Reverend William F. LeRoux Endowed Chair

History

A long standing faculty member, Father William F. LeRoux, SJ came to SU in 1958 as a professor in theology. He served as dean of the College of Arts and Sciences from 1977 to 1982 and from 1982 until his death in late 2004, Father LeRoux served as an assistant to the Vice President for University Advancement, where he remained a much beloved ambassador to alumni and friends. In November 1997, Leo J. Hindery, class of ’69, and his wife Deborah attended an event that honored Father LeRoux for his 40 years of service to Seattle University and presented the university with a check toward establishing an endowed chair in the College of Arts and Sciences named after Father LeRoux. "Father LeRoux changed my life and then helped define it," said Hindery. "That was his gift to me, and it was the same gift he has given to countless others each day that he has been in the Society of Jesus. My gift to him is to help preserve in the memory of this great university and in the minds of students yet to come here the wonderful, incredible, generous, and caring legacy of Father LeRoux." In January of 1998, Dan Murphy, expressed similar sentiments when he and his wife, Joyce, agreed to provide the remaining funds necessary to establish the endowed chair.

Current Chair

Paul J. Fitzgerald S.J.

Fr. Fitzgerald was born in Burbank, California. He earned a B.A. in History from Santa Clara University (1980), and entered the Society of Jesus two years later. After first vows he went to Germany for studies, earning a Ph.B. in Philosophy from the Hochschule für Philosophy, Munich (1986) before returning to the States for two years of high school teaching in Sacramento. Then, he pursued studies for the M.Div. degree at the Weston School of Theology in Boston, Massachusetts (1991), and remained there to complete an S.T.L. with an emphasis in Ecclesiology (the study of the church). He was interested in how God draws people into faith through faith communities. If God interacts with the faithful, both immediately as persons and through communities, then religious experience and corporate discernment can and perhaps should cohere. He explored this thesis at the University of Paris IV - La Sorbonne, where he earned a D.E.A. in the History of Religions (1994), and a D. ès L. in the Sociology of Religion (1997). Concurrently he worked towards an S.T.D. in Ecclesiology from the Institut Catholique de Paris (awarded in 1999).

Fr. Fitzgerald is teaching Theology 201 Catholic Traditions in Spring Quarter 2009.

2009 LeRoux Lecture

Finding God in All Things: An Ignatian Ethos for Sustainability
Tuesday, May 19, 7:00-8:30 pm
Wyckoff Auditorium

In a greeting sent on World Environment Day to Italy's Chamber of Deputies, June 2007, Pope Benedict XVI invited the participants to "always respect creation and promote an environmental culture that is based on respect for ethical values, the protection of life, an economy of solidarity and sustainable development." Benedict was following in the footsteps of Pope John Paul II, who in over 30 major teachings on the environment called people to the "ecological vocation" and to "ecological conversion." John Paul consistently linked environmentalism to integral human development in the best tradition of modern Catholic Social Teaching. This talk will explore these calls to spiritual renewal in the cause of environmental sustainability.

The Roman Catholic Church has lately become quite active in considering the theological, ethical and spiritual aspects of environmentalism, arguing that the relationship between humankind and the rest of creation is seriously flawed, indeed, structurally sinful. There is an emerging consensus among the Catholic hierarchy, academics and the laity in general, that climate change, environmental degradation and the biodiversity crisis all have moral and spiritual dimensions. The neglect and abuse of non-human creation is ever more widely sensed to be not only a betrayal of present and future human generations but also an insult to God, a sort of sacrilege. And if the diagnosis of our current status invites theological investigation and religious characterization, then it would seem that theology can help fashion religiously motivated and spiritually framed responses and corrections to this flawed relationship between humankind and non-human nature.