Fr. James Hederman, SJ, Professes Final Vows
Fr. James J. Hederman, SJ, professed final vows on June 13, 2008. The Very Reverend Thomas J. Regan, SJ, Provincial of the New England Province, presided at the 5:00 pm Mass in the Egan Chapel of Saint Ignatius Loyola, Fairfield University, Fairfield, Connecticut. Family and friends attended the liturgy and the reception which followed.
Fr. James Hederman, SJ Biographical Profile
Brooklyn born, the son of William and the late Mary Hederman, Fr. James J. Hederman, SJ graduated from Canisius College, a magna cum laude Biochemistry major, then attended SUNY-Downstate Medical School. His residency in Psychiatry was at Hahnemann University in Philadelphia, where he trained in Family Therapy, focusing his dissertation on Friendship Support.
Board Certified in Adult and Adolescent Psychiatry, Jim worked at Philadelphia Child Guidance Center & the Carrier Foundation in N.J. He served on the faculty of Hahnemann and the University of Pennsylvania as a clinical instructor.Entering the Jesuits in 1992, he has continued his work with youth at Boston College High School, Boston Boys’ Choir School, and Fairfield College Preparatory School in CT. Jim has formed and led support groups in grief and divorce issues, and designed and taught a program on human sexuality for 12 years. He has also been very active in the Kairos Retreat Program in Boston, CT, NYC, and Australia, and as a retreat chaplain provided the sacraments and pastoral counseling. Following the 9/11 attacks in NYC, he gave retreats of healing to the staffs of Fordham Prep and Xavier High School, hit hard in the disaster. While receiving his Masters of Divinity and Masters of Theology degrees at Weston Jesuit School of Theology in Cambridge he was chaplain to Harvard’s Catholic Medical Students. He served on the Boards of Trustees for BC High (‘03-’06) & Hall-Brooke Psychiatric Hospital (’04-’06) and supervised divinity students from Yale interning at Fairfield Prep.
Jim has presented on the topics of “Developing Communities at Prayer” and “Identifying Students at Risk” at two national Jesuit Secondary Education Association meetings and presented on lessons learned as a clinician in high schools at the New England Province Assembly for Secondary Education at the College of the Holy Cross. He completed his Jesuit Tertianship in Australia in 2006, including work in New Zealand & Vietnam. He has trained in spiritual direction at Inisfada and Los Altos retreat houses. He currently is the Director of Campus Ministry at BC High.