Jesuit High School Student Collapses During Basketball Game Later Dies

Jermaine Cullum

Despite the heroic efforts of two prep basketball spectators, doctors could not save the life of a Chicago teen who collapsed during a game at Riverside (Ill.) Brookfield High this past weekend. In a tragic roller coaster of emotions, 

Christ the King Jesuit College Prep sophomore Jermaine Cullum fell to the floor after converting a layup during Saturday's tournament at the suburban school, according to the Chicago Tribune. A registered nurse in the stands immediately responded to an apparent seizure, a doctor working the concession stand followed suit, and the two helped restore Cullum's pulse using CPR.

The doctor, Maurice Binns, orchestrated the efforts of paramedics in an ambulance as they rushed Cullum to Loyola University Medical Center, where he reportedly remained in critical condition the following day. However, the boy died on Monday as the result of a still unknown heart condition

Link (here) to Yahoo Sports

Greenuit

Jesuit High School was named a 2014 U.S. Department of Education Green Ribbon School on Tuesday. After a nomination by the Oregon Department of Education and the Sustainable Oregon Schools Initiative, the school was chosen along with eight other private schools and 39 public schools for the accolade.  

"We are thrilled to earn this high honor," said Paul Hogan, principal of Jesuit High School. "We are especially proud that our students and staff have changed our behavior and institutional practices in order to make a lighter imprint on the earth.” 

At Jesuit, this is put into practice through extensive recycling efforts, striving to use durable dishware for faculty and staff, reducing energy usage per student and increasing alternative forms of transportation with students and staff. In 2013, the school received the Oregon Pillar 3 Award for Education for Sustainability, followed by the Oregon Pillar 1 Award for Environmental Impacts in 2014. 

Link (here)

Heroin Bust Of Regis Jesuit High Dean

Nicholas deSpoelberch

The dean of a Manhattan Catholic school was busted in Connecticut for heroin and Oxycodone possession after cops found him passed out in a car in the middle of a dead-end road, according to reports. Nicholas deSpoelberch, 35, dean of students at Regis High School on the upper East Side, was allegedly found asleep at about 10 p.m. Thursday in his 2005 Nissan Altima. An officer who inspected the vehicle parked in the town of Wilton and woke deSpoelberch said the educator had glassy eyes and was talking slowly, according to the Darien Times. DeSpoelberch, who lives in Darien, told police he was using medication and had pills not prescribed to him, according to the Darien Times. Cop searched his vehicle and found three packages of heroin, five Oxycodone pills, three Clonidine pills and drug paraphernalia — including two silver spoons and two hypodermic needles in a zippered briefcase, and a syringe under the driver’s seat — the Villager of Wilton reported. DeSpoelberch was charged with possession of narcotics, possession of drug paraphernalia and retaining prescriptions pills outside of their original container, according to the Wilton Bulletin.

Link (here) New York Daily News

Wholesome Reading At St. Ignatius High School

"Has St. Ignatius High School never heard of Ignatius Press?"

The institution in question is a Jesuit preparatory school in Cleveland, Ohio. I know very little about it (I'm told that tuition is around $11,000 a year), but I see that the school's website features the following quote:

"The purpose of our education is to give a young man the tools whereby he can answer the question What does God want from me?" -- Rev. Robert J. Welsh, S.J., '54

Very nice. But, having read the school's required summer reading list, I wonder, "Does God really want teenagers to be reading books filled with numerous vulgarities, sexually-explicit language and references, and perspectives that are amoral and hedonistic?"

For example, the novel, The Absolute True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie, which is required summer reading for "English I" and "Honors English I", contains the following passage, uttered by the book's central character, Junior, a teenage boy growing up on the Spokane Indian Reservation (warning: sexual language):

I spend hours in the bathroom with a magazine that has one thousand pictures of naked movie stars:

       Naked woman + right hand = happy happy joy joy

Yep, that’s right, I admit that I masturbate.

I’m proud of it.

I’m good at it.

I’m ambidextrous.

If there were a Professional Masturbators League, I’d get drafted number one and make millions of dollars.

And maybe you’re thinking, “Well, you really shouldn’t be talking about masturbation in public.”

Well, tough, I’m going to talk about it because EVERYBODY does it. And EVERYBODY likes it.

