Jesuit Father Roy M. Joseph

ST. LOUIS—An Atlanta native, Father Roy M. Joseph was ordained a priest Saturday, June 11, by Archbishop Robert J. Carlson, of the Archdiocese of St. Louis, at a Mass at St. Francis Xavier College Church in St. Louis.

The new priest is a member of the Society of Jesus, the largest order of priests and brothers in the Roman Catholic Church, also known as the Jesuits. Father Joseph is one of five men of the Jesuits’ Central and Southern province ordained June 11. Along with his brother priests he has undergone extensive formation in the Society of Jesus, a process that can take from eight to 12 years leading to ordination.

Father Joseph is the son of immigrants from India, members of the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church. A native of Atlanta, he graduated from Emory University and went on to earn a medical degree at the University of Szeged in Hungary, where he met the Jesuits. He entered the Society of Jesus in 2005. He has worked as a prison and hospital chaplain, worked with the poor in Tijuana, Mexico, and lived in a L’Arche community. He earned a master’s degree in applied philosophy and bioethics from Loyola University Chicago, then taught science for three years at Strake Jesuit College Preparatory in Houston. He earned a master of divinity degree from the Boston College School of Theology and Ministry. He will be a bi-ritual priest in the Latin and Syro-Malabar traditions. His first assignment is at St. Ignatius Loyola Church in Denver.