Holy Cross Jesuit Community

THE HOLY CROSS
JESUIT COMMUNITY

             Front row, left to right: Anthony J. Kuzniewski (History), Rector, Alfred E. Desautels (Retired, Modern Languages), the late Richard P. Burke, Joseph J. LaBran (retired Associate Chaplain), Charles R. McKenney (Confessor), James J. Drohan (Retired), and Joseph S. Scannell (Retired at Campion Center).
            Standing from left to right in second row are: Philip C. Rule (English), William E. Stempsey (Philosophy), Vincent A. Lapomarda** (History), James M. Hayes (a former Associate Chaplain), Joseph B. Pomeroy (Information Technology Services), Thomas W. Worcester (History), Charles J. Dunn (Development), Edward J. Vodoklys (Classics), and John P. Reboli (Visual Arts).
            Standing from left to right in the third row are: Andrew J. Scopp (residing elsewhere but under this jurisdiction), Brian J. Linnane (Religious Studies), William J. O'Halloran (Special Assistant to President), Terrence W. Curry (Minister), John E. Brooks (President Emeritus), Francis X. Miller** (Development), Paul J. Nelligan (Archives), Earle L. Markey (Admissions), Michael F. Ford (Chaplain), John J. MacDonnell (Pastoral Ministry), and William E. Reiser (Religious Studies).
            Absent from this picture, taken during the fall of 1998, are: Lionel P. Honoré (Modern Languages), and James J. Miracky (English).

CIAMPI HALL

Ciampi Hall, the Jesuit Residence which opened on March 25, 1991 (this year marked the 500th anniversary of the birth of St. Ignatius Loyola, Founder of the Jesuits), is named for Anthony F. Ciampi who was born in Rome on 29 January 1816, and died in Washington, D. C., on 24 November 1893. Of a prominent family, he entered the Society of Jesus through the novitiate of San Andrea in his native city on 7 September 1832. Upon finishing his philosophical studies at the Roman College (Pontifical Gregorian University), he taught in the Jesuit school at Piacenza (1839--1840) and at Ferrara (1840--1844) in Italy. Returning to Rome for his theological studies in 1845, he responded to the invitation of James Ryder, Jesuit President of the College of the Holy Cross, to join the Jesuits in the United States.
After further studies, Ciampi was ordained a priest at Georgetown University on 23 July 1848, the Jesuits made use of his talents as President of the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts, at the age of thirty-five. Ciampi held that position for three separate terms (1851-1854, 1857-1861, and 1869-1873). Like many of its buildings named for Jesuits, Holy Cross honors Ciampi's memory with this hall because he kept Holy Cross open after a destructive fire in 1852 had threatened to close the college. Holy Cross, which is today the oldest Catholic college in New England, testifies to Ciampi's courage and vision. His picture hangs over the fire place in the above photograph of the Jesuit Community.

SOCIETY OF JESUS

This is the religious order founded by St. Ignatius of Loyola and the one which, with the inspiration of Benedict Joseph Fenwick, Second Bishop of Boston, founded the College of the Holy Cross on 21 June 1843. Although all the members in the above picture are American Jesuits and work in the geographical area of the religiouis jurisdiciton known as the Society of Jesus of New England. Previous to the New England Province, there was the Maryland Province which provided the manpower for Holy Cross in its initial phases. Today Holy Cross is open to Jesuits from outside of New England and has included a number of Jesuits from other provinces inside and outside of the United States who also belong to the educational apostolate of the worldwide Society of Jesus.
Although the College of the Holy Cross was separately incorporated from the Jesuits of Holy Cross College on 25 March 1969, the Jesuit character of the institution is underscored in its Mission Statement which proclaims to all that Holy Cross is "by tradition and choice, a Jesuit liberal arts college serving the Catholic community, American society, and the wider world." In addition to Anthony Ciampi, that tradition owes much to those Jesuits like John Bapst, Henry C. Bean, Joseph F. Busam, William A. Carroll, William A. Donaghy, Michael Earls, Robert F. Healey, William F. Lucey, Joseph M.-F. Marique, Joseph R. N. Maxwell, Joseph T. O'Callahan, Maurice F. Reidy, Raymond J. Swords, Robert Swickerath, and many others who have labored to preserve the Jesuit character of education.

