Province News

Fr. Philip Chmielewski, SJ, appointed to Sir Thomas More Ethics Chair at Loyola Marymount University
Tuesday, July 02, 2002

Fr. Philip Chimielewski
Fr. Philip Chmielewski, SJ, recently accepted an appointment to the Sir Thomas More Ethics Chair in the College of Science and Engineering at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, CA. In recent years Loyola Marymount has created a chair for ethics in each of its undergraduate schools to help foster ethics as critical content in all undergraduate university course offerings.

Dr. Joseph Jabbra, Academic Vice President at Loyola Marymount is excited about Fr. Chmielewski’s appointment, “He’s obviously incredibly bright. He’s quite the intellectual we need here, and he’s quite well versed in Ethics.” Fr. Chmielewski, currently residing on a Navajo reservation in Northern Arizona, is completing a year of research on the dynamics that arise when different cultures meet and begin to inform, influence, and educate one another.

Fr. Ben Urmston, SJ, director of peace and justice programs at Xavier University, says that through his research and writing in Arizona, Fr Chmielewski “is helping to fashion a vision of the kind of world we would like to see in 2030. His expertise in social ethics combined with his immersion in the Navajo culture is helping us to unite and further the basic unity of the human family.”

Prior to his research project in Arizona Fr. Chmielewski served as a professor of religious social ethics at Loyola University Chicago. At Loyola Marymount, his role, according to Dr. Jabbra, will be to work closely with the faculty to develop curriculum that will prepare Loyola’s students not only for careers in engineering, science, or business, but will also prepare them to make decisions guided by ethical principles in their work.

Dr. Jabbra added that having a Jesuit priest in this particular chair will undoubtedly benefit the university and its students.