SAINT LOUIS – Daniel J. Finucane, SJ, will be ordained a priest on June 13, 2026, in St. Louis. Deacon Finucane is a Jesuit of the USA Central and Southern (UCS) Province of the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits).
The Most Reverend Mitchell T. Rozanski, Archbishop of St. Louis, will preside at the sacred liturgy.
Finucane was born and raised in St. Louis and was baptized in St. Francis Xavier (College) Church, the same church where he will be ordained. His father taught at Saint Louis University (SLU), and the younger Finucane first encountered Jesuits around his parents’ dinner table while growing up, where his father’s Jesuit colleagues from SLU would join the family for meals. He attended St. Louis University High School and SLU, both Jesuit schools, and he began to consider a vocation to the Society of Jesus while an undergraduate at SLU, where he earned degrees in theological studies and philosophy. He went on to earn a Master of Theological Studies from the Boston College Clough School of Theology and Ministry.
After completing his master’s degree, Finucane served as a lay missionary in Zambia for ten months, working and teaching with the Conventual Franciscans. He returned to St. Louis and began working as a theology teacher and campus minister at his alma mater, St. Louis University High. While there, he discerned a call to become a Jesuit.
He entered the Society of Jesus at the Novitiate of St. Stanislaus Kostka in Grand Coteau, Louisiana. Following first vows, he studied at Loyola University Chicago before being missioned to the Central American country of Belize, where he served as a chaplain at Belize Central Prison (BCP) and taught spiritual direction, theology and English as a Second Language. As he accompanied incarcerated men at BCP, Finucane felt his priestly vocation deepen.
“We Jesuits are men who dedicate our lives to serving alongside Christ, particularly by laboring with him in places that are forgotten, with people who have often been forgotten or neglected,” Finucane said. “Working in a prison, with men who had committed terrible crimes, I heard Christ call me to be with him, to witness to the light he is and brings, even in places where there is great darkness.”
From Belize, Finucane moved to theology studies at the Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University, where he completed a Licentiate in Sacred Theology. He served as deacon at St. Patrick’s Catholic Church in West Oakland, California.
After ordination, Fr. Finucane will spend the rest of the summer at St. Francis Xavier (College) Church. In the fall, he will move to Denver, where he will serve as an assistant to the novice director in the Novitiate of St. Stanislaus Kostka and as chaplain at Regis University.
If you think you might be called to share your life as a Jesuit, explore our vocation at BeAJesuit.org.
Top photo: Dan Finucane, SJ, ministers to men at the end of Mass at Belize Central Prison, where he served as chaplain for his regency.
