Model Administrators

Take a look at this mural; if you attended Wheeling Jesuit University, you may recognize a couple of the figures. The person who posed as the soldier with his sword raised is Dr. Normand Paulhus, a professor at Wheeling, while the missionary standing next to him is the likes of Fr. James Casciotti, SJ, campus minister at Wheeling twenty years ago when the painting was commissioned for the Wheeling Civic Center.

The mural depicts a 1749 French expedition into Pennsylvania and Ohio, where the French attempted to drive out the English, who had become dominant traders in the Ohio territory. The French sent Captain Pierre-Joseph Celoron de Blainville and along with him a Jesuit priest, Father Bonnencamps. The book The Celoron Expedition to the Ohio Country, 1749: The Reports of Pierre-Joseph Celoron and Father Bonnencamps, (Heritage 1997), contains Fr. Bonnencamps's descriptions of the activities of the expedition and details of the flora and fauna. --Contributed by Fr. John Rock, SJ

Nelson Mandela and Graca Machel
Visit Seattle University

Former South African President Nelson Mandela and his wife, Graca Machel, received honorary degrees from Seattle University during a three-day visit to Seattle in December.

At a convocation hosted by a consortium of local schools, including Seattle University, the University of Washington, and Seattle Central Community College, Mandela and Machel answered questions from students, and Mandela discussed his position on various issues including United States' foreign policy, the marginalization of the developing world, and merits of the World Trade Organization.

New Presidents

Fr. George Lundy, SJ, provost and academic vice president of the University of Detroit Mercy, has been appointed president of Wheeling Jesuit University, effective next summer. He will succeed Fr. Thomas Acker, SJ, president since 1982. Fr. Lundy has also served at Loyola University of New Orleans in numerous positions including acting president, interim vice president for academic affairs, and senior vice president/dean of faculties.

Fr. Charles Beirne, SJ, has been named the eleventh president of LeMoyne College, beginning in July 2000. Beirne succeeds Fr. Robert Mitchell, SJ, who retires after seven years as president. Fr. Beirne has served as academic vice president of Santa Clara University, associate dean at Georgetown University Business School, principal at Regis High, and academic vice president of the University of Central America following the murders of six Jesuits there.

Award-Winning Role

Fr. Kevin Connell, SJ, here portraying Bassanio in The Merchant of Venice, was recently recognized for his acting abilities by the Portland Drama Critics who awarded him a Drammy award for best supporting actor.

Fr. Connell, who has been acting and directing plays for over twenty years, won the prize for his villainous portrayal of Don Juan in Much Ado About Nothing. When he isn't brushing up on his Shakespeare, Fr. Connell can be found at Jesuit High School, where his role is vice principal for student services.

Literary Papers Add to Collections

Boston College has recently acquired letters and manuscripts of poems by Irish poet, playwright, and Nobel laureate William Butler Yeats, bolstering what is already regarded as the strongest Yeats collection outside Ireland.

In addition, correspondence between novelist Graham Greene and John Cairncross, believed to be the "fifth man" of the Burgess--Maclean--Philby--Blunt British spy ring, has been added to Boston College's Graham Greene archive, considered to be the world's preeminent Greene collection.

Buddhist Nuns Perform at Loyola New Orleans to Raise Awareness for Tibet

When nuns from the Khachoe Ghakyil Nunnery in Nepal visited Loyola University New Orleans, they performed "Land of Snows," a sacred ritual of masked dances, music, and chants. The nuns spent three days at Loyola building a sacred mandala, a meticulous artwork made with colorful sand and used as a meditative device in Buddhist and Hindu rituals.

The nuns' visit to Loyola was their first trip to North America and part of their Women's Freedom and Spiritual Liberation Tour, which began last spring. The tour is an effort to help preserve Tibetan culture and raise awareness of the colonization of Tibet by communist China in the early 1950s, which caused many Buddhists to flee to India and Nepal.

St. Ignatius Church Receives a Facelift

The 143-year-old St. Ignatius Church in Baltimore has recently reopened its doors after being closed for more than six months during a $1.7 million renovation.

When Fr. William Watters, SJ, arrived as pastor in 1991, he was faced with the task of determining whether the parish could be revived or shut down. But since the church has nearly doubled the size of its congregation in the past eight years, the answer of staying or shutting down was clear.

The church, whose design is based on the Jesuits' Gesu Church in Rome, will be rededicated this spring by Bp. Gordon Bennett, SJ. The homily is slated to be given by Fr. James Casciotti, SJ, who figures in the "Model Administrators" story, above.

Honored among the Jews:
Fr. Jacob Raile, SJ

There are not many people who have heard of Fr. Jacob Raile, SJ, (1894-1949) but he has received an honor that few others have. In 1991 he was recognized as one of the Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem, a foundation established by the Israeli government to commemorate the Jews killed in the Holocaust. The risks that Fr. Raile took by providing shelter and identification papers for Jewish refugees in Budapest made him one of the most important people in saving the lives of Hungary's Jews. Fr. Raile is one of eight Jesuits to be given this special honor.

Online Partnership with Sarajevo Students

Loyola University Chicago is providing online education to students at the University of Sarajevo, as the entire Bosnia region, including its educational system, was devastated by the 1992-95 war.

The University of Sarajevo, which was a Jesuit university in the sixteenth century, suffered severe damage to the majority of its buildings; half of its faculty were killed, wounded, or forced to flee; and enrollment fell from 30,000 to 9,000.

Students, who will earn certificates in computer programming, telecommunications, and database applications, will be taught by Loyola faculty but will receive degrees from the University of Sarajevo.

Prolific Painter

Br. Joseph Carignano, SJ, (1853-1919) was cook at St. Ignatius Mission in Montana. But he also became the mission's artist, managing to find time to create 58 frescoes and murals on the walls and vaulted ceilings of the church.

Pieces above the altar depict visions of St. Ignatius. Other paintings in the church depict Jesuits Peter Claver, Aloysius Gonzaga, and Francis Xavier. Br. Carignano created all the artwork in just over a year, causing artist Boyd Jensen, who restored the paintings, to note that "it would probably take me ten years to do what he did in fourteen months." --contributed by Paul Fugleberg

Hole-in-One

Practice makes perfect, although it did take 70 long years of golf practice for Fr. Richard Rosenfelder, SJ. But it paid off, as he scored his first hole-in-one at age 82. He started caddying at age 12 in 1929, and by his own calculations notes that since it took him 70 years to make the first, his next hole-in-one should come when he is 152. Fr. Rosenfelder serves as a tutor and substitute teacher at Walsh Jesuit High in Ohio.

Jesuit Alumnus, Mayor of Baltimore

Martin O'Malley, Baltimore's new mayor, is a graduate of Gonzaga College High in Washington, D.C. This came as no surprise to Danny Costello, O'Malley's football coach at Gonzaga, who thought that O'Malley was always ambitious and political. "He has lots of energy and is driven, and he is going to be great for the city of Baltimore," says Costello.