Welcoming the stranger: the role of faith in the modern era

Father Dennis Yesalonia is a native of Jersey City, New Jersey. He entered the Society of Jesus in Boston, Massachusetts in 1976 and was ordained a priest at St. Joseph Chapel at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts in 1985.

No stranger to New York City, Father Yesalonia is a 1967 graduate of Xavier High School. He journeyed to New England to attend the College of the Holy Cross and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in political science in 1971. He holds a Juris Doctor degree from Notre Dame Law School where he distinguished himself as a Concannon Scholar. Father Yesalonia has been a member of the bar of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts since 1975 and of the U.S. Supreme Court since 1988. After entering the Society of Jesus, Father Yesalonia earned a master’s degree in philosophy from Fordham University, a bachelor of sacred theology degree from Regis College in Toronto, and a master of divinity degree from the University of Toronto.

Following his ordination to the priesthood, Father Yesalonia served as legal counsel to Boston College for thirteen years and taught a seminar on estate planning at its law school. After an interim period in private practice, he returned to academia as legal counsel to the College of the Holy Cross until 2003. In 2002, Father Yesalonia was named treasurer of the New England Province of the Society of Jesus. After a term of eleven years as treasurer, he served as a chief operating officer of the Health Sciences Division of Loyola University Chicago before briefly returning to the provincial staff of the New England Province until the summer of 2015.

Throughout his many years in legal and financial administration at Jesuit institutions, Father Yesalonia regularly served on weekends as an Assisting Priest at parishes in the archdioceses of Boston and Chicago and the diocese of Worcester.

Father Yesalonia joined the parish staff in September 2015. He became Pastor in June 2016.