 Fr.
John R. Morris, OP
My interest in Religious Life occurred while I was an engineering student at the
University of Washington in Seattle. The Dominicans staffed a parish near the University
and served as chaplains to the Newman Center, one of the oldest in the United States.
There were two attractions in that early experience with the Dominicans that drew me
seriously to consider a vocation. The first was their particular life-style. It was very
prayerful and it was also familial or community oriented. I remember on many of my visits
to Blessed Sacrament Church how the Friars could be heard chanting the office in the choir
which was then located behind the altar. It was very inspiring. All of the Friars at the
Priory seemed to enjoy their ministries and exhibited a great deal of personal
individuality and freedom. As a group they were as contented and happy as one could
reasonably expect. They were a powerful magnet to one open to God’s invitation to
serve. The second attraction, a very powerful one for me personally, was I learned from
them that it was possible to communicate the Catholic Tradition on the same intellectual
level as my other university studies. For this gift I owe the chaplain, Fr. William
Dooley, O.P., a great debt. The power of this Tradition, which included a strong
theological component rooted in Scripture, and which supported a very real dimension
dedicated to social justice issues, was what I needed to experience in order to make the
move from a professional career to Dominican Friar.
Before entering the Order I worked for the Boeing Airplane Company as an aeronautical
engineer. My work was in preliminary design, that first stage in design before something
is actually considered for manufacture. The work was intellectually stimulating and
creative. Yet, before I realized it, I had discovered those attractions mentioned above
were greater than a career in engineering, and I was on my way to the novitiate in
Kentfield, California. My dream of teaching the Catholic Tradition on the same level as my
engineering background actually came to be. Immediately after completing my doctorate in
theology at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, I began teaching theology, first
at St. Albert’s College at the GTU, and later at
St. Mary’s College in Moraga, and finally at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas
in Rome.
Besides teaching, my present interest is to research and write, a task I find
challenging but rewarding. The topics of greatest interest to me are Christology, Issues
of Catholic Social Justice, Liberation Theology and Scriptural Studies.
My teaching career has been complimented with rich experiences in two parishes, both
for extensive periods of time. This pastoral experience has provided a wonderful ministry
in which to preach and it has in turn given balance to my theological interests and
studies. When my teaching duties come to an end I would like to devote more time to
pastoral work especially with the Latinos now resident in such great numbers in California
and other places in the Province.
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