Jesuit priest, New Orleans native, dies

Jesuit Father Kenneth A. Buddendorff, a native of New Orleans who taught in Jesuit colleges and universities and was a longtime vocations director for the former New Orleans Province, died Aug. 3 in Grand Coteau, Louisiana. He was 88 years old, a Jesuit for 70 years and a priest for 57 years.

His funeral Mass was celebrated Aug. 18 in the St. Charles College Chapel in Grand Coteau. Burial was in the Jesuit Cemetery at St. Charles College.

The son of Kenneth Buddendorff Sr. and Marguerite Mumme Buddendorff was preceded in death by his brother James and his sister Doris Buddendorff White. He is survived by a sister-in-law, Shirley Buddendorff Sanders.

After graduating from Jesuit High School in New Orleans in 1947, he attended Loyola University New Orleans for one year before entering the Society of Jesus on July 1, 1948, at St. Charles College. He was ordained to the priesthood on June 14, 1961, in Mobile.

Father Buddendorff’s ministry included work in secondary and higher education, as well as provincial administration for the former New Orleans Province. He had a special interest in promoting the Christian Life Community, an international association of lay Christians who use the teachings of St. Ignatius Loyola as the basis of their spiritual lives. He was appointed the first full-time vocation director of the New Orleans Province and served from 1966-91.

He studied theology at St. Mary’s College in St. Marys, Kansas, where he earned a licentiate in sacred theology. He also earned a Certificate in Theology Studies at the Institute of Spirituality and Worship at the Jesuit School of Theology in Berkeley, California in 1977.