Gonzalez, Charles G. (Father)

February 23, 2019

Jesuit Father Charles G. Gonzalez, professor of Theology, chaplain, associate pastor and leader of Hispanic ministries, has died at 85.

Gonzalez, Charles G.

Jesuit Father Charles G. Gonzalez, professor of Theology, chaplain, associate pastor and leader of Hispanic ministries, has died at 85. Jesuit Father Charles G. Gonzalez, was born in Montpelier, Vt. on January 22, 1934. He attended St. Michael’s High School in Montpelier and after graduating from Georgetown University, entered the Society of Jesus at the Novitiate of St. Isaac Jogues in Wernersville, Pa. in 1956. He received a Licentiate in Philosophy from Saint Louis University, a Bachelor of Sacred Theology from Woodstock College in Maryland and a Master of Theological Studies from Southern Methodist University in Dallas. He was ordained a priest on June 10, 1967.

After a year of teaching Theology at Saint Joseph’s University following ordination, Fr. Gonzalez served for ten years as the first Catholic chaplain at Wesleyan University in Connecticut. He then moved to the University of Scranton where he was Rector through 1987. In 1988, he returned to his alma mater to serve Georgetown University as Rector for six years.

In 1994, Fr. Gonzalez spent a year in Madrid, teaching Theology through an extension of Saint Louis University. Upon his return, he began a nine-year assignment at Sacred Heart Church in Camden, NJ, as associate pastor, where he ministered to some of the most marginalized people he had known. During that time, from 2000 to 2004, he was also the executive director of the Jesuit Urban Center in Boston.

In 2005, Fr. Gonzalez came home to Georgetown where he has lectured in Theology and been active in Hispanic ministry throughout Washington, D.C. He has also offered weekly Mass in Spanish at a local prison.

Fr. Gonzalez passed away on February 23, 2019 at the age of 85.

David Inczauskis, SJ

David was born in Hinsdale, Illinois, and raised in Homer Glen, Illinois. A graduate of Wake Forest University, he met the Jesuits while studying liberation theology at Oxford University and joined the Society after graduation in 2014. 

As a Jesuit, David has been particularly active in academics: studying or working at a university every year since taking first vows in St. Paul, Minnesota, in 2016. He published two books in Spanish, one in 2019 on Honduran theater and one in 2022 on Honduran cinema. His current research as a doctoral student in philosophy at Loyola University Chicago focuses on critical phenomenology and Latin American liberation philosophy. Also at Loyola Chicago, he serves as chaplain to the men’s volleyball team and to the Spanglish Christian life community. Off campus, he works as a community organizer with the Coalition for Spiritual and Public Leadership.

After ordination, David will continue as a doctoral student in philosophy at Loyola University Chicago.