Padre of the Pigskin.

In today's edition of The Hoya there's an interesting piece on GU Jesuit Alvaro Ribeiro's ministry as chaplain of the Georgetown football team. An Oxford-educated Hong Kong native whose academic specialty is 18th century English literature, Father Ribeiro is in some sense an unlikely chaplain for an American college football team. However, as Ribeiro approaches his fourteenth year as the Hoyas' football chaplain, it's clear that he has found great joy and life in the job. Finding God in all things is an integral part of Ignatian spirituality, and Alvaro Ribeiro's work with the Georgetown football team demonstrates this very well.

As a side note, readers may be interested to learn that Father Ribeiro and I have more in common than mutual connections with Georgetown and the Society of Jesus. As candidates for the Society, we had the same spiritual director - albeit twenty-five years apart and in different countries. I don't know if I would be in the Society if I hadn't had the benefit of Brian Daley's superb direction, and perhaps Alvaro Ribeiro could say the same. At the very least, I'm honored to be in such distinguished company. AMDG.