Retreat Leaders

Patricia is a Benedictine Oblate of St. Scholastica Monastery in Chicago where she has been connected as an oblate for thirty years. She recently completed her Internship in Spiritual Direction here at Bellarmine. She has been teaching young children for many years and has also served as a high school teacher, college campus minister, DRE, retreat leader, and speaker on the Spiritual Life of Children. Patricia holds a BA and an MA in Religious Studies from Mundelein College and an MA in Reading/Literacy from Northeastern Illinois University.  Additionally, she has studied at Loyola University, the Catholic Theological Union, and the former Institute for Spiritual Leadership. Patricia is the mother of three grown children and the grandmother of twins.

Deborah Dellumo received her training in a 3-year Advanced Internship in the Ignatian Tradition from Bellarmine Jesuit Retreat House in Barrington, IL., and in a two-year Spiritual Companioning Program from the Spiritual Life Center in Hammond, IN., directed by Fr. Bill Creed SJ. She currently practices Spiritual Direction at St. Paul Catholic Community in Valparaiso IN. and Directs the 19th Annotation of the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius in a large group setting in the parish. She enjoys giving the Spiritual Exercises and providing spiritual formation and retreats within the parish. Debbie is a graduate of the Diocese of Gary Lay Ecclesial Ministry Formation Program. She has served as Coordinator of Liturgy and Spirituality, and Director of Religious Education for Children and Adults. She has been married for 44 years, has 4 children and five grandchildren.

No Biography Yet!

Maureen Garvey holds an MA from the Institute of Pastoral Studies at Loyola University and a Certificate in Spiritual Direction from the Siena Retreat Center in Racine, Wisconsin. She and her husband, Kevin, completed the Diaconate Training Program in 2004 at the University of St. Mary of the Lake. Maureen completed a 30-week at home retreat of the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius and volunteering twice a week as a member of the Ignatian Volunteer Corps. Maureen meets with people seeking spiritual direction in person at Holy Cross Church in Deerfield, IL and online.

A native of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Fr. Michael Graham, SJ holds degrees from Cornell College, the University of Michigan and the Weston School of Theology (now, the Boston College School of Theology and Ministry). He entered the Jesuits in 1978 and was ordained in 1988. 

Fr. Graham was Xavier University's President from January 1, 2001 to June 30, 2021. Fr. Graham’s passion for the specifically Jesuit mission of Xavier animated his presidency in multiple ways.  He collaborated with a variety of professionals in the area of Jesuit Mission and Identity to shape and support work to share Xavier’s Jesuit ethos and heart with faculty, staff and students in such a way that its approach to that work is generally regarded as best-in-class.  He helped found a campus center for dialogue that became a crucial hub for inter-religious conversation in the Cincinnati region, and whose work engaged a wide variety of constituencies and topics in areas of justice, sustainability, immigration and more. He likewise championed diversity, inclusion and equity efforts on and off the campus and helped recruit transformative leadership to embed that work firmly within the fabric of the University.  

In his retirement, Fr. Graham looks forward to expanded opportunities for pastoral ministry, especially through various retreats at the Midwest Jesuit Province network of retreat houses, and to assisting Jesuit university trustees and senior executives understand better the Jesuit mission and identity of their schools so as to lead them more effectively and in fidelity to their origins. And, of course, he’ll keep his eyes and ears open for whatever ideas for his future his Provincial Superior may suggest. 

Auxiliary Bishop of Chicago

• Ordained priest: May 23, 1992
• Appointed Auxiliary Bishop of Chicago and Titular Bishop of Abora, September 11, 2020
• Ordained: November 13, 2020

No Biography Yet!

Brad Held entered the Society of Jesus in 2006 and ordained to the priesthood in June 2017. He was born and raised just outside of Milwaukee, WI. He attended Marquette University in Milwaukee, which is where he discerned a call to priesthood and came to see the Jesuits as the path through which he was to answer that call. Since entering the Jesuits he has studied at Fordham University and Boston College. He has taught at Red Cloud High School on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and Marquette University High School in Milwaukee. Since June 2019, he has served as Pastor of Holy Rosary Mission, which encompasses the nine Catholic Churches on the Pine Ridge Reservation.

