Mission and Ministry Newsletter

SUMMER 2009

August 2009

Dear Friends,

Many of our alumni, donors and friends have asked for more information about programs that support our Catholic and Jesuit identity and the interreligious community that comprises the Office of Campus Ministry. This newsletter highlights just some of the activities our office sponsored this year, many of which will return in the coming year.

This electronic newsletter, which replaces earlier published or emailed versions, will fill you in on our programs. We plan to write three times per year, and will include information on both recent and upcoming events. An abbreviated calendar of upcoming events is provided below for parents who wish to encourage their students' involvement, or for others who might wish to participate in those events that are noted as open to the broader university community. The links will direct you to the most up-to-date information.

For many of you who are alumni, my office may not have existed when you were students. In 2003, when President John J. DeGioia hired me to become the first Vice President of Mission and Ministry, he asked me to develop programs that would promote our university's religious identity and values for our students, faculty, staff and alumni and to have oversight of the Office of Campus Ministry and the Office of Mission and Pastoral Care at the hospital.

In all this I have been blessed with wonderful colleagues from a variety of religious traditions who have certainly taught me a great deal about what it means to be a community centered in our religious heritage as well as being a welcoming community to the wide variety of faith traditions celebrated on campus.

We hope that with this newsletter we can keep you informed about the ways in which we live our religious values and celebrate the true Spirit of Georgetown.

Sincerely,

Philip L. Boroughs, S.J.
Vice President for Mission and Ministry

19th Annotation Retreat

In the 2005 fall semester, Mission and Ministry initiated what has become one of our most powerful and enduring initiatives: the yearlong 19th Annotation Retreat of the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Jesuits.

Under the spiritual guidance of seven seasoned directors, four cohorts, now totaling 52 retreatants in positions of academic and administrative leadership at Georgetown have completed the retreat in the past four years. The retreat includes weekly or biweekly meetings with a director for individual prayer and discernment and monthly group meetings for communal reflection, dinner and conversation on themes of the Exercises. Our retreatants, from Catholic and Protestant faith traditions, reflect the diversity of Georgetown. The goal of the retreat is to open a pathway to God's action in each life, through developing an intimate relationship with Jesus Christ.

Those completing the retreat, joined by cohorts from the previous years, have continued to seek ways to deepen further Georgetown's Jesuit mission, through an ongoing seminar called "Living the Ignatian Charism at Georgetown." In 2008-09 we reviewed and reflected on documents emerging from the Jesuit 35th General Congregation in Rome and also on selections from "A Jesuit Education Reader" by George W. Traub, S.J.

Chester Gillis, the new dean of Georgetown College, writes: "The 19th Annotation Retreat refocused me on what counts. Praying daily freed me from the anxiety of the immediate and allowed me to prioritize according to the Gospel. Institutional and academic concerns did not abate, but my perspective on them changed. What we do at Georgetown orients lives and my own life benefited from the grounding and the freedom that the Exercises provide."

The retreat, "Living the Ignatian Charism" and the Spiritual Exercises themselves have meant leadership sharing a common bond, a language of faith and a way of viewing the world known to Jesuits since the 16th century as "our way of proceeding." Conversations during prayer and reflection gatherings are diverse and lively as trust has grown among the participants, who are dedicated to creating a vibrant, spiritual, mission-oriented community at Georgetown.

Submitted by Janet O'Brien, consultant for Jesuit mission and spiritual director for the 19th Annotation Retreat.

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Jesuit Heritage Week

This year we celebrated our ninth annual Jesuit Heritage Week, a student-organized series of programs and events that celebrate Georgetown's Jesuit heritage and identity. Over 1,200 students, faculty and staff attended the 20 events during the week itself and the nine Fireside Chats held in various residence halls in the two weeks prior.

In the Fireside Chats, teams of two Jesuits, supported by student hosts, chaplains in residence and resident advisors, spent an hour discussing with the assembled students Jesuit life and values and their impact on our campus. The evenings were followed by refreshments and continued conversation.

