Fairfield University And Fairfield Prep

Fairfield University and Fairfield Prep are so tightly bound into Fairfield's fabric that it seems like they've been here forever. In fact, having arrived in the early 1940s, they're relative newcomers to our colonial town. How did Fairfield end up with a centrally-located, 200-acre Jesuit campus? It's an intriguing story of the dispersal of a prominent Fairfield family, fortunes made and lost, and uncannily-timed, extraordinarily favorable transfers of real estate. The Society of Jesus has a centuries-long tradition of teaching. By the fall of 1941, there were two dozen Jesuit colleges and universities in the United States. But amid Fordham, Holy Cross and Boston College, the Jesuit New England Province envisioned a preparatory school and college in the greater Bridgeport area. The initial search for a suitable campus came up empty. But just then, word came that the heirs of Oliver Gould Jennings were selling Mailands, his 40-room mansion on 76 of the finest acres in Fairfield. In 1920, on the strength of an estimated $80 million fortune, Lashar built Hearthstone Hall, a lavish, 44-room English manor house on 105 acres right next door to Mailands. But Lashar's fortune went up in smoke in the 1929 stock market crash, and the few million dollars that remained was hardly enough to support a Hearthstone Hall lifestyle. After the real-estate taxes went unpaid for several years, the town seized the property -- almost to the day of the Jesuits' Mailands purchase. In early 1942, First Selectman John Ferguson approached the Jesuits with an offer they couldn't refuse. As reported in the April 1, 1942, Bridgeport Post, the Jesuits snapped up the Hearthstone Hall estate for back taxes and some fees, or $68,500. What could Ferguson have been thinking? Perhaps he didn't want the town to be saddled with maintaining the deserted estate; perhaps he foresaw the benefits of Fairfield becoming a college town. Whatever his reasoning, the sale was widely considered a giveaway, and contributed to Ferguson's failure to be re-nominated for another term. So, faster than you could say "Saint Ignatius of Loyola," the Jesuits owned a splendid 180-acre campus and what would become McAuliffe and Bellarmine halls. A few years later, for a stiff $28,500, the college added the 18-acre Morehouse property on the corner of Barlow and Round Hill roads. In 1989, an expanding Fairfield University acquired the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur convent, conveniently adjacent to the old Mailands property. In creating the Dolan Campus, it became the indirect beneficiary of the catastrophic decline of John Fox In the early 1950s, Mr. Fox, who once owned a controlling interest in Western Union, bought a 47-acre estate, complete with a 21-room mansion, which had been built for Oliver G.'s son, Lawrence. A costly adventure in the Boston newspaper business brought Fox to total ruin, and the Sisters took possession in 1959. Fox, a Harvard Law graduate and once-powerful tycoon, eked out a living playing piano in Boston waterfront bars until he died penniless and alone in 1985. The alternate fate of the grand estates from a past age that make up today's Fairfield University complex cannot be known. What would Fairfield be like if we had a corporate headquarters on North Benson Road or a hillside full of McMansions instead? Who knows. But the Jesuits, perhaps with some divine assistance, have delivered unto us a cultural and educational asset and a driver of the town's economy. With dissenting opinions duly noted from those of us enduring student misbehavior in the beach neighborhood, I think we're the richer for it.

Link (here) to The Fairfield Citizen for the full story

The Purpose Of The Society

Ignatius entering Jerusalem

The two purposes Ignatius had for the mission to Jerusalem, to derive spiritual consolation and to help souls, were preserved in the new mission through Rome to the universal Church.  The apostolic intention, “to help souls,” grew into the fundamental purposes of the Society.  A parallel expression, “the progress of souls,” appears at the beginning of the first version of the Formula of the Institute (Regimini militantis Ecclesiae) in 1540, where the Society’s purpose is given as: “to strive especially for the progress of souls in Christian life and doctrine and for the propagation of the faith by the ministry of the word, by spiritual exercises and works of charity, and specifically by the education of children and unlettered persons in Christianity.”  This intention of helping souls remained in the definitive version of the Formula of the Institute (Exposcit debitum) in 1550, and of course in the Constitutions.  To “help souls” has, of course, their salvation in mind, as stated in the General Examen, where the purpose of the Society is expressed in terms of salvation, first of the members of the Society themselves and then of others:  “with that same grace to labor strenuously in giving aid toward the salvation and perfection of the souls of their neighbors”

Link (here) to read the entire work by Fr. Matthew Monnig, S.J.  

