By Rachel Amiri
A call to specialized ministry has characterized the Jesuit way of proceeding since the very beginning. St. Ignatius Loyola understood that to “help souls,” Jesuits missioned to the world’s frontiers must be humble yet knowledgeable. Jesuits today chart paths in a different world, encountering people and cultures through diverse academic disciplines and professional work.
Father Michael Rozier, SJ, is the provincial assistant for special studies appointed by Fr. Provincial Tom Greene, SJ. He says that the commitment to learned ministry continues to draw Jesuits to the frontiers, where they serve the Church and world today.
“Technology, politics, economics and health sciences shape our world. We want to be in these places that affect people’s lives,” he says.
All Jesuits are prepared to accompany people today through a famously long and rigorous intellectual formation involving degrees in theology and philosophy. However, some Jesuits have an aptitude for and interest in more specialized learning. Currently, out of 80 Jesuits in formation in the Jesuits USA Central and Southern Province, 12 are missioned to special studies. These men will serve as professors or administrators at Jesuit universities or enter other professions.
An associate professor and department chair of health management and policy at Saint Louis University, Fr. Rozier draws on his own experience to assist brother Jesuits in finding appropriate programs, successfully completing the degree, preparing curriculum vitae and inquiry letters, understanding the interview process, evaluating job offers and pursuing tenure.
“Fr. Greene’s creation of my position is a conscious choice to ensure that our men are set up for success,” he says.
This is part of a concerted effort across the provinces in Canada and the United States to ensure the continued presence of Jesuits in Jesuit educational institutions and beyond. Often, this means that Jesuits will be missioned outside of their own provinces, to areas where they can do the most good.
Father Rozier also supports Jesuits in harmonizing the academic and Jesuit parts of their vocations.
“The essence of this provincial assistant job is helping men thrive in the life of studies,” he says. “We want joyful scholars. We want joyful Jesuits.”
Read on to meet Jesuits who are currently in or have recently completed special studies.
Fr. Jason Brauninger, SJ
Certified family and emergency nurse practitioner, clinical assistant professor at the Marcella Niehoff School of Nursing at Loyola University Chicago
Father Jason Brauninger, SJ, recently completed a doctorate in advanced practice nursing and serves as a clinical assistant professor at the Marcella Niehoff School of Nursing at Loyola University Chicago.
“I love being here. I love working as a nurse practitioner in the emergency room, and I love teaching,” he says. In his role at Loyola Chicago, Fr. Brauninger now directs the only emergency nurse practitioner program at a Jesuit university in the United States.
Father Brauninger, an emergency medical technician and firefighter before becoming a Jesuit, first moved toward special studies during his novitiate experience of the Spiritual Exercises.
“I got a sense in prayer that Jesus was calling me to be a nurse,” he says.
His path into nursing included multiple advanced degrees and service in both Jesuit and secular institutions, where Fr. Brauninger gained experience in inner-city emergency departments.
He always knew emergency medicine was where he belonged, both because of the task-oriented nature of the work and because of his call as a Jesuit.
“The Jesuits have taught me to have more compassion for folks who are marginalized and poor. Once you really experience work with the poor, it takes you out of that abstract world of philosophy and theology, and grounds you in what people are dealing with,” he says.
Father Brauninger considers nursing another way to live out his Jesuit ministry. He serves pastorally at local parishes, celebrating Mass, hearing confessions and anointing the sick. He also leads a service immersion program for Loyola nursing students at Lourdes.
At the hospital, he finds his vocations can overlap. Colleagues often ask him to be present with dying patients, or to listen as they process difficult days.
“That’s really the way that I live my vocation, even as I carry on the healing ministry of Christ, I’m more of a minister to my colleagues,” he says.
“I like the holistic care of being a nurse, of showing my patients, ‘you’re not just a medical problem.’ I’m always caring for people,” he says.
Fr. Louie Hotop, SJ
Master of Social Work at Columbia University
Jesuit Fr. Louis Hotop’s desire to accompany the poor and marginalized in practical ways has grown through experiences serving migrants and the homeless during his formation.
“I really felt a sense that if I want to stay dedicated to populations that not everyone gravitates toward, I need to find a professional way of doing it,” he says.
Father Hotop is in the first of a two-year Master of Social Work program and plans to pursue additional clinical experience in an institutional setting. His current practicum involves accompanying the homeless in Times Square.
During his theology studies at the Jesuit School of Theology at Santa Clara University, Fr. Hotop worked with homeless people in San Francisco through the Gubbio Project, which welcomes people on the streets to rest during the day in the pews of a Franciscan church.
“Being in that environment placed something in my heart to stay dedicated to homeless people, particularly those with mental illness or drug abuse,” he says.
His mission to the U.S.-Mexico border, where he helped establish Del Camino Jesuit Border Ministries, taught him a disposition of openness to the needs of the poor, and to “digging deeper” into the issues underlying those needs.
“I think God can do beautiful things when we are open, not coming in with plans to start a school or a shelter, but instead, finding an organic way of ministering to people in a way that they really desire and need,” he says.
He envisions combining training as a social worker with his Jesuit vocation through future ministry with the homeless, wanting to serve in areas of great need.
