Nico Valladolid ’23

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This school year, the Strake Jesuit community has welcomed Mr. Jorge Roque, a new Jesuit, to campus. 

“I grew up in the Rio Grande Valley in Mission Texas along the Border up until I was 18,” Mr Roque said. “I went to Saint Edward’s University in Austin, and I studied English literature and philosophy. And that is what I did before I entered the Jesuits. Before I went to Strake Jesuit, I was in Saint Louis for three years doing philosophy studies.”

As a Theology and English teacher, Mr. Roque believes he can help students find God in all things. 

“St. Anselm had this famous phrase ‘felis quorum intellectum’ or ‘faith searching for understanding,'” Mr. Roque said. “That is how I think of theology. We have our faith and our beliefs, but that does not take away our ability to reason to ask questions and knowing that God is the ground of all being and there are intelligible answers to these questions. I also teach English. Everything has a story to it. What we have in literature are these several stories written by someone with passions, and because of that God is in their life in their own way. Something like a novel or a good story is going to have an impact on what you think about your own life. Finding God in literature is simply finding really wonderful stories that teach you wisdom and establish what is merited by life.” 

Outside the class, Mr. Roque is helping to build faith in aspects of student life. 

“I moderate the committee for Saint John Berchmans, which is for the altar serving outside of our large liturgies,” Mr. Roque said. 

Mr. Roque is having a great year serving our community.

“I am excited to get to know more and more students at a deeper level,” Mr. Roque said. “I think especially as a Jesuit, as a religious, you want to be a part of people’s lives in a way that calls to mind God. That is what I look forward to, seeing the fruits of those relationships at the end of the year.”