Photo (source)

Former Jesuit Cleared In Canonical Trial

St. John's in Bangor, Maine

The retired priest who oversaw the $2 million renovation of St. John Catholic Church in Bangor between 1986 and 1991 has been reinstated to public ministry, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland has announced.The Rev. Maurice T. Lebel, 78, was removed temporarily from ministry in June 2007 after a complaint of sexual abuse of a minor in Massachusetts during the early 1980s was made.

At the time of the alleged complaint, Lebel was a Jesuit — a member of the Society of Jesus — ministering in Massachusetts. “The allegation was thoroughly investigated, a canonical trial was held, and a three-judge panel of canon lawyers from outside the Diocese of Portland has determined the allegation was unproven,” 

Bishop Richard J. Malone said in a letter dated Feb. 26  that was made available to parishioners in churches where Lebel served. “Therefore, I have lifted all restrictions previously placed on Father Lebel. This has been a long and arduous process and I thank you for your prayers.”

Link (here)  to read the full story at Bangor Daily News

Jesuit Soon To Be Released From Prison

Fr. James F. Talbot, S.J.

Last week, Jim Higgins received a call that brought his back. Father James F. Talbot — a Jesuit priest who molested him when he was a teenager — is about to get out of prison, he was told by the Massachusetts Department of Corrections. The target release date is March 18. Talbot is asking to serve a three-year probation period in an out-of-state treatment facility. Talbot will be free in a way his victims never will be, said Higgins, 55, who now lives in Florida. “He gets to heave a big sigh of relief. The rest of us are stuck with it, ’’ he said. In the early 1970s, Higgins had a part-time job at the rectory of the Immaculate Conception Church in Boston’s South End, where Talbot worked. 

In 2003, Higgins was one of 14 men who were part of an approximately $5.2 million settlement of civil claims against Talbot. Most of the other plaintiffs were former students at Boston College High School, where Talbot taught history and economics and coached soccer and hockey from 1972 to 1980. 

His victims said the priest encouraged them to wrestle one-on-one with him, sometimes clad only in jockstraps, and then forcibly molested them. In 1980, Talbot was transferred to the Cheverus High School in Portland, Maine. According to records kept by bishopaccountability.org, Talbot was removed from ministry and sent to St. Luke’s Center in Maryland in 1998, when a former student at Cheverus accused him of sexual abuse. In 2005, he pleaded guilty to the rape and assault of two boys who were BC High students in the 1970s. He was sentenced to five to seven years in prison.

Link (here) to the full story

8 Jesuits Make The Boston List Of 117

Father Roy Drake, S.J. 
Father William J. Duffy, S.J.
Father Charles M. Loeffler, S.J. 
Father George V. McCabe, S.J.
Father Joseph McInnis, S.J.
Father Francis J. McManus, S.J.
Father Leo E. Pollard, S.J.
Father James F. Talbot, S.J.
Link (here) to read the entire list.

Cardinal Cushing Claims Jesuits Spread "Collasal Lies"

"They never gave us a dime" Richard Cardinal Cushing said, characterizing as "phonies and liars" those who claim the Society did. " I gave the Jesuits a 100,000 dollars to build their offices, the least they could have done was to call me up and tell me I was the only one mentioned in the (America magazine) article."

Link (here) to read the full 1967 Free Lance-Star article

A Dusty, Windswept Tract Of Land South Of Baghdad.

