Offering Students What Was Offered to Him
By Rachel Amiri
A religion and philosophy teacher at Colegio San Ignacio de Loyola in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Fr. José Dueño Gorbea, SJ, has returned to where he first discovered the Society of Jesus as a student.
“Being back here is very meaningful for me, since this school was an important experience in my life,” he said.
Father Dueño graduated from the Colegio in 2007. While there, he took a life-changing senior philosophy course taught by Fr. Juan José Santiago Asenjo, SJ.
At the time, said Fr. Dueño, he was in a “rebellious” adolescent phase, asking questions framed by the arguments of then-popular atheist figures such as Richard Dawkins.
“That class was very formative, because it was what I needed at that moment,” he said. “There I found this very intelligent priest, and it really forced me to question my own assumptions. And for me, that was life changing.”
Following graduation, he kept in touch with Fr. Santiago, and their monthly phone calls became sessions for spiritual direction that would guide his vocational discernment. He entered the Society of Jesus in 2011 and was ordained a priest in 2023.
Today, Fr. Dueño strives to be a Jesuit priest in the same mold, guiding students to ask questions and challenge their own assumptions in the courses he teaches on scripture and the history of philosophy.
He has found that his students will ask deep questions if given the opportunity and guidance.
“‘Who is God? What does it mean to be a human being with dignity, made in God’s image and likeness?’ When you start to walk them through all these questions and read sacred scripture slowly and seriously with them, their eyes are opened,” Fr. Dueño said.
These questions show openness to a relationship with God. “My goal as a teacher and as a priest is for them to get to know God, to get to know and love Jesus,” he said.
In his sophomore scripture course, he guides students to encounter the Bible not only as a literary text, but as God’s word.
“Religion is not just a cerebral thing, it also has to touch the heart, so there has to be that dimension of prayer as well,” he said. He shares with them Ignatian contemplative approaches to scripture.
“It’s almost like reading it for the first time for them,” he said.
Accompanying young men on this search for wisdom is consoling for students and teacher alike. “It’s a powerful experience, because it shows me that the Word of God is still good news,” said Fr. Dueño.
As he teaches a new generation of young men at the Colegio, Fr. Dueño says he is blessed to be near family and accompanied by his Jesuit brothers in San Juan, including Fr. Santiago.
The philosophy course remains particularly close to his heart. “Offering the class now is a way of offering the school something that I feel the school offered me at one point in my life,” he said.
