Programs

Nicolas C. Steeves was born in Paris, France in July 1973, to a French mother (from Burgundy) and an American father (from Boston). A month later, all three moved to Brattleboro, VT, then, in 1978, to Sudbury, MA (where young Jesuit priests from Weston supplied at Our Lady of Fatima.) In 1982, the family moved back permanently to Burgundy and grew. 

In 1991, Nick joined Lycée Sainte-Geneviève, the Jesuit boarding school in Versailles, and entered HEC Paris Business School in 1992. He simultaneously studied law at Paris (XI and II) University Law School. After double graduation, he spent more than three years working as a business lawyer in Prague (Czech Republic) and Paris.

In 2000, he entered the French Province of the Society of Jesus. He studied philosophy and theology at Centre Sèvres (Paris), Heythrop College (London), and the Pontifical Gregorian University (Rome), and worked as a campus minister during regency, returning to both Sainte-Geneviève and HEC Paris. In 2011, he was ordained a priest in Paris, where he also completed his Doctorate in Fundamental Theology in 2014. That same year, he started teaching fundamental theology at the Greg, where he became professor extraordinarius in 2021. In June 2024, he completed his six-year term as Moderator of the First Cycle of theology (Dean of Studies). He professed Final vows in Rome in 2019, after Tertianship in Portland, OR, and parish work in Salem, NH (2017-8).

His theological endeavors have heretofore chiefly dealt with the role of the imagination in fundamental theology (Revelation, faith, and cultures), as well as imaginative preaching.  

He is fluent in English, French, and Italian, and can manage some German and Spanish. 

Fr. Steeves will be the Jesuit Fellow at the Center for Ignatian Spirituality from July 30, 2024 to February 15, 2025. He is greatly looking forward to experiencing the chilly New England fall and winter once more, ministering on campus at BC, and hopes to do research in fundamental integral ecology, on the notion of creation. 

James J. Spillane, S.J. was born in Brighton, Massachusetts, United States of America on 25 January, 1943. He entered the Society of Jesus in 1964 and was ordained a priest in May, 1976. His assignments in the Jesuits have been mainly in university teaching including assignments in Iraq, Jamaica, Iran, Colombia, Tanzania [11 years] and currently Indonesia [ 34 years and counting).

While in Indonesia he was a joint Professor of Economics at Sanata Dharma University and Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. He also directed the Sanata Dharma Center for Tourism Research and Training. During 2009 – 2020 he was the Dean of the Faculty of Business Administration at St. Augustine University of Tanzania in Mwanza, Tanzania. He was also Head of the Tourism and Hospitality Management Department where he taught. He was editor in-chief of The Eastern African Journal of Hospitality, Leisure, and Tourism. He returned to Sanata Dharma University in August, 2020.

Fr. Spillane will be the Jesuit Fellow at the Center from May 16 to August 15, 2024.

Stephen was born in Macau, China in 1963, which was under the rule of the Portugal until 1999. He was baptized into the Catholic Church in 1981, and entered the Society of Jesus in 1990. He came to the Weston School of Theology to study the STL program in 1999-2001. He was ordained into the priesthood in 2000. 

In 2001, as his first mission, he was sent to be the socius of the novice master of the Chinese province. The novitiate had been sited at Manila until then. After working for two years there, he came back to Boston to finish his tertianship formation under Fr. William Barry from September 2003 until May 2004. Thus, Stephen is quite familiar with the Boston area and has a good number of friends around.

Since 2004, Stephen has been the Director of Xavier House, the Ignatian Spirituality Center of Hong Kong. He guides retreats, Ignatian formation, public lectures, and conducts spiritual directors’ training program in Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan and mainland China as well. He is fluent in English, Mandarin & Cantonese. Since 2012, he is the superior of the Hong Kong community, and the consultor of the Provincial.

Stephen will be the Jesuit Fellow at the Center from September 14 to December 11, 2020.

