An 83-69 victory over top-ranked Kentucky on March 29 put Marquette University's men's basketball team in the Final Four of the NCAA Division I Tournament for the first time since 1977.
For Marquette president Fr. Robert Wild, SJ, the campus atmosphere brought back memories. "I was around in 1977 when we won the national championship. I was a very junior professor, and those were exciting times. I have to say the campus is more energized, even more than then." Fr. Wild heard from fellow Jesuits across the country who wished the school success in the Final Four.
Marquette lost in the NCAA semifinals to Kansas 94-61 on April 5, but the season is one that fans will not forget.
The men's teams at Creighton, Saint Joseph, Xavier, and Gonzaga also made the Division I tournament, as did the Boston College, Holy Cross, and Xavier women's teams. The Regis and University of Scranton women's teams made the tournament in Division II and III respectively, while the University of Scranton and John Carroll University men's teams made the Division III tournament. -- CNS
José Mar¡a Rubio Peralta, a Jesuit priest who died in 1929, was canonized by Pope John Paul II on May 4 in Spain in a ceremony that drew a crowd of 1 million. He is the 49th Jesuit to be made a saint. He attended the diocesan seminary of Madrid and was ordained in 1887. As a diocesan priest, Fr. Rubio always felt a great admiration for the Society of Jesus, referring to himself as an "amateur Jesuit." In 1906, he entered the novitiate in Granada and later ministered mainly in Madrid, where he had the following of many lay collaborators who helped him care for the poor in the city.
Fr. Rubio was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1985; his remains are in the Society's Sacred Heart and Saint Francis Borja Church in Madrid.
The World Union of Jesuit Alumni(ae), established in 1956 in Spain, held its sixth World Congress of Jesuit Alumni in Kolkata, India. The country's president, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam - a graduate of the Jesuits' St. Joseph's College- inaugurated the four-day event, attended by more than 600 alumni from 25 countries.
In his keynote address, Fr. Peter-Hans Kolvenbach, SJ, asked the alumni to recognize that "what brings you together is surely not just a romantic sentiment, not merely the nostalgic memory of the past when you were educated in a Jesuit institution; but rather the conviction that your shared past has a common future, that your history of being former students of a Jesuit school or university is also a prophecy, that the privilege of the good education you received holds out ... a challenge to reach out to the less privileged."
Alumni came from Germany, Australia, Italy, Mexico, and China, among other countries, to discuss issues including education, women's empowerment, the environment, and the role of business in human development. www.jesuitalumni.org
Italian Jesuit Antonio Ferrua died in Rome on May 25 at age 102. Ferrua was known as the archaeologist who identified the tomb and relics of St. Peter under St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.
He guided the diggings there from 1944 to 1949. Also famous for his work in the field of epigraphy, he published an important edition of Roman inscriptions from early Christianity.
How long has it been since your senior prom? Never mind. Here's an idea of what
the current prom scene is like at Jesuit high schools around the country. At
Gonzaga College High in Washington, D.C., students introduce their dates to a
receiving line not of the prom court but of the headmaster and faculty, and it's
been reported that the faculty love to go as much as the students. Faculty are
involved at Bellarmine College Prep in San Jose too; they serve the promgoers
dinner.
At Jesuit College Prep in Dallas, the student council does all the planning and work for the event, which draws on average 850 students. Ten sets of parents and ten faculty members chaperone the evening, which includes dinner.
At Brebeuf Jesuit High in Indianapolis and St. Ignatius High in Cleveland, Mothers' Associations sponsor post-prom festivals. In Cleveland the event includes games in which students earn "money" to bid on hundreds of prizes the moms gather, including irons, toasters, small fridges, and TVs. At the end of the night nearly every promgoer takes home something to equip a future college dorm room.
The prom at Loyola Academy outside Chicago leans toward the traditional; promgoers head to downtown Chicago to one of the big-time hotels for dinner and dancing to a live band. This year the Palmer House grand ballroom hosted more than 80 percent of the graduating class.
Location is one of the prom highlights at Jesuit High in New Orleans as well. Juniors and seniors hold separate proms, and they always aim to find special locales. This year's junior prom was in the pavilion of a botanical garden, while the seniors danced the night away at a converted warehouse.
Some students at Jesuit High opt for formal dinners at home instead of spending big bucks at fancy restaurants. Jesuit High in Portland is also easy on the wallet-there's no charge, as prom is included in the annual activity fee.
| Fr. Edward W. Schmidt, SJ, has been appointed the 15th provincial of the Chicago Province. He has served as director of campus ministry at Xavier University and cofounded Company magazine, serving as a writer and business manager for the past 20 years. He succeeds Fr. Richard Baumann, SJ, in September. |
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Fr. Timothy M. McMahon, SJ, will be the next provincial of the Missouri Province. He taught at De Smet Jesuit High, served as his province's vocation director, and was pastor at St. Francis Xavier Church in Kansas City for seven years. He succeeds Fr. Frank Reale, SJ, in August. |
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Fr. Thomas J. Regan, SJ, has been named the next provincial of the New England Province. Fr. Regan has been the associate dean of arts and sciences and a professor of philosophy and chair of the department at Fairfield University. He succeeds Fr. Robert Levens, SJ, on July 31. |
Fr. Scott Pilarz, SJ, university chaplain and assistant professor of English at Georgetown University, has been named the 24th president of the University of Scranton. Fr. Pilarz assumes his new duties this July 1, succeeding Fr. Joseph McShane, SJ, who begins as president of Fordham University that day.
Fr. Pilarz has taught philosophy at Sts. Peter & Paul Seminary at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, and English at Saint Joseph's University. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of the University of Scranton, and he serves on the board at Georgetown Prep in Washington, D.C.
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Jesuit High Sacramento Graduate Presides over Press in QatarArmy Brig. Gen. Vince Brooks, deputy director of operations at Central Command's headquarters in Qatar, has come a long way from when he was a team-oriented forward on the basketball team at Jesuit High in Sacramento. His face became familiar to TV audiences when he was the point man in Doha, Qatar, for the U.S. military, handling daily news briefings televised live on Fox, MSNBC, and CNN |
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Commencement Speakers at Jesuit Colleges and Universities this Spring included: |
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