Diocese of Rochester native Father Gerald Aman, SJ, is celebrating his 50th jubilee in 2023.
He is as busy as ever after a half-century priesthood that includes 38 years — and counting — as a missionary in Africa.
“I enjoy it, and I love the people,” he remarked. “For us Jesuits, being retired is when they lay you to rest in the grave.”
Father Aman grew up in Webster’s Holy Trinity Parish and is a 1962 graduate of McQuaid Jesuit High School. He is the brother of the late Deacon Leo Aman, a longtime permanent deacon in the Diocese of Rochester who passed away Jan. 11, 2023.
Father Aman was ordained a priest June 9, 1973, at Greece’s St. John the Evangelist Church by Bishop Joseph L. Hogan. He then spent 12 years as chaplain at Canisius High School in Buffalo.
In 1985, he began his lengthy ministry in Africa, helping to baptize 300 people that year at St. Joseph Church in Benin City, Nigeria. He was pastor of St. Joseph from 1999-2004 and is now in his third assignment at the parish, having served as assistant priest since 2021.
Father Aman served in Zimbabwe as well as Nigeria. He has worn several parish and administrative hats while ministering among many of the world’s poorest — yet, he noted, highly devoted — people.
Among Father Aman’s ministerial highlights have been providing sacraments, bringing people into the Catholic faith, vocational formation, building schools, and providing housing and food. Of particular note is his leadership in building Loyola Jesuit College in Abuja, Nigeria, in the late 1990s: “It quickly became the most preeminent school in the country,” he said.
Father Aman will celebrate his 50th priestly jubilee on June 11 at the 10:30 a.m. Mass at Holy Trinity in Webster.
Tags: Holy Orders
