New Jesuit Priest

Archbishop Wilton Gregory with Fr. Joel Medina, S.J.

As a nurse, Fr. Joel Medina, S.J. treated physical ailments. Now, he wants to treat spiritual ones. After years working in health care, the 56-year-old has traded his scrubs for the collar of a Jesuit priest. “I was interested in serving people,” Medina said. “I felt the call to do that by serving as a priest.” Joel Medina Medina started his career in health care at age 19, working in Jackson as a nursing assistant. He went on to become a registered nurse through Jackson Community College and earned a bachelor’s degree in nursing from Wayne State University in Detroit. He then worked about 16 years off and on at the University of Michigan hospital. That all ended nine years ago, when Medina applied to be a Roman Catholic Jesuit and entered The Society of Jesus, Chicago-Detroit Province’s Novitiate at Loyola House in Berkley, Mich. Friends and family said they weren’t surprised by the decision. “We always knew (the priesthood) is where he’d end up,” said Medina’s sister, Linda Berkemeier, 51 of Jackson. “He was sensitive and interested in theology. We were just waiting for him to do it.”

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