The Jesuit founded Al Hikma University in Baghdad 1959

Al Hikma University in Baghdad, with buildings built by Fr. Leo J. Guay, son of Mr. and Mrs. James J. Guay of New Salem Street, held its first graduation. Founded in 1956, the university had moved, by September 1959, to its new campus, "a dusty, windswept tract of land South of Baghdad. The university now has four buildings, of Assyrian and Babylonian architecture, with thick walls and deeply recessed windows as protection against scorching heat." Fr. Guay, a Jesuit, wrote to his parents: "Since my construction work is nearing the end, I will go back to teaching, but now I will teach engineering. I will not be teaching chemistry, but will head the department of chemistry. So you see I will still be very busy."

Link (here)

Photo (here) at Iraqimojo (BTW great link)

A Weeping Indian Is A Rare Sight

He had been three years and one month among the Penosbscot warriors. With all their waywardness they loved the Black Robe. 

On the September day that he withdrew from the island they followed him to the river bank and showed by no uncertain signs that they mourned his departure. A weeping Indian is a rare sight. 

It was common on that day when the brave Swiss Jesuit priest Father John Bapst left his charges and transferred his residence to Eastport. He was not abandoning them altogether, he told them, as they crowded to the river's edge. They were still his parishioners, and he would come to them from time to time and minister to them.

Link (here) to the mentioned portion of an essay entitled, Father John Bapst, S.J. and the "Ellsworth Outrage" by Fr. Gerald C. Treacy, S.J.

Photo is of a Penobscot Indian woman named Clara Paul circa 1840 (here)

Television Jesuit M.D.

M.D. and Priest at the Same Time? Jesuit Provincial to Appear on Live CatholicTV Talk Show

WATERTOWN, MA- On April 27^th, Fr. Myles Sheehan, S.J. will appear on the live CatholicTV talk show “This is the Day”. Fr. Sheehan is the Provincial of the New England Province of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits).

Before becoming Provincial in 2009, Fr. Sheehan practiced medicine and was also a professor of medicine at Loyola University’s Stritch School of Medicine in Chicago, Illinois.

This is the Day airs at 10:30AM ET at CatholicTV.com and on CatholicTV. The show is rebroadcast at 7:30PM.

Father Sheehan is originally from Marshfield, Massachusetts. Prior to entering the Society of Jesus, he completed his undergraduate degree at Dartmouth College and doctorate in medicine at Dartmouth College.

Father Sheehan joined the New England Province on August 25, 1985 and made his novitiate at St. Andrew House in Boston, MA. After completing his philosophy studies at Loyola University in Chicago, he did two years of post-doctoral studies in Gerontology at Harvard Medical School. He earned his M.Div. from the Weston School of Theology in Cambridge and was ordained to the priesthood on June 18, 1994.

On April 22, 2005, he professed solemn vows. Since 1995, Myles has served as a Professor of Medicine at Loyola University’s Stritch School of Medicine. In 2000, he added the administrative duties of senior associate dean to his teaching and research responsibilities.

Father Sheehan was also recently featured on the CatholicTV show “Going My Way”. On the show, Fr. Sheehan played the guitar and was interviewed by Fr. Chris Hickey. This episode can be seen now at: http://www.catholictv.com/shows/default.aspx?seriesID=41&videoID=1069

Episodes of This is the Day are posted on the site’s archives starting the same night of the broadcast day. All videos at the website are viewable in full-screen. Paste this URL into your browser in order to access the “This is the Day” video archives. http://www.CatholicTV.com/shows/default.aspx?seriesID=72

CatholicTV broadcasts across the US on Sky Angel channel 142, and selected cable outlets in New England and in Chattanooga (TN) where CatholicTV is available on FiTV channel 153. To find out where to watch CatholicTV visit: http://www.CatholicTV.com/schedule/where-to-watch.aspx

CatholicTV is a nationally-broadcasted television network streaming a live feed 24 hours a day at CatholicTV.com.  Heeding Pope Benedict XVI's call to greater utilize the power of television and new media, the CatholicTV Network features its cable TV station, Catholic web site, mobile apps and widget.  Celebrate Mass online; pray The Rosary; enjoy programs on prayer, the saints, the Scriptures and the Catholic Church on America's Catholic Television Network.

