Fr. Rocco C Danzi, SJ

Fr Rocco C Danzi, SJ was born and raised in Deptford, NJ, a small town in South Jersey. His parents were Rocco and Dorothy, both originally from Philadelphia. It was due to their many stories about growing up in Philadelphia that Rocco chose to attend Saint Joseph’s University. This would be his first experience of Jesuits and it made a profound impression. After teaching Catholic middle school and high school for five years Rocco entered the New York Province of the Society of Jesus in 1989. The murder of the Salvadorian martyrs in his first months of the novitiate and a long experiment as a novice in Crown Heights, Brooklyn had a very profound impact upon Rocco and his ministerial imagination. He desired and was missioned after his Philosophy studies to work as a regent for three years in the multicultural and urban environment of Crown Heights. He would use his novitiate Spanish and begin studying Haitian Creole.

In 1996 Rocco began his Theology studies at Weston School of Theology, spending his summers working and living in Haiti. Upon ordination and for six years he ministered as a Jesuit priest in Crown Heights. Rocco would return to Haiti one more time in 2006-2007 as a Tertian to work with JRS at the border of Haiti and the Dominican Republic.  After Tertianship he was missioned as the first vocation promoter of the New York Province for three years and then assigned to Saint Peter’s University in July of 2010.

In his fourteen years in Jersey City Rocco has served as Chaplain and  Director of Campus Ministry, Vice President of Mission & Ministry and Parish Administrator at St Aedan’s Church. He is presently finishing a year long sabbatical that was focused on bettering his Spanish and learning from Jesuits and lay colleagues in Chile, Mexico and San Diego how to offer Ignatian Spiritual Programs to the Latino Community.

Rocco is looking forward to his new two part ministry as University Chaplain at Saint Peter’s University and a Jesuit team member of the Office of Ignatian Spirituality.