Formation
From rockets to canoes Erik Sorensen, SJ by Becky Sindelar
E
rik Sorensen, SJ, had once planned to be an engineer. Today, however, he studies theology at Regis College in Toronto, on his way to becoming a Jesuit priest. His formation has been one of accompanying and building relationships with those he encounters..
BEFORE YOU JOINED THE SOCIETY OF JESUS, WHAT DID YOU SEE AS YOUR PATH IN LIFE? When I was twelve years old, I told my parents that I wanted to be an aerospace engineer. And, in fact, that’s what I decided to do. I studied aerospace engineering at Carleton University in Ottawa, and I loved it. It was also there that I met the Jesuits. I finished the degree and joined them right after that.
HOW DID YOU GO FROM CONSIDERING A CAREER IN ENGINEERING TO JOINING THE JESUITS? While I was at university, I got to know the Jesuit chaplain, Fr. David Shulist, SJ. He was the first Jesuit I’d ever met, and I started working with him and the Catholic student group at the chaplaincy. Then I met a Jesuit who was studying engineering at the time, Fr. Boniface Mbouzao, SJ, now the superior of the Bellarmine community in Montreal. I was studying engineering and really enjoying it but didn’t realize that you could be both an engineer and a Jesuit. Meeting someone who was doing that made me consider it more seriously.
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