Rev. Daniel J. Gatti, S.J. '59

By Steve Vincent '75

Father Dan Gatti will be inducted in the Xavier Hall of Fame on Friday, November 7 at the bi-annual dinner at Chelsea Piers, Pier Sixty. I have known Dan for over 20 years, having first met him while serving on the Board of Trustees. After serving many years as a respected and esteemed Chaplain at Georgetown University, Dan returned to Xavier first as Father Ken Boller’s Assistant and then took over the helm as President shortly thereafter. My tenure as Chair coincided with Dan’s early years as Xavier’s President. It was obvious to me as I worked closely with Dan that his love of Xavier is real and deeply felt. Dan always brought a pastoral approach to his work and readily connected with alumni and families. Dan was particularly at home ministering to the various constituencies of Xavier whether saying mass, preaching or giving a eulogy. It is not surprising that Dan now serves as Fordham University’s Alumni Chaplain.

Dan’s fundraising efforts on behalf of the school were exemplary, overseeing the most successful capital campaign in the school’s history. (I understand Dan even fit in a round or two of golf while on the campaign trail). During his twelve year term as Xavier’s President, Dan made substantial improvements to its physical plant and carefully managed its finances.

Devoted priest, loyal son, caring steward - Dan’s induction to Xavier’s Hall of Fame is well deserved. Congratulations Father Gatti!

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Fr. McKenna, at right, in Lagos, Nigeria 1963

Rev. Joseph C. McKenna, S.J. ’35 †

By Rev. Peter Schineller, S.J.

The North-West Province of the Society of Jesus now has more than one hundred members - Nigerian and Ghanaian Jesuit priests, brothers and seminarians. This came to be through the dedication and expertise of our honoree, Father Joseph McKenna, S.J.

A graduate of the class of 1935, he was ordained a priest in 1949, and gained his doctorate in Political Science from Yale University in 1955. He then began what might have been a life-long and scholarly career as a Professor of Political Science at Fordham University.

But in 1963 he responded to a new situation and need. He was one of the three first Jesuits assigned to the Jesuit mission in Nigeria - indeed a step or plane flight into the unknown!

Father McKenna was scheduled to teach at the newly established University of Lagos. As often happens in Africa, that plan fell through. So he again adapted to new circumstances, and began to work at the National Catholic Education Section of the Nigerian Bishops Conference, as an advisor on Catholic education.

With only a handful of Jesuits on hand, he became superior of the Jesuit mission in Nigeria in 1965 overseeing its growth and development through the tragic civil war. He served in this capacity from 1965-80, establishing the Jesuit novitiate, advising many congregations of women religious – and celebrating Daily Mass at Pacelli School for the Blind with its students composed of Christians and Muslims. He also kept a detailed diary which will provide rich material for historians of that key period in the history of Nigeria.

After two years at Fordham (1980-82) he returned to pastoral work in Ibadan, Nigeria from 1984 to 1986. He organized and coordinated a national Catholic conference on the “New Era of Evangelization”, and continued research on his book on Marxism in Africa. This would be published by Fordham Press in 1997 entitled, Finding a Social Voice: the Church and Marxism in Africa.

His years of missionary labor in Lagos had taken its toll, and so beginning in 1986 he first lived and worked at Ciszek Hall, near Fordham, and then at Murray-Weigel Hall where he died in 2002.

Father Joseph McKenna took on the difficult assignments, and carried them through with skill, dedication and wisdom. A true pioneer missionary, he went where he was needed and so made a most significant – and indispensable contribution - to the growth of the Society of Jesus in West Africa.