Fr. William Fulco, SJ, who holds the National Endowment for the Humanities Chair of Ancient Mediterranean Studies at Loyola Marymount University (LMU) in Los Angeles, can read hieroglyphics, cuneiform, classical Hebrew and Greek, Latin, and German. He also has another quality beneficial for his job: he's neutral and being neither Arab nor Jewish he can ease the tensions while on contested digs in the Near East.
He organized a conference at LMU three years ago and invited top players in archaeology from every Near Eastern country. Although there were tensions, the conference was a success. The second was held last year in Greece on conservation of archaeological sites. However, Fr. Fulco admits, "The somewhat hidden agenda was to get Arabs and Israelis talking to one another in an international forum."
While talks of a third conference have been put on hold since the latest outbreak of violence in the region, Fr. Fulco's work has had an effect on participants: one conference participant is donating to LMU his library of books on Near Eastern archaeology, history, literature, language, and culture, including some very rare volumes and some early Arabic manuscripts.
When Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac journeyed from a Jesuit settlement in St. Ignace to the shores of the Detroit River in 1701, he walked off the boat accompanied by a Jesuit, Francois Vaillant de Gueslis. When the trip was reenacted to celebrate the city's 300th anniversary, another Jesuit was part of the landing party--Fr. Brian O'Donnell, a professor of history at the University of Detroit Mercy.
Fr. O'Donnell wore the traditional Jesuit robe; the Indians referred to Jesuits as "blackrobes." According to Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents by Reuben Gold Thwaites, two Jesuits, Jean de Brebeuf and Pierre-Joseph Chaumont, may have visited the site of Detroit 70 years earlier than Cadillac did, but it was Cadillac who founded a settlement and named it -- Fort Pontchartrainville du Detroit.
Jesuits ministered to the Indian tribes, especially the Chippewas and Ottawas, learning the native languages and culture. To help their missionary work, they created Detroit's first printing press to print bibles in the Ottawa language.
On Sunday June 17, Fr. Martin Royackers, SJ, preached about Jamaica's nagging crime problem: 453 people had been killed on the island since the beginning of the year, among them three priests.
"This could also happen to me," he told his congregation. "And if it does, I want to be buried here among my people."
Four days later, on June 21, the 41-year-old Canadian was found dead, a bullet in his chest, on the veranda to his office at St. Theresa Catholic Church in Annotto Bay, where he was pastor.
"He was very dedicated to the people, as if he did not care about himself. He was always with the people," said Fr. Royackers's assistant, Deacon Anton Fernandopulle.
Together with Fr. James Webb, SJ, the Jamaica regional superior, Fr. Royackers was involved in a development project that seeks to farm unused government land.
Fr. Royackers entered the Society in 1978 and was ordained in 1988. Roman Catholic Archbishop of Kingston Rev. Edgerton Clarke lamented the loss of the priest: "Life in no area of society is held in any esteem or respect . . .no one is safe anymore."
Four years ago, Dr. Winston Tellis, dean of the business school at Fairfield University, delivered two solar cookers to Fondwa, a remote village in Haiti that lacked electricity and running water (see "Making a Difference" in Company, Fall 1998, or on the web at www.companysj.com/v161/difference.html). The solar cookers generated interest in another project: a solar bakery.
A team of MBA students at Fairfield developed a plan. After an initial unsuccessful experiment with solar ovens, a local engineer designed a diesel-fired oven. The bakery opened six months later and has been operating profitably for more than two years while providing jobs for bakery staff and vendors.
Dr. Tellis see the benefits as mutual: Haitians have jobs and bread and Fairfield students are given the opportunity to utilize their skills in ways that transform their understanding of business and life.
--Building Just Communities
Polish Jesuit Fr. Adam Sztark has been named "Righteous Among the Nations" by Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority in Jerusalem, a foundation that commemorates Jews killed in the Holocaust.
Fr. Sztark helped save the lives of Jewish children in Belarus by hiding them in the convent of the Sisters of the Immaculate Conception, near his parish in Slonim. The Nazis caught on to what he was doing and captured Fr. Sztark; he was executed on December 2, 1942.
