Against a backdrop of afternoon sunshine, bright flowers and silent reflection, members of the Jesuit community gathered in Wolfington Hall yesterday to celebrate the life of Fr. Joseph Sweeney, S.J., the Medical School chaplain who died last Tuesday at the age of 78.
Friends, family and coworkers spoke of Sweeney’s kindness as a person and accomplishments as an administrator – Sweeney served in various capacities at Georgetown and area high schools for over four decades.
Sweeney maintained a curiosity about human nature throughout his life, and was a fan of Louis L’Amour’s cowboy novels and traveling across Europe and Latin America.
“He was always interested in understanding other people – how their minds worked and interacted,” nephew Robert Sweeney said in an interview.
Robert Sweeney said that his uncle was most importantly a man of faith and happiest during his time as chaplain, a position he had held since 1980.
Accompanied by over 40 members of the Jesuit Community, Fr. Brian McDermott, S.J, rector of the Wolfington Jesuit Residence, presided over funeral services yesterday at Holy Trinity Church.
Homilist Rev. Lawrence Hunt, S.J., first met Sweeney in September 1944 when the two joined the Society of Jesus at the ages of 16 and 17, respectively. Sweeney was ordained into the priesthood in 1959 and the two remained friends throughout Sweeney’s life.
“His very presence was uplifting,” Hunt said of Sweeney, adding that friends referred to him as “Skippy.”
During his eulogy, Fr. Sweeney’s brother, also named Robert Sweeney, described his brother and Georgetown as “a match made in heaven.”
That relationship began when Sweeney’s came to campus as a professor in the theology department in 1959, according to a university press release.
“It was such an intellectual thrill to take his course,” said Terrence Boyle (SFS ’63), a student in Sweeney’s first course, Apologetics. “He taught us how to convince others of the truth of your position. In this case it was the truth of the Catholic religion.”
“He was one of the three or four best teachers I’ve had in my whole life,” Boyle said. “It always embarrassed him when I told him that.”
From 1962 to 1968 Sweeney served as director of undergraduate admissions at Georgetown. His nephew said that Sweeney’s tenure saw many new changes.
“His outlook was perhaps a little different from his predecessors,” he said. In particular, Sweeney sought an increase in the university’s international presence by seeking out foreign students and encouraging undergraduates to study abroad in Latin America, he said.
Sweeney left Georgetown in 1968 to serve as President of Gonzaga High School in Washington, D.C. until 1974, the press release said.
He returned to Georgetown in 1976 as the education coordinator for the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate, a non-profit research center that conducts social scientific studies about the Catholic Church, according to the CARA Web site.
In an interview, Jes Sauer, S.J., spoke of a conversation he had with Sweeney two days before his death.
“I had a talk with him Easter Sunday,” Sauer said. “I said, `Joe, I am sure this is not the best Easter you have had, but I hope that you have had some peace.’ He said, `This Easter has been amazing. I have felt God so close, the mystery so close to me, and Jes, it is good, and I have peace.'”