Jesuit priest with isle roots celebrates 25th jubilee

By Jennifer Rector and Celia K. Downes
Hawaii Catholic Herald

The young boy running across the grounds of St. Elizabeth Church and School in Aiea in the 1980s probably wasn’t thinking about joining the priesthood.

Fast forward through grade school at St. Elizabeth, high school years at Damien Memorial School and college life at the University of Hawaii at Manoa: Jesuit Father Phillip Ganir increasingly found himself drawn to religious life and the priesthood, the “joy and happiness” he observed among ordained men.

After years of involvement in church and school ministries, plus a year abroad at the University of the Philippines, Father Ganir made the decision to join the Society of Jesus “because of the way I came to see how Jesuits worked to integrate their love for Jesus and the church with intellectual rigor and sensitivity to the poor.” He entered the order’s novitiate in 1999 — the same year he graduated from UH-Manoa.

Now Father Ganir is celebrating his 25th jubilee year of profession as a Jesuit. In an interview with the Hawaii Catholic Herald, he said he has “nothing but gratitude for this life.”

The Seattle-born, Aiea-raised priest’s jubilee is the latest milestone in a journey that’s been filled with education, challenges and joy.

The Society of Jesus is known as much for its intellectual pursuits as its devotion to ministering to the poor and less fortunate. Father Ganir spent 13 years as a seminarian, earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees in topics ranging from music to divinity, before he was ordained a priest 12 years ago — and even then, his learning has continued.

“Unlike other religious orders where they take solemn perpetual (also called final) vows before ordination, we continue our Jesuit formation after ordination,” Father Ganir told the Herald. “That final phase is called ‘tertianship’ where, after a period of full-time apostolic work, we spend up to a year to study, pray and work in order to deepen our Jesuit identity.”

Father Ganir only completed his tertianship in May, which included time in Bolivia to produce a Jesuit opera.

“The formation is very long and demanding, but also grace-filled,” he said. “It has trained me to see the ways in which God is active in my life and in the world.”

Learning in the classroom is just one aspect of Jesuit formation. In addition to his studies, Father Ganir spent much time in “short-term” ministries and projects that he said were “designed to help us explore our gifts, stretch us beyond our comfort zones and make us more sensitive to the universal mission of the church — particularly to the poor and marginalized.

This aspect of the Jesuits’ spirituality, “finding God in all things,” appealed to Father Ganir as well. He was willing to undertake their tradition of going to difficult places to minister — “to bridge different people together, for the sake of knowing Christ,” he said.

In the 25 years he has been a Jesuit, Father Ganir has been to no fewer than seven countries and has crisscrossed the U.S. to serve in a wide variety of programs and ministries.

He shared a list of them in an interview with the Herald in 2013, a few months before his priestly ordination: teaching English as a second language in the U.S. and Poland, working as a formator for Jesuit candidates in Myanmar and conducting choirs at various school levels are just a few of the things he has accomplished.

Brent Limos, one of Father Ganir’s oldest friends, told the Herald that he “never had a doubt in my mind that (Father Ganir) would be successful.”

“(Witnessing) him grow up, and seeing his great faith and passion for ministry throughout our years in school and involvement in youth ministry, it was never in question that this was his calling, his vocation,” he said.

Limos, who is the director of admissions at Damien Memorial School, has known Father Ganir since they were 8 years old and in third grade at St. Elizabeth. Their shared school years continued through high school at Damien, and though they followed separate paths after graduation they’ve remained close friends.

Limos also observed Father Ganir’s gradual shift toward the priesthood, noting that his faith life and involvement in the church since they were children — from being an altar server and lector to singing in the choir and staffing retreats — combined with his innate talents made it “more and more clear that this was a natural progression.”

Amid the many jokes and stories they’ve shared for decades, Limos said he is “so truly happy and proud of everything (Father Ganir) has accomplished, and all the lives he has touched through his vocation and ministry.”

Father Ganir returned to St. Elizabeth, his home parish, to preside at Mass July 14 in celebration of his 25th jubilee. The church was packed with faithful, family and friends, a good number of whom traveled from the mainland for the occasion.

The service was filled with passion, joy and gratitude, fueled by the choir which comprised a number of people with whom Father Ganir sang when they were all members of St. Elizabeth’s youth ministry. Their voices and instruments filled the church, and Father Ganir sang along.

Before Communion, Father Ganir also renewed his simple perpetual vows of poverty, chastity and obedience.

Jesuit Father Trevor Rainwater, assistant superior of the Jesuits of Detroit and a close friend of Father Ganir’s, elevated the Eucharist as Father Ganir renewed his vows.

Father Ganir later clarified that he has yet to be called to pronounce his solemn perpetual vows, unlike other religious orders in which final vows are taken before ordination, because St. Ignatius, founder of the Society of Jesus, “believed in the lifelong formation of Jesuits.”

The next phase of Father Ganir’s ministry will take place in Boston this fall, where he will begin a tenure track position as an assistant professor of theology at the Clough School of Theology at Boston College. He will train future Jesuits who are preparing for ordination and studying for advanced graduate degrees, and will also work with future Catholic school teachers and lay ministers.

Father Ganir’s hope for the next 25 years is to “draw closer to Jesus and his church.” He also encourages Catholics who are considering a religious or priestly vocation to “take the leap and jump in.”

“The Lord cannot be outdone in generosity.”