First Lady Visits Homeboy Industries

First Lady Laura Bush watches Gerardo Torres silkscreen a T-shirt during a visit she made to Homeboy Industries in Los Angeles. Fr. Greg Boyle, SJ, founded the organization in '92 to help gang members get off the streets and into jobs through counseling, support, and job training.

The First Lady, who made the visit as part of a White House initiative to help at-risk youths and curb membership in gangs, engaged in a roundtable discussion with Boyle and Homeboy staffers. The former gang members were excited about Bush's presence; Boyle says she was relaxed and listened patiently and intently.

"It was kind of refreshing," Boyle says about the meeting. "To have her here made the homies and homegirls feel important."

Read more about Homeboy Industries on Company's web site: www.companymagazine.org/v161/homeboy.html

Jesuit's Press the Pope's Publisher

A publishing house founded by Fr. Joseph Fessio, SJ, is Pope Benedict XVI's U.S. publishing house. Fessio, one of the pope's students when the latter taught theology in Germany, is now the provost of Ave Maria University in Naples, Florida.

Ignatius Press holds the American rights to over 20 of the pope's books, including Introduction to Christianity, The Spirit of the Liturgy, and his most recent, Pilgrim Fellowship of Faith. The press, swamped with orders when Cardinal Ratzinger was elected pope, sold out of many titles and is quickly arranging reprints.

New Provincials

Fr. G. Thomas Krettek, SJ, will be the next provincial of the Wisconsin Province. He succeeds current provincial Fr. James Grummer, SJ, in June.

Fr. Krettek previously taught at a seminary in Kenya, taught philosophy and served as director of the Jesuit Humanities Program at Creighton University, and taught philosophy and served as rector of the Jesuit community at Marquette University.

Fr. John McGarry, SJ, principal of Jesuit High School in Sacramento, has been named the next provincial of the California Province. He will succeed Fr. Thomas Smolich, SJ, in September. Serious illness has prevented Fr. Peter Togni, SJ, who had recently been named to replace Smolich, from taking office.

Basketball Roundup

Several Jesuit college and university basketball teams once again qualified for the NCAA basketball tournament. In Division I, Gonzaga University, Boston College, and Creighton University men's teams made the tourney, while Boston College, Holy Cross, Santa Clara, and Canisius women's teams made appearances as well.

Wheeling Jesuit's men's and women's teams qualified for the Division II tournament, as did Regis University's women's team (left), its third post-season appearance in four years. John Carroll played in the Division III men's, and the University of Scranton women's team made it to the semifinals in that division.

Loyola University New Orleans women's team competed in the NAIA Division I Women's Basketball National Championship Tournament for the first time, and the Xavier University men's team tied for second in the Atlantic 10 Conference West Division.

Marquette's men made their fourth straight post-season appearance by qualifying for the National Invitation Tournament, and Marquette's women participated in the Women's National Invitation Tournament for the third consecutive year.

Loyola University Chicago's men (right) advanced to the semifinal round of the Horizon League Championship, and Ciara Henderson and Meskhenet Lands, on Loyola's women's team, surpassed the 1,000-point plateau for their careers. At Saint Peter's College, Keydren Clark, a junior guard, repeated as the Division I men's national scoring champion, averaging 25.8 points per game.

Gonzaga's men still garner national attention ten years after they made their first foray into the NCAA tournament. Since then, the team has captured nine regular-season West Coast Conference championships and seven WCC tourney titles. This year the team was 26-5; over the past six seasons Gonzaga won more games than any other NCAA Division I school except Duke.

New President

Fr. Robert Niehoff, SJ, will become the next president of John Carroll University in Cleveland; he succeeds Fr. Edward Glynn, SJ, this fall.

Fr. Niehoff, currently in administration at the University of San Francisco, has also served as treasurer of the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley, associate treasurer of the Oregon Province, financial officer of the Archdiocese of Nassau in the Bahamas, and in administration at Gonzaga University in Spokane.

Jesuit Designs Prayer Book for the Military

Fr. Daniel Sweeney, SJ, put together Armed with the Faith: A Catholic Handbook for Military Personnel, a book of prayers, devotions, catechetical information, and hymns meant for members of the armed forces. More than 200,000 copies of the spiral bound book, designed to fit in the pocket of a battle dress uniform, are in circulation in the States and overseas; a Spanish-language edition is in the works.

