Jesuit Journeys
Spring/Summer 2005

BY FR.Dick McGarrity, SJ

When my brother Jesuits gather this June for our annual Province Days and the Ordination Mass of Mark Carr, SJ and Casey Beaumier, SJ, we will also celebrate another significant occasion -- the 50th Anniversary of the Wisconsin Province of the Society of Jesus.

Thinking about the confluence of these events led me into a time of personal reflection in which I found myself wondering why and how fund raising is compatible with my calling as a Jesuit priest. When I became president of the Jesuit Partnership six years ago, I had no previous background and training in the field. My Jesuit life had been spent in higher education, first as a teacher at Marquette University College of Business and later in academic administration. I never in the world dreamt that I would ever be in a position of raising funds for the Society.

As I reflected on this unlikely twist in my professional path, several perspectives on Jesuits and fund raising occurred to me. The first was historical.

St. Ignatius of Loyola, who founded the Society in 1540, also (and not by choice) was called to do fund raising. His original intention for the Society was that his followers, as companions in Christ, would work in the Holy Land. But the needs of the Society and the Church at the time forced a different path.

First of all, he was confronted by the need to educate men entering the early Society. Because there was a shortage of educational institutions at the time, he had to provide them. Simultaneously, the pope expressed a similar need to establish institutions to help develop a better educated clergy and laity.

An underlying factor in all this was that Ignatius, from the beginning, was attracting some very, very talented men into the Society, and the Church was anxious to use these people and their academic/intellectual abilities to protect and defend itself during the Reformation and various councils taking place at the time. In general terms, these events marked the beginning of the educational ministries that are so much a part of our Jesuit tradition.

Fast forward now to the Society of Jesus today with its more than 80 Provinces and ministries of all kinds worldwide. Here in the Wisconsin Province, I find myself following rather humbly in the footsteps of some rather remarkable Jesuits who, like Ignatius, responded to the needs of their time and became fundraisers: Fr. Gus Giunta, SJ and his work as part of the old Seminary Guild (we still get bequests from his work); Fr. Roger Lucey, SJ, and his efforts to garner support to establish Sogang University in Korea; Fr. Bob Frommelt, SJ, who headed up the old Mission Bureau in the Twin Cities; Fr. Jim Corrigan, SJ, Fr. Bob Neenan, SJ – the list goes on and on.

I also find there is a strong spiritual component to my fund-raising responsibilities. In my heart of hearts, I have come to feel that one of the basic elements of my function as president of the Jesuit Partnership is to provide an opportunity for people to participate, share in, and help carry out the vision of the Jesuits. I am, in effect, inviting the laity to invest their time, energy, and resources in the work that God calls Jesuits to do.

In reviewing our 2004 Partners in Mission report, I noted that we have 5,365 benefactors who assist in many ways at a variety of levels in helping us to carry out our Jesuit mission. I find it humbling that so many people are inspired to identify themselves with the mission of the Jesuits of the Wisconsin Province.

It is one of the distinct pleasures in my work to meet and get to know a large number of the people who contribute to our mission. These encounters occur through personal visits, at Partnership events and gatherings, phone conversations, e-mails, and personal notes. Our Partners are a diverse group, some of substantial and some of modest means, but all share a common desire to support the Jesuit vision of building a better world for all people.

They help us indirectly support our educational ministries, our parishes, and our retreat houses, while at the same time directly assisting the Province in training and educating new Jesuits, in caring for our elderly men, and in supporting new initiatives, especially those in foreign countries and among America’s marginalized.

I find it personally enriching to work with our Partners in this noble mission as we continue to grow together in holiness, joined in prayer for each other as we remember all our friends in our Masses and intentions.

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