The Saint Louis University Campus Kitchen is where SLU students and staff cook meals for delivery to St. Louis neighbors in need. The project, begun last fall, is fueled by about 100 student volunteers and more than 500 pounds of unused food a week from Sodexho's food-service operations at the university. Sodexho and university employees work alongside students to cook the food in a kitchen on campus and distribute over 500 meals a month to the hungry in St. Louis. The program, for which Saint Louis University is the national pilot, is also designed to develop students into leaders and provide job training for others in the community. "Sodexho's support represents . . . a commitment to cooperation between businesses, nonprofit organizations, and volunteers," says university president Fr. Lawrence Biondi, SJ. "Saint Louis University was chosen for this national pilot project because of our strong Jesuit mission; and I am proud that SLU students have responded so enthusiastically to this additional opportunity to serve the community."

Epiphany at Fordham

An inventory of the pieces of art at Fordham University (Bronx, New York) revealed that a painting of the Epiphany in the president's office is the work of renowned Mexican painter Cristobal de Villalpando (1645-1714).

"Villalpando is one of Mexico's most important seventeenth-century artists," says Barbara Mundy, assistant professor of art history. "Not even the Met has a Villalpando of this size [6 by 8 feet] and style."

Finished and signed by Villalpando in 1683, the piece has been in Fordham's possession for more than 150 years. According to Mundy, Villalpando was well known for receiving commissions from Jesuit churches for his art. The large painting was most likely acquired by Jesuits traveling through Mexico in the 1840s. -INSIDE FORDHAM

Navy Chaplain's in Port

Lt. Com. Fr. Robert Keane, SJ, has had a busy career. He served with marines during Desert Storm, helped with first confessions and communions for the naval communities in Gaeta and Naples in Italy, and led sailors and marines on pilgrimages to Ignatian sites in Spain. Once he said mass for some Swiss Guards and then hosted them for lunch and a tour of the USS Laboon (named after Fr. Jake Laboon, SJ, a WWII sub officer and later navy chaplain) at the Italian port of Civitavecchia.

He has also read letters of St. Paul to sailors and Marines in the amphitheater where Paul himself preached in Ephesus, Turkey, and he has translated French for Moroccan refugees lost in the Mediterranean whom his ship picked up.

He has had many other adventures as chaplain for the U.S. Navy's Sixth Fleet, based in Gaeta, Italy, having served on more than 24 ships since signing on in 1989. Since last June he's been on dry land, serving as a chaplain at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, tending to the spiritual needs of midshipmen, faculty, staff, and their families.

He is not the only Jesuit in uniform: two others on active duty are Fr. Jack McLain, with the army at Ft. Bragg, N.C., and Fr. Paul Shaughnessy, with the navy in Hawaii. Other Jesuits are reserve chaplains, including Frs. Larry Smith and Mike Barber, both with the navy.

Canoe-Building Provides Learning Experience for Reservation Students

While teaching religion to high school students at the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota, John Stys, SJ, engaged a group of youngsters in a unique activity. He noticed that a lot of kids on the reservation had nothing to do after school, so he wrote Pygmy Boats asking if they would donate a boat kit for the students. John had previously built two sea kayaks from kits and had always thought it would be a great project for kids.

Pygmy donated a canoe kit, and ten kids from fourth through seventh grades helped John work on the boat after school and on weekends. The 60-pound canoe, 17 feet long by 35 inches wide, took them about three and a half months to construct, after which they completed a maiden voyage on a local lake.

Lacrosse Anyone?

Students from Fairfield Prep (Fairfield, Conn.) and Gonzaga College High School (Washington, D.C.) mix it up in the Jesuit Lacrosse Classic, a tournament hosted by Georgetown Prep and Gonzaga College High. The Sixth Annual Jesuit Lacrosse Classic takes place this March 22d through the 25th; this year's teams include Loyola Academy (Wilmette, Ill.), De Smet (St. Louis), St. Joseph's Prep (Philadelphia), Regis (Denver), and St. Xavier (Cincinnati), in addition to the hosts.

Games are played at Georgetown; a mass and dinner are at Gonzaga, in the shadow of the Capitol Building. Visiting team members typically stay with Georgetown Prep and Gonzaga families, and a portion of the tournament proceeds benefit the Washington Inner City Lacrosse Foundation.

Past Jesuit participants include Loyola Blakefield (Baltimore), Fordham Prep (New York), Walsh Jesuit (Stow, Ohio), and St. Ignatius (Cleveland). -THANKS TO KEVIN GIBLIN, GEORGETOWN PREP LACROSSE COACHNew Provincials

New Provincials

Regis Jesuit High to Open All-Girls School

Regis Jesuit High School president Fr. Walter Sidney, SJ, and board chair Gerald Laber are poring over no small plans for their Denver school: they have decided to let in girls-in a building of their own.

To preserve the school's tradition of single-sex education while expanding it to include young women, Regis plans to open a girls' school on campus by 2003.

The plan calls for a new building for 850 boys and renovation of the current facility to accommodate 750 girls, described as the first all-girls' Jesuit high school. The facilities will share a campus but will be separated by an athletic field.

Regis will remain one institution with one board of trustees and president but will operate as two separate entities, each with its own faculty and staff.

Two years ago, parents approached Regis school officials with pleas to make the school coed because they were concerned that their daughters would not be able to get into local Catholic high schools.

Regis's demographic and feasibility studies showed that over the past five years the number of Catholic families in Denver had increased 16 percent but there were 550 fewer seats available for girls in Catholic high schools than there were for boys.

