"I couldn't imagine doing what I am doing without being a Holy Cross priest. It has made me wiser, a better listener, more prayerful, hopeful, and globally conscious."

Fr. James Chichetto, C.S.C., teaches writing and literature at Holy Cross-sponsored Stonehill College in North Easton, Massachusetts. He enjoys teaching because, as he says, teaching gets students to think "again and again about their own lives" and provides them "with hope and the necessary analytical tools they will need to make the biggest decisions imaginable later on in their lives." He also believes that instructing students enables students to have "great moments of insight and truth," both on and off campus. For that reason he enjoys teaching at a liberal arts college like Stonehill because it "enhances a lot of creative thinking among the students and faculty alike" and "forestalls the pedestrian from overtaking them." Paraphrasing Ben Franklin, he says, "An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest in the long run."

One of Fr. Chichetto's favorite quotes is from his mother: "You cannot put a great hope in a small heart." In the classroom, Fr. Jim tries to focus on what he calls "the hope and soul-work" of great individuals in all fields of knowledge. "Martin Luther King, Sitting Bull, Shakespeare, Flannery O'Connor, Emily Dickinson, Chekhov, and Cezanne immediately come to mind," he says. "These people lived on hope against some of the most despairing thoughts possible. I know St. Paul says love is the greatest gift of all, but I like to think that hope is not trailing far behind as love's mate."

The course closest to Fr. Jim's heart is College Composition. This course enables him to reach out to a cross-section of students at Stonehill, especially to international students. He says he tries to stimulate all students in their pursuit of excellence, but especially students in his composition class. "Writing is the only way I can think through anything," he says, "so I take writing very seriously. I want students to know the difference between a good sentence and a bad one." The assignments he gives also reflect another one of his concerns: social consciousness. The works of Chekhov, Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, Martin Luther King and Black Elk resonate with Dickinson, Frost and Shakespeare in all his classes. "Literature is the best way to awaken the attention of students to the issues of social justice," he says. He recently wrote the Foreword to Indian activist Ward Churchill's Perversions of Justice: Indigenous Peoples and Anglo-American Law. Fr. Jim has been published over 300 times.

As a former resident priest on campus, ministering to students in that capacity, and currently a community associate for various student residents, Fr. Jim thrives on Stonehill's distinctly communitarian experience. He holds poetry readings four times a year on campus at the Stray Dog Poetry Club, a club he founded three years ago, and joins with students in trips to Boston, Salem and Mashantucket Indian Reservation, among other places. He is also active in the Alumni Affairs, serving on the Alumni Scholarship, Auction, and Academic Committees, and reaching out to alumni at baptisms, weddings and anniversaries.

So much of what Fr. Jim does is based on his being a Holy Cross priest. "Our order is very diverse and international," he says. "It allows for a more voluntary accountability among us, which makes us freer to take into account the call of Jesus to all people." Holy Cross also allows you "to go as deep with God as you like" he says. "I couldn't imagine doing what I am doing without being a Holy Cross priest. It has made me wiser, a better listener, more prayerful, hopeful, and globally conscious. It has also helped me to share conflicts and joys in a spirit of love with community members, while disagreeing with them on matters of real concern. You can't beat that for fellowship. I really lucked out with Holy Cross."