Francis A. Sullivan

The Rev. Father Francis A. Sullivan, S.J.
Father Sullivan in May 2006
Orders
Ordination	1951
Personal details
Born	May 21, 1922 Boston, Massachusetts, United States
Nationality	American
Denomination	Roman Catholic
Parents	George Edward Sullivan & Bessie Peterson
Occupation	Catholic priest
Profession	Professor, theologian, ecclesiologist, academic dean
Alma mater	Boston College (B.A.), 1944; (M.A.), 1945); Fordham University (M.A.), 1948; Weston College (S.T.L.), 1952; Pontifical Gregorian University (S.T.D.), 1956

Francis A. Sullivan, S.J. (born May 21, 1922) is an American Catholic theologian and a Jesuit priest. He is best known for his research in the area of ecclesiology and the magisterium.

Francis "Frank" A. Sullivan was born in Boston on May 21, 1922, to George Edward and Bessie [Peterson] Sullivan, the second of four boys. (Contrary to his general bibliographical representation, his middle name is Alfred, not Aloysius. Another Jesuit, a classicist by the name of Francis Aloysius Sullivan, had already published his own work by the time Sullivan produced his own books. When Sullivan's Magisterium was submitted to the Library of Congress, they mistakenly identified him with this other Francis Sullivan, and assigned him that middle name, a circumstance to which he is ruefully resigned.) Raised in an actively Catholic household, Sullivan became interested in the possibility of life as a Jesuit and as a teacher through the influence of Jesuit instructors he admired at Boston College High School, as well as his uncle Louis Sullivan, a Jesuit teaching at what was then known as Weston College (now the Boston College School of Theology and Ministry). Because Sullivan had been passed up two grades early in his education, he finished at Boston College High School when he was barely 16 years old, and immediately entered the Jesuit novitiate in 1938, which then allowed entry as early as the age of 15.

The Jesuits' novitiate at that time was in the donated Berkshire Cottage known as Shadowbrook in Lenox, Massachusetts. The novitiate was devoted to spiritual instruction and development, concentrating on instruction in the tradition of the Society of Jesus and its spirituality, and being guided through the full, month-long experience of Ignatius of Loyola’s Spiritual Exercises. The way Jesuit formation was structured at the time, the novitiate was followed by the juniorate, devoted to two years of classical studies, equivalent to the first two years of undergraduate education. This was followed by two years of studying philosophy at Weston College, in a program tied to, and very similar to, the classical B.A. at Boston College. Sullivan was awarded his B.A. from Boston College in the spring of 1944. Then after a further third year of philosophy at Weston, he received a master's degree in philosophy from Boston College in 1945.