Jesuit Collaborative

No one ever said the Spiritual Exercises were easy.  Just ask Tony Moore.  He is a veteran director of the Exercises and a senior administrator at Georgetown University, but forty-plus years ago as a Jesuit novice, his experience of the 30-day retreat was “a lot of dryness … until the end”.  “It took me a while to use my imagination,” he says.  “I was trying to control it and then probably starting with the Passion, it started opening up for me, and I discovered something that was very deeply satisfying.”

The Spiritual Exercises have been an integral part of Tony’s life ever since that deeply satisfying experience.  He always knew that he liked being in “Godly conversations”.  Throughout his sixteen years as a Jesuit and then as a married man, now with two sons and anticipating being a grandfather, it seems Tony has been in one long and fruitful “Godly conversation”.  

Throughout his extensive studies and academic career, Tony has been interested in integrating what we learn from secular discipline with what we know from spirituality.  He did a Ph.D. in psychoanalysis and philosophy and wrote a book, “Father, Son and Healing Ghosts,” integrating Carl Jung and Ignatius in the story of his own journey to wholeness.  After teaching philosophy, spirituality and Christology and working as an associate dean for 15 years, he went to work for the first lay president of Georgetown, Dr. John J. DeGioia.    

As Special Assistant to the President, Tony’s portfolio comprises a wide range of projects.  He has co-produced video documentaries on the life of Pedro Arrupe, S.J., former Father General of the Society of Jesus, and on the dynamics and renewal of the Spiritual Exercises.  He works closely with the Office for Mission and Ministry, developing and directing 19th Annotation retreat programs, as well as an Ignatian seminar for administrators; and he works with national groups such as the “Ignatian Colleagues”, which he described as a kind of novitiate for administrators of Jesuits universities and colleges, which complements work being done on campus.  

Tony did the 19th Annotation himself about ten years ago.  Through that experience, he gained a lot of clarity around the work he wanted to do including getting involved with The Jesuit Collaborative.  “My vocation now,” he says, “is the formation of lay leaders in the Ignatian tradition, and the Spiritual Exercises are a big part of that.”  He points to General Congregations 34 and 35 with their focus on collaboration with lay people and forming networks, and says that that is where The Jesuit Collaborative comes in.

In 2005, Tony was chosen to be a member of a task force that eventually produced recommendations, which led to the creation of The Jesuit Collaborative.  Since that time, Tony has attended TJC’s major conferences and presented at most of them.  Currently, he is a lead facilitator of the Discerning the Future of the Ministry of the Spiritual Exercises process, which is proceeding across the provinces.  He says the question was and still is how to create a structure that will have the durability to keep the ministry of the Spiritual Exercises going the way Jesuit schools have kept the educational apostolate going.  He thinks the balanced or combined model of an independent organization supported by the Society of Jesus is a good one.  He sees the Society of Jesus as being engaged in a transformative process, collaborating in developing the Spiritual Exercises ministry and a structure to sustain it.  In so doing, the Society is continuing its effort to “engage the world”.  

Now it has a life, he says.  “Personally, it’s encouraging how much interest and need there is around what I like and love.”  He wants to see TJC continue to grow, to be a source of training and networking, collaborating with organizations such as Georgetown and Holy Trinity Church.  And he wants to continue to draw on his experience of training people, to help empower lay colleagues.  “It’s a real gift,” he says, “to see God at work in people’s lives.”