And if God hadn’t wanted us to masturbate, then God wouldn’t have given us thumbs.

Yeah, yeah, I get it: this is real teen talk written to engage teens who live in the real world and who want tough, straight, honest fiction that takes on controversial and difficult topics. That's the usual line trotted out in defense of such overrated pieces of fiction. Junior also expresses his anger at God and Jesus (after the death of his grandmother's death) by doodling cartoons that are stupid at best and certainly offensive. There is also the dubious revelation that Indians, according to Junior, used to be supporters of gay marriage--until their open-mindedness was corrupted:

My grandmother had no use for all the bay bashing and homophobia in the world, especially among other Indians.

"Jeez," she said. "Who cares if a man wants to marry another man? All I want to know is who's going to pick up all the dirty socks?"

Of course, ever since the white showed up and brought along their Christianity and their fears of eccentricity, Indians have gradually lost all of their tolerance.

If it was just one Catholic school, I might simply say, "Unfortunately, there's usually going to be a bad apple in the barrel." But Alexie's novel (based in large part on his own life) appears on the reading lists of numerous Catholic schools across the country. See for yourself. Why? Is it because it won the 2007 National Book Award for Young People's Literature? If so, then why not have the young teens read the 2004 winner, Godless, by Pete Hautman, in which the the main character says, "Why mess around with Catholicism when you can have your own customized religion? All you need is a disciple or two...and a god.'" (To be fair, Hautman's book is not, from what I can tell, actually antagonistic to religion; it might even be quite the opposite.)

And what to make of the inclusion of The Privileges, by Jonathan Dee? I read parts of it online, along with some reviews. It appears to be both repulsive and forgettable, filled to the edges with foul language and disagreeable characters, many of them seemingly hoping to be in a Camus novel but lacking the depth or focus to make the cut. I suppose it passes for what is now considered "sophisticated", what with the "f" bombs and narcissistic chatter. Goodness.

Looking at the summer book list for St. Ignatius High School, I noticed that none of those required for English classes was written before 1970, and all but one--The Hollow Hills, by Mary Stewart (1973)--were published in the past eighteen years. Do schools even bother with the classics anymore? Or has the push for being "relevant" gotten to the point that any book written before iPhones existed is relegated to the outer darkness?

It got me thinking of the books that I had to read for English classes when I was high school (a public school) in the mid-1980s. They included several plays by Shakespeare (Julius Caesar, Macbeth, Hamlet), For Whom the Bell Tolls, Ivanhoe, My Name Is Asher Lev (a personal favorite), 1984, A Tale of Two Cities, and Tess of the D'Urbervilles.

Link (here) to Catholic World Report

Tim Tebow At Tampa Jesuit High School

That appears to be the case. A Jesuit High School spokesman confirmed to FOXSportsFlorida.com that the pair of former Heisman Trophy winners held a private workout at the Tampa school on Monday afternoon. Testaverde, a former Miami and NFL quarterback who serves as the quarterbacks coach at the high school, hosted Tebow for what was described as a “private” get-together between the signal-callers. 

The session comes at an interesting time for Tebow. He’s expected to attend the New York Jets’ voluntary offseason workouts next Monday in Florham Park, N.J., despite a foggy future with the team. Some work with Testaverde — whose son, Vincent Jr., is a junior quarterback at Jesuit High — could only be a benefit for the former Gators fascination. 

“What I can say, officially, is he worked out here yesterday, and he worked out with Vinny Testaverde,” said Pete Young, a spokesman for Jesuit High. “Vinny is a parent at our school. His son goes to school here, and Vinny is also the quarterbacks coach for the football team . . . It was a private workout, and it was right in the middle of the day yesterday . . . There were a couple other guys out there with him, but I have no idea who they were. They were just catching passes.” 

Apparently, this wasn’t the first time Tebow and Testaverde worked out together. Young said a similar meeting happened before, last March. With Monday’s event, though, Tebow and Testaverde chose to keep the session as low-key as possible, which means not speaking about their experience.

