Reverend Joseph D. Fessio S.J.

Father Joseph Fessio was ordained a priest in the Society of Jesus in 1972. He received a masters of Philosophy from Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington; masters of Theology in Lyons, France; and a doctorate in Theology at the University of Regensburg, West Germany in 1975. In 1978 Father Fessio founded Ignatius Press, the San Francisco-based Catholic publishing house which is now the largest of its kind in North America with religious books, books on tape, both audio and video. Some publications Father Fessio is involved with include Catholic World Report, Adoremus Bulletin, and Homiletic and Pastoral Review. Father Fessio is currently Provost and Professor of Theology at Ave Maria University in Naples, Florida. He also founded the St. Ignatius Institute of the University of San Francisco and Campion College before coming to Ave Maria University. He has taught both philosophy and theology courses at several schools. Father Fessio wrote his dissertation on the ecclesiology of Hans Urs von Balthasar under the direction of Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI.