Home
About Us
Retreats
Internship
Other Offerings
The Place
Photos
Calendar
Registration
How to Help
Contact Us

Sitemap


Manresa Jesuit Retreat House
 

THE PEOPLE OF MANRESA
Associates, Support Staff, Board

Jesuit & Ministerial Staff

Fr. Leo Cachat, SJFr. Leo Cachat, SJ, was assigned to the Jesuit Province of Patna, India and began teaching in Nepal in 1961. He was ordained in 1966 and became principal of a K-12 school in Katmandu. He later studied with Fr. Anthony de Mello, SJ, and Bede Griffiths, OSB. In 1978 he founded Godavari Ashram (Center for Spiritual Development), and directed retreats there and elsewhere in Southeast Asia. In 1985 he set up a Jesuit formation house in Nepal and later became the regional superior. After several years in Myanmar, he returned to the USA and established the office of chaplain to the faculty and staff at University of Detroit High School. He has been at Manresa since 2007. E-mail
Fr. Henry Chamberlain, SJ, comes to us from years of spiritual direction at the Jesuit Spiritual Center at Milford. He has a double assignment: to work with us on our normal spiritual and retreat work, and also, using Manresa as a base, to act an an internal reviewer of the finances in all the houses of the Chicago-Detroit Province. He is especially qualified for the later since for many years he reviewed the finances for the entire Society of Jesus, at least the books that were kept in English or French, a task that kept him traveling around the world. E-mail
Ann Dillon completed her degrees in Education and Religious Studies and is a commissioned graduate of Manresa’s Ignatian Spirituality Program. Her prior ministries include teaching middle school, serving on a public school board, giving liturgical leadership in her parish, and 16 years as Director of Mercy Association. She and her husband Mike have three sons and are now enjoying four wonderful grandchildren, all of whom live in the neighborhood. Ann focuses on the development of Ignatian lay leadership, especially with spiritual directors, guides for the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius and friends of Manresa. She partners with Fr. Bernie Owens in leading the two-year Internship in Ignatian Spirituality. Ann is a trained spiritual director and guides retreatants through directed retreats and the Spiritual Exercises.

Fr. Peter Fennessy, SJFr. Peter Fennessy, SJ, comes from Boston, and is now a member of the Chicago-Detroit Jesuit Province. After missionary work in Jamaica, theological studies at Oxford University, and 26 years at John Carroll University in Cleveland as campus minister, vice president, and rector of the Jesuit community, he served for six years as superior of the Jesuits here at Manresa. He gives individually directed and preached retreats at Manresa and elsewhere, is Coordinator of Individually Directed Retreats, and among other duties manages our website and our book store. Since studying Theology and Art and Buddhist Aesthetics during a 2000-2001 sabbatical at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California, he has used the fine arts to illustrate his preached retreats. In coordination with the Detroit Institute of Art's recent exhibition, Rembrandt and the Face of Jesus, Fr. Fennessy offered illustrated retreats on the same theme. E-mail

Fr. Gregory Hyde, SJ, Director of Manresa Jesuit Retreat House, a native of Detroit, entered the Society of Jesus in 1990. He has degrees in German, Communications and Theology from Wayne State, Indiana University Bloomington, Michigan State Lansing, and Jesuit School of Theology in Berkeley, California. Between 1975 and 1994 he taught extensively in Taiwan, Beijing, Malaysia and Nepal. He had been doing Retreat and Pastoral Ministry in Detroit from 2003 and worked with us at Manresa from the summer of 2004 to the beginning of 2005. Since then he has worked at our retreat house in Hong Kong. After finishing a three year commitment there, he became available to be elected by our Board in June 2008 as Director of Manresa Jesuit Retreat House. E-mail
Fr. Steve Hurd, SJ, a Jesuit of the Chicago-Detroit Province, came to Manresa to help out during Fr. Chamberlain's recuperation, and since has joined the staff full-time. He had most recently been pastor of St. Agnes, St. Bridget, and St. Charles Parishes on the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota. Steve has been retreat master at the Jesuit Spiritual Center at Milford, Ohio and at Bellarmine Jesuit Retreat House in Barrington, IL, of which he was also director.
Mary McKeon, originally from Quincy, IL, is a 1969 graduate of Marquette University in Milwaukee, WI. She taught school in the inner city there and then moved to Washington, DC, where she worked for the United States Senate. Mary and her late husband, David, have a daughter, Catherine, and a grandson who is the joy of her life. Mary has spent over 20 years as a family caregiver as well as school, parish, and community volunteer. She served on the staff at Holy Name Church in Birmingham, and worked in adult and religious education, youth ministry, sacrament preparation, and the training of Eucharistic ministers. Mary is a commissioned intern of Manresa's Ignatian Spirituality Program and a trained spiritual director. She facilitates prayer, scripture, and faith-sharing groups, and helps with our day and weekend retreats, as well as numerous special programs. E-mail
Diane Neville has as of January 1, 2013, been teaming with Mary McKeon in the roles of co-directing Women's Ministry and conference retreat support. Although new to the staff, Diane is not new to Manresa. She was commissioned as a Spiritual Director in 2005 after completing the Internship in Ignatian Spirituality. Diane is also trained in guiding others in the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, is an experienced retreat presenter, and has a guided meditation website - www.guidedprayer.org. Diane is married to Philip and has two young adult children, Brian and Shannon. Diane brings to her ministry a deep love for the Lord and a desire to love and serve Him in everyone she meets.
Br. Michael O'Grady, SJ. The vision of former Fr. General Pedro Arrupe, SJ, and the words of the 32nd General Congregation caught the attention of Br. Michael O'Grady, SJ and attracted him to the Jesuit Volunteer Corps as a 31-year-old, after years of work as a businessman. He spent a year working as a community organizer in Des Moines, IA, and in that time decided to enter the Jesuits in 1995. After theology studies in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Mike was minister of the Jesuit community in Cincinnati, and ran a community outreach program at St. Xavier there, was assistant director of Saints Peter and Paul warming center in Detroit, and now helps out on retreats at Manresa. Mike is an expert landscape and gardener as well and puts in many hours beautifying the grounds of Manresa.

Fr. Bernie Owens, SJFr. Bernard Owens, SJ, was ordained in 1972, earned his doctorate in Christian Spirituality at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, CA in 1983, taught at the University of Detroit Mercy from 1981 to 1994. Coming to Manresa in 1994, he has been Director of the two-year Internship in Ignatian Spirituality, has led an annual seminar in Christian Spiritual Classics, and guided retreatants through the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola. E-mail