We would like to highlight just a couple of this year's Jesuit Heritage Week events that exemplify the spirit of the week. In one of the week's more noted events, Ron Hansen, author of Exiles, and writer Paul Elie offered an engaging discussion of Hansen's novel on Jesuit poet Gerard Manley Hopkins, S.J. and his writing of "The Wreck of the Deutchland." At a panel discussion titled "The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius Loyola," Georgetown faculty and staff members shared their personal experience with the Spiritual Exercises while at Georgetown. Presenters included Francis Ambrosio, Ph.D., associate professor of philosophy; Kathryn Baerwald, deputy university counsel; Julia Lamm, Ph.D., associate professor of theology; Janet O'Brien, consultant for Jesuit mission; Fr. Jon O'Brien, S.J., retired School of Medicine faculty member; Fr. Kevin O'Brien, S.J., executive director of Campus Ministry; and Carol O'Neil, associate dean of the Law Center.

Another very popular event was dedicated to St. Aloysius Gonzaga Secondary School in Nairobi, Kenya, a Jesuit-founded school for AIDS orphans from the Kibera slum. Georgetown staff members who have visited the school as part of the Kenya Immersion Program co-sponsored by the Vice President for Mission and Ministry and the Center for Social Justice Research, Teaching and Service, were on hand to discuss their experiences. Presenters included Charles DeSantis, chief benefits officer; Rosemary Kilkenny, Ph.D., vice president for Institutional Diversity and Equity; and Dave and Martha Swanson, who since retiring from Georgetown have directed the Georgetown Friends of St. Aloysius Gonzaga Secondary School fundraising initiative.

In addition to these more serious gatherings, Jesuit Heritage Week would not be complete without its annual "Spike-a-Jesuit" volleyball game. For the ninth straight year the Jesuits defeated an increasingly competitive student team! The annual variety show hosted in the Wolfington Hall Jesuit residence, this year titled 'Jamming with Jesuits,' featured performances by the Georgetown Gospel Choir, the a capella ensemble Georgetown Superfood and a number of musically-inclined Jesuits.

In conjunction with this year's Jesuit Heritage Week, the Protestant Chaplaincy invited Fr. Philip Boroughs, S.J. to speak at its traditional worship service, and Fr. Patrick Rogers, S.J. to speak at its weekly worship service in the gospel tradition. The Jewish Chaplaincy likewise invited Fr. Kevin O'Brien, S.J. to provide the d'var torah (reflections on the week's Bible portion) at its Shabbat service.

Special thanks should be given to Michael Gregory (C '11) and Amanda Murphy (SFS '09), who co-chaired Jesuit Heritage Week and inspired a dedicated group of student planners in the organization and implementation of the week.

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Lenten Reflection Series

The Lenten Journey: Reflections by Millennial Jesuits and Students

The annual Lenten Reflection Series provides students, faculty, staff and neighbors of Georgetown an opportunity to retreat from the hectic schedule of the spring semester for silence and contemplation and to prepare for the celebration of Holy Week and Easter. On five Wednesday afternoons during Lent, before the student dinner hour and faculty and staff depart campus for the day, members of our community gather in Dahlgren Chapel for 45 minutes of prayer and reflection.

The theme of this year's series was "The Lenten Journey: Reflections by Millennial Jesuits and Students." Each Wednesday, a "millennial generation" Jesuit (one who had been ordained since 2000), was paired with a "millennial generation" student to reflect on the day's theme.

The series began with talks by Fr. Kevin O'Brien, S.J. (C '88) and Jodi Callender (MSB 'o6) on "The Call to Conversion." Subsequent talks centered on "The Call to Forgiveness and Reconciliation" with Fr. Peter Rozic, S.J. and Raluca Tavaluc (SFS '09), "The Call to Discipleship" with Fr. Patrick Rogers, S.J. and Obehi Utubor (SFS '09), "The Call to Be a Eucharistic Community" with Fr. Jack Siberski, S.J. and Nick Sementelli (SFS '09), and "The Call from Death to Life" with Fr. Brian Conley, S.J. and Fiore Mastoianni (C '09).

