Province News

New Jesuit Priest Ordained
Saturday, June 09, 2001

The Chicago Province Jesuits welcomed a new priest into the Society of Jesus. Rick Millbourn was ordained on June 9, 2001, in a ceremony at Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio. The ordination ceremony took place in the University's Bellarmine Chapel. Bishop Carl K. Moeddel, Auxiliary Bishop of Cincinnati, presided.

The new Fr. Rick Millbourn, S.J., was born in 1968 in Finneytown, a township on the outskirts of Cincinnati, Ohio. He is the son of Steve and Lynne Millbourn who currently live in Lawrenceburg, Indiana, and the younger brother of Robert Millbourn, Jr. He graduated from Cincinnati's St. Xavier High School in 1986 and entered the Jesuit novitiate in Berkley, Michigan, in 1988. He completed his Bachelor's degree in communications, specializing in journalism and photojournalism, at Loyola University, New Orleans, in 1992. After a year of graduate philosophy studies at Loyola University, Chicago, Fr. Millbourn worked as a part-time campus minister and religious studies teacher at Brebeuf Jesuit Preparatory School in Indianapolis, Indiana.

In 1996, Fr. Millbourn worked for a year as chaplain at the Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, Illinois, and completed a 12-month Clinical Pastoral Education program for hospital chaplains. In 1997, he entered the Jesuit School of Theology in Berkeley, California and received a Master of Divinity degree in 2000.

In the fall of 2000, he began his ecumenical studies at the Irish School of Ecumenics at Trinity College, Dublin, where he is currently working on a master's thesis. After ordination and completion of his thesis, he will become Assistant Principal for School Life at Brebeuf Jesuit Preparatory School in Indianapolis.

Enthusiastic about his assignment to Brebeuf, Fr. Millbourn said, "As an ecumenical and interfaith school, Brebeuf addresses the spiritual needs of people of all faiths ¾ from students of various Christian faiths to Jews, Muslims, Hindus and those who practice other religions as well. I think that all Catholic schools are called to address the concerns of ecumenism. I am very interested in learning how to address issues of faith in a world where not all Christians are Catholic and not all people are Christian."

Co-presiders at the ordination liturgy included Very Rev. Richard J. Baumann, S.J., provincial superior of the Chicago Province of the Society of Jesus, and Rev. Richard H. McGurn, S.J., provincial assistant for formation.

After ordination, Fr. Millbourn joins the ranks of more than 250 Jesuits serving in apostolates throughout the Chicago Province's four-state area and its missions in Peru, India and Nepal.