"Holy Week is always hot here, but the current temperatures of 100 Fahrenheit are more penance than we need, even during Lent!”
So the Rev. Joseph E. Mulligan has reported from Managua in recent days.
When I interviewed him in the Nicaraguan capital just before Easter 15 years ago, it was hot, although not anywhere close to 100 degrees.
As it happened, the freezing winters during his time as a federal prisoner at the facility at Sandstone, Minn., came back to him in the conversation.
The most difficult aspect of that experience, however, 90 miles north of the Twin Cities, was the feeling of being cut off from his parents and his sister and her family.
The New York-born seminarian — who’d joined the Society of Jesus in 1963 in Detroit, where his family had relocated in the late 1950s — called his parents from Cook County Jail in 1969. He was one of the Chicago 15, who on May 25 of that year had removed draft-board files from offices on the South Side and destroyed them. The protesters against the Vietnam War waited for the police to arrive and then surrendered.
After a month-long trial in 1970, he was sentenced to five years in prison and with another five years probation. He was released on parole in 1972.
Mulligan, who has recently published an eBook, “Luke: Intro to his Gospel and to Jesus’s Call to do Justice” (for a free copy, see below), was ordained a priest in 1973.
Joseph E. Mulligan S.J. speaking via Zoom to students at the University of Detroit Mercy in November 2023. See a link to it below.
Writes Bill O’Brien in an introduction to the eBook, “For 60 years as a Jesuit, he has lived the Gospel that calls us to struggle for justice, to welcome the stranger, to build and sustain community, to prioritize those who are marginalized and impoverished, to hope for and work for the coming of the Kingdom of God among the people. The Jesuits are very blessed indeed.”
Mulligan writes about “modern-day disciples” in his book and the Detroit resident O’Brien, the executive director of Strangers No Longer, was among those friends who encouraged him to have elements of his own biography in the telling, which includes the last 39 years “living and working in small Christian communities and among the disabled in Nicaragua.”
The author released the eBook initially as three volumes and in his introduction to the third, he wrote, it “will go from ‘Jesus’s Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem’ at Luke 19:28 to the end of this Gospel; then we will take a look at the early chapters of Acts of the Apostles, which is really the second volume of Luke’s literary work.
“Then, after looking at the Last Judgment passage in the Gospel of Matthew (25:31-46), we will meet some modern-day disciples who put what we have said in this book into practice.
“In the final section (‘Wrapping Up’), I will offer some reflections by me and others on important issues which come up in our study of Luke.”
Mulligan says, “It does not presume any acquaintance with the bible or theology. It’s especially useful for parish or community study groups or for theology teachers as an introduction to theology and to Scripture.”
“I could imagine doing a retreat, using Joe’s book as a guide to deepening my relationship to the historical Jesus,” writes O’Brien, who is married to Vicky Kovari and has two grown children. “Joe’s book is a spiritual guide, a look at his life and the lives of many others who are touched by Luke’s story of Jesus and develop their own relationship with the Lord.”
Mulligan has written: “As my own growth in understanding of the human Jesus has brought me to a deeper love for him and a more serious commitment to try to follow him, I hope that my reflections may help readers too to enjoy a more personal friendship with the Lord, to grow in their commitment to serve him in the poor and the outcast, and to struggle with him for a more just world.”
The Jesuit said, “I dabble also in making political/social and biblical videos, most in English, some in Spanish. My channel is youtube.com/josephmulligan1.
“Check out Bob O’Brien [brother of Bill] singing my new version of ‘How Great Thou Art,’ with one stanza axed for theological reasons and four more added by me.
“Speaking of films,” he said, “I declare that ‘Cabrini’ [the critically acclaimed movie released in 2024] is the best picture of all time and the one that inspired me the most.”
Mulligan added, “According to its maker, Angel Studios, ‘it is based on the rich, inspiring true story of Francesca Xavier Cabrini, the first American saint. The film represents the very real events of Cabrini’s life, her mission, and her service among the Italian immigrants of New York City.’”
The New York-born Jesuit himself has written, “I have always kept one foot and part of my mind and heart in the U.S., spending a month or two each year with relatives and friends, giving talks, raising funds, and otherwise keeping in touch with the reality of my homeland.”
Joseph E. Mulligan S.J.
Date of birth: June 20, 1943
Place of birth: Astoria, New York City (Our Lady of Mt. Carmel parish – the great class of 1957!)
Spouse: Jesus, I like to think.
Residence: Managua, Nicaragua
Published works: “The Nicaraguan Church and the Revolution,” 1991; “The Jesuit Martyrs of El Salvador: Celebrating the Anniversaries” (Catholic Worker Reprint), 2010; “Luke: Intro to his Gospel and to Jesus’s Call to do Justice.”
What is your writing routine? Are there ideal conditions?
I like to have a chunk of time of two-three hours. If I can keep at it regularly for some period of time, the words and ideas come more readily.
What advice do you have for aspiring writers?
Be a social prophet, motivating people to organize for social and political change.
Name three books that are memorable in terms of your reading pleasure.
Gospel of Luke; “Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius” (purpose of meditating on the gospels: I will “ask for an intimate knowledge of our Lord, who has become man for me, that I may love Him more and follow Him more closely”); “Hymn of the Universe,” by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, SJ; “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence,” 1967, and “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” 1963, by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
What book are you currently reading?
Gospel of Mark.
If you could meet one author, living or dead, who would it be?
Luke the Evangelist; Gandhi.
What book changed your life?
Documents of the Second Vatican Council (1962-65) – Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World “Gaudium et Spes.” See here. I entered the novitiate in 1963 in the midst of the Second Vatican Council, a movement of the Spirit which renewed the Church and opened it to the world. This Pastoral Constitution called for active involvement of Christians in the service of the needy and in transformation of the world. Also, “The Long Loneliness,” autobiography of Dorothy Day.
What is your favorite spot in Ireland?
Kilmihil, Co. Clare, where my maternal grandparents. John Lillis and Jane Melican, were born; my third cousins treated me royally (whoops!) on my visit; Kilmainham Gaol Museum, Dublin.
You're Irish if... you remember the centuries of oppression of Ireland and continue the struggle against all forms of oppression today in whatever land -- with a song in your heart, in the lilt of laughter, for a cause you proudly cherish, and with your spirits never down.
Email Joseph Mulligan at joemullj@gmail.com for a link to a free copy of his eBook.