Link (here)  to Fox Sports

Wet Willie At St. Joseph's Prep

Wet Willie

I guess the first thing to say is my kid would be in huuuuuuuuge trouble for doing this. But it's still kinda' awesome. Right after the election of the pope, NBC 10 in Philly wanted to interview a Jesuit so they set up an interview with the Jesuit president of St. Joseph's Prep in Philadelphia. The president of the school lined up a bunch of students around him for the interview. Big mistake. One of the kids gives possibly one of the greatest wet willies to another kid RIGHT ON CAMERA. It's completely inappropriate and kinda' awesome. I know it's the eight year old in me but it's pretty funny. There's talk that the kid might get suspended. Here's the thing - I don't see these two things as mutually exclusive. Yes it's awesome but that doesn't mean the kid shouldn't be punished. In life you make tradeoffs. It's for the kid to decide whether it was worth it. This is one of those things that you punish them for and then when nobody can see you, you just laugh. Just a little.

Link (here) to watch the video at Creative Minority Report

Former Carmichael Jesuit Football Coach Linked To Double Murder

Patrick Streater

“We’re talking about overkill, passion killing-type, what I would consider a passion killing,” investigators said in 1996. Tiffany Campbell and Melissa Chilton, both just 18 years old, were found brutally stabbed inside Exotic Tan for Men, a Nashville adult business. All along, investigators believed the murders were personal, and now think Patrick Streater was Campbell’s ex-boyfriend. Late Nashville Det. Grady Eleam thought he was close to solving the case in 2002. “We do have a suspect. We’re concentrating on him and have been concentrating on for six months now,” Eleam said. Around the same time in early 2002, Streater was arrested in a series of violent home invasion robberies in the Sacramento area. At the time, he was a football coach at Jesuit High School in Carmichael, known to the players simply as Coach Streater. Serving time in state prison for those robberies, detectives believe he is responsible for two murders that went unsolved for nearly two decades. Police say scientific evidence and interviews conducted over the years links Streater to the killings. He will soon be transported to Nashville to face his new charges.

Link (here) to

A Place Of “Epiphany”

Aesthetically, the task was to create a beautiful interior which was artistically coherent—properly proportioned, scaled, detailed, and ornamented—despite the eccentricities of the existing geometries and structural conditions, which was no small task with the given parameters and budget. 

But principally, over and above all these considerations, it was essential to transform the chapel into, as Fr. Richard C. Hermes, S.J. would later say, a place of “epiphany”, a space that served to manifest God’s ever-greater Glory 

and facilitate our encounter with the same Living God; or, as Hans Urs von Balthasar would say, an example of theological aesthetics. 

Link (here) to read about Tampa Jesuits new chapel

Jesuit High School Hosts Presentation On Sex Slavery

Francisco Lopez

Chris Killmer once met a woman who had been enslaved as a laborer in Portland for 12 years. She was beaten and subjected to sexual violence by the affluent, foreign-born resident who coerced her into slavery.

Human trafficking for sex and labor is an ugly and real problem in Oregon, Killmer, a program manager with the nonprofit Immigration Counseling Service, told 75 Catholic school students attending Jesuit High School's first-ever Social Justice Summit on Sunday. And it's up to the students to get the word out. "The primary way to get ahead on this thing is awareness," said Killmer, whose group provides legal and social services to immigrant communities. "Most people don't even know this is happening." The summit brought together students from the Portland area's six Catholic high schools to learn about human trafficking and immigration issues, and to inspire them to do something about it, said Scott Powers, director of Christian Services at Jesuit. Speakers detailed the reality of slavery in the state: People are forced into prostitution or, more commonly, farm, home or factory labor, and are kept there through abuse and threats to their families. Students from the Portland-metro areas six Catholic high schools listen to a presentation by Francisco Lopez of Causa Oregon, a Latino immigrant rights organization. Lopez told students that as Catholics, it'€™s their mission to seek social justice a mission for which he was tortured and exiled from his native El Salvador. Eilise Ward/The Oregonian Jesuit High students plan to meet with members of Oregon's Congressional delegation in February about human trafficking, and the summit was a rallying cry for other schools to do the same. "Service and advocacy -- those are the two feet of social action," Powers said. "And all Catholic schools teach that." The keynote speaker, Francisco Lopez with Causa Oregon, a Latino immigrant rights organization, told students that as Catholics, they "need to become the microphone of God."

Amazing Jesuit

Fr. Geoffrey Schneider, S.J.