“This is the Day” can also be seen on demand at www.CatholicTV.com or downloaded via iTunes.com.and SQPN.com  The hosts, Director of CatholicTV, Father Robert Reed, and General Manager, Jay Fadden  discuss various topics of the week and respond to viewer mail (you may email the show at thisistheday@CatholicTV.com)

But The Jesuit Father Bapst Was Nowhere To Be Found. It Seems That They Had Tarred And Feathered Him

In June, 1854, Father John Bapst, S.J. changed his residence to Bangor. His success at Ellsworth and the opposition it created was the cause of the change. According to his own account his labors had been rewarded by many conversions. 

These were the days of the Know Nothing party and bigoted feeling ran high. The Jesuit was denounced from Protestant pulpits, and in the Ellsworth press, as a perverter of the young. Then further trouble was caused by the school situation. The Catholic children in the Ellsworth schools were forced to read the Protestant Bible and recite Protestant prayers. 

Father Bapst opened a Catholic school in the old mission chapel for the children who had been expelled from the Ellsworth schools for refusing to submit to the school committee's ruling, making the reading of the Protestant Bible and the recitation of Protestant prayers obligatory on all the pupils. 

The establishment of a Catholic school infuriated the bigots. One night they blew up the old chapel building with gun powder. Then came a controversy with a Protestant minister with Father Bapst the victor. 

The Know Nothing answer to the priest's controversial triumph was an attack on his house. On June 3, 1854, the windows of the rectory were smashed and on June 6 a mob broke the windows of the church. All the while the Ellsworth Herald kept up a daily tirade against the Catholic religion in its columns, and on Sundays the Protestant ministers attacked the church from their pulpits. The Bishop of Boston decided that it was better for Father Bapst to change his residence to Bangor. In July word came to Father Bapst at Bangor that the Ellsworth bigots had attempted to burn down the church. The fire was discovered by Amory Otis, one of the fair-minded Protestant citizens, and extinguished before any great damage was done. Father Bapst, at the direction of Bishop Fitzpatrick, did not visit Ellsworth even on Sundays. Another priest took his place.  

After the destruction of the school house the Protestants feared Catholic reprisals. The better disposed among them decided to call a public meeting to protest against the outrage. This meeting was called on July 8, 1854. The Know Nothing element prevailed, outnumbering the others four to one. 

Then, with all the hatred they were capable of, these bigots passed the following resolutions after the respectable Protestant citizens had withdrawn: "July 8, 1854—Moved by George W. Madox:—That, if John Bapst, S.J., be found again on Ellsworth soil we will provide for him, and try on an entire suit of new clothes, such as cannot be found at the shops of any taylor (sic), and then when thus apparelled he be presented with a free ticket to leave Ellsworth upon the first railroad operation that may go into effect. "Voted that we now adjourn sine die. The reading of the resolutions was greeted with loud applause and they were unanimously adopted, 

as the Democrats and Liberal Republicans had left the hall when they realized that the Know Nothings were in control. Father Bapst in his Bangor home heard of the meeting but he did not believe the bigots were bitter enough to carry these inhuman resolutions into effect. 

In October he went to Ellsworth. It was on Saturday evening, the fourteenth of the month. He was to say Mass the next day. He stopped at the house of a Catholic citizen named Kent. When night set in a mob came to the house and demanded that Mr. Kent hand over the priest. Mr. Kent urged Father Bapst to hide in the cellar while he spoke to the leaders. 

His speech was useless and only provoked the cry: "If you don't produce him we will burn down your house and roast him alive." Father Bapst heard this threat and came out of the cellar. With a chorus of yells they greeted him and dragged him out of the house and up the road. They placed him on a sharp rail and thus carried him along, yelling, hooting and cursing him. 