"As soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines find themselves in harm's way, we hope this book will help them to pray and provide them with spiritual help and support," says Sweeney, a fellow at the Boston College Center for Irish Programs who has been a chaplain in the U.S. Air Force Reserves for six years.

The prayer books are provided free of charge to military personnel by the Knights of Columbus and distributed by the Archdiocese for the Military Services.

Baseball players from Jesuit high schools

Batters Up

Saint Louis University High's baseball team hosted Loyola Academy from Wilmette, Illinois, and St. Xavier from Cincinnati this past spring for a "baseball classic" in which each team played one game against each of the other invited teams, giving the teams a chance to play schools from outside their area. St. Mary's, an all-boys' Catholic school in St. Louis, also took part.

Saint Louis University High coach Steve Nicollerat organized the event and hopes to expand it next year by inviting Rockhurst High (Kansas City), Creighton Prep (Omaha), St. Ignatius College Prep (Chicago), De Smet Jesuit High (St. Louis), and others.

San Francisco Police's New Chaplain

Fr. Cameron Ayers, SJ (center), pastor at St. Agnes Church in San Francisco, was recently sworn in as a chaplain for the San Francisco Police Department. Chief Heather Fong (right), a 1977 graduate of the University of San Francisco, presided, and Deputy Chief Greg Suhr (left), a 1976 graduate of St. Ignatius College Prep in San Francisco, where Fr. Ayers taught in the 1980s, was also present for the ceremony. -Vineyard

Wheeling Jesuit's Rembrandt

Wheeling Jesuit University recently received a special anonymous donation-this original Rembrandt etching.

An icon in the world of fine arts, Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669) created nearly 300 etchings during his lifetime. His earliest was done in 1625, the year of his first known painting. Wheeling's Rembrandt is entitled St. Jerome Kneeling in Prayer, Looking Down, which measures 4 by 3 inches and dates to 1635. The etching is on display at the campus library.

St. Jerome, a fourth-century Church scholar and Bible translator, is the patron saint of librarians. The etching shows the saint with a lion just behind him, a reference to the legend that he once drew a thorn from a lion's paw. Quite a prolific writer, St. Jerome authored vast numbers of letters that have been used as an important religious resource through the ages.

Rembrandt, born in the Netherlands, became famous in his own time due largely to his skill and innovation with etchings that were rich with nuances of texture and tone. The artist printed them himself rather than having a printmaker perform the task. -Maureen Zambito

CSI: Fordham Prep

A crime is committed and the investigation begins: forensic science, a popular new senior elective course at Fordham Prep in the Bronx, aims to define the role of science in the criminal justice system and deals with the processing and analysis of physical evidence at a crime scene.

The course culminates in the solving of a criminal case using skills learned throughout the year. Students build portfolios by logging all physical evidence and its analysis and implications. They conclude the "case" by reconstructing the final crime scene.

Planned guest speakers for the course, very similar to one taught at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, include Dr. Peter Deforest, John Jay's dean of forensic science, and James Downey, a former FBI agent and parent of a Fordham Prep student. -Ramview

web sites of interest

Commemoration of the Death of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin www.orgs.bucknell.edu/teilhard/events.htm: In April 2005, the American Teilhard Association, in collaboration with the French and British Teilhard Associations and other partnering institutions, began a year-long commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the death of Jesuit Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955) in New York City.
Provoke Radio www.provokeradio.com: Listen to the new Provoke radio program on the web. Sponsored by St. Ignatius Church and Radio Mass of Baltimore, its mission is to engage the audience in reflection on important contemporary issues from a religious and ethical perspective as an illustration of how Catholic social principles can be lived out in everyday life.
Faith Journey: For Seekers, Drifters, and Believers www.marklink.org: Fr. Mark Link, SJ, author of more than 60 books and writer-in-residence at Bellarmine Jesuit Retreat House in Barrington, Illinois, launched this new web site, which offers daily meditations, many of which are drawn from his extensive body of published works.