Father Jeffrey Putthoff, SJ, is celebrating his Silver Jubilee as a priest. He is currently leading retreats nationwide and assisting the Diocese of St. Petersburg, Florida, the Diocese of Venice, Florida, and Diocese of Joliet, Illinois, to raise money for scholarships for students attending Catholic schools. In 2023, he will raise more than $45 million combined to support some 5,000 scholarships in the three dioceses.

For his first priestly assignment, he served as Associate Pastor at Holy Name Church, in Camden, New Jersey, from 1998 to 1999. From 1999 to 2015, Fr. Putthoff served as executive director for Hopeworks ‘N Camden, a non-profit in Camden that assists youth in returning to school and gaining meaningful employment. He has also served as president at St. John’s Jesuit High School in Toledo, Ohio, and Trinity Catholic High School in St. Louis. As a young Jesuit, Fr. Putthoff taught at St. Louis University High School in St. Louis.

Father Putthoff earned a bachelor’s degree in philosophy at Saint Louis University, a master’s in English from Loyola University Chicago, a Master of Divinity from the Weston School of Theology in Cambridge, Mass., and a master’s in organizational dynamics from the University of Pennsylvania.

Father Putthoff’s Reflection on 25 Years as a Priest

“Moreover, he should show himself ready to reconcile the estranged, compassionately assist and serve those in prisons or hospitals, and indeed to perform any other works of charity, according to what will seem expedient for the glory of God and the common good.”

(Formula of the Institute of the Society of Jesus approved by Julius III, Ch. 1, ¶ 3)