Gabriel Ignacio Rodriguez was born in Medellín, Colombia in 1952. In 1971, he entered the Society of Jesus and in 1982, he was ordained a priest.  

From 2009 until May 2019, Fr. Rodriguez was in Rome as the Assistant to Fr. General for North Latin America. He worked with former Fr. General Adolfo Nicolás and then with Fr. Arturo Sosa. Beginning in January 2020, Fr. Rodriguez will work as the Director of the Center of Faith and Cultures, in Medellín. 

Fr. Rodriquez received his PhD in Theology from Louvain La-neuve University in Belgium in 1994. He has also served as Rector of young Jesuits in Formation from 1995 to 2000. He was also a Professor of Theology at Xaveriana University in Bogotá (1995-2000), Socius (2001-2003) and Provincial of Colombian Province (2003-2008). He has participated in the 35th and 36th General Congregations.

Fr. Rodriguez will be the Jesuit Fellow at the Center for Ignatian Spirituality until December 31, 2019.

Rev. Alberto Ares, S.J., PhD is the Director of the Institute of Studies on Migration at Comillas Pontifical University in Madrid and deputy coordinator of the Jesuit Migration Service in Spain. A Jesuit since 1997, much of his time has been spent travelling and studying migration and migrants. His work has taken him all over the world from Madrid to Boston to India to Morocco and throughout Latin America and Europe. From his first days at Comillas, Father Ares reflected a strong commitment to a Jesuit Catholic higher education, focused on service, networking, creativity, community, and academic excellence.

Father Ares holds a PhD in International Migration and Development Cooperation from the Universidad Pontificia Comillas (summa cum laude). During that time, he also conducted research at Boston College and U.C.A. El Salvador. Father Ares earned a S.T.L. with a concentration in moral theology and social ethics (Alpha Sigma Nu) from Weston Jesuit School of Theology (now S.T.M. at Boston College). He also holds degrees in Economics and Business Administration (University of Valladolid) and Ecclesiastical Studies (Comillas Pontifical University).

From 2013 to 2018 he was the Delegate of the Social Apostolate Sector for the Province of Spain of the Society of Jesus. The social apostolate in Spain includes 23 foundations, social centers and ONGs throughout more than 50 offices in 50 countries covering four continents. With more than 4,000 professionals and volunteers and annual budget of 36.5 M euros, the Social Apostolate annually accompanies more than 1,000,000 people in need.

Father Ares's main research and areas of expertise are in international migration, models of integration, migration and consumption, migration and religion, and migration and development. He teaches different courses, including classes on models of integration for two masters' programs: Master’s in International Migration and a Master's in International Cooperation. He also advises and supports doctoral candidates during the research and writing process for their dissertations. Father Ares currently serves as a co-advisor for two PhD dissertations: “Foreigners (immigrants) in Luanda (Angola): Integration process in the economic sector, construction, heath and informal economy” and “The integration of the Chinese community in Madrid”.

Inspired by the Ignatian way of reflecting on our realities, Father Ares has built bridges between academia and social work throughout his life. He was the Director of the “Centro Pueblos Unidos” with the Fundación S. Juan del Castillo (2013-2014), the Director of the Red Íncola Foundation (2008-2011), and a member of the board of Directors of EAPN Castilla y León (2010-2011).

He has also served on the boards of several different institutions including Alboan, Entreculturas, San Juan del Castillo, Hogar de San José, Atalaya Intercultural, Elosúa Rojo, Radio ECCA and San Francisco Javier between 2013 and 2018. He was also a member of the Academic Council of the Social Business Consultancy at the School of Economic and Business Sciences.

