18 Jesuits celebrate jubilees of ordination, profession

    Eighteen Jesuit priests celebrated anniversaries of religious profession or ordination July 29 with a Mass of Thanksgiving July 29 at Immaculate Conception Church New Orleans. This year’s jubilarians combined for 980 years of service to the Society of Jesus and the Catholic Church.
 

75 years in the society
    Father A. Gerard Fineran is a retreat director and minister in his 42nd year of missionary work in Brazil. An alumnus of Jesuit High School in New Orleans, he served for four years as secretary for the U.S. Assistancy of the Society of Jesus at the Jesuit Curia in Rome. He also served as socius, vice provincial and pastoral assistant to the provincial.
 

70 years in the society
    Father Rodney T. Kissinger, a New Orleans native, entered the Jesuits after receiving his bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Loyola University New Orleans. He earned a licentiate in sacred theology from St. Mary’s College. After 10 years of parish ministry, he served in retreat house ministry in Texas, Missouri, and Grand Coteau and Convent, La. He spent 14 years at Jesuit High School of Tampa as retreat director.  He resides at Ignatius Residence.
   

Father Louis A. Poché, an alumnus of Jesuit High School in New Orleans, earned master’s degrees in education from Woodstock College and in theology from the University of San Francisco. He taught theology for 13 years at Loyola University New Orleans. He was pastor of St. Charles Borromeo Church in Grand Coteau and later was director of Our Lady of the Oaks Retreat House and the Jesuit Spirituality Center in Grand Coteau. He resides at Ignatius Residence.

 

 

 

60 years in the priesthood
    Father John J. Heaney spent 22 years in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). He taught at Corpus Christi Minor Seminary and in Dallas. He was pastor of St. Rita Church in Dallas for eight years and a retreat director at Montserrat Retreat House in Lake Dallas for two years. He resides at Ignatius Residence.

 

 

 

 

60 years in the society

    Father John N. Folzenlogen has been a science teacher and guidance counselor at Strake Jesuit College Preparatory of Houston for 30 years. He continues to counsel students and assists with pastoral activities at Strake Jesuit.
   

 

Father Christopher A. Billac graduated from Jesuit High School in New Orleans and earned master’s degrees in theology and the classics from Spring Hill College and Loyola University Chicago. He also earned a licentiate in sacred theology from St. Mary’s College and a doctoral degree in Latin literature from Pacific Western University of California. He taught at Jesuit schools in Houston and Tampa. He resides at Ignatius Residence.
    

 

 

 

Father James L. Lambert earned a doctoral degree in organic chemistry from Johns Hopkins University and a licentiate in sacred theology from Woodstock College. He was a teacher and campus minister at Spring Hill College for 27 years. He has served as pastor of St. Charles Borromeo Church in Grand Coteau for the last seven years.
 

50 years in the priesthood
   

 

Father Clair M. Cazayoux, a Baton Rouge native, earned a master’s degree in chemistry from Louisiana State University. He spent six years as a missionary in Sri Lanka and India. He was a chaplain at Catholic High School in Baton Rouge and was a prison and hospital chaplain.  He taught at Jesuit high schools in New Orleans and Houston. He resides at Ignatius Residence.
 

 

 

 

 

    Father Martin L. Elsner is a spiritual director at Assumption Seminary in San Antonio. He spent 22 years in pastoral ministry at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in San Antonio and was pastor of St. Joseph Church in Houston for eight years. He was rector, principal and president of Jesuit High School of El Paso and assistant principal of Jesuit High School in Shreveport.
   

 

   Father Ernest C. Ferlita earned a licentiate in sacred theology from St. Mary’s College and completed drama studies at Yale University. He spent 32 years teaching drama and speech at Loyola University New Orleans, where he also chaired the department of drama and speech for 18 years, was professor emeritus of drama. He resides at Ignatius Residence.
    

 

 

 

 

    Father Donald J. Martin graduated from Jesuit High School in New Orleans and earned a licentiate in sacred theology from St. Mary’s College and a doctoral degree in liturgy from the University of Notre Dame. He has worked as an instructor of theology at Loyola University New Orleans and Spring Hill College, where he was also rector of the Jesuit community in Mobile. He has completed two 12-year terms as a professor of sacramental theology and liturgy at Notre Dame Seminary.
  

 

    Father Bert Mead earned a licentiate in sacred theology from St. Mary’s College and a doctoral degree in psychology from Loyola University Chicago. He serves in pastoral ministry at Ignatius Residence. He taught at both the high school and university levels and had a variety of pastoral assignments inside and beyond the New Orleans Province.
   

 

 

 

 

  

   Father Thomas J. Tierney earned a master’s degree in theology from the University of San Francisco. He served as a counselor at Jesuit high schools in New Orleans and Shreveport. He is a hospital chaplain in Hot Springs, S.D., where he now resides.
 

   

 

Father Hervé Racivitch, a native New Orleanian, earned a licentiate in sacred theology from Faculté Theologique de Lyon in France. He taught at Jesuit High School in New Orleans for eight years and later served as chaplain of Marquette University. He resides at Ignatius Residence.
 

 

 

 

 

 

50 years in the society

    Father Wayne D. Herpin is pastor of St. Jude Mission in Almogordo, N.M. He has served as chaplain at Texas Medical Center in Houston, associate pastor and minister of St. Ann Rectory in West Palm Beach, and minister of the Jesuit School of Theology at Santa Clara University in Berkeley, Calif. He also taught for many years at Jesuit high schools in Dallas, Houston and New Orleans.
   

 

     Father Peter S. Rogers, a native of Jeanerette, La., has been a professor of French at Loyola University New Orleans for more than 20 years. He is the rector of the university’s Jesuit community. He has a master’s degree from Middlebury College and doctoral degrees from the Université de Paris-Sorbonne and Columbia University. He also earned a master’s degree in theology from the Centre Sèvres in Paris. He taught at Jesuit high schools in New Orleans and Tampa.
    

 

 

    Father Edward Salazar is a retreat director at Montserrat Retreat House in Lake Dallas. He earned a master’s degree in Latin-American literature from Universidad Ibero Americana in Mexico City, and a Master of Divinity from the Jesuit School of Theology at Santa Clara University. He was president of the National Association of Hispanic Priests.
 

 

 

25 years as a priest
    Father J. William Harmless was the DRE at St. Joseph Church in Houston and a professor at Spring Hill College and John Carroll University. He teaches historical theology and patristic studies at Creighton University.