Jesuit Novitiate in Montreal Welcomes Five
On August 22, five men began their Jesuit journey at the bilingual novitiate in Montreal. All five men have entered the English Canada Province. Four of them have entered as scholastic novices (preparing also for priesthood) and one as a brother novice. These five men join the four staff members who lead the novitiate and the five second-year novices.
Eric Hanna
Eric Hanna is 25 years old and a graduate of the Jesuit post-secondary institution Campion College at the University of Regina in Saskatchewan. Having been interested in the priesthood and encouraged in this desire by his family and the Campion community, Eric completed a BA in Philosophy with a minor in Religious Studies. Eric has a strong interest in Catholic social teachings and Liberation Theology. Last year, Eric began a program with the Jesuits in Québec City learning to speak and write French. He also worked for six months at Loyola Highschool in Montreal, assisting as a teacher in the areas of philosophy and religion and tutouring in many other subjects. He came away from these experiences with a deeper appreciation for the help and friendship of Christ as comes through living in a Jesuit community and working in a Jesuit ministry. Eric says, "the Jesuits, like my family and friends, have been very good to me: guiding me to this wonderful new beginning. It is marvellous to see Christ working through each member of the Society I have met."
Adam Hincks
Adam Hincks was born in Toronto, ON in 1982 and is the eldest of three children. His family lived in Lesotho, Southern Africa from 1986 to 1993 where his parents were volunteers with Mennonite Central Committee. After completing a bachelor's degree in physics at the University of Toronto in 2004, he moved to New Jersey for graduate work in physics at Princeton University, obtaining a Ph.D. in 2009. His area of research was cosmology and involved several months of field work on the Atacama Cosmology Telescope in the Chilean Andes.
Daniel Leckman
Daniel Leckman was born in Laval, QC in 1973. His love for social sciences, arts and literature began at Vanier College (Cegep) and continued to develop throughout his years at McGill Univ. He graduated from McGill in 1999 with a double Bachelor in History and Russian Studies. After a few years of working in the office world, he completed a Master's Certificate in Community Development at Concordia Univ. in 2007. It was here that he discovered his passion for social justice and where he found his Jesuit vocation.
Edward (Ted) Penton
Edward (Ted) Penton was born in 1974 in Ottawa, ON. After obtaining a master's degree in philosophy he joined the Jesuit Volunteer Corps, and spent two years working with migrant farmworkers at Legal Aid of North Carolina. In 2005 he graduated from Harvard Law School. Following a clerkship with Justice Morris Fish of the Supreme Court of Canada he worked at the Human Rights Law Section of the federal Department of Justice until 2009.
Juan Trujillo
Juan Trujillo was born in Tulua, Colombia in 1987, the second of four children. He was educated in San Ignacio de Loyola Jesuit High School. After graduation, he travelled to Italy where he studied Italian at the Università per gli Stranieri in Perugia. In 2006, he and his family immigrated to Vancouver, BC. There he began engineering studies at UBC but withdrew when he felt God was calling him to become a priest and a Jesuit. Prior to his entrance to the novitiate, Juan spent a year working and living with the Jesuits. His interests include soccer, languages, working with the neediest and sharing with people.
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