Martha Swanson, who retired from the office of Student Affairs in 2007, writes, "Each year I look forward to the Lenten Reflection Series as an opportunity to stop for a brief time from the business of the day. This year's format of a millennial Jesuit paired with a student brought a new dimension to the talks. Listening to two perspectives on the theme offered even more points for reflection and it was interesting to see how the two presenters had worked together to address their theme. This Series is one of the best programs that the Office of Mission and Ministry offers."

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2009 Kenya Immersion Program Travel Report

Roughly 8,000 miles from the comforts of our Hilltop campus, I stared down into a maze of muddy slopes and rusty metal rooftops where nearly 1 million of the world's poorest people make their home. I was travelling with a group of faculty and administrators on Georgetown's Kenya Immersion Program, as we made our way into Kibera -- Africa's largest slum. There we met with many residents whose lives are marked by a daily struggle for the most basic human needs.

The visit to Kibera was one of many challenging trips we would take during our time in Kenya. We visited HIV/AIDS programs, a refugee camp, secondary and higher educational institutions, and programs for street children. Each visit introduced us to more and more extraordinary people whose life stories prompted me to examine my own commitment to serving others, both as an individual and as a member of our Georgetown community.

At the Kakuma Refugee Camp, we met refugees from Sudan, the Congo, Ethiopia and Somalia who were working with Jesuit Refugee Services to provide counseling and therapy resources for fellow refugees in the camp. In Nairobi, we met street children who, despite their heart-breaking stories, were eager to share their gifts of song and dance with us. We also met an American Jesuit with an unwavering commitment to providing a safe place where children from Kibera could get a quality high school education. These people, and the many others we met during the trip, made an impression that will inform and inspire me for a long time to come.

Georgetown's Kenya Immersion Program is a two-week journey that provides participants with the opportunity to develop a greater understanding of the university's mission through a global context. The program is organized by the Vice President for Mission and Ministry and the Center for Social Justice Research, Teaching and Service, and is made possible through generous donor support.

Submitted by Andy Pino, director of media relations and 2009 Kenya Immersion Program participant.

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First Baccalaureate Mass at SFS-Q in Doha

On Saturday morning, May 9, six Jesuits, 120 members of the School of Foreign Service in Doha, Qatar, and families of graduates gathered in a transformed faculty lounge to celebrate the Baccalaureate Mass of our first graduation ceremonies. While only two of the 21 graduating seniors were Catholic, we were blessed by the presence of seven of their Muslim classmates and one set of Muslim parents who wanted to join the celebration. Father Ryan Maher, S.J. (C '82), who taught the Problem of God class at SFS-Q for the first two years of the program, returned to preach the homily, and Fr. Philip Boroughs, S.J., a member of Georgetown's initial planning team for SFS-Q, presided. Concelebrants included Fr. John Langan, S.J., rector of the Jesuit community; Fr. Leo Lefebure, the Matteo Ricci, S.J. Professor of Theology; and Frs. Ben Nebres, S.J. and Bob Niehoff, S.J., members of the Georgetown University Board of Directors.

An ecumenical community of volunteers who jokingly referred to themselves as "The Desert Angels" provided music for the liturgy, and Georgetown's president, John, J. DeGioia was joined by other members of the board and administration, along with special guests Paul Pelosi (SFS '62), chairman of the SFS Board of Visitors, and U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the House of Representatives. As we gathered on our campus at Doha for this first Baccalaureate Mass and graduation, we sensed a greater-than-usual awareness of "God with us" as we realized that with this liturgy we were making history.

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Roman Catholic Chaplaincy

This spring, Campus Ministry's Catholic Chaplaincy launched its new catechetical program, Life Beyond Sunday. The impetus for this program grew from a desire to offer our students age-appropriate catechesis in an informal yet intellectually stimulating and inspiring environment. Campus ministers and professors from the theology department offered informative talks on topics including Confession, Mary and the highly popular Sex and Dating. The presenters and students engaged in lively question-and-answer dialogue and enjoyed refreshments during the five-part series. The program was well-received -- student Patrick Cohen (SFS '10) comments, "Fr. O'Brien's talk, 'How Do I Know What God Wants Me to do With My Life' absolutely lit me on fire! His integration of artistic interpretations of Paul's conversion, my favorite jazz song 'Take Five,' and a hard-hitting message grounded in faith and reason combined to be one of the most inspiring talks I have ever attended." The Catholic Chaplaincy intends to continue the program in the fall with new topics and speakers to energize and educate our students about their faith and its intersection with all aspects of their lives.

