On Saturday, November 2, the Santa Clara Jesuit Community held its Annual Day of Recollection under the guidance of Fr. Agbonkhianmeghe Orobator, SJ, dean of Santa Clara’s Jesuit School of Theology (JST).
Fr. Luis Calero, SJ, superior of the community, wrote about the graces of the day: “The community reflected on the theme ‘Lord, teach us to pray.’ Bator walked us through the prayers of Bartimeus, Hannah and Elijah in Scripture to help us find elements that resonated with our own personal prayer. Additionally, he used a 2020 text on prayer from Pope Francis in which he invites us to pray like Jesus at all times (even as we are caring for people), seeking isolation and intimacy with the Father, asking for the grace of perseverance in our mission. The day was a very rich and consoling experience. All of us (Jesuits from Santa Clara and Bellarmine) felt very grateful for Bator’s soothing words, and for inspiring and helpful examples brought from his own life in Africa and the recent Synod in Rome. The day culminated with a festive Mass and dinner to celebrate the jubilees of Fr. Peter Pabst, SJ (50 years in the Society), and Fr. Dat Tran, SJ (25 years in the Society). It was a very happy day.”
Fr. Orobator became the dean of JST in August 2023. He previously served as president of the Jesuit Conference of Africa and Madagascar, responsible for leading the inter-provincial mission of the Society of Jesus in the region. He is known for his scholarship and talks on ecclesiology, theological ethics, human rights and human dignity, especially fuller participation of women in the life of the Church.
A delegate to the 36th General Congregation of the Society of Jesus and one of the most important theological voices in Africa, Orobator recently spoke at the Continental Synodal Assembly for the Church in Africa about how a “listening Church” should be home for sisters and brothers who feel left out because of marginalization, patriarchy or clericalism in the Church.
He grew up in Benin City, Nigeria, practicing traditional African religion. After visiting the local Jesuit parish as a teen for Easter vigil Mass, he became enamored with Catholicism and the Jesuit order. He saw the works of the American Jesuits as fully devoted to the service of others, resonant of an African anthropology of Ubuntu that teaches “a person is a person through other persons.” After two years of college, where he studied linguistics and African languages, he joined the Jesuits in 1986 and was ordained in 1998.
