Canisius High School Today
22
Fr. Joe returned to HAP for a second summer and has fond
memories of Canisius High School at the time, recalling
the kindness and guidance of Rev. Robert Cregan, S.J., then
president, and Rev. Joseph Papaj, S.J., the principal. He
also remembers the caliber of the lay staff he taught with
including Charles Chimera, director of the HAP program,
Frank Tudini ’62 and Russ White, who continues to teach
Chemistry at Canisius.
Deepening faith
Back in New York, Fr. Joe earned a master’s degree in
philosophy from Fordham University. The young Jesuit then
returned to Buffalo and spent three years in his regency
formation teaching philosophy at Canisius College. He went
on to earn both a master of divinity and licentiate from the
Weston Jesuit School of Theology in Cambridge, MA, now
the Boston College School of Theology. He was ordained a
priest in 1987.
It was within this period that Fr. Joe experienced a number
of heartbreaking life events that he says strengthened his
faith and further defined his Jesuit identity. His 53-year-old
father passed away in 1981. One of his two brothers died in
an automobile accident at the age of 25 just five years later.
And two years after his ordination, his mother died suddenly
at the age of 56.
“The events actually strengthened my faith –
doing the spiritual exercises of St. Ignatius gave
me a higher viewpoint and relationship with
Jesus Christ, whichmade me realize we only
visit this planet,”
Fr. Joe explains.
“Part of the
spiritual exercises is finding God in all things
and you pray to get there. I better understood
why we pray, as I related to Christ’s crucifixion
and was able to see God through this pain
and suffering.”
Another direction
Although he was engaged in full-time graduate studies in
philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania, he left upon
the death of his mother to pursue spiritual direction, his next
stop on his journey. After three years at St. Ignatius Retreat
House in Manhasset, NY, his Jesuit provincial tapped him
to serve as director of vocations for the New York and
Maryland Province Jesuits. During his seven-year tenure
the two provinces were joined together under one vocation
director, foreshadowing the merging of provinces the Jesuits
are undertaking today.
“I was involved in the beginnings of shaping
that future of Jesuit provinces as they will be
joined together as one province eventually,”
Fr. Joe says.
“The administration of provinces is
being adapted to fewer numbers of Jesuits.”
Fr. Joe was then assigned to return to St. Ignatius Retreat
House, Manhasset, to become its executive director where
he again served for seven years. In 2006, Fr. Joe was named
pastor of St. Francis Xavier parish, a church founded by a
Jesuit priest in 1847 to serve the faithful of New York City.
Fr. Joe was pastor there for seven years until being named
rector of the Canisius Jesuit community and superior of the
Jesuits in the Buffalo area. The Canisius Jesuits work in one
of three educational apostolates in Buffalo: Canisius College,
Canisius High School, and Nativity Miguel Middle School.
Fr. Joe is also rector of St. Michael’s parish in Buffalo.