Father Ares currently serves as the director of the Chair of Natural Disaster and Environmental Migrations, and a member of the Council of the Chair of Refugees and Forced Migrants and of the Iberoamerican Observatory on Migration and International Cooperation. Since 2015, he has been part of the Consultative Committee of the academic journal Argirópolis of the Institute of Historical Studies of the Argentine Parliament. Since 2017, he has been a member of the academic field of the Criminological Observatory of the Criminal Immigration System (OCSPI) of the Criminology Institute of the University of Malaga, and a member of the Forum on Human Mobility and its Religious Dimension of the Episcopal Commission on Migration (Spanish Episcopal Conference) since 2014.

Rooted in the teachings of the Church and the Society of Jesus on service to the most vulnerable, Father Ares was the acting Director of the Migration Commission of the Spanish Episcopal Conference in 2018 and is currently a member of the Board of Directors of the Network “Migrantes con Derechos,” a role he has held since 2015. Since 2018, he has been a member of the Global Ignatian Advocacy Network (GIAN) on migration, representing the Conference of European Provincials of the Society of Jesus; and a member of the Migration Advisory Council of the Spanish Conference of Religious of Spain (CONFER) since 2014.

Father Ares was born in Veguellina de Órbigo, Spain. He entered the Society of Jesus in 1997 and was ordained as a Roman Catholic priest in 2007. Father Ares was the Jesuit Fellow at the Center for Ignatian Spirituality from July 15, 2019 to August 15, 2019.

Rev. Kevin P. Quinn, S.J., J.D., Ph.D., served as the 25th President of The University of Scranton and Professor of Philosophy from July 2011 to June 2017.  From his first days on campus, Father Quinn demonstrated a commitment to Jesuit Catholic higher education, beginning with a weeklong Inauguration celebration that focused on service, creativity, community and academic excellence.

Grounded in the collaboration and shared commitment of faculty and staff, Father Quinn’s vision was to build on Scranton’s Jesuit and Catholic tradition of serving society by educating students to become ethical and compassionate leaders who infuse the world with faith and justice.  By promoting community service and growing service-learning opportunities, he intended to inspire students to follow the example of St. Ignatius of Loyola “to love and serve in all things.”

During his first year in office, he established The Jesuit Center, a resource to engage and empower faculty and staff to share in Scranton’s mission and to keep its Jesuit and Catholic identity in focus.  The center helps to realize the cura personalis theme of the University’s Strategic Plan that calls for opportunities to help faculty and staff “understand and appreciate the sacred and centuries-old work of Catholic and Jesuit education.”

Prior to becoming president at Scranton, Father Quinn held a variety of positions in higher education.  From 2006 to 2011, he served as the executive director of the Ignatian Center for Jesuit Education and as a professor of law at Santa Clara University.  As the center’s executive director, Father Quinn was responsible for developing and overseeing programs that engaged faculty, staff, students and the broader community in advancing Santa Clara’s Jesuit Catholic commitment to integrate faith, justice and the intellectual life both locally and globally.

As a professor of law, he offered a seminar on bioethics and the law at Santa Clara and earlier taught full-time at Georgetown University Law Center from 1994 to 2006.  Father Quinn’s legal scholarship is primarily in healthcare ethics and includes book chapters and journal pieces on issues of end-of-life decision-making, stem cell research and justice in healthcare.

Father Quinn currently serves on the boards of Spring Hill College and CRISPAZ (Cristianos Por La Paz en El Salvador).  He has served on numerous other boards, including the Association of Jesuit Colleges & Universities (AJCU), Loyola Marymount University, Canisius College, Le Moyne College, Loyola University New Orleans, and Bon Secours Health System Inc.  He was a member of the National Seminar on Jesuit Higher Education from 2002 to 2005.

Father Quinn earned his Ph.D. in jurisprudence and social policy and J.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, where he served on the board of editors of the California Law Review.  After law school, he served as law clerk for Judge Joseph M. McLaughlin, United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in New York City.  He is admitted to practice law in the State of New York and the District of Columbia.  Father Quinn earned an S.T.L. with a concentration in moral theology and a Master of Divinity from the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley (now the Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University).  He is a summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Fordham University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in philosophy and history.  