As the world’s oldest full-time teacher, Sydney priest Geoffrey Schneider knows a thing or two about how to bring the best out of students. The secret, according to the 99-year-old, is “a mountain of patience”. “If things are going wrong, don’t start shouting. Just proceed quietly and things will settle down eventually,” said Father Schneider, who turns 100 in December. “Their books will eventually open.” The Jesuit priest has taught at schools in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth, shaping the intellects and values of leading figures of Australian government, business, academia and sport, including Tony Abbott. But as most workers switch between jobs or eagerly plan their retirement, 

Father Schneider yesterday signaled no intention of ending his 47-year tenure at Sydney’s St Aloysius’ College, where he is touted as the world’s oldest full-time teacher. Nobody has so far come forward to challenge that title. “Retirement?,” he says. “So I can read the paper every morning and then forget what’s in it? “That’s what a retired friend told me happens to him,” he said, recounting a recent visit to a home for retired priests. “At 3pm there’s afternoon tea and if you don’t turn up in the first minute they come knock on your door and say, ‘It’s tea time now’. “Really, I shouldn’t be frightened of it, but it just doesn’t appeal to me. I just feel I can be more useful here.” 

 Father Schneider’s thousands of former pupils also include Liberal frontbencher Joe Hockey, ABC political correspondent Mark Simkin and Wallabies star Pat McCabe. Asked whether Mr Abbott was an unruly youngster, Father Schneider chuckled he could never “invent anything better than has been in the news of late”. He politely added neither Mr Abbott nor Mr Hockey were particularly “troublesome children”. Father Schneider’s ripe age has some particular advantages, such as his lived experience of 20th century history and a handy grasp of Latin, preferred by some older Catholics. He enjoys a fierce popularity at St Aloysius’. In the early 1990s, Year 3 students were asked to name a new building after their favourite Jesuit saint. Innocently, they chose “Saint” Schneider.  

“I didn’t worry about it at the time, really, but after that we received a direction that the Jesuits were not to have any buildings named after them while they are alive,” 

 he said. “I don’t believe it wasn’t a direct consequence of what happened, but they managed to name the building before that order came down.” Father Schneider is also the namesake of the annual Schneider Cup, which recognises excellence in soccer and rugby.

Link (here) ucanews

Jesuit Students And Parents Harrassed At A Soccer Game

Last Saturday night, my daughter attended the competitive soccer game between Davis High and  Carmichael Jesuit High School. She returned that evening so upset by the events she witnessed as a fan on the Davis High side of the field. Homophobic slurs were being hollered out throughout the game and a large banner with homophobic language was displayed to the crowd as they paraded in hot dog costumes in front of the stands.

Link (here) to the Davis Enterprise to see a picture of the banner and read the full story.

Regis High School Student Wins Olympic Gold Medal In Swimming

Melissa "Missy" Franklin

Missy Franklin didn't let a heavy heart slow her down. The 17-year-old swimmer, already a member of a bronze-winning relay team on Saturday, won the women's 100-meter backstroke today, making her first individual Olympic medal a gold one, but the high school student from Aurora, Colo., also must have been thrilled to provide some cheer for her still-grieving hometown. "Right now, all of my races are dedicated back home to Colorado," 

Franklin, who will be a senior at Regis Jesuit High School, 

told the Los Angeles Times last week in the wake of the July 20 shooting at a Dark Knight Rises screening in Aurora that left 12 people dead and 58 injured. "No matter how well I do, I'm going to give my best in every single race, and every single race, I'm going to have that Colorado incident on my mind." Happily, Franklin has been radiating good vibes since her arrival in London.

Link (here) to Eonline.com

Mass Of Celebration For The Re-opening Of St Peter’s Church

Stonyhurst College in Lancashire celebrated the re-opening of its church, St Peter’s, last month, after its year-long closure for extensive restoration and conservation work. A congregation of 900 pupils, parents, staff and alumni from Stonyhurst College attended a Mass of Celebration for the re-opening of St Peter’s church. The principal celebrant was Fr Dermot Preston S.J., Provincial of the Jesuits in Britain. The choir sang Vivaldi’s Gloria, accompanied by the Stonyhurst Orchestra, which also played the opening hymn, Vaughan Williams’s arrangement of “All creatures that on earth do dwell”. The head boy, head girl and headmaster read the readings and pupils of all ages read the bidding prayers. St Peter’s is a Grade I listed building constructed by the Jesuits for Stonyhurst and its parish in the early 1830s. One of the first Catholic churches to be built after Emancipation in 1829, it is an important example of church architecture in the Gothic Revival Perpendicular style. Masons have replaced large expanses of stone eroded by wind and rain. Stained-glass windows have been re-leaded and cleaned. Stencilling from the 1850s and 1950s, previously covered by whitewash, has been painstakingly re-painted, and the magnificent ceiling has been restored.
Link (here) to The Catholic Herald

