Final Jesuit Priests Set to Depart Wheeling University This Summer, Ending 70-Year Local Affiliation
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WHEELING — For nearly 70 years, Jesuit priests have resided in Wheeling, helping educate students at what is now Wheeling University and also spreading the their message throughout the region.
That commitment to Wheeling soon will be ended, though, as over the summer the final remaining Jesuit priests in Wheeling will be reassigned to other pastoral duties.
In a joint statement Thursday morning from the Most Rev. Mark Brennan, bishop of the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston, Ginny Favede, president of Wheeling University and the Rev. Joseph O'Keefe, SJ, Provincial, USA East Province of the Society of Jesus, the three note the departure of the final Jesuit priests from their residence at Wheeling University.
The Jesuit’s presence in Wheeling has declined in recent years following the Society of Jesus’ decision to no longer remain actively affiliated with what was then Wheeling Jesuit University. The Society did agree to keep a presence at the campus to teach and provide spiritual guidance, but more pressing duties have been identified.
“Reluctantly, we announce to the Wheeling University community and the Upper Ohio Valley community that the remaining Jesuits at the University - Rev. Ignatius Hadi Sasmita, SJ, Campus Minister; Rev. Richard McCouch, SJ, Director of the Appalachian Institute; and Rev. James Conroy, SJ, local Jesuit Superior and retreat master - will be reassigned to other apostolic works of the USA East Province of the Society of Jesus in the summer of 2022.
“Faced with a declining number of Jesuit priests available for ministry, coupled with a large institutional presence in universities, high schools and retreat centers in the eastern United States, the Province was compelled to inform the university and the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston that the Province was no longer able to provide members of the Society for pastoral work at Wheeling University, which it has continued to do, even after its official sponsorship of the University ended in 2019.
“The University and the Diocese are actively pursuing the possibility of having a rotation of teaching Jesuits who would spend a semester or a year at Wheeling University, so that future generations of Wheeling students might have the benefit of the Jesuit approach to higher learning. This would maintain a connection with the Society of Jesus, which for so long staffed the school.
“The priests of the Society of Jesus have bought many blessings to the students and faculty of what began as Wheeling College, became Wheeling Jesuit College, then Wheeling Jesuit University and is now Wheeling University.
“We salute the great Jesuits who have taught or served in administration at the University during its 68 years of existence and we are most grateful to God for them.
“We ask God's blessings upon the Society of Jesus and upon the Mountain State's only residential Catholic University, which remains grounded in and faithful to the ideals of Catholic education. May God show His kindness to both.”