Fr. Vincent Lapomarda, SJ, professor of history at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass., is also a Holocaust scholar and coordinator of the Holocaust collection at Holy Cross. Fr. Sztark, according to Fr. Lapomarda, is the first Polish Jesuit to be recognized by Yad Vashem; this recognition brings the number of Jesuits honored by the foundation to nine.
Yad Vashem will give a medal to Fr. Sztark's sister, who lives in Poland, and his name will be inscribed on the Righteous Honor Wall.
According to Fr. Lapomarda, at least 50 Jesuits throughout Europe were involved with resisting Nazi policies on the Jewish people. At least 80 Jesuits were killed by the Nazis, another 25 died in captivity, and 43 died in concentration camps.
--Worcester Telegram & Gazette
Creighton University's online retreat--created by Maureen McCann Waldron, associate director of the Collaborative Ministry Office, and Fr. Andy Alexander, SJ, vice president for university ministry--adapts the Spiritual Exercises in "a merger of a very old tradition and a very new technology," says Waldron.
The site has weekly guideposts written by Fr. Larry Gillick, SJ, and photographs by Fr. Don Doll, SJ. Fr. Alexander says one of the most powerful features is the online sharing between retreatants.
The NTWH, founded by Br. Rick Curry, SJ, hosts a website that includes a gallery featuring original artwork by students and faculty. A special bonus is the NTWH store, where you can order Br. Curry's specialty fresh-baked breads (left) for delivery straight to your door.
Soul Searching, a site designed and maintained by the Irish Jesuits, aims to provide Irish students "thought-provoking and inspiring content from a very wide range of disciplines such as art, music, social justice, philosophy, spirituality." The content is linked to the site's discussion board, giving viewers a chance to debate and discuss.
This fall marks the fourth annual Scranton Shoot-Out, a Jesuit hockey invitational. Teams from Jesuit schools--Fordham, Le Moyne, John Carroll, Loyola in Baltimore, St. Joseph's, and University of Scranton--participate in a three-day tournament at the University of Scranton. A shoot-out occurs when the game ends in a tie; teams choose five players who alternate taking penalty shots until the tie is broken. Last year Scranton won the tournament.
From Hawaii to Washington, D.C., alumni from Creighton University gathered on the same day in fourteen cities for the school's first alumni national day of service. More than 200 alumni participated, including Bob Rissi (BS '51, JD '55), seen here preparing food for the homeless at the St. Vincent De Paul Food Bank and Kitchen in Phoenix.
Other projects included cleaning up a parish in Chicago, painting a Catholic school in Kansas City, and making repairs to a Catholic shelter in Mexico by San Diego alumni.
Lea Salonga, who became known throughout the world thirteen years ago for performing the title role in the musical Miss Saigon, is now singing lyrics composed by Filipino Jesuits. She recorded the title track on Something More--Songs for Skeptics, a CD produced by the Jesuit Communications Foundation in the Philippines.
Something More is aimed at young people and their struggles with life; the fifteen original songs are written and performed by music-minded Jesuit of the Philippines and Malaysia, together with their colleagues.
One of the songs, titled "Let Your Spirit," was made into a music video and aired on MTV Asia recently. The CD has also reached the top sales charts in some music stores in the Philippines. For ordering information, e-mail kuangchi@seed.net.tw
Send it, along with your name and phone number to Smiles, Company magazine, PO Box 60790, Chicago, IL 60660-0790 or e-mail to editor@companysj.com
Fr. Dan Creagan, sj, wrote recently in his New Orleans Province publication about his efforts to get rid of fire ants at St. Ignatius Church in Spring, Texas, near Houston. "I recently discovered what the Orkin [pest control] people have known all along; namely, dry grits will annihilate those pesky immigrants from Mobile. So far this seems to have worked, except in a few cases of Yankee carpetbagger ants who really don't like grits at all."
Fairfield University's Fr. Charles Allen, SJ, was celebrant at a marriage when the lights went out. No great problem. The wedding was in Florida, and the Sunshine State was living up to its name. Fr. Allen managed to make himself heard without a microphone.
During the homily he remarked that God had done everything to bring these two young people together "except," he said, with a hand raised toward the lights, "for the electricity."
BANG! The lights came back on, of course, right at that second. The congregation erupted in applause. The father of the bride, a Lutheran, later asked Fr. Allen if he could do something for his rheumatism.