There Is No School Like The Old School

Fr. William O'Malley, S.J.

Heads were spinning at Fordham Prep after a gruff but beloved teacher — known to horror fans for his role in the film “The Exorcist” — was cast out. Administrators exorcised themselves of Father William O’Malley, a theology teacher at the Jesuit high school for the past 20 years, because they felt his old-school style was out of date. “Father O’Malley’s style was probably more abrasive than we are used to and something we discussed with the principal over the years,” Father Kenneth Boller, president of Fordham Prep, told The Post. “He has a somewhat confrontational style, and the times change and the [teaching] styles change,” he said. “His effectiveness, in view of the principal, has diminished. We thought it was time for him to end his career on an up note after completing a successful year.” O’Malley, 80, played Father Joe Dyer in the 1973 demonic-possession horror flick. As an author, Father O'Malley has published 37 books, Choosing to Be Catholic, Why Be Catholic?, God: The Oldest Question, Meeting the Living God, Building Your Own Conscience, and The Fifth Week are among them. His book, Help My Unbelief, won a Catholic Book Award in 2009

Link (here) to the NY Post

BB Gun

Marc Clark was a student at Jesuit. On March 27, 1987, a few minutes after school dismissal, Marc was leaving the main school building when he was approached outside the doors by a fellow student named Rene Pagan. Unknown to Marc, Rene was carrying a Crosman BB Automatic Pistol in his book bag. After jokingly saying a few words to Marc, Rene reached into his book bag and pulled the trigger of the gun, which discharged a B.B. through the bag. The B.B. struck Marc Clark in the right eye, causing the injuries complained of herein. Plaintiff filed suit against Jesuit and the manufacturer of the gun. Jesuit brought a motion for summary judgment asserting that it could not be liable for the incident as a matter of law under either a theory of strict liability or negligence. The trial court granted the motion and dismissed plaintiff's action against Jesuit. On appeal, plaintiff contends that there are genuine issues of fact as to whether Jesuit had constructive knowledge of the situation, so as to be strictly liable, and whether Jesuit was at fault for failing to adequately supervise the students. After reviewing the record, we find that the summary judgment was proper.

Link (here) to read the full legal proceeding of Marc Clark Verses JESUIT HIGH SCHOOL OF NEW ORLEANS and Crosman Airguns Company, Inc.

Amazing Catch

You never know when your dreams are going to become reality. For St. John's senior pitcher Joe Robie and junior catcher Corey Tipton that day was Monday during the Three Rivers Athletic Conference baseball championship game at Mercy Field. During the Titans' 8-4 win over Fremont Ross, they combined for a gem good enough to become the No. 1 play of the day among the top 10 plays on ESPN's national broadcast of SportsCenter. The play can be viewed here. In the third, with a runner on first and one out, Ross shortstop Tyler Wolf hit a short pop in front of the plate along the first-base line. Tipton sprung from his crouch, had his path blocked by Wolf in the batter's box, and dived to keep the ball in the air with his mitt. Robie then dived to make a bare-handed grab just before the ball hit the turf for the unusual 2-1 popout. "That was awesome," Robie said. "I never really expected that. I was swimming [after the game], and I picked up my phone, and I had all these missed calls and texts. People were going crazy about it. Then I saw it on [ESPN], and I was like, ‘No way.' "As a little kid I always dreamed of being on SportsCenter's Top 10 and, what do you know, it came true. It's one thing to be on there, but it's another thing to be No. 1. I never thought in my wildest dreams that would come true. I saw it on there, and I still don't believe it."