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Orthodox Chaplaincy

This past year the Orthodox Chaplaincy saw the exciting development of an Orthodox choir at Georgetown for liturgical services on campus. The choir has greatly enhanced services, and other members of the congregation frequently join in singing. In addition, the Orthodox choir has been featured at other university events, where it always receives many compliments. The singers have increased the visibility of the Orthodox Christian ministry at Georgetown throughout the university community.

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Jewish Chaplaincy

The cornerstone program for the Jewish Chaplaincy at Georgetown University has always been the Friday evening Shabbat service. This service, and the free dinner that follows it, is a cherished tradition for many, if not most, Jewish students, alumni, faculty and staff at Georgetown. The services have been primarily student-led for decades, and in an effort to engage more of the student body (both Jewish and non-Jewish), the Jewish Chaplaincy on occasion provides a theme for the services.

One of the themed Shabbats this year was the Latin American Shabbat held Feb. 20. The program was cosponsored with the Jewish Student Association and MeCHA -- ovimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlán. Readings in Spanish were incorporated into the service, a guest speaker offered his insights on the history and future of Jewish communities in South America and everyone enjoyed a kosher Peruvian dinner. By all accounts, the event was popular and meaningful for all participants.

The Jewish Chaplaincy at Georgetown University has been active in interfaith programming for many years. Our two most popular and enduring programs are the Hallelujah Shabbat and the Interfaith Seder. Hallelujah Shabbat, a great Georgetown tradition, has been held on the last Friday in January for the last 15 years. It is a joyful service that celebrates the ties between the Jewish and African American communities, both on and off campus. The event combines a traditional Jewish service for the Sabbath with ecumenical readings and performances by the Georgetown Chapel Choir, Georgetown Gospel Choir and the St. Martin's Church Gospel Choir. Hallelujah Shabbat is open to all faiths and is an absolutely incredible event for participants of all faith traditions.

The Interfaith Seder is another long-standing tradition, usually held just before Easter and Passover. It serves as an opportunity for the Jewish community and the non-Jewish community to examine the deep and fascinating connection between Passover and Easter. Not only are historical commonalities studied, but also modern lessons in societal ethics are explored in this context. Students, faculty, staff and guests join together reading the Passover Haggadah, partaking of the traditional symbolic foods and sharing a festive meal. Both of these events are mainstays of the Jewish Chaplaincy's programmatic schedule, and they are something worth looking forward to all year long.

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Muslim Chaplaincy

Spring Retreats are known to be one of the most popular events for Muslim students and Muslim Student Association (MSA) members. The retreat is a spiritual journey in a natural setting for Georgetown Muslim students to spend time with their friends, enjoy good food together and listen to reflections by Imam Yahya Hendi and other guest speakers. On the retreat, there are opportunities for hiking on trails, playing team-building games outdoors and socializing. Then Georgetown University Muslim students, faculty and staff gather to pray in congregation in the afternoon. Muslim Ministry is dedicated to making sure retreats are a special time for all students, staff and guests who participate.

This spring semester, the day retreat was to Great Falls, Va. Upon arriving at Great Falls, twenty-five of our students and the Muslim Ministry staff went on a hiking trail. In teams we played games to strengthen camaraderie and build a sense of community. After finishing the hiking and games, we had a wonderful feast and prayed in congregation. Imam Yahya Hendi prepared a talk on the topic, "Purifying our Hearts: Sincerity in Intention and Action." A guest, Mohamed Diini, an Islamic lecturer and community activist from Columbus, Ohio, then shared a few words. Students and friends were able to come together in a place of nature, away from campus, and educate themselves by reflecting on and learning the significance of community and faith.

