Jesuit Father Gelson, former St. Ignatius pastor, dies at 94

Jesuit Father James N. Gelson, a former pastor of St. Ignatius in Baltimore died June 5. He was 94.

Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., Father Gelson attended Seton Hall Prep in South Orange, N.J., and entered the Society of Jesus at the Novitiate of St. Isaac Jogues in Wernersville, Pa. on Sept. 7, 1946. He earned a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree from Loyola University Chicago, as well as a master’s degree in classics and licentiate in philosophy from West Baden College in West Baden Springs, Ind. He also received a licentiate of sacred theology from Woodstock College in Woodstock, Md., where he was ordained a priest June 19, 1960.

Father Gelson was pastor of St. Ignatius in Baltimore for three years in the mid-1980s. Elsewhere, he ministered in higher education at Wheeling Jesuit University in West Virginia, Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. and The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.

He also served in Jesuit parishes in Indiana and Florida, and worked with Food for the Poor in Florida. In 2013, Father Gelson came to the St. Claude La Colombière Jesuit Community in Baltimore.

Funeral information was not available.

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