Directors at Manresa

Fr. Michael Coutts, SJ
Fr. Michael Coutts, S.J. is a Jesuit belonging to the Canadian Province. He is a past Director of Manresa Retreat House and previously, he worked in the Parish of Our Lady of Lourdes — Toronto. Before that he worked for 10 seasons at the Martyrs’ Shrine in Midland Ontario. Most of his priestly life, he has been working in Parishes as well as facilitating retreats.

Fr. Henk van Meijel, SJ
Fr. Henk van Meijel, SJ is the director of Manresa. Henk joined the Society of Jesus in 2006 at age 50, after having been proprietor for 25 years of a small business, and about five years of coordinating youth ministry. His initial spiritual direction formation was at Loyola House, Guelph, Ontario. He has a Master of Divinity degree from Regis College, Toronto. He worked at the Jesuit Native apostolate on Manitoulin Island, whereupon he studied at the University of Divinity, Melbourne, Australia, with an emphasis on Ignatian leadership and pastoral counselling.

Fr. Jim Kelly, SJ
Fr. Jim Kelly, SJ, (MA, MDiv., ThM, STL) has considerable experience in pastoral care in a health care setting. Fr. Jim recently returned to Manresa after several years as pastor on Manitoulin Island.
Invited Directors

Fr. Kevin Kelly, S.J.
Fr. Kevin Kelly, SJ grew up in Ottawa and entered the Society of Jesus in 2011 after working for 12 years at a multinational pharmaceutical company where he held a number of leadership positions in Canada, the US and Europe. He was ordained a priest in May 2020. Kevin’s interests include spiritual direction, integrating Ignatian spirituality into the business context, and working with those in recovery from addiction. Kevin is a member of the Ignatian Spirituality Project in Toronto, a retreat program that supports those in recovery who have experienced homelessness. Fr. Kevin is the Director of the Jesuit Retreat Centre in Montreal, Villa St. Martin.

Fr. John D. O’Brien, S.J.
Fr. John O’Brien, S.J. has given many retreats centered on the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, particularly for young adults seeking to know the will of God in their lives and come to greater intimacy with Jesus. He is the Assistant for Vocations for the Jesuit Province of Canada, and resides in Toronto.

Fr. Peter Bisson, SJ
Peter Bisson, S.J., is a Jesuit priest in the Canadian Jesuit province. Originally from a French part of New Brunswick, he is now based in Ottawa. He currently serves as assistant to the Jesuit provincial for justice, ecology and Indigenous relations. He also works in Kateri Native Ministry in Ottawa and represents the Jesuits at the Our Lady of Guadalupe Circle, a network of Indigenous and non-Indigenous leaders in the Catholic church. He served as provincial for the Jesuits in English Canada from 2012-2018.
He has a strong interest in the spiritual and theological links between faith, contemplation, and social justice, which was the subject of his doctorate in theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, which he completed in 2002. Then he taught religious studies at Campion College at the University of Regina, 2001-2008.

Fr. Jean Francky Guerrier, SJ
Haitian Jesuit, member of the Province of Canada and Haiti. He joined the Jesuit order in Haiti in 2009. His studies have included philosophy and humanities. He was missioned to Toronto for his theological studies at Regis College. Fr. Francky was ordained to the priesthood in June 2021 in Port-au-Prince. He is an expert in communication and Ignatian discernment. He is also a well-known listener. He currently hosts the podcast “Talking with Francky” via Salt and Light Media Toronto, interviewing personalities such as the Dean of Regis College, Sr. Susan Wood and His Eminence Cardinal Collins
He is fluent in French, Spanish, English and Haitian Creole. He served as the communication and advocacy officer and project coordinator at the Jesuit Migrant Service in Haiti, providing humanitarian assistance to urban refugees and asylum seekers in Port-au-Prince.

