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Event Details

Monday, April 19, 2021

7:30 pm - 8:30 pm

Event Contact

Eric Eickhoff

eeickhoff@jcu.edu

Father Timothy P. Kesicki, S.J. '84, is the President of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the Jesuit Conference promotes common goals and oversees international projects for the Society of Jesus. As Conference President, Fr. Kesicki works with the Jesuit Provincials of the United States and Canada in implementing programs, represents the Conference internationally and serves as the religious superior of the Boston College School of Theology and Ministry and the Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University in Berkeley, California. He serves on the boards of Jesuit Refugee Service/USA and America Magazine.

Prior to leading the Jesuit Conference, Fr. Kesicki served from 2008 through 2014 as the Provincial of the Chicago-Detroit Province of the Society of Jesus.

A frequent contributor to CNN and MSNBC, Fr. Kesicki hails from Erie, Pennsylvania, where he attended local Catholic schools before earning a bachelor’s degree in political science from John Carroll University in Ohio.

Fr. Kesicki entered the Society of Jesus at Loyola House Jesuit Novitiate in Berkley, Michigan, in 1984. His formation as a Jesuit included philosophy studies at Loyola University Chicago, theology studies at the Jesuit School of Theology and studies in educational administration at Teachers College, Columbia University, New York.

From 1988 to 1991, Fr. Kesicki worked at the University of Detroit Jesuit High School and Academy, where he taught theology, directed the service program and served on the pastoral team. Following his 1994 ordination, Fr. Kesicki worked for a year at the Jesuit Refugee Service in Adjumani, Uganda, and then taught theology at Loyola High School in Detroit. From 2000 to 2008, he served as president of Saint Ignatius High School in Cleveland.

April 19 is a very important day in the history of John Carroll University. On that day in 1886, Fr. Richard Gilmour, bishop of the Cleveland diocese, and Fr. Henry Behrens, S.J., superior of the Buffalo Jesuit Mission, signed the formal agreement to establish a Jesuit college in Cleveland. Merely 5 months later, St. Ignatius College opened its doors and accepted students to its first classes.

130 years later and we are still educating men and women for others in the Jesuit tradition. We all have stories from our time at Carroll and today is a day we celebrate those memories and toast to many more amazing years to come for JCU.