Let us pray in thanksgiving for the life of Fr. James F. Vorwoldt, SJ, who died on April 27, 2025 at St. Camillus Jesuit Community in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin. He was 87 years old. May he rest in peace.
Jim was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, on January 13, 1938. He attended Xavier University for two years (1957-1959) before entering the Chicago Province of the Society of Jesus on September 1, 1959 at Milford Jesuit Novitiate in Milford, Ohio. Jim was ordained on June 11, 1971 at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Peter in Chains in Cincinnati and pronounced final vows on April 19, 1981 at Saint Ignatius College Prep in Chicago.
While in the Society, Jim earned a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from Loyola University Chicago (1965) and an associate degree in technology from the American Academy of Art in Chicago, Illinois (1975). He also took courses at the International Center of Photography in New York City (1994-1995).
During regency, Jim taught English and religion at St. Xavier High School in Cincinnati (1965-1968). After ordination and earning his associate degree, Jim spent thirty six years teaching art — especially photography — at Saint Ignatius College Prep (1975-2011). Jim spent eight years as minister of the Woodlawn Jesuit Community in Chicago before being missioned in 2020 to St. Camillus Jesuit Community to pray for the Church and the Society of Jesus.
Jim was a devoted priest who loved to help people on the margins encounter Christ. He was a dedicated teacher who enjoyed helping students express themselves through art. Until his death, he remained in contact with many former students. Not only was he proud of his former students, but many of them were his friends.
Jim loved the “hustle and bustle” of large cities, especially New York City where he vacationed each summer. In cities he saw beauty and grace in architecture and, more importantly, in people. His love of photography began when he was sixteen years old and deepened throughout his life. Through his photography, Jim was able to help others recognize and appreciate the beauty that exists in the world. He enjoyed wandering around Chicago taking photos of people and engaging them in conversation.
Jim truly cared for those with which he lived and worked. He preferred to show his care for others in actions rather than words.
Fr. Mike Class, SJ, has these memories of Jim:
Jim was really the apostle to the different, the loners, and the troubled. He taught art not only as a visual medium but also as a window to the student’s soul. Students learned to get in touch with their inner selves through what they expressed in drawing, painting, sculpture and photography. His classes not only turned out excellent artists (several are professionals today, many won competitions including one who won Sony’s International Competition) but also guided students in finding their way to adulthood. He himself exhibited his work in exhibitions in Chicago’s Art Institute where he took many courses in the School of the Art Institute. He truly believed in professional development.
Never learning how to drive he explored on foot, bus, and subway every interesting inch of Chicago and whatever city he went to visit.
He was a gifted cook and the community enjoyed many meals prepared by him on weekends. School holidays like Christmas would find him in the basement assembling several thousand tiny pieces into a tall masted model sailing ship.
Fr. George Winzenburg, SJ, writes:
Jim lived his Jesuit life with dedication and enjoyed being a priest. His instinct was to minister as Pope Francis urged us: Go to the people on the margins and smell like the sheep.
Jim’s flock were the students at Saint Ignatius College Prep. He taught them to express themselves through photography and art. His special concern was for the ones who struggled emotionally and socially; he encouraged them to be true to themselves and find a way forward. I got a sense of that when Jim told me how he dealt with chaos and uncertainty: “Don’t get caught up in what people say; stay the course; deal with what comes.”
Jim had a difficult childhood, and it affected his interactions with his peers. When he was 18 years old, he fell and broke his right leg; a piece of metal was used to mend the fracture. Years later, the hardware created a problem, and an infection took root in the bone. Jim received wound care at St. Camillus and was frustrated when doctors told him that surgery would not heal the wound. “Stay the course; deal with what comes.”
Jim was a private person, but he could be very chatty. He loved telling stories from his experience, such as a trip to Lithuania. He also told stories about students he befriended; some of them corresponded with him and that brought him joy.
Jim gravitated to the novices who did their hospital experiment with us. At a farewell party in 2024, he told the novices that the prayer they should voice in life is “thank you” and if they did that all would work out for them in the future.
At a farewell party in 2025, a month before he died, he told the novices, “There is no one way to live your Jesuit vocation.” That sums up how Jim lived almost 66 years in the Society. He chose one way to live as a Jesuit. In his heart, I am sure it truly was for the “greater glory of God”.
