A Bit About Me

My Family

My parents were Fred and Grace Alexander. Three of my grandparents came to the U.S. from Sicily. My father's mother was born in Omaha. Her parents came from Calabria, in southern Italy. When I was growing up, my mother was deeply involved in our parish. She helped the pastor work with prostitutes in our neighborhood, and helped with all kinds of parish parties and fund raisers. My father worked as a department manager at Sears for many years. He had thought about priesthood when he was young. When the Permanent Diaconate was restored after Vatican II, my dad was in the first class and was ordained before me. He retired early and gave himself to ministry, full-time. In addition to his service in his parish, he served as a hosptial chaplain. My father suffered with a parkinsonism disease for the last 15 years of his life and my mother took care of him at home, until his death in 2000. She died a year and a half after he did, the victim of a hospital accident.

My Background

I grew up in Omaha, right in the neighborhood around Creighton, about eight blocks from where I now work. Our house was about where the on-ramp is to I-480 - just behind Burger King. Of course, in those days, there was neighborhood between Creighton and there.

I went to St. John's grade school, which was located right about at the east end of the Student Center. After St. John's, I went to Creighton Prep, and was on the speech and debate team.

My parents became great friends with a number of Jesuits in the parish and at the high school. We had Jesuits at our home for dinner all the time. They inspired me and taught me so much about life. They, and my parents, are responsible for God's being able to call me to join the Jesuits.

After Prep, I entered the Society of Jesus. We spent our first four years about 30 miles west of Minneapolis, near the town of St. Bonifacius. I studied Philosophy at St. Louis U. and then did a Master's Degree in Spirituality there. After those studies, I taught for 3 years at St. Francis Mission and Holy Rosary Mission on the Rosebud and Pine Ridge Reservations in southwestern South Dakota. During the summers of graduate school and teaching, I directed retreats in various parts of the country. One of those summers, I worked as a hospital chaplain at Loyola Chicago's Foster G. McGraw Medical Center.

I studied theology in Toronto. During my last year there, I worked as a student therapist at the Addiction Research Foundation for the Government of Ontario. One of my summers in theology, I lived and worked at a L'Arche community near Winnipeg. This was a community of mentally handicapped adults and persons who came to live together in community, and to discover our own handicaps.

My Previous Assignments

After I was ordained, in June of 1979, I was assigned to be Director ofVocations for our Wisconsin Province of the Jesuits. Though I traveled a lot during those five and a half years, I lived at our Novitiate in St. Paul, and taught the novices. After that, I was Assistant Provincial for the Province for two and a half years, and Director of Formation for all the Jesuits in studies, for three years.

For the next eight years I was Pastor of Gesu Parish in Milwaukee. Those were wonderful years. It is a downtown parish and the largest parish the Jesuits sponsor in this Province. There were 1400 households registered from throughout the city of Milwaukee. There were 800 individual people involved in ministry there. I learned lots about 'partnership in ministry' at Gesu. We had a large Jesuit and lay staff, and involved hundreds of parishioners in the leadership, life and ministry of the parish.

Coming to Creighton

Maureen and I coordinate Creighton's Online Ministry website.  It has been an incredible experience of the grace of this medium for ministry.

On weekends, I serve at St. Robert Bellarmine Parish, where my father was a Permanent Deacon for over 20 years.