Jesuit Father James L. Connor, who formerly served as pastor of Holy Trinity Parish in Washington and who once taught at Gonzaga College High School, died June 21 at Manresa Hall Jesuit Community in his hometown of Philadelphia. He was 92.
Father Connor was born in Philadelphia on May 21, 1929. He attended St. Joseph’s Prep and entered the Novitiate of St. Isaac Jogues in Wernersville, Pennsylvania, in 1946. He received his master’s in the classics from West Baden College in Indiana and went on to study theology at the Weston School of Theology in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and dogmatic theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. As a scholastic, he taught Greek at Gonzaga College High School in Washington, and was ordained a priest on June 13, 1959.
Following ordination, Father Connor taught theology at Loyola College in Maryland for five years before becoming Provincial of the Maryland Province at the age of 39. In 1976, Father Connor was appointed president of the Jesuit Conference of the United States where he served for five years, during which time he participated at the funeral of Archbishop (now Saint) Oscar Romero who was martyred in El Salvador in 1980.
In 1981, Father Connor spent a year as a research associate at the Woodstock Theological Center in Washington, and then became pastor of Holy Trinity Church in Georgetown through 1987. He returned to the Woodstock Theological Center and served as director for 16 years. Much of Father Connor’s work at Woodstock focused on ethical leadership in business and teaching the importance of being “persons for others” in the business field.
Frank Knott, founder of Innovation Works, a Jesuit-inspired organization that helps create and sustain social enterprises in Baltimore City, remembers Father Connor as a teacher when he was a student of his in the 1960s and as a mentor who continued guiding his commitment to social justice.
“Father Connor encouraged us to look at issues of poverty, inequality, segregation and economic disparities as opportunities for service, but also as opportunities to learn from the lived experiences of others in distress as the root of potential solutions,” Knott said. “He truly taught us how to look for and find God in all things.”
In 2003, Father Connor returned to the Maryland Province office where he served for seven years as provincial assistant for Mission and Continuing Renewal before heading to Boston for four years to lead retreats for the Jesuit Collaborative.
Before his unofficial retirement in 2016, Father Connor returned to Loyola University Maryland where he taught young people how to live for others and how to find God in all they do.