Listen to a sample of Fr. Held's retreat talks below:

Fr. Al Johnson is a native Chicagoan (South Side) and an Episcopal Priest.  Locally he most recently served as Rector of St. Michael’s Episcopal Church in Barrington.  Now he serves in the Diocese of Northwestern Pennsylvania on a part-time basis.  Al also serves as the volunteer chaplain for Barrington Countryside Fire District as well as participates regularly in the AA community in Barrington and in Erie, PA.  Fr. Al is also married to Vickie and together they have three children, two alive, Hannah and Zachary, and one that died in 1989, Nicholas.  They have been residents of the Barrington Community since 1990.

Lori Jones is a frequent retreatant at Bellarmine Jesuit Retreat House where she recently completed their internship program in Spiritual Direction. She currently journeys with those seeking spiritual direction both in person and online. She is a parishioner at St. Mary in Des Plaines having served there in various ministries. Lori received a BA in Criminal Justice from the University of Illinois at Chicago and did her graduate work at Rosary College in River Forest. She worked for 36 years in customer service for FedEx and retired in 2020. Lori is thrilled and blessed to have recently been called to be part of the launch team for Ignatian Ministries, an online resource led by author, spiritual director and retreat facilitator Becky Eldredge. It is a place of accompaniment and support for those inspired by Ignatian spirituality in their ministry work and also a place to deepen their own faith. But according to Lori, her spiritual home will always be Bellarmine.

Since August of 2017, Fr. Macke has been the Jesuit Mission Coordinator at the Jesuit Spiritual Center in Milford, Ohio. He works on Conference Retreats, privately directed retreats, and coordinates the Spiritual Direction Internship to train spiritual directors. From 2011 until 2017 he was Executive Director of the Bellarmine Jesuit Retreat House in Barrington, IL.

Previously, Father Macke had served as the Secretary for Pastoral Ministries and Jesuit Life for the Jesuit Conference of the United States in Washington, DC for six years. Prior to joining the Conference, Macke worked in Alaska for 17 years, devoting eight years to the Holy Spirit Center in Anchorage, Alaska, where he served as its executive director for six years.

Father Macke entered the Society of Jesus in 1963, earning a BA in classics and a Master of Divinity, both from Loyola University of Chicago. After his ordination in 1973, Macke went on to receive a MA in counseling psychology from Loyola, and a D. Min. in pastoral psychotherapy from the Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary in Evanston, Illinois.

Fr. Macke has also served in Jesuit formation as the vocation director for the Chicago Province of the Society of Jesus from 1989 until 1993.

Erin Maiorca has been the Executive Director at Bellarmine Jesuit Retreat House since 2019. She first attended a retreat at Bellarmine as a high school senior making a Kairos retreat. She fell in love with Jesus on that retreat. She went on to receive her Bachelor of Arts from the University of Illinois, and a Culinary Arts Degree from the Washburne Culinary and Hospitality Institute. She spent 20 years active in her parish and working in corporate America. She held positions in hospitality management, training, and communications nationally and globally for a fortune 500 company. She had a calling however, to serve the people of God in a different way. In 2012 she began a new chapter at Bellarmine serving as the Associate Director. A long-time student of the Ignatian traditions, she entered the Spiritual Direction internship program in 2016. Erin’s hobbies are cooking, reading, day-hiking, and kayaking. She and her husband Tom reside in Glenview, Il and have two adult sons.

Fr. Tim Meier, SJ was a Chaplain at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (2019-2023) and in the California Army National Guard (2006-2018) who deployed overseas without a weapon four times. Fr. Meier earned an undergraduate degree in music and biology, master’s degrees in philosophy, immunology, divinity, and theology; as well as a doctorate in molecular neurobiology from Stanford University where he served as the Undergraduate Research Coordinator and Director of the Honors Program in Biology. 

He has been clean and sober since September 1979 and has been leading recovery retreats since his apprenticeship under Fr. Tom Weston, SJ in 1990.

As a Jesuit Scholastic in 1982, Fr. Meier sang solo, a cappella, during a Mass for Canadian pilgrims at Castel Gandolfo, Vatican City State celebrated by His Holiness, Pope Saint John Paul II.

After years as a practicing physician, medical educator, and administrator, Fr. Muccino, now serves as Associate Director of Pre-Health Professions Advising at the College of the Holy Cross. He is also Assistant Professor of Medicine at UMASS Chan Medical School where he directs a course on Health Systems Science.

Throughout his Jesuit life he has also allotted time to pursue his passion for giving preached conference retreats, workshops, and days of recollection to all seeking to grow in their relationship with God.

