Joseph Nathaniel Dickan, SJ, earned a bachelor’s in neuroscience from the University of California, Los Angeles. While in college, he read the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola and participated in an ecumenical prayer group, which were both instrumental in his faith development. After earning his degree, Joseph worked for a year in advancement at St. Paul High School in Santa Fe Springs, California. During the summer of 2012, he participated in the “Six Weeks a Jesuit” program, tutoring at Washington Jesuit Academy in the nation’s capital. He entered the Jesuit novitiate in 2013 and completed first studies at Fordham University in the Bronx, New York, where he studied philosophical resources. Joseph then taught math at Bellarmine College Preparatory School in San Jose, California. Next, he studied the Maronite liturgy at Holy Spirit University of Kaslik in Beirut, Lebanon. While in Beirut, he also studied Arabic at the Saifi Institute for Arabic Language. He was ordained to the diaconate in October 2023 and then served as a deacon at Our Lady of the Cedars of Lebanon Maronite Church in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts. Joseph earned his Master of Divinity degree from the Boston College Clough School of Theology and Ministry, where he will pursue a Licentiate in Sacred Theology after ordination.