“What it means to be a Jesuit is to be willing to go outside of the boundaries of the church, into spaces where we might feel uncomfortable,” he says.
Fr. David Paternostro, SJ
Doctoral studies in philosophy at Saint Louis University
Father David Paternostro, SJ, recently completed his dissertation defense in philosophy studies at Saint Louis University. He brings pastoral concern to his academic research and work with college students.
Father Paternostro’s interest in Thomistic metaphysics, the subject of his dissertation, is borne of his interest in the stories people tell about their lives, and what it means that God, who is Love and Truth, is present in them.
“I’m looking at the lives of people who may not believe in God, people who are very secular, so I’m also helping the Church think through essential questions of evangelization,” he says.
Academic and pastoral questions have intersected in his ministry. During his time at SLU, Fr. Paternostro has supported the intellectual and spiritual formation of undergraduates in the Catholic Studies co-curricular program as chaplain and interim director.
He says guiding undergraduates during the pivotal period of young adulthood is integral to his academic vocation as a Jesuit.
“I think it’s one place where Jesuits are at our best, when we’re able to talk to people with intellectual questions and discernment questions,” he says. Supporting students’ personal formation is “a very Ignatian way of proceeding,” he says.
He looks forward to joining the faculty of a Jesuit university this fall.
“Some of the places where I’m looking currently have no Jesuits in their philosophy departments. The opportunity for me to be that Jesuit voice is one of the goods that I’d hope for,” he says.
His time in special studies has involved intensive, in-depth dialogue with the provincial, who will be ultimately responsible for his placement.
“Ignatius always wants us to look at the most universal good that might come from a Jesuit’s life and ministry,” says Fr. Paternostro. “I’m completely grateful and completely humbled that I am one of the people that has been called by God to help the Church in this way,” he says.
Fr. Stephen Pitts, SJ
Doctoral studies in applied economics at the University of Minnesota
Father Stephen Pitts, SJ, integrates Jesuit formation with his academic work on the root causes of migration. His journey to a PhD, which he will complete in early 2025, began during his novitiate experiment in Tijuana in 2008.
“You start hearing a lot of similarities in their stories of why they’re migrating. It’s either violence, or ‘I can’t make a living.’ That stayed with me,” says Fr. Pitts. He wanted to understand the structures that compel migrants to seek a better life.
During theology studies at the Jesuit School of Theology at Santa Clara University, he was praying about how he could use his quantitative academic background in the service of justice. A friend suggested economics, and he pursued a Master of International Development and Economics at the University of San Francisco alongside his theological studies.
Research and priestly ministry have been closely connected for Fr. Pitts, who brought a pastoral sensibility to his fieldwork in Mexico. He collaborated with the Jesuit-sponsored Capeltic Coffee cooperative, which provides resources to Mexican coffee growers to roast and package their own beans to keep the proceeds of their labors closer to home.
“Two weeks after I was ordained a priest, I was in Chiapas,” he says. “I was doing everything a priest does, and I was running a field research study. We interviewed 626 individuals over nine months to understand what difference the coffee cooperative is making in their lives.”
“We first and foremost have a relationship with the people and recognize their human dignity; at every stage we’re working with the community,” he says.
Fr. Quang Tran, SJ
Postdoctoral fellow in pediatric neuropsychology in the Boston area
“The Church is always asking Jesuits to be at the front lines, to help the Church better understand the human condition,” says Fr. Quang Tran, SJ, explaining his vocation as a Jesuit and his training in counseling psychology and pediatric neuropsychology. His ongoing search for tools to help understand the human condition has led Fr. Tran to a field where he can combine the best of his pastoral and clinical training in service to others.
Father Tran’s days are filled with conducting assessments for learning disabilities, autism, social-emotional challenges, and other conditions, as well as writing reports for families and other providers who serve them in various capacities. “It’s not just psychological processes that I see,” he says. “I see a soul. I see sacredness in this person, someone who was intended by God and is loved by God.”
Father Tran says that his call to be a psychologist complements his vocation as a Jesuit priest. Each informs the other, allowing him to integrate spiritual care with psychological insight to serve others more holistically. “Wherever I go, there’s a need to collaborate and dialogue across different fields,” he says. “I hope I add to the conversations with my background, but at the same time, my colleagues’ psychological perspectives and expertise also have allowed me to be more thoughtful in what I say and do,” adds Fr. Tran.
He is conscious of the weighty responsibility he carries for making an accurate diagnosis and recommendations for his patients.
“People are always looking for answers, wondering about the mystery of this child. I am making recommendations that will probably change the direction of their lives,” he says.
While working in secular environments and, at times, with highly technical assessment processes, he remains rooted in Jesuit cura personalis, “care for the whole person.”
“When I give feedback to families, I put my assessment in context, always looking for a path that will give them hope.”
“Where there is hope, healing, light, and love, there is also Christ,” says Fr. Tran.
[Image at top: Fr. Father Quang Tran, SJ, with fellow graduate, Fr. Juan Carlos Rivera Castro, SJ, at Boston College’s commencement in 2023, when he received his doctorate.]