Arriving at a lonely place they took his watch and money. Then they stripped him naked. They bound him to a tree. They piled brush all around him and tried to set it on fire. As their supply of matches gave out he was saved from death by fire. The sheriff hearing of the outrage went out with his posse after the mob. A shower of stones greeted this official's arrival at the scene and the lantern in his hand was smashed. He pulled a pistol on the wild, shouting throng and threatened to fire. This had the desired effect and the mob dispersed. 

But Father Bapst was nowhere to be found. It seems that when they had tarred and feathered him and saw there was no way of burning him alive they sent a group of their followers to take him into Ellsworth in his pitiable condition. 

This band ordered him to get out of the town that night. They would kill him, they said, if he attempted to say Mass next day.

Link (here) to the mentioned portion of essay entitled, FATHER JOHN BAPST, S.J., AND THE "ELLSWORTH OUTRAGE." By the Rev. Gerald C. Treacy, S.J.

Photo is of Fr. John Bapst, S.J. (here)

New England Jesuit Novice Mascots: Gumby And Pokey

Gumby and Pokey have been two of the mascots of the novitiate of the Society of Jesus of New England since 1985, and their by-now bent, crumpled plastic representations have been passed down from novice to novice for over 20 years. Gumby even showed up at my ordination, though the Jesuit who brought him did not, as he jokingly threatened, set him face down in the aisle alongside me during the ordination rite.

One common joke is that Gumby and Pokey have stayed in the Jesuits longer than many of the novices have.

On the other hand, they've never made it out of the novitiate. But that's another story.

Link (here) to the Jesuit Fr. James Martin, his full post is located at America's blog, In All Things.

Jesuit Vocations Director On Television

Jan. 4-In the continuing spirit of Vocation Awareness Week, CatholicTV will feature 2 different Vocation Directors on the CatholicTV live talk show “This is the Day”. Fr. Jack Butler, Director of Vocations for the New England Province of the Jesuits will appear on January 8th, while Fr. Tony Stephens, Vocation Director of the Fathers of Mercy will appear on January 12th. “This is the Day” streams live at CatholicTV.com and is also viewable on CatholicTV where available, to find out what channel in your area please visit

: http://www.catholictv.com/schedule/where-to-watch.aspx.

The show will air live during the above dates at 10:30AM ET, will rebroadcast at 8PM the same day, and will also be added to the CatholicTV.com archives. Jack Butler, S.J. also works as a campus minister at Boston College, where there is a center for vocational discernment called Manresa. The primary purpose of Manresa House is to promote vocations to the Catholic Church. Every person has a specific call from God, whether it is priestly, religious, married or single life. Manresa hosts vocational discernment weekend visits to help students discover their vocation. College president Fr. William Leahy, SJ, also holds monthly discussion groups for those considering ministerial priesthood.

Jesuit Medical Doctor and The White Mass

The Guild of St. Luke of the Archdiocese of Boston will host its annual White Mass on Oct. 23 at 6:30 p.m. at St. John’s Seminary. A reception and dinner will follow.

Cardinal Seán P. O’Malley will be the celebrant and homilist at the Mass. Father Myles N. Sheehan, S.J., M.D., the newly appointed provincial for the New England Province of the Society of Jesus, will be the principal speaker at the dinner.

Father Sheehan was born in Marshfield and graduated from the Dartmouth College School of Medicine. He completed a residency in internal medicine and a fellowship in geriatric medicine. In 2005 he entered the Society of Jesus and was ordained a priest; he was appointed provincial in 2009. For the past fourteen years he has been a professor of medicine at the Stritch School of Medicine at Loyola University Chicago.

Reservations for the reception may be made by calling the guild’s president, Dr. Helen Jackson at 617-277-7583 or online at www.guildofstluke.org

The Guild of St. Luke of the Archdiocese of Boston was founded in 1912 by William Cardinal O’Connell and is the oldest Catholic physician’s guild in the United States.

