Remembering Fr. John Coll, SJ, former pastoral minister at Wheeling Jesuit University
Rev. John J. Coll, SJ, was born in Pittsburgh, Pa. on June 11, 1926. He
graduated from Central Catholic High School in Pittsburgh and entered the
Society of Jesus at the Novitiate of St. Isaac Jogues in Wernersville, Pa. in 1944.
He attended Woodstock College in Woodstock, Md., where he received a Master’s in
Teaching, a Doctorate in German and a Licentiate of Sacred Theology. He was
ordained a priest on June 17, 1956.
As
a Jesuit scholastic, Fr. Coll taught German and History at Scranton Prep.
Following ordination, he became a professor of Ethics at Wheeling Jesuit
University until 1967 when he served as minister for Woodstock College. He then
served a year as minister for Gonzaga High School in Washington, D.C., and for
four years as pastoral minister at Old St. Joseph’s Church in Philadelphia.
Following
a three-year assignment as minister at Loyola College in Baltimore from 1975 to
1978, Fr. Coll returned to his home town of Pittsburgh where he served for 18
years as associate pastor of St. Paul’s Cathedral. He then returned to Wheeling
Jesuit University and served as a pastoral minister and assistant to the rector
from 1997 to 2011.
Fr.
Coll moved to the Colombiere Jesuit Community in Baltimore in 2011 and then to
Manresa Hall Community in Philadelphia in 2016, praying for the Church and the
Society of Jesus. He died on July 30, 2017 at the age of 91.
December 3, 2019 — Today is the feast day of St. Francis Xavier, SJ, one of the first Jesuits, who is considered by some to be the greatest missionary since the time of the Apostles.
Nov. 18, 2019 - Each year on Dec. 3, Jesuits worldwide celebrate the feast of St. Francis Xavier, who was sent to the East by St. Ignatius as a missionary and would travel to India as well as Japan. Dec. 3, 2019, is Giving Tuesday, an opportunity for people to support organizations like our Jesuit province.
Nov. 8, 2019 - Pope Francis recently addressed 210 participants in the congress of the 50th anniversary of the Social Justice and Ecology Secretariat, accompanied by the Superior General of the Society of Jesus, Father Arturo Sosa SJ.
Nov. 6, 2019 - Last month, hundreds of Jesuit-educated alumni and friends of the Society gathered at 23 parishes and schools for the fifth annual Jesuit Friends and Alumni Sunday Masses.
Father General Arturo Sosa, SJ, has officially decreed the uniting of the Maryland and USA Northeast Provinces into one USA East Province, effective July 31, 2020.
Rev. John J. Coll, SJ, was born in Pittsburgh, Pa. on June 11, 1926. He
graduated from Central Catholic High School in Pittsburgh and entered the
Society of Jesus at the Novitiate of St. Isaac Jogues in Wernersville, Pa. in 1944.
He attended Woodstock College in Woodstock, Md., where he received a Master’s in
Teaching, a Doctorate in German and a Licentiate of Sacred Theology. He was
ordained a priest on June 17, 1956.
