Roy M. Joseph, SJ, 40, grew up in Atlanta. His parents, who immigrated to the U.S. from India, are members of the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church, which follows the East Syrian liturgical rite. After graduating from high school at Woodward Academy in College Park, Georgia, Joseph attended Emory University in Atlanta before heading to Europe for medical school at the University of Szeged in Hungary. It was there that he met the Jesuits and his vocation to the priesthood blossomed. He was involved with three Catholic young adult groups, went on pilgrimages and felt that he could share his faith with friends for the first time. At a local parish, at the university and on retreat, Joseph met Hungarian Jesuits who were influential in his discernment. After earning his medical degree, Joseph returned to Georgia for more clinical practice as he studied for his board exams, but was simultaneously discerning the priesthood, ultimately joining the Jesuits in 2005. As a novice, he worked as a prison and hospital chaplain, served the poor at Casa de Los Pobres in Tijuana, Mexico, and lived in a L’Arche community, where people with and without intellectual disabilities live together as peers. He was missioned next to Loyola University Chicago, where he earned a master’s degree in applied philosophy and bioethics in 2010, and then taught science for three years and helped coach the engineering team at Strake Jesuit College Preparatory in Houston. In 2013, he began studies at the Boston College School of Theology and Ministry and received a Master of Divinity degree. Joseph particularly enjoyed his ministry as a deacon at St. Thomas Syro-Malabar Catholic Church in Framingham, Massachusetts, where he preached and taught religious education in a community of Indian immigrants. Cherishing his role as a bridge-builder between different cultures, he spent an immersion summer in India and looks forward to being a bi-ritual priest in both the Latin and Syro-Malabar traditions. He will celebrate his first Mass as a Jesuit priest at St. Francis Xavier College Church on the campus of Saint Louis University and will be missioned as a priest to St. Ignatius Loyola Parish in Denver this summer. (Central and Southern Province)