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SPOTLIGHT: Protestant Chaplaincy, ESCAPE, Magis

Two staff members who have played major roles in Campus Ministry programs are leaving GU this summer. Both have guided programs that have attracted many hundreds of student participants and have had a lasting positive influence on numerous Hoyas. Matt Schneider, coordinator of the Protestant Campus Ministry Program and Ethan DeCoster, ESCAPE Program director, are both departing after several years with Campus Ministry in order to pursue graduate studies while continuing their involvement in ministry.

Matt came to Campus Ministry in 2007 after spending several years working for the English Department at San Francisco State University in California. He had planned to pursue his Ph.D. in rhetoric at Arizona State University, but he came to sense a compelling call to ministry. When he shared this with his then-fiancée, who was in the process of moving to Washington, D.C., she replied, "I always thought that you would be a great pastor." Soon afterward he joined Georgetown's Campus Ministry team.

As Protestant Program coordinator, Matt found himself doing a bit of everything. Members of the Protestant community at Georgetown come from a variety of denominations representing the breadth of Protestantism, including Episcopal, Reformed and Evangelical traditions. Matt would at times jokingly describe himself as the head of the "United Nations of the Protestant Community." As the primary liaison to the many Protestant student groups on campus, Matt built relationships with the students and leaders of these groups and started a Protestant Student Leadership team as the core student group for the chaplaincy. Matt also worked closely with the 10 affiliated ministries on campus and their student representatives. This was in addition to his work coordinating multiple weekly worship services and other gatherings for the campus Protestant community.

Ethan DeCoster spent his time before Georgetown as a language arts and drama teacher and coach at Washington Jesuit Academy in northeast Washington. After meeting Fr. Kevin O'Brien, S.J., now executive director of Campus Ministry, at a friend's wedding, Ethan received a call from Fr. Patrick Rogers, S. J., director of Campus Ministry for the Main Campus, encouraging him to apply for the ESCAPE director position. DeCoster applied, and in his new position successfully went on to guide more than 1,000 Hoyas, with the aid of 50 to 60 student team leaders each year, through the nondenominational retreat designed for freshmen and transfer students.

Described by many participants as "life transforming," the 27-hour ESCAPE retreat is designed in the Ignatian retreat tradition, offering students a chance to reflect on their lives and experiences to date and the opportunities before them as they begin their studies at Georgetown University. Now in its 19th year, ESCAPE has brought more than 7,500 students from all religious traditions together for reflection and created many long-term friendships.

In addition to running the ESCAPE program, Ethan led a group of student leaders on a service trip to Belize each summer. Last year 15 Hoyas built a school in Central America. His dedication to this year-end trip, as well as his innate ability to connect with student leaders, demonstrated his true passion to combine social justice, international experience and higher education. The day-to-day interaction with the students who would walk in and out of his office has been the favorite part of Ethan's job and the part he has said he will miss most.

Both Matt and Ethan agree that working with the Magis Program has been a pinnacle of their Georgetown careers. Ethan began Magis (Latin for "more") two years ago with Catherine Heinhold, Roman Catholic Chaplaincy director. As part of a larger team, Matt and Ethan worked to combine volunteer service in third-world countries during spring breaks with spiritual reflection. Funded primarily by donors and student fundraising efforts, this program has taken students across Africa and Central America. The hope is to expand it to include Bolivia and India in the coming years.

This past March, 10 students participated in a Magis trip to El Salvador, where they spent five days visiting both sacred sites and impoverished communities before working as election observers in El Salvador's national election. Mornings and nights were spent in prayer and reflection. Programs like Magis provide unique opportunities to shape a student's identity and values and establish enduring friendships rooted in a common purpose.

Matt Schneider and his wife Hawley are moving to New Haven, Conn., where he will pursue a Master of Divinity degree in Anglican Studies at Yale University's Berkeley Divinity School, after which he hopes to be ordained in the Episcopal Church. Matt and Hawley have applied to be resident hosts at the Overseas Ministry Study Center near the Yale campus.