A native of New York, he entered the Society of Jesus in 1973 and was ordained as a Roman Catholic priest in 1985.

Father Quinn will be the Jesuit Fellow at The Center for Ignatian Spirituality from September 4, 2018 to May 31, 2019.

Scott N. Brodeur, a Scholar of the College and member of Phi Beta Kappa, graduated summa cum laude from Boston College in 1979, having majored in philosophy and French in the School of Arts and Sciences. He entered the Society of Jesus the following year and then studied philosophy at the Jesuits’ institute in Paris, Centre Sèvres, theology and ministry at the Weston Jesuit School of Theology in Cambridge, MA (now B.C.’s School of Theology and Ministry), biblical languages (Greek, Hebrew and Aramaic) and exegesis at the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University, where he earned his doctorate in 1994. Ordained to the priesthood in 1990, he professed his final vows in the Society of Jesus in 1996. He began teaching biblical exegesis and theology fulltime in the Theology Faculty of the Gregorian in 1995, and served as prefect of studies for the Jesuit scholastics in Rome from 1995 to 2000.

He is presently professor ordinarius of the Gregorian’s Theology Faculty, an elected member of the dean’s council and the faculty’s delegate to the theology department of the Catholic University of Pernambuco in Recife, Brazil. Specializing in the Pauline corpus, Fr. Brodeur has taught the Gospel to over 4,000 students from approximately 100 countries, and his doctoral students, both past and present, presently number almost 50. He preaches and lectures in Italian, English, French and Portuguese, has taught in Europe, Asia and Latin America, and regularly leads study tours and pilgrimages to Greece, Turkey and Rome in the footsteps of the apostles. Every semester he also teaches English-speaking priests in the sabbatical program (the Institute of Continuing Theological Education) at the Pontifical North American College in Rome.

His academic interests include Pauline ethics and eschatology, Second Temple Judaism, ancient Greek and Hellenistic rhetoric and philosophy and Greco-Roman religion. He is the author of The Holy Spirit’s Agency in the Resurrection of the Dead: An Exegetico-Theological Study of 1Corinthians 15:44b-49 and Romans 8:9-13, TG.T 14, Roma 1996; Il cuore di Paolo è il cuore di Cristo. Studio introduttivo esegetico-teologico delle lettere Paoline. Primo volume: Introduzione generale, Figura di Paolo di Tarso, Prima Lettera ai Tessalonicesi, Lettera ai Galati, Lettere dalla prigionia, Lettera ai Filippesi, Lettera a Filemone, Theologia 2, Roma 2010 and Il cuore di Cristo è il cuore di Paolo. Studio introduttivo esegetico-teologico delle lettere Paoline. Secondo volume: Prima Lettera ai Corinzi, Seconda Lettera ai Corinzi, Lettera ai Romani, Vangelo Paolino, Attualizzazione ermeneutica della Parola di Dio, Theologia 11, Roma 2013.

Fr. Brodeur’s email address is sbrodeur@jesuits.org.

Joseph A. Appleyard graduated from Boston College in 1953 and entered the Society of Jesus that year.  He received a doctorate from Harvard University in English Literature in 1964.  After philosophy studies at Weston College and theology studies at Maastricht, The Netherlands, he was ordained a priest in 1966. He was assistant Catholic chaplain at Oxford University from 1966 to 1967.

At Boston College he taught English literature (1967-1997) and was chair of the English Department (1979-1982), director of the Honors Program in the College of Arts and Sciences (1987-1997), Rector of the Jesuit Community (1991-1997), and Vice President for University Mission and Ministry (1998-2010).  From 2010 to 2015 he was executive assistant to the Provincial superior of the New England Jesuits.

He is the author of Coleridge’s Philosophy of Literature, Becoming a Reader: The Experience of Fiction from Childhood to Adulthood, and Touching Mountains: The Imagination and Surrounding Country.

Fr. Appleyard's email address is jappleyard@jesuits.org.