Fr. Sean Carroll, S.J. named Jesuit provincial

January 8, 2021 Dear Brothers and Friends,

In the wake of these very difficult days for our country, the likes of which we will be trying to understand for some time, I am happy today to share some good and hopeful news. Jesuit Superior General Fr. Arturo Sosa, SJ, has appointed Fr. Sean O. Carroll, SJ as the next Provincial of the USA West Province of the Society of Jesus. Sean, 54, currently serves as the Executive Director of the Kino Border Initiative (KBI), which provides humanitarian assistance to migrants on the border of Nogales, Arizona, and Nogales, Sonora, Mexico.

He will begin as Provincial on the Feast of St. Ignatius, July 31, 2021. In his announcement letter to me, Fr. General said: “Humble and zealous, Father Carroll is rooted in Christ. He is a visionary with audacious apostolic imagination who can also put ideas into practice, building partnerships and institutional networks for the sake of the greater good.

Experience in Nogales, at one of the frontiers of your Province, has taught him how to work across the many borders that can divide civil society and sometimes even the Society of Jesus. Sean Carroll listens well to Jesuits, to the women and men with whom and for whom we work, and above all to the Spirit. Ignatius might call him a person of discreta caritas, a person of discerning love. Attentive to the circumstances of persons, places, and times, Sean Carroll is well equipped to guide the discernment of our next steps in service to the Lord’s mission.”

About Fr. Sean Carroll, SJ Fr. Sean Carroll, SJ, was born in South Weymouth, Massachusetts, on June 24, 1966, but spent most of his childhood in Southern California. After graduating from Servite High School, a Catholic college preparatory school in Anaheim, California, he earned a history degree from Stanford University in 1988.

The next year, he entered the Jesuit novitiate in Montecito, California, professing first vows in August of 1991. Missioned next to Fordham University in the Bronx, New York, he earned a master’s degree in philosophical resources. As a Jesuit regent, he taught social studies at Loyola High School of Los Angeles and served as a pastoral minister at Colegio del Sagrado Corazon in Montevideo, Uruguay. His Jesuit Formation continued at the Jesuit School of Theology (now part of Santa Clara University) in Berkeley, California, where he earned a Master of Divinity degree. Following his 2000 ordination at Blessed Sacrament Parish in Hollywood, California, Fr. Carroll served as the associate pastor of Saint Patrick Parish in Oakland, California, from 2000 – 2004. He then served as the associate pastor of Dolores Mission Parish in East Los Angeles (2004 – 2008) while simultaneously serving as the Province’s Provincial Assistant for Pastoral Ministries for two years. Fr. Carroll completed the final stage of Jesuit Formation, tertianship, in Sao Leopoldo, Brazil, in 2008 before professing final vows in the Society of Jesus in 2010. In 2009, after assisting with the feasibility study exploring a Province binational ministry serving migrants,

Fr. Carroll was missioned to become the executive director of the Kino Border Initiative. Named in honor of Eusebio Kino, SJ, a 17th-century Jesuit missionary who ministered in Sonora, the KBI was founded by the then-California Province Jesuits and five other religious groups on both sides of the border. During his tenure, the KBI has grown from a modest comedor (dining room) serving a small number of migrants per day to an organization that last year provided more than 100,000 meals to men, women and children who were recently deported and others seeking asylum in the U.S. Most recently, Fr. Carroll led a $2.8 million campaign to purchase and remodel a building in Nogales, Sonora, Mexico, to serve as the KBI’s new migrant outreach center. The 18,000-square-foot building, which was inaugurated in February of last year, provides overnight shelter for more than 100 people and services, including first aid, legal support and pastoral accompaniment.

Fr. Carroll, who earned a Global Executive MBA from Georgetown University in 2017, serves on the Board of Trustees of the University of San Francisco and Brophy College Preparatory in Phoenix. The process of formulating a terna (list of three potential candidates) for Fr. General was wide-ranging, and I want to thank all those who participated in this endeavor, from every Jesuit community in the Province to many individual Jesuits. In particular, those who participated in the expanded consult provided invaluable input for me and the canonical consultors, just as those who engaged in conversations with Fr. Douglas Marcouiller, SJ, General Counselor and Regional Assistant for Canada and the USA, provided helpful perspective for Fr. General.

As always, our lay partners at our works offered essential input for how the Spirit is moving in Jesuits West. Finally, let me also thank the three men who were placed before Fr. General for his final discernment, with special gratitude to Sean for the “yes” that has been a hallmark of his Jesuit vocation. Please join me now in praying for Sean as he prepares for the task ahead — that God will give him the wisdom, courage and trust needed to help us collectively grow in our following of Jesus as Jesuits West.