Link (here) to The Toledo Blade to read the whole article

Joe Paterno Graduated From Brooklyn Preparatory High School

Joe Paterno in his Brooklyn Prep Uniform

Joe Paterno was not only a legend at Penn State but also at a place called Brooklyn Preparatory High School, a Jesuit institution of rigid learning that opened its doors in 1908, at 1150 Carroll St. between Rogers and Nostrand Aves. in Crown Heights, and closed in 1972. Paterno graduated in 1945

Link (here) to the NY Daily News

Bento de Góis, S.J. "Seeking Cathay He Found Heaven,"

Bento de Góis, S.J.

When the leaders of the Mission at the Court of Akbar heard from Musulman travellers of a great and rich empire called Khitai, to be reached by a long and devious course through the heart of Inner Asia, the idea seized their imaginations that here was an ample and yet untouched field awaiting the labours of the Society, if the way could but be found open; and this way they determined to explore. The person selected for this venturesome exploration was Bento de Góis. Before he started on his journey doubts had been suggested whether this Cathay were not indeed the very China in which Ricci and his companions were already labouring with some promise of success; but these doubts were overruled, or at least the leader of the Agra Mission was not convinced by them, and he prevailed on his superiors still to sanction the exploration that had been proposed. 

The gallant soldier of the Society, one not unworthy to bear the Name on which others of that Company's deeds and modes of action have brought such obloquy, carried through his arduous task; ascertained that the mysterious empire he had sought through rare hardships and perils was China indeed; and died just within its borders. "Seeking Cathay he found heaven," as one of his brethren has pronounced his epitaph. 

And thus it is that we have thought his journey a fitting close to this collection; for with its termination Cathay may be considered finally to disappear from view, leaving China only in the mouths and minds of men. Not but that Cathay will be found for some time longer to retain its place as a distinct region in some maps

Link (here) to read this and more

A Jesuit Educated Atheist

I REALLY want to respect these guys. Their awesome, and the Jesuit high school I went to was amazing. My best friend is going to be a Jesuit as well. Their brilliant people, open minded, thoughtful, skeptical of traditional thought patterns, and very kind. Everything I strive to be as an atheist. But they dedicate their lives to god. Every time I see one, I get this disappointed feeling, like their wasting their lives, because I know they, of all the religious people in the world, are the most tolerant and brilliant. I want to respect them, like a lot, not only for my best friend, but also because they could do a lot more for the world. They do a lot, but they're only scratching their potential. 

Link (here) to Think Atheist

Graduated From The University Of Detroit Jesuit High School

U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison,

Keith Ellison said he sees the ISBCC as a wonderful tool for starting a conversation in Greater Boston about improving the relationship between the U.S. and the Muslim world.  Perhaps no one in the federal government is better suited to discuss the relationship between the U.S. and the Muslim world than U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison, who has represented Minnesota’s Fifth District in Minnesota since taking office on Jan. 4, 2007. That day, he became the first Muslim member of Congress.

Ellison, who delivered the keynote address at last Saturday’s inauguration dinner at the Boston Marriott Copley Place Hotel, converted to Islam at the age of 19 while a student at Wayne State University in his hometown of Detroit. He graduated from The University of Detroit Jesuit High School and Academy, and noted in his remarks that even though he was raised Catholic, he grew up in a household that encouraged inclusion of all faiths and varying expressions of religious freedoms. 

During his speech, Ellison stressed the need to view the ISBCC as a “space,” not a “clubhouse,” to truly welcome people of all faiths. “A clubhouse implies ‘members only,’” Ellison repeated. To better serve the community and assist in improving U.S.-Muslim relations, Ellison urged those in attendance to ensure that the ISBCC represents itself as a platform for service. He also emphasized the importance of Muslims making their presence felt in the democratic decision-making process. “Will you discuss constitutional rights, human rights or health care rights at the center?” Ellison asked. “Now people don’t have to get in an airplane and fly eight hours to reach the Muslim world — you just need to go around the block,” the congressman said. “And that is something Boston, New England, the United States and the entire world can benefit from.” Ellison said he hopes that the ISBCC will invite people of all faiths, colors and cultures into the center, fostering dialogue on culture, art, history and pressing issues. “Issues cannot be solved by one religion, one race or culture — we need all voices,” he said. “This new space offers an opportunity as a place where people can come from diverse backgrounds to work on these issues.” 

Link (here) to The Bay State Banner