Fr. Trevor Scott, SJ
Trevor Scott, S.J. was ordained priest in 2013 with the Society of Jesus. After his theological studies at Toronto’s Regis College in the Autumn of 2014, Trevor was assigned to work in the Ignatian spirituality apostolate. His ministry in the spirituality apostolate consisted in creating and conducting Ignatian based retreats and spirituality workshops, as well as providing spiritual direction to individual people. Trevor also served as the Ecclesial Assistant to the Christian Life Community (CLC) of Canada – an international lay religious association whose members strive to live out the Ignatian charism in their daily lives; Over the last year, Trevor attended his Tertianship year in Dublin, Ireland. Upon his recent return to Canada Trevor has been with the Jesuit Forum for Social Faith and Justice in Toronto as Director for Ignatian Identity and Mission.

Fr. John Sullivan, SJ
Fr. John Sullivan, S.J. was born in Saint John, New Brunswick in 1970. He entered the Society of Jesus in 1995 and was ordained a priest in 2007. Following his ordination, Fr. John spent another year and half studying theology and then a semester working with the Native People in Thunder Bay and its environs. From 2009 to 2011, he worked in Kingston, Jamaica as a Pastor, high school teacher and college lecturer. Fr. John completed a formation program in the Philippines and, upon his return to Canada, was Pastor of the Jesuit parish in Toronto, Our Lady of Lourdes. Fr. John is also Director of Camp Ekon. He is presently Pastor of St. Pius X Parish in St. John’s NL.

Fr. Robert Foliot, S.J.
Fr. Robert Foliot, S.J. entered the Society of Jesus in 1962 and was ordained in 1973. He has been the pastor of Jesuit parishes and served as the Superior for Jesuit Communities across Canada for over 30 years. He has done much of his ministry in multi-cultural settings, lived and worked with First Nations people and is fluent in French and Spanish. He is presently at the Martyrs’ Shrine in Midland, ON.

Br. Guy Consolmagno SJ
Br. Guy is known as “The Pope’s Astronomer”, as the Director of the Vatican Observatory and President of the Vatican Observatory Foundation. He is the author of popular books including “Turn Left at Orion” (with Dan Davis), and “Would you Baptize an Extraterrestrial?” (with Paul Mueller, SJ). Pope Francis named Brother Consolmagno the Director of the Vatican Observatory in September 2015.

Fr. Thomas Rosica, CSB
Ordained in 1986, is a member of the Congregation of St. Basil (Basilian Fathers), a biblical scholar, lecturer, author and retreat director. A graduate of St John Fisher College (Rochester), Regis College (Toronto), the Pontifical Biblical Institute (Rome), and the Ecole Biblique et Archéologique Française (Jerusalem), he has lectured across Canada, the USA, Ireland and in Israel. He was formerly Pastor and Executive Director of the Newman Centre Catholic Mission at the University of Toronto, National Director and CEO of World Youth Day 2002 in Canada and the founding CEO of the Salt and Light Catholic Media Foundation in Canada.

Fr. John McCarthy, SJ
Scientist and Jesuit priest John McCarthy, SJ, is the author of Do Monkeys Go to Heaven? Finding God in All Creation (Novalis 2015) and Do Monkeys Go to Heaven 2.0: More Reflections on Finding God in All Creation (Novalis 2017). Fr. McCarthy joined the Society of Jesus in 1983 and holds advanced degrees in Theology. He also holds a PhD in Boreal Forest Ecology, a Masters in Soil Science and a BSc in Forest Tree Biology. He regularly speaks about Christian faith and ecology and publishes on lichenology as well as ecological theology and spirituality. He currently works as “visiting scholar” at the herbarium, Department of Biology, Laurentian University.

Raj Vijaykumar, SJ
Raj Vijayakumar is a Jesuit studying theology at the University of Toronto Regis College. He comes to this retreat with a Masters in Theological Studies from the University of Toronto and a BA in psychology from York University. He has worked in Highschool ministry teaching religion and philosophy to Highschool students. He has experience working as a retreat leader and director at the Villa Saint Martin in Montreal. He also comes with a wide variety of pilgrimage experiences from working with inmates at the Regina Correctional Center in Saskatchewan, to travelling and hitchhiking across the United States and Canada.
Board Members
Fr. Henk van Meijel, SJ
Katherine Mustachi
Kay Ahn
Fr. Philip Shano, SJ
Fr. Trevor Scott SJ
Mary Kelly
Tomy Valookaran
Catherine Von Zuben