Fr John Curran SJ died on 4 January in Murray-Weigel Hall in the Bronx, New York at the age of 91 after many years of Alzheimer’s disease.
Fr Curran served as Secretary General/President of the East Asian Conference of Major Superiors from 1976 to 1978, and Executive Secretary for the East Asian Jesuit Education Conference.
Born in New York City on 15 October 1929 to John and Florence (Moriarty) Curran, he entered the Society of Jesus at St Andrew-on-Hudson, Poughkeepsie, NY in 1946, and was ordained to the priesthood on 20 June 1959.
Jack to those who knew him, Fr Curran spent most of his Jesuit life as a missionary in Micronesia.
Fr Francis Hezel SJ, former Regional Superior of Micronesia, describes him as a “fixture” on the island: “Wherever he went, Jack was more than a friendly face. He was a welcoming presence to everyone he met.”
Indeed, Fr Curran felt a strong kinship with the local people. He made friends everywhere he went – with Germans during his tertianship in Münster, Pohnpeians, Chuukese, Filipinos, other Southeast Asians, and the Japanese sisters who began ministry in the islands while he was superior on Pohnpei.
Filipino Marian Gratia Gonzales Medalla recalls a time when she went to confession with Fr Curran. “I had some difficulty translating into English what was on my mind. I muttered a curse in Tagalog. With a beatific smile, he told me that I could speak to him in my native language and he would understand as he was assigned in the Ateneo de Manila for a considerable time. I cannot imagine how red my face must have turned! He surely understood what it meant. His smile reassured me, though, that he understood how hard it was for me.”
As Fr Hezel attests: “Jack could be genuinely called not only a man for all seasons, but a pastor for all nations.”
Fr Curran’s health condition prompted his return to the United States in 2011, after decades of service on the islands. He lived at the Jesuit health care community of Murray-Weigel Hall until his death.
According to an obituary published by the USA East Province, Fr Curran “remained a happy, prayerful, and inspiring Jesuit”. Dementia claimed his memory, but not his personality.
A few years ago when Fr Hezel brought two of Fr Curran’s close friends to see him in the infirmary, it was clear that he no longer recognised them. “But he still chatted with them at some length,” says Fr Hezel, “always with that smile on his face, never giving a hint of the confusion he must have felt.”
Fr Curran lived his life true to his vocation as a Jesuit, surrendering his liberty, his memory, his entire will to the Lord.
A memorial Mass will be held in Chuuk on Wednesday, 20 January, in the Immaculate Heart of Mary Cathedral to be presided over by Bishop Julio Angkel of the Diocese of Caroline Islands.
Related Stories:
Remembering Jesuit Fr John F Curran
Jack Curran: The fading of an old trooper