Father Joseph Daoust

By Voice Staff

Jesuit Father Joseph Daoust, president of the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley (JSTB) for the past 10 years, will be stepping down from that post this summer to assume new responsibilities for his community in Rome.

The priest, who participated in the Jesuits’ recent General Congregation, was appointed as one of a dozen General Counselors to advise Father Adolfo Nicolas, who was elected superior general of the Jesuits in January. Father Daoust was also named the Delegate to Father Nicolas and will oversee Jesuit international institutions and Jesuit communities in Rome and Jerusalem. The Jesuit Church of the Gesu in Rome is the site of the tomb of St. Ignatius of Loyola, the Jesuit founder.

Father Daoust will serve as the Provincial Superior for institutions entrusted to the Jesuits by the Holy See. These include the Pontifical Gregorian University, the Pontifical Biblical Institute, the Pontifical Oriental Institute, Vatican Radio, and the Vatican Observatory.

He will also have responsibility for the College of St. Robert Bellarmine and the International College of the Gesu. Father Daoust will have religious and apostolic responsibility for approximately 350 Jesuits who are working or studying at these institutions.

Although he had been thinking that it was time to move on after 10 years at the JSTB, Father Daoust told The Voice that his new assignments came as a surprise. “I had been planning on a little more leisurely transition,” he said with a laugh.

The years Father Daoust spent in Berkeley have been anything but leisurely. During his tenure he oversaw a successful $40 million capital campaign that resulted in the renovation and expansion of the school’s campus.

The school constructed a new chapel, created endowments that fund full scholarship for lay students and added new faculty chairs in Interreligious Dialogue and Art History and Religion.

Under his leadership JSTB developed a theological immersion program that regularly sends students and faculty to share faith experiences with people in Mexico, Guatemala, Indonesia, the Philippines, China, and India.

The school also shares its theological research and encouraged dialogue with the wider Church through its popular “Theology in the City” lecture series.

Father Daoust led the Jesuit School in its formation of a partnership with parishes in the West Oakland Deanery that gives JSTB students an opportunity to develop pastoral and ministerial skills while serving in parishes that are economically challenged and ethnically rich.

Through the partnership JSTB assumed pastoral responsibility for St. Patrick Parish, where Jesuit Father Gregory Chisholm serves as pastor and is a JSTB faculty member.

As he prepares to move to Rome, Father Daoust expressed his affection for his years in the East Bay. “I loved my time here,” he said. To him the most memorable accomplishment of his tenure is what JSTB does every year — “We turn out about 50 to 75 wonderful people, both lay and ordained, to minister in the Church. That is the most fabulous thing.”

Jesuit Father Kevin Burke, current dean at JSTB, will become acting president in August while arrangements are made for a new president.

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