Rocco C. Danzi, SJ

Vocation Promoter,
New York Province

Rev. Rocco C. Danzi, SJ grew up in Woodbury, NJ, part of the Diocese of Camden. He attended St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia where he first encountered the Jesuits. After graduating from St. Joe’s with a BA in history, Fr. Danzi returned to his home diocese and taught elementary school there for three years. He then journeyed to Westchester, NY, where he taught at Iona Prep with the Congregation of Christian Brothers. This was a time of intense discernment for Fr. Danzi, and thanks to the example and encouragement of the Brothers, he completed a Master's Degree in Education at Iona College. He soon thereafter joined the Associates Program of the New York Province Vocation Office, which would lead to a new chapter in Fr. Danzi’s life.

In 1989, Fr. Danzi was accepted into the Jesuit Novitiate at St. Andrew's Hall in Syracuse, NY and soon found himself falling in love with pastoral work among urban youth. After completing his philosophy studies at Ciszek Hall, Fordham University in 1993, he was assigned to the Caribbean/West Indian Parish of St. Ignatius in Brooklyn, where he worked for three years with the youth of Crown Heights.

Fr. Danzi began his theology studies at Weston Jesuit School of Theology in Cambridge, MA in 1996 and continued to do pastoral ministry among Haitian youth on weekends. During the summers of theology he journeyed to Haiti to learn the language and to deepen his sense of the culture.

Fr. Danzi was ordained in 2000 and missioned as a Jesuit priest to serve once again at St. Ignatius Parish, Brooklyn. He remained there as pastor and superior until 2006 when the Society of Jesus called him to Tertianship. His Tertianship took him back to New England and also back to one of the poorest and least developed areas of Haiti for a five month experiment in a new school modeled on the Fe y Alegría Jesuit system of insertion schools.

Upon completion of his Tertianship, Fr. Danzi was asked to join the New York Province Vocations Office team to work with Br. Chris Derby, SJ and Wendell Laurent. He travels to the different dioceses in the New York Province, to Jesuit and non-Jesuit institutions alike, to share with youth and young adults the good news of how God has great desires for them and is calling them to ministry in the Church.