"The best part of this is we can educate boys and girls in a single-sex environment but then have opportunities for socialization [before and after school] through many of our activities and events," said Fr. Sidney. "Students at Regis will have the best of both worlds." -CNS

Gift Keeps on Giving

A $2 million grant from the Chicago Province of the Society of Jesus to Loyola University Chicago will enrich the academic lives of the 37 Jesuits in the "First Studies" part of their Jesuit formation at Loyola. Right after two years in the novitiate, Jesuits spend two years studying philosophy and another year studying theology at either Loyola Chicago, Saint Louis University, or Fordham University in the Bronx.

The Loyola grant will fund a number of initiatives, including seminars, lectures, and hiring new faculty. The gift will also benefit Loyola's philosophy and theology departments in educating the overall student body in the Jesuit tradition.

Fr. John Libens, SJ, superior of Loyola's program, cites a number of factors that make for a rich experience for these men: intergenerational living where these Jesuits in formation are living in community with older Jesuits, a strong academic program, and countless opportunities for apostolic service. "In our program we have people working at Cook County Hospital, working as advocates for refugees, and working with people being held in Cook County Jail," he says.

One in a $1,000,000 Shot

This past winter at the Xavier vs. University of Cincinnati basketball game, known as the "Crosstown Shootout" and televised nationally on ESPN, Theo Nelson, a Cincinnati resident, made a half-time half-court shot at the Xavier Cintas Center worth $1 million.

He received the opportunity to take the shot after a coworker, Erin Bonilla, won a contest to make the shot during the game. Bonilla asked Nelson to attempt the shot in her place; she figured Nelson, a former high school basketball player, had a better chance of sinking the basket than she did.

Nelson and Bonilla will share the money. Nelson and his wife, Doris, have three young sons, who, Nelson says, will one day need the money for higher education. Maybe it will be Xavier!

Web Sites of Note

Blueprint for Social Justice

Blueprint for Social Justice, edited by Fr. Edward Arroyo, SJ, at Loyola University New Orleans, is published monthly from September through June and focuses on one social justice topic each issue, written by a wide variety of authors.

Jesuits in Europe

This site includes news from European Jesuits, an agenda of conferences, and links to Jesuit sites around the globe.

Center for Liturgy

Many liturgy sites do exist, says Fr. John Foley, SJ, director of the Center for Liturgy at Saint Louis University, but none seemed to address all elements of the assembly. The center's site is designed for everyone: people in the pews, musicians, lectors, liturgy directors, and the priest.

Prayer Windows

Prayer Windows combines prayer with the art of Fr. Bob Gilroy, SJ. It includes suggestions on how to pray with art, an online retreat, and paintings accompanied by scripture and poetry.

Smiles

Fordham University theology professor and Cuban-American Fr. Claudio Burgaleta, SJ, wrote recently in Studies in the Spirituality of Jesuits about meeting two elderly, "very Irish-looking" Jesuits on the porch of Fordham's Jesuit residence years ago. Claudio, there to deliver a letter, introduced himself, and mentioned that he was a Jesuit novice.

"Burgaleta? That doesn't sound Irish to me, " Claudio remembers one saying after a long pause.

"Well, neither is Loyola or Xavier, Father. Would you let me in please?" Claudio responded, not missing a beat.

"After what seemed to be an interminable silence, they both laughed, and one . . . put down his cordial, made his way to the door, and admitted me into the house."
Bronx-born Fr. Frank Cosgrove, SJ, who died two years ago, was chaplain for the New York City Transit for more than 30 years. According to New York Times reporter andy Kennedy, "he was legend among transit workers and straphangers alike." The story was that he learned how to drive the trains and friendly motormen would give him a turn at the controls. One day Fr. Cosgrove happened to jump into a token booth to give the attendant time to dash to the washroom. One of Fr. Cosgrove's parishioners came by and bought a token. "Seeing Fr. Cosgrove behind the glass, he was too confused to ask for an explanation. 'Oh, hello Father,' he said," according to Kennedy's story (New York Times, January 8, 2002).

"Later, Fr. Cosgrove ran into a motorman he knew and persuaded the motorman to let him take a turn at the controls," Kennedy's story continues. "The same parishioner who had bought the token earlier in the day happened to be in a subway station when Fr. Cosgrove's train pulled in, and he saw the priest in the motorman's cab, his face beaming above his collar. Father Cosgrove waved and said nothing as the train rolled by. The man waved back, his mouth open. 'Oh, hello Father,' he said."
Seattle University professor Mark West (right) came up with an interesting way of handling things when a student's cell phone chimes during class. "I'll pick it up and then ask the caller to answer the current question the class is discussing," he says. He teaches communications, after all.
Fr. Martin Hagan, SJ, who taught marksmanship at St. Louis University High School for 48 years, has decided to hang up his rifle. "I can still get down on my knees and teach a boy how to shoot," goes his reasoning for this move, "but the problem is that I can't get back up again."
Though this one sounds like a very old joke, longtime Company reader Rita Anton (she wrote an article for us in our Fall 1984 issue) swears that the Jesuit who told her this swears that he was not making it up: Years ago a beloved old Jesuit prof lay dying, surrounded by other Jesuits of the community. One of the young scholastics was asked to read the prayers for the dying. Deeply affected, the young man fumbled through the prayer book for some time, searching for the proper page. Finally, the dying man opened his eyes and glared at his student.

"For God's sake, Frank! Use the index!"

SLU Campus Kitchen Pilot Programfor National Hunger Initiative