Christopher J. Ryan, SJ, 33, was born in Camden, New Jersey, and grew up in nearby Haddon Township. At St. Vincent Pallotti Church in Haddon Township, he and his family were deeply involved in parish life. He first met the Jesuits at St. Joseph's Preparatory School in Philadelphia and had a Jesuit spiritual director while at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, where he was active in Aquinas House, the Catholic student organization. Ryan began discerning his vocation while spending his sophomore spring semester studying in Prague; he joined the Jesuits immediately after earning his bachelor’s degree in geography in 2004. As a novice, he tutored students at Cheverus High School in Portland, Maine, and then earned a master’s degree in philosophy at Saint Louis University. He spent the next two years teaching at the Nativity School of Worcester in Massachusetts, followed by two years serving in the faculty grants office and assisting with student retreats at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester. Missioned in 2013 to the Boston College School of Theology and Ministry, he earned a Master of Divinity degree and will finish his Licentiate in Sacred Theology there next spring. Ryan serves on the leadership team for Jesuit Connection, planning social, spiritual and service activities for alumni of Jesuit schools and the Jesuit Volunteer Corps in Boston. He has served as a deacon at Immaculate Conception Parish in Everett, Massachusetts, helping with adult catechism and preaching and serving at Masses and baptisms, almost entirely in Spanish. During the summer of 2013, he traveled to Brazil to volunteer with MAGIS and World Youth Day, and during the summer of 2015, Ryan and a group of Jesuits accompanied migrants along the Central American migration corridor from Guatemala through Mexico into Arizona and the Central Valley of California. Following ordination, he will serve at St. Raphael the Archangel Catholic Church in Raleigh, North Carolina, for the summer. His first Mass will be at St. Vincent Pallotti, and he will also celebrate a Mass of Thanksgiving in Spanish at Immaculate Conception Parish. (Northeast Province)