Ethan plans to spend six months in Philadelphia, applying for his Ph.D. in higher education before starting a six-month assignment with Untouchable Empowerment Hospital and Hospice, a Mobile Hospice Trust, in China and India.

We are all extremely grateful to both Matt and Ethan for the gifted leadership and dedication with which they have served the Protestant students and the many others who have participated in the ESCAPE and Magis programs.

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Protestant Chaplaincy

The Protestant Chaplaincy is pleased to announce that Beth Hatch will be joining the staff this month as the new Protestant Program coordinator. Beth is a graduate of Notre Dame University, where she was heavily involved with student leadership and campus ministry, leading the largest ecumenical student fellowship group on campus and serving as a student retreat coordinator. She understands ministry to Protestant students in the context of the religious life of a Catholic university.

After graduation, Beth was a fellow of the Falls Church Fellows Program, a postgraduate internship for leadership development training that focuses on graduate-level seminary studies, work experience and learning in community about issues of faith and culture. Most recently, Beth worked as the executive assistant to the president of the Trinity Forum, a faith-based nonprofit in Washington, D.C., where she was responsible for office management and event planning.

As Protestant Program coordinator, Beth will work with the many Protestant student groups on campus as well as the Affiliated Protestant Ministries, and she will assist in the programming of worship services, Bible studies, prayer groups, service projects, retreats and other fellowship opportunities.

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ESCAPE

Bridget Sherry will be joining the staff of Campus Ministry this month as the new director of the ESCAPE Program. Bridget has been working for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops as a field support coordinator in its Migration and Refugee Services office. In this role, she has overseen a host of programs serving migrants and refugees across the country and has collaborated with people of different faith traditions devoted to the same ministry.

Prior to her role at the USCCB, Bridget worked with Jesuit Volunteers International when it was based at Georgetown. As an associate director for JVI, she devoted considerable time to the formation of young volunteers, a skill she will find indispensable as director of the ESCAPE program, which engages a large team of student leaders.

In addition to her considerable administrative experience, Bridget, a graduate of Boston College and a former JVI volunteer in Belize, brings a heart-felt appreciation for Ignatian spirituality and the Jesuit tradition of men and women serving others and promoting a faith that does justice.

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Medical Center Campus Ministry

In the 2008-09 school year, Medical Center Campus Ministry adopted a set of four goals to shape its ministry to students in clinical medicine, medical research, and nursing and health science:

1. Community. Georgetown is a Catholic and Jesuit school. Its educational goals are inspired by the Christian challenge to build a community of colleagues that share a thirst for God's gift of enlightenment. Campus Ministry assists in seeking that goal by reminding all members of the university that it is possible to create such a community--that such a community is not a daydream.

2. Collaboration. Georgetown's Medical Center works to create such a community by instilling a spirit of collaboration in its graduate students of clinical medicine, medical research and nursing and health sciences. Guided by the Gospel message of service, reconciliation and healing, Campus Ministry helps the Medical Center pursue the goal of collaboration by teaching the skills necessary for mindfulness, communication and cooperation.

3. Peer Ministry. The primary method that Campus Ministry uses to develop habits of mindfulness, communication and cooperation is to teach their pursuit through peer ministry. We do that by assisting small groups of students to reflect together on matters that are important to them. We assist them, for instance, in forming groups of about 10 students who will meet once a week to hear one another answer the question, "How are you coping with the demands of your work?" Other groups will be helped to focus on more specifically spiritual matters -- say, for instance, the Bible or other sacred writings; or questions of religious faith.

4. Reflection. The ministry that members of small groups provide one another is assistance in reflection -- encouraging each other develop habits of attentiveness and mindfulness.

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Law Center Campus Ministry

Working together with religious student groups, the Office of Campus Ministry at Georgetown Law sponsored a panel discussion in March titled, "Faith on the Hill: Church and State from the Perspective of the Preachers Who Lead Prayers in the House and Senate Chambers." The panel included Rear Admiral Barry C. Black, retired chaplain of the U.S. Senate and Fr. Daniel P. Coughlin, chaplain of the U.S. House of Representatives, and was moderated by Michael Goldman, director of Campus Ministry at the law center. The Chaplains described some of their memorable experiences in Congress, which go beyond leading prayers, and answered questions about how their roles relate to the separation of church and state. The panel discussion, attended by students, staff, faculty and Washington-area lawyers, was televised on C-SPAN.

