In Memoriam

Futrell, John C. SJ

posted by: tricia on Tuesday, September 09, 2008

Father John C. Futrell SJ died on September 6, 2008, in St. Louis, Missouri, after suffering a heart attack earlier in the day. John was a member of the Jesuit Hall (Fusz Pavilion) community. Internationally recognized for the workshops he developed in Ignatian discernment, John was 81 years old, a Jesuit for 63 years, and had just recently celebrated his golden jubilee as a priest.

Born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, on October 14, 1927, John attended Regis College in Denver, Colorado for a year before he decided to enter the Society of Jesus at Florissant, Missouri on August 8, 1945. During the course of his studies he earned an MA in English from Saint Louis University which prepared him for his regency at Creighton Prep in Omaha, Nebraska. He was ordained on June 18, 1958 at St. Mary’s College in Kansas. Tertianship in Belgium exposed him to life beyond the Midwest, and from that point on John looked upon himself as a citizen of the world.

John’s first assignment sent him to Indonesia where from 1961 to 1963 he labored to establish an English department at Santa Dharma University in Yogyakarta. When he finished that work, he began doctoral studies in ascetical theology at Institute Catholique at the University of Paris. His dissertation was published in 1970 by the Institute of Jesuit Sources under the title Making an Apostolic Community of Love: The Role of the Superior according to St. Ignatius of Loyola.

John joined the faculty of the Divinity School at Saint Louis University where, with Fr. David Fleming, he co-founded the Institute of Religious Formation in 1971, a 9-month program that drew participants from around the world. The institute, which still continues at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, pioneered the idea of preparing men and women religious for work with novices and young religious in their communities. When the divinity school closed in 1976, John and several others from the divinity school founded Ministry Training Services in Denver, Colorado, where they refocused the IRF program and prepared scores of priests and religious for leadership positions in their dioceses and communities.

Throughout his lifetime John traveled extensively giving workshops and retreats to religious communities in Africa, Indonesia, India, the Philippines, Australia, Canada and Ireland, to name but a few. He lectured regularly at the Gregorian University in Rome, and taught at various times at the Weston School of Theology, Boston College and Sogang University in Seoul, Korea. During the 1985-86 academic year he held the Flannery Chair at Gonzaga University.

John mentored many young Jesuits in Ignatian spirituality and gave them the opportunity to assist him in presenting workshops to religious communities intent on rediscovering their charism in the wake of Vatican II. He enjoyed visiting his many friends and sharing a good meal with them. May their prayers and ours accompany him on his final journey to savor his reward at the eternal banquet.