me patience and self-control, and it's giving me experience in the profession I plan to enter, education."
This work in Brooklyn has been very gratifying, but I knew from the start that it was a temporary assignment. Right when I started thinking about how to keep the youth program going after I left, I got a call from Elliott Gualtiere, who told me he was about to graduate from Fordham University and was considering a year of community service among urban youth. A Fordham Jesuit suggested that he call me. It turns out that Elliott and I had something in common: he had gone to the high school where I'd taught before joining the Society.
Turns out we had a lot more in common: a desire to work at St. Ignatius. After several meetings and rounding up some support money, we brought Elliott aboard as a parish volunteer. Since last July he and I have been working together with the parish youth. Elliott contributes a youthful zeal, a lot of retreat experience, and a love of sports, especially basketball. Last January, he decided to stay another year and direct the program after I leave.
"Rocco's started something very special here at St. Ignatius," says Elliott. "The young people of this parish need the attention of a full-time youth minister. So, it'll be my job to continue Rocco's work. That's not going to be easy, but I believe in myself. I'm not a Jesuit, but that doesn't matter. I'm determined to give these young people the care they deserve. With God's help and grace, everything is possible. I can succeed."
My three years have gone by quickly. In August I head to Weston Jesuit School of Theology for studies that will lead me to ordination. The good-bye is going to be difficult, but knowing Elliott will be at St. Ignatius to listen to and support the parish's youth makes it a whole lot easier. I feel good about the future of the program and of the Jesuit presence in Brooklyn.
I can imagine those early Jesuits looking at a vacant lot and envisioning Brooklyn Prep, handsome buildings, now Medgar Evers College. So much has changed, but what would you expect after 75 years? Even the Dodgers are gone! Those early Jesuits who founded Brooklyn Prep found their answers. Fr. Nik found his. For myself, during my three years in Brooklyn, I've come up with answers that satisfy me, with lots of help from fellow Jesuits, from the young people here, and from Elliott.
Now it's his turn to answer the question, What can I do here? He'll find his answer. And as long as that core spirit continues, after Elliott and today's young people here have gone, others will come after, asking their questions, adapting to the needs they see, and passing along the Ignatian spirit that always asks, What can I do, What more can I do?
Page maintained by Richard VandeVelde, S.J., vande@math.luc.edu. Copyright(c) . Created: Saturday, September 14, 1996 Updated: Saturday, September 14, 1996
