Among the four Loyola High School alumni to be honored at a dinner Oct. 27 is a priest whose ministry can truly be described as unique.
Jesuit Father Jon D. Fuller (class of 1971) is currently a Jesuit priest of the California Province of the Society of Jesus. He is also an HIV/AIDS specialist doctor at the Boston Medical Center; associate director of the Clinical AIDS program; an associate professor of Medicine at Boston University School of Medicine; and an adjunct faculty member at both the Harvard Divinity School and the Weston Jesuit School of Theology in Cambridge, Mass.
And, the 54-year-old physician is the founding director of the National Catholic AIDS Network and still serves as a member of the International Working Group on HIV/AIDS of Caritas Internationalis in Rome.
Father Fuller is one "whose personal life and professional career exemplify the ideals of St. Ignatius Loyola," said a statement for the school in announcing the Oct. 27 dinner, to be held at the Los Angeles campus. The other 2007 recipients of Loyola's Cahalan Award are:
---Lorcan Barnes ('85) currently president of Christian Brothers High School in Sacramento and formerly a teacher in the Jesuit Volunteer Corps and at Loyola.
---Tony Plana ('70), award-winning stage, screen, and television actor and co-founder and executive artistic director of the East L.A. Classic Theatre, a group of Hispanic American theatre professionals.
---Michael Smith ('62), businessman dedicated to Catholic education and many charitable endeavors including the Knights of Malta Free Clinic, Loyola Marymount University, Good Shepherd Shelter and Dolores Mission.
Father Fuller, ordained to the priesthood in 1990, has provided health care for individuals living with HIV/AIDS since 1983. In his work at Boston Medical Center, he manages the Center for HIV/AIDS Care and Research Thursday AIDS Conference Series and coordinates elective rotations of medical students and residents through the Center for Infectious Diseases.
As a Jesuit priest, Father Fuller is particularly interested in how HIV prevention approaches can be analyzed and supported from the context of Catholic moral theology. He serves as a consultant to international Catholic development and relief agencies on HIV-related policies.
"AIDS has moved from a public health issue to a development crisis and finally to a security issue because it really destroys social capital --- the knowledge base that makes a society work," he said in a recent presentation on Catholic moral theology and HIV prevention at UC Davis School of Medicine. "It weakens institutions across society, especially armed forces, education and health, and inhibits private sector growth, leading to widening poverty."
Father Fuller helped to organize and was a participant in a four-day consultation in January 2006, bringing together members of the United Nations and Catholic AIDS organizations. Approximately 30 staff members from WHO, UNAIDS, the World Bank and the International Labor Organization met at UN headquarters in Geneva with 60 representatives of Catholic funding agencies and partners running programs in 28 countries on 6 continents.
Proceeds from this year's dinner will support Loyola's faculty. The event begins at 6 p.m. in the Malloy Commons. For information, call (213) 381-5121. |