.- The Jesuits’ Father General, Adolfo Nicolás S.J., announced the names of his ten Regional Assistants during the meeting of the General Congregation on Tuesday morning, February 12, 2008. Among the new assistants is an American, Fr. James Grummer, who held the same position under the previous Father General, Fr. Peter-Hans Kolvenbach.
The new counselors were chosen from lists of three names that each one of the world’s regions (called “Assistancies”) prepared for the superior general last week. The job of the assistants is to advise the leader of the order on matters dealing specifically with the Jesuits in their region.
In 2005, Fr. Grummer was appointed as the regional assistant for the United States to the previous Father General, Fr. Peter-Hans Kolvenbach.
Prior to being the regional assistant, Fr. Grummer was the provincial of the Wisconsin Province, which consists of a seven-state region that includes Nebraska, Minnesota, Iowa, Wyoming, Wisconsin, and North and South Dakota. He held the post from 2001 until he was reassigned to Rome as the U.S. assistant in 2005.
Fr. Grummer’s educational background is quite extensive. He earned a bachelor's degree in history from Iowa State University and a master's in history from St. Louis University. He also holds master's degrees in divinity and theology from The Weston School of Theology and a doctorate from the University of Notre Dame.
He also taught history at Creighton University from 1989-95, where he served as rector and minister of the Jesuit Community. He became province socius (chief of staff for the provincial) in 1995 and was named provincial in December 2000.
The full list of regional assistants for Father General Adolfo Nicolás is as follows:
* Fr. Jean-Roger Ndombi (Eastern Africa) Assistant for Africa
* Fr. Marcos Recolons (Bolivia) Assistant for Latin America (Central)
* Fr. Gabriel Ign. Rodriguez (Colombia) Assistant for Latin America (South)
* Fr. Lisbert d’Souza (Bombay) Assistant for Central Asia
* Fr. Daniel Huang (Philippines) Assistant for Easte Asia-Oceania
* Fr. Adam Zak (Poland) Assistant for Central and Eastern Europe
* Fr. Joaquín Barrero (Castille, Spain) Assistant for Southern Europe
* Fr. Antoine Kerhuel (France) Assistant for Western Europe
* Fr. James Grummer (Wisconsin) Assistant for the United States
