Father Michael Dooley, SJ, celebrates 50 years as a Jesuit. He currently serves as the director of vocations for the Jesuits USA Central and Southern Province.
Fr. Dooley entered the Society of Jesus in 1973; he was ordained a priest in 1985. He received a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from Loyola University in New Orleans, a Master of Divinity and Master of Theology from the Weston School of Theology (now Boston College School of Theology and Ministry). He also earned a Masters in Education from Boston College.
For more than 25 years, Fr. Dooley was engaged in secondary education ministry. During that time he served in several schools as a teacher, administrator, school chaplain and coordinator of faculty spiritual development. For six years he acted as the provincial assistant for secondary education in the New Orleans Province.
From 2003 to 2007 he was also the assistant to the director of novices at St. Charles College in Grand Coteau, Louisiana. After that assignment, he continued to work as a member of the province staff in New Orleans until 2014, while also assisting at Immaculate Conception Church. In 2015 he was assigned to St. Louis and appointed vocation director for the USA Central and Southern Province. He completes that assignment this August and will begin his next assignment as retreat and spiritual director at Our Lady of the Oaks Retreat House in Grand Coteau.