Rev. Dr. Carol Ann Munro is an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ. She has served as a parish pastor, hospital chaplain, development officer, retreat leader and spiritual director. Primary areas of focus for her ministry have been 12-step spirituality, adult faith formation and biblical literacy. She is currently a volunteer with the Ignatian Spirituality Project, which provides spiritual companioning for people recovering from homelessness and addiction, and she serves as a spiritual resource for the Peace and Justice Ministry of St. Gertrude Roman Catholic Church in Chicago.

Father Pacwa received his B.A. in Philosophy and Theology from the University of Detroit, summa cum laude. He was ordained a Catholic priest in 1976 with the Society of Jesus, as a Master of Divinity and S.T.B. from the Jesuit School of Theology of Loyola University, magna cum laude. At Vanderbilt University, he received his Master of Arts as well as his Ph.D. in Old Testament. He is best known for his appearances on EWTN for over the last thirty years. Fr. Pacwa is a best-selling Catholic author and has written numerous books on a variety of topics about the Scripture and our Catholic Faith to continue to teach us and generations to come. To leave a Legacy means to: bequest, give an inheritance or endowment. That is the singular driving motivation for Father Pacwa‘s fervent desire to reach out and speak to groups of young Catholic adults. Father Pacwa’s vision is to create a “Legacy of Faith” for the next generation of Catholics who strive to grow and mature in their faith and become the future leaders of our Church. Father Pacwa ardently believes that personally reaching out to young adults in an intimate setting where he can connect and answer questions is the most effective way to reach across generational gaps. He reminds us all that through our Baptism we are called to be sharers of the Church’s mission which is to continue the works of Jesus Christ and to make His name known and loved. For more information visit: http://kingsservants.org/legacy-of-faithinitiative.

Listen to a talk by Fr. Pacwa.

Fr. Mark Scalese, SJ is currently the religious superior of young Jesuits in the First Studies Program at Loyola University Chicago. Prior to that, he spent 15 years at Fairfield University in Connecticut, where he was a tenured professor in the Film, Television and Media Arts program and the director of campus ministry. Born and raised in Scranton, PA, he taught elementary school art before entering the Society of Jesus in 1987. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1997.

Fr. Michael Sparough, SJ is a retreat director and spiritual director at the Bellarmine Jesuit Retreat House in Barrington.  He holds an MFA from the Yale School of Drama and a Doctor of Ministry from St Mary of the Lake in Mundelein, IL. He is the founder of Charis, a national Jesuit retreat ministry for young adults in their 20s and 30s, and has trained spiritual directors at Loyola University-Chicago.  

A prolific writer and speaker, Fr. Michael has published books, CDs, and DVDs on prayer, discernment, and the sacraments with Franciscan Media, Paulist Press, Liturgical Training Publications, Loyola Press, and Heart to Heart. He is seen regularly on Shalom World Catholic Television and is heard regularly on Sacred Heart radio in Cincinnati and WSFI Catholic Radio in greater Chicagoland. 

His latest co-authored book is What’s Your Decision?  An Ignatian Approach to Decision Making and is published by Loyola Press.  

Fr. Michael’s weekly video homilies can be seen online at www.HtoH.US.

Listen to a talk by Fr. Michael.

No Biography Yet!

The ministry team and other trained Spiritual Directors lead the spiritual direction of retreats and programs at Bellarmine.  

No Biography Yet!

Fr. Tom Weston, SJ, entered the California Province of the Jesuit Order in 1965 and was ordained a priest in 1978.  Currently based in Oakland, CA, he has devoted most of his priestly life to counseling and retreat work with alcoholics and other addicts.  In addition to his Twelve Step work, he was part of a team that taught English to ministry students in Thailand and Vietnam each summer.  “Wherever he is, Fr. Weston sees the power of God working in people’s lives, but perhaps most acutely in his recovery work:  ‘People get well.  People come back to life.  Families come back together,” he says.  ‘It’s the Resurrection—and you see it all the time.’ ” (Tyson, Gail.  “Helping Others Find Sobriety.”  Mission 2008 Summer:  pg. 7.  Print.)

Vinita Hampton Wright recently retired from a 32-year career as a book editor, the last 22 years at Loyola Press (Chicago), a Jesuit ministry. She is the author of various books, fiction and nonfiction, and has been leading workshops and retreats for 20 years on writing, creativity, the intersection of creativity and spirituality, prayer, and Ignatian spirituality. She received her certificate in spiritual direction from Loyola University, Chicago, and has a growing practice now during her retirement. Her books on creativity and spirituality writing--The Soul Tells a Story (IVP) and The Art of Spiritual Writing (Loyola Press)--continue to help writers in their vocation.