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Remembering Fr. Thomas King, S.J.

For 40 years, the Rev. Thomas King, S.J., delivered the 11:15 p.m. Mass in Dahlgren Chapel six nights a week. That Georgetown tradition ended when the Jesuit died of a heart attack in his campus residence the evening of June 23. He was 80.

King's funeral was held at Dahlgren Chapel of the Sacred Heart on June 27, and the wake was held the day before at the Jesuit residence, Wolfington Hall. Burial in the Jesuit cemetery next to Harbin Hall followed the funeral service.

The Rev. John Langan, S.J., remembers his fellow Jesuit "with great respect and affection, as a very determined, hard-working individual."

King "was very dedicated to both his subject matter and his students," says Langan, rector of Georgetown's Jesuit community. "All of us understand that positive influence on his students can be an example we should continue to follow."

Widely known on the Hilltop for his late-night liturgies, King also was a scholar who taught theology at Georgetown for more than 40 years. The Jesuit had nine books to his credit and his articles on theological and spiritual topics were widely published.

King's deep interest in the thought of Jesuit paleontologist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin and the connections between religion and science led to the creation of one of the university's most popular courses -- the Problem of God.

"The way he explained theology appealed to me as a Catholic -- it was like nothing I've ever heard before," says Don Huber (C '81), who was a student in King's Problem of God class as a freshman. "He broke things down into terms that everyone could relate to, and he really made theology accessible to both Catholics and non-Catholics."

More than two decades after leaving the Hilltop, David Boyer (SFS '86) says King's name still frequently comes up in conversations he has about Georgetown.

"There are three or four professors that are so memorable to me, and he's at the top of the list," says Boyer. "I think back to his distinctive way of teaching -- that raspy voice and long fingers and how he spoke with his hands because he was so excited about the subjects he taught."

Many others remember King for his devotion to the late-night Mass, where alumni say he delivered thoughtful homilies about Catholicism and spirituality.

In a recent interview, King said the 11:15 p.m. Mass was a good match for his night owl tendencies.

"I've always been a late-night person, so I just decided I'd say Mass then because it fit into my day, and it also turned out to be a good student hour as well," King said.

Mark Gammons (SFS '89, L '09), who was a server at King's Sunday night Mass for two years, remembered that King would often talk to those attending Mass about what they wanted to do with their lives.

"Something he's done for me and many others is help [me] find [my] way forward in life in a way that also furthers your relationship with God," Gammons said in an interview before King's death.

King lived in the Jesuit residence, Wolfington Hall, at the time of his death, but he also spent 21 years living with students in the New North, Copley and East Campus dormitories.

The Jesuit made his mark away from the Hilltop as well. For the past several years, he has crossed the Potomac on Monday evenings to give a Mass and a sermon to inmates at the Arlington County jail.

He also co-founded two associations -- Cosmos and Creation, an annual gathering of scientists interested in religion, and University Faculty for Life, a group of U.S. and Canadian faculty opposed to abortion, infanticide and euthanasia.

A campus-wide memorial is planned for September when students return to class.

The Pittsburgh native is survived by his brother, the Rev. William King, S.J., also a member of Georgetown's Jesuit community; and sisters Martha Cox of Pittsburgh and Catherine Marie Tovey of Portland, Ore.

Alumni have begun directing memorial gifts for Dahlgren Chapel in memory of the priest who celebrated more than 10,000 Masses there.

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Supporting Mission and Ministry

All of the programs described in this issue are enhanced by gift support. If you would like to make a gift to help a specific chaplaincy or program, or the overall effort, you may do so online at:  http://advancement.georgetown.edu/giving/ministry.

If you would like more information on supporting any of these programs, please contact Mary Prahinski, C '85, director of Development for Mission and Ministry, at 202-687-6671 or by e-mail at prahinsm@georgetown.edu.

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