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The Jesuit World and Film

Santa Clara University women's soccer team has gotten a lot of attention for winning the Division I National Championship in 2001 and advancing to the NCAA quarterfinal this past fall. But even more publicity came the programs way from another source: a hit movie.

Bend It Like Beckham is about a young British girl with tremendous potential at soccer but a family who frowns on her playing sports. After a scout from Santa Clara sees her play, she heads there on scholarship. Santa Clara's athletic staff supplied the producers with the sweatshirts (left) used in the film.

Some Jesuits themselves have been busy working on movies. Fr. Bill Fulco, SJ, professor of ancient Mediterranean studies at Loyola Marymount University, translated Mel Gibson's film script for The Passion of the Christ into Aramaic and Latin and was language coach for the actors on location in Italy. And Fr. Bill Cain, SJ, wrote the teleplay for the made-for-TV movie “Sounder” that aired on ABC last year, which was nominated in the Outstanding TV Movie, Mini-Series, or Dramatic Special category for the 35th NAACP Image Awards.

Jesuit alumni are busy in the film industry as well. Actor Tom McCarthy of Boston College (88) wrote and directed his first movie, The Station Agent, which garnered three awards at last year's Sundance Film Festival. Dave Reynolds, a 79 grad of St. Ignatius College Prep in Chicago, was nominated for an Academy Award for Original Screenplay for Finding Nemo. And Loyola Academy (Wilmette, Ill.) alumnus Bill Murray (68) got an Oscar nomination for Best Actor for his role in Lost in Translation.
—Santa Clara Magazine; Boston College

Gonzaga Alumnus Aims to Build Bridges in Iraq

Since being deployed to Iraq last March, 1st Lt. Jim Person, a Gonzaga University grad (01), has been spending his spare time organizing a program to help Iraq's children. Here he's reading to Ayub at the Rasheed Middle School in Tuz, Iraq, from a book sent by students at the Helena Middle School in Montana.

It's part of his Adopt a School program, in which U.S. students, from kindergarten to college, exchange translated letters (and books as well) with their Iraqi counterparts.

“I thought of the Adopt a School program last spring when I first started working with some of the schools in Kirkuk,” says Person. “The kids all seemed so excited to meet Americans and had so many questions. I've always thought that it was important for Americans to be more familiar with the world outside the U.S.,” Person writes in an e-mail from Iraq.

Person hopes this pen-pal program will grow to include sending school supplies and surplus computers. He is looking for an aid organization that could handle the delivery and distribution of the supplies. For more information you can write to 2nd Lt. Jordan Chase, C1-14 IN, 2BCT (L), APO AE 09347-0988 or e-mail him at jordan.chase@us.army.mil

New Presidents

Fr. Joseph Hacala, SJ, is the new president of Wheeling Jesuit University. Fr. Hacala had been rector of Wheelings Jesuit community and senior advisor to former president Fr. George Lundy, SJ. Fr. Hacala is also executive director of the university's Appalachian Institute and directed the Center for Community and Interfaith Partnerships at the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Fr. Jeffrey von Arx, SJ, a dean at Fordham University and member of Fairfield University's board of trustees, has been appointed Fairfield's new president. Fr. von Arx taught history and chaired the department at Georgetown and founded and directed the schools Center for Australian and New Zealand Studies. Fr. von Arx succeeds Fr. Aloysius Kelley, SJ, retiring after 25 years.

Fr. Gerard Stockhausen, SJ, has been named the next president of University of Detroit Mercy. The school's vice president for academic affairs and provost, he had previously served Creighton University as associate dean in the College of Business Administration, chair of the Economics and Finance program, and interim dean. He succeeds Sr. Maureen Fay, OP, who retires after fourteen years as president.

In Protest

Jesuit Frs. Ben Jimenez and Joseph Mulligan and Br. Mike O'Grady were among 27 protestors arrested for trespassing at Ft. Benning, Georgia, last November during a demonstration against the former School of the Americas on the base.

Refusing to post bond, Jimenez and O'Grady were held in a county jail until their trials in late January. O'Grady was sentenced to serve 90 days minus the 58 days he had already served; Fr. Jimenez was sentenced to 65 days, time served. And Mulligan was sentenced to three months.