THE HISTORY OF THE JESUITS AT HOLY CROSS

For a history of the Jesuits at Holy Cross, one can consult chapter five, "The Jesuit Heritage in Central Massachusetts," in Vincent A. Lapomarda's The Jesuit Heritage in New England (1977). After Bishop Benedict Joseph Fenwick, S. J., dedicated its cornerstone, on June 21, 1843, Holy Cross had as its presidents Thomas F. Mulledy (1843-45), James Ryder 91845-48), John Early (1848-51), Anthony F. Ciampi (1851-54, 1857-61, and 1969-73), Peter J. Blenkinsop (1854-57), James Clark (1861-67), Robert W. Brady (1867-69 and 1883-87), Joseph B. O'Hagan (1873-78), Edward D. Boone (188778-83), Michael A. O'Kane (1889-93), Edward A. McGurk (1893-95), John F. Lehy (1895-1901), Joseph F. Hanselman (1901-06), Thomas E. Murphy (1906-11), Joseph N. Dinand (1911-18 and 1924-27), James J. Carlin (1918-24), John M. Fox (1927-33), Francis J. Dolan (1933-39), Joseph R. N. Maxwell (1939-45), William J. Healy (1945-48), John A. O'Brien (1948-54), William A. Donaghy (1954-60), Raymond J. Swords (1960-70), John F. Brooks (1970-94), and Gerard C. Reedy (1994-1998). He was succeeded by Frank Vellaccio (1998-2000), a layman, before Michael C. McFarland, a Jesuit, assumed office on July 1, 2000. Biographies of all these Holy Cross Presidents can be found on the website of the College Archives.
Previous to the separate incorporation of the Community from the College, on March 25, 1969, the President of Holy Cross was also Rector of the Jesuits. With that change, William J. O'Halloran (1969-74) became the First Rector under that system and has been succeeded by John T. Seery (1974-77), Joseph L. Ryan (1977-83), Robert E. Manning (1983-85), William E. Reiser (1985-91), David H. Gill (1991-94), John J. Higgins (1994-98), Anthony J. Kuzniewski (1998-2004), author of a history of the College, Thy Honored Name (1999), and James M. Hayes (since 2004).

