Paula K. Parrish, a fundraising professional with wide-ranging experience, will join the Jesuits USA Central and Southern Province as chief advancement officer on July 1.

As pastoral administrator and director of the work at St. Francis Xavier in Kansas City, Ann Sheridan is responsible for “just about everything that goes on at the parish."

The Jesuits USA Central and Southern (UCS) Province will soon welcome Barry Neuburger as associate provincial assistant for secondary and presecondary education (PASE). He replaces Ken Luecke, who is retiring after two years of service to the province.

Five Jesuits of the USA Central and Southern Province were ordained this month. They join 20 other Jesuits in Canada, Haiti and the United States who have been called to the ministry of the priesthood.

The Jesuit Grants Collaborative recently celebrated a significant milestone: $20 million raised for nonprofit organizations in the Ignatian family. This unique ministry of the Jesuits U.S. Central and Southern Province has claimed an annual average of $1.25M in grant awards since it began partnering with Jesuit-affiliated works and institutions in 2005.

Father Ian Gibbons, SJ, always assumed he would apply his academic training in business in his Jesuit vocation. Once he got to the stage of the formation process known as regency, however, everything changed. He began to feel called to serve God as a secondary educator – and still does that today as principal of St. Louis University High School.

Sue Weishar's desire to experience other cultures led her around the world as peace corps volunteer, teacher and immigration and refugee services director. Ten years ago, it led her to the Jesuit Social Research Institute (JSRI) in New Orleans, where she serves as a policy and research fellow focusing on issues of immigration and criminal justice.  

For the second year in a row, the Regis Jesuit Community in Toronto celebrated ordinations in a reduced and modest manner, with Archbishop Terrence Prendergast, SJ, the apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Heart-Moosonee, Ontario, ordaining Matthew Cortese, SJ (UEA) and Juan Ruiz, SJ (UCS) to the diaconate.

To open the Society of Jesus’ Ignatian Year, Fr. Provincial Thomas P. Greene has established an Office of Ignatian Spirituality (OIS) for the Jesuits USA Central and Southern (UCS) Province.

Before the pandemic, Ella Chevis had a date once a month with a Jesuit. There was no scandal; it’s just the way Ms. Chevis approaches her ministry as director of nursing for the St. Alphonsus Rodriguez Pavilion in Grand Coteau, La. The Jesuit in question loves to go out to restaurants, so Ms. Chevis took him out to dinner every month. Because that’s what one does for family.  

With joy, the Jesuits USA Central and Southern Province announces that five Jesuits of the province will be ordained to the priesthood in two separate liturgies in June.

May 20, 2021 begins the Society of Jesus and the Ignatian family’s worldwide celebration of the Ignatian Year. On that date 500 years ago, Ignatius Loyola was wounded by a cannonball while defending Pamplona.