75 Years a Jesuit
Father John Stacer, SJ, taught philosophy to countless university students and celebrated countless Masses. This year marks his 75th anniversary as a Jesuit and 62nd as a priest.
The St. Louis native graduated from Jesuit College Preparatory School of Dallas in 1950 and entered the Jesuit Novitiate at Grand Coteau, Louisiana, later that year.
Father Stacer received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in philosophy from Spring Hill College in Mobile, Ala. He taught during his regency at Jesuit High School in New Orleans from 1957 to 1960. He taught for one year at Loyola University New Orleans before going to Tulane University for graduate studies, where he obtained a doctorate in philosophy in 1970. He earned his philosophy doctorate from Tulane University in New Orleans in 1970 and a Licentiate in Sacred Theology from St. Albert College in Louvain, Belgium, in 1964.
A lifelong teacher, Fr. Stacer taught philosophy in the United States and Africa. He taught at Loyola University New Orleans (1964-1965, 1972-1973, 1978-1994), Tulane University (1967-1968) and Spring Hill College (1968–1972, 1973-76, 1977-78). He also served as a consultor to the vice-provincial at Spring Hill College and the province director of collegiate academic formation during this time.
Father Stacer spent almost four decades of ministry in Africa. He was a professor of philosophy and served as the dean of the Jesuit school of philosophy in the Arrupe College network in Nigeria and Zimbabwe from 1992 to 2018.
He began a ministry of prayer in 2018 at the St. Alphonsus Rodriguez Pavilion in Grand Coteau, Louisiana. In 2023, he moved to St. Ignatius Hall in Florissant, Missouri.