1996 COVENANT STATEMENT OF THE JESUITS OF HOLY CROSS
PREAMBLE

               Ever since Ignatius and his companions associated with each other in Paris, a defining feature of the Society of Jesus has been that its members live, pray and work together as "friends in the Lord." This characteristic of Jesuit life has always served as a reminder of the ideals that shape the Ignatian spirit and as
an invitation to grow together in community life that expresses that ideal.
                We the Jesuits of Holy Cross, acknowledge with gratitude to the Lord, the ways in which we strive to give expression to our being "friends in the Lord." We pledge ourselves to hospitality, to mutual support, to shared prayer and to service within the College, the Diocese of Worcester and beyond.
                Shaped by our common hopes and experiences and determined to move forward as "friends in the Lord," we now commit ourselves to a Covenant Statement as an expression of our desire for lives of service according to the spirit of the Magis. COVENANT STATEMENT         1. As a means of expressing and enhancing our apostolic dedication as "friends in the Lord," we faithfully gather to share the Eucharist on Monday community evenings and on other days as individual circumstances allow.
        2. To foster the religious values that animate our daily lives as Jesuits, we seek opportunities both to familiarize ourselves with the documents of General Congregation Thirty-Four and the Constitutions [of the Society of Jesus] and to discuss their meaning for our community living and apostolic availability.
        3. Recognizing our call to live as "friends in the Lord," we respect and encourage each other's apostolic vitality in community, seeking opporutnities to communicate honestly in resolving conflicts and to support each other, especially at mealtime and during recreation.
        4. In order to share what we have and what we are with men and women to whom we are related in friendship or committed in our apostolate, we continue to support the long-standing tradition of hospitality to guests, especially to our brother Jesuits, our colleagues and our families.
        5. So that we can manifests our leadership in furthering the Jesuit and Catholic identity of Holy Cross and in promoting its Mission Statement, we continue our outreach to our professional colleagues through the Jesuit-Colleague evenings, faith reflection groups and the giving of the Spiritual Exercises.
        6. Because we recognize the obligation of our Jesuit teaching faculty to be dedicated to scholarship and the responsibility of all Jesuits to serve as mentors for the students, we pledge to support these apostolic endeavors by means of fraternal encouragement, communication, appreciation and, when called for, financial support.
        7. Responding to General Congregation Thirty-Four's call to all Jesuits to work vigorously for vocations, we renew our commitment to welcome those interested to a Liturgy and dinner so that "they might witness, first hand, our fraternal sharing, our working together, sometimes struggling, but still supporting one another and praying together."
        8. As a mans of deepening our life together as companions of Christ, we seek:
            a) occasions for faith-sharing even leading to discerning the need for a community retreat for those who desire;
            b) opportunities for our sharing experiences of being a Jesuit today at Holy cross; [and]
           c) social gatherings and conversations where we may better know each other's apostolic work and thus begin to bridge that sense of isolation and lack of appreciation of scholarly labors that younger Jesuits experience.
        9. Acknowledging the process that has led to our Covenant Statment as a graced movment for us in our community, each of us will from time to time examine himself on the Covenant in terms of his contribution to its fulfillment.

THE RAYMOND J. SWORDS, S. J., FACULTY MEDAL

This medal, inaugurated in under President Gerard C. Reedy, in memory of one of his distinguished predecessors, is conferred on persons who have served the College for twenty-five years. It is of gilded silver and suspended from a purple ribbon bearing the seal of the College with its logo (In Hoc Signo Vinces), and verso, from the 12th chapter of the Book of Daniel an appropriate quotation (Qui ad justitiam erudiunt multos fulgebunt quasi stellae), together with the name of its recipient. John E. Brooks, Alfred R. Desautels, Lionel P. Honoré, Joseph J. LaBran, Vincent A. Lapomarda, John J. MacDonnell, William J. O'Halloran, and John P. Reboli are the Jesuit recipents of the Swords Medal.

INTERNATIONAL JESUIT SCHOLARS

Like other Jesuit institutions of higher learning in the United States, the College of the Holy Cross is interested in attracting Jesuit scholars from around the world to give its undergraduates a greater appreciation of other peoples and cultures in the field of learning. For example, for short periods, it had: in the early 1970s, Michael Marlet, a Jesuit from the Philosophical Faculty of Innsbruck, Austria; in the 1980s, Piet Schoonenberg, a noted Jesuit theologian from Europe, and John J. Donohue, an expert on the Middle East; and, in the late 1990s, Stanislaw Obirek, a Jesuit historian from Krakow, Poland. In January of 2000, the College entered into an arrangement with Sanata Dharma ["Quest for Truth"] University in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, and, Justin Sudarminta, a Jesuit philosopher, has joined the faculty for the 2000-2001 academic year. Of Christopher Clavius, whose work in time management was responsible for the shift from the Julian Calendar to the Gregorian Calendar, Pope Sixtus V once said of this Jesuit scholar: "Had the Jesuit order produced nothing more than Clavius, on this account alone, the order should be praised."
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THE SHADOWBROOK CLASS OF 1951
THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN THE LAND OF THE HOLY CROSS
REV. LIONEL P. HONORE, S. J. (1934-2006)
Copyright 1999-2006 by
The Jesuits of Holy Cross College, Inc.
Initial Publication 31 July 1999.
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