Christopher M. Staab, SJ, 40, a native of Cleveland, grew up in a traditional Irish-German Catholic family. At Saint Ignatius High School in Cleveland, Staab first met the Jesuits and later connected with the Society at John Carroll University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in English in 1998. After graduation, Staab worked for one year in Ireland for L’Arche, an organization where volunteers and men and women with disabilities live together in community, and then returned to the U.S. and earned a master’s degree in English at the University of Pittsburgh. He served as an editor at West Group, a publishing company in Cleveland, before working for the Detroit Province of the Society of Jesus while discerning his vocation to the priesthood. In 2005, Staab entered the Jesuits and, as a novice, taught English at Loyola High School in Detroit and learned Spanish in Cochabamba, Bolivia. In 2010, he studied philosophy for two years in Lima, Peru, at Universidad Antonio Ruiz de Montoya. For one year, he lived in the small city of Jaén, Peru, working in campus ministry at a Fe y Alegría school. Staab then spent two years at Cristo Rey Jesuit High School in Chicago, teaching English and Spanish and helping with the soccer and cross-country teams. Missioned next to Belo Horizonte, Brazil, for studies at the Jesuit Faculty for Theology, he earned a bachelor’s degree while working with confirmation and youth groups at St. Francis Xavier Parish and serving as a deacon at a Jesuit retreat house near São Paulo, Brazil. Following ordination, Staab will work at the Church of the Gesu in University Heights, Ohio, for the summer and will then attend Universidad Pontificia Comillas in Madrid to earn a master’s degree in Ignatian spirituality and a Licentiate in Sacred Theology. He will celebrate his first Mass at St. Procopius Catholic Church in Chicago.