50 Years a Jesuit in 2024
Pastoral Ministry – Russas, Ceará, Brazil
Born in Yonkers, New York, Fr. Edward Benya, SJ, has spent most of his 50 years as a Jesuit in Brazil. Father Benya entered the novitiate of the former New Orleans Province of the Society of Jesus in Grand Coteau, Louisiana, in 1974. He was ordained a priest on September 8, 1984.
He was sent to Brazil for the first time in 1979 as an instructor of chemistry at MEPES, a rural education program in Anchieta, in the State of Espírito Santo in southeastern Brazil. He then studied theology at the Pontifical Catholic University in Rio de Janeiro and the Instituto Santo Inacio in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. He was assigned to post-baccalaureate studies at the Weston School of Theology at Cambridge, Massachusetts, and the University of Florida.
Father Benya returned to Brazil as a missionary in 1986. He served for more than 30 years in pastoral ministry while conducting scientific research and teaching. He was an instructor at the Escola Familia Agricola, and the parish of Divino Espírito Santo in Teresina Piaui, from 1986 to 2006. He also conducted research in biology at the University of Vale do Rio dos Sinos (UNISINOS), a Jesuit school in Sao Leopoldo, State of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, from 1996 to 2020, serving as an assistant professor for research. During this time, he served as a pastoral minister at the Paroquia Nossa Senhora do Rosario and at the Residencia Nossa Senhora de Fatima in Russas, Ceará, Brazil, from 2005 to the present.
Prior to his entrance, Fr. Benya earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in agricultural science. He completed philosophy studies at Loyola University in New Orleans. Father Benya professed his final vows in the Society of Jesus in 1992.