Cincinnati's Claver Jesuit Community, where O'Grady lives, posted letters that he and Jimenez wrote during their time in jail on the web at http://home.fuse.net/claver/SOA.html

Standing Up For Life

Responding to the call from Jesuits to “stand in solidarity with the unborn,” hundreds of students from over twenty Jesuit schools took part in the annual March For Life in Washington, D.C., in January on the 31st anniversary of Roe v. Wade. Schools represented by students, staff, and faculty included John Carroll University, Georgetown Prep, Xavier High in Manhattan, Fordham Prep in the Bronx, and Jesuit High in New Orleans.

The marchers gathered near the Washington Monument under their school banners for an assembly organized by Fr. Barney Barry, SJ, campus minister at Saint Louis University.

Students engaged in rallies and liturgies and took advantage of the D.C. venue for the event: Spring Hill College students distributed roses to their congressional delegation, while Rockhurst and Saint Louis universities had an audience with Sen. Kit Bond (R-MO).

“Standing for the Unborn,” the U.S. Jesuit provincials' statement on abortion, is available on-line at www.jesuit.org
photo and story by Tom Lankenau, SJ

Centenarians: Jesuits with a Capital C

Several Jesuits around the world have turned 100 recently, including Fr. Frank Logan, SJ, who hit the 100 mark in October 2002. A native of Seattle and a Jesuit since 1919, he studied philosophy at Gonzaga University and theology in Belgium and taught French, coached baseball, and was principal at Seattle Prep. He worked in parishes in Washington and Montana and then taught French at Seattle University for decades. He now makes his home at the province infirmary.

Fr. James Martin, SJ, turned 100 in August 2002. He joined the Jesuits in Maryland in 1921, taught in the Philippines, worked at Georgetown and Saint Joseph's University, was a chaplain during World War II, and taught at the University of Scranton. A long stretch of retreat work came before a position as pastor at St. Mary in Alexandria, Virginia. He is currently the infirmary chaplain at Georgetown.

Fr. Logan, SJ

Fr. Martin, SJ

Br. Yamashita, SJ

Fr. Francisco Garcia Ortiz, SJ, celebrated his 100th this January. He entered the Society in Spain in 1921, went outside the country for training, and returned to teach science. His next move was to the Canary Islands to teach and do parish work. Back in Spain in 1950, he started a long career in parish work. Toward the end of 2002 he moved to the province infirmary.

Belgian Fr. Leon de Sousberghe, SJ, turned 100 this October. He earned doctorates in law and philosophy before joining the Jesuits in 1930. He taught in Belgium and Burundi, served as army chaplain during World War II, and then spent years teaching theology in Belgium, taking some time for anthropological research in Congo. He lives at the province infirmary now.

August 14, 1903, is the birthdate of Mexican Jesuit Br. Eusebio Reyna, who grew up on a ranch outside San Matías de Pinos in Zacatecas, Mexico. He entered the Society of Jesus in 1937 at the novitiate in El Paso, Texas, and spent his years on the staffs of a number of Jesuit houses in Mexico as a cook, launderer, tailor, and sacristan, including a stint at the Ciudad de los Niños, a Jesuit-run orphanage in Guadalajara.

Br. Johannes Seijiro Yamashita, SJ, of Loyola House in Tokyo, celebrated his 100th last year with his three children, six grandchildren, and four great grandchildren. Inspired by church services he attended one Christmas at the invitation of a Colombian priest, he started studying Christianity. Baptized at age 50, his wife and children followed him into the Church. He joined the Jesuits at age 63, six years after his wife died. Since 2002 he has lived in the province infirmary.

Smiles Someone who's been a Jesuit for 65 years and has served stints as high school teacher and president, retreat director, and provincial would have heard just about everything, right? Wrong. Fr. Neil Carr, SJ, currently on staff at Christ the King Parish in Jacksonville, Florida, writes in: “In our fantastic parish we have a grade school peopled by quick-minded students and teachers. Recently, while visiting a class, I told the students that, as they knew, there was a commandment that governed their relationship with their parents. 'But,' I asked, 'Is there one that tells you how to relate to your brothers and sisters?' 'Thou shalt not kill!' answered one kid, who, I thought, came from a peaceful home. You never know.”