Link (here)

New New England Provincial

The New England Province of the Society of Jesus announced that Father Myles N. Sheehan, S.J., became the 15th

provincial on the July 31, the feast of St. Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Jesuits.

Father Adolfo Nicolas, S.J., Superior General of the Society of Jesus, appointed Father Sheehan Provincial of the New England Province on Feb. 19, to succeed Father Thomas J. Regan, S.J., whose six-year term had ended.

“I am honored to be chosen for this service to the Jesuits of New England and our lay colleagues. I am grateful to Father Regan for his work and service over the last six years and look forward to building on the sound foundation he has built,” said Father Sheehan.

Link (here)

Blogger Note: The New England Province faces a tough prospect of falling numbers of Jesuits in the province, recruiting vocations and staffing reductions are a big issues.

Doctor Provincial

Cardinal Francis George's personal physician plans to depart Chicago and leave medicine next month to take a job with his Roman Catholic religious order.

Fr. Myles Sheehan, 53, a Jesuit priest who has sported a clerical collar and white lab coat for 14 years at Loyola University Health System, has been selected to be the next provincial, or leader, of the Jesuits' New England Province based in Boston.
"As provincial, one of my main responsibilities will be taking care of the 300 Jesuits in New England, and I have a real peace knowing I will be able to ensure these men are taken care of," Sheehan said.

Link (here) to the full article

A 4 - Alarm Fire Destroys A Jesuit Residence In Cambridge

The heavy flames and intense heat from the original fire scene charred one neighboring house but also jumped across to ignite the roof and attic of a third house, a

single-family residence owned by the Society of Jesus.

The first alarm was struck at 8:13 a.m. and the fourth at 8:40 a.m., officials said.

The Rev. Ronald Mercier said he is one of three Jesuits living at 80 Lexington Ave. He said he left home at 7:30 a.m. and then rushed back after being alerted to the fire by a telephone call about 8:30 a.m. "We are all safe," Mercier said later. "Everything else? Who cares?"

Radiant heat forced firefighters to drench 68-70 Lexington Ave., causing smoke and water damage inside.

Link (here) to the full story

Rest In Peace: Fr. Francis X. Miller, S.J.

Holy Cross mourns loss of former official
By Bronislaus B. Kush
TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

WORCESTER— The Rev. Francis X. Miller, S.J., who shunted aside a career as a Manhattan banker to become a Jesuit priest and who is credited with putting the College of the Holy Cross on sound financial footing, died Tuesday at the Campion Center in Weston. He was 82. Rev. Miller, a beloved figure on Mount St. James, served for 22 years as vice president of development.

He worked closely with then college President John E. Brooks, S.J., in financially strengthening the school and reaching out to alumni for support “Father Miller was a very important figure on campus,” said school spokesman Ellen Ryder.

Born in Worcester, he was the son of Francis L. and Mary (O’Brien) Miller. After graduating from St. John’s High School in 1942, he began his college studies at Holy Cross; however, he joined the Navy in 1944. He returned to the school and was an infielder on baseball teams managed by legendary Holy Cross coach Jack Barry. He graduated from Holy Cross and worked for Chase National Bank of New York.

But in 1951, he decided to become a priest and entered the Jesuit Novitiate of New England Province at Shadowbrook in Lenox. He later studied philosophy at Weston College and earned a master’s degree in business administration in 1956. He was ordained in 1959 by Cardinal Richard J. Cushing, archbishop of Boston.

Rev. Miller served as Holy Cross’ financial adviser from 1963 to 1970, and as a trustee from 1970 to 1973. The school conferred an honorary doctorate of humane letters upon Rev. Miller in 1996, a year after he retired. “You have traveled the length and breadth of America on behalf of Holy Cross and led a development effort unparalleled in the history of this college,” read the citation.

Link (here)