Though his presence on Creighton’s campus is limited, the Jesuit wisdom of the Rev. Paul Strittmatter, S.J., relates to students unsure of the direction of their lives.

“I didn’t know what I wanted to do until I was 38,” Strittmatter said. “There’s a lot of time to figure it out.”

Strittmatter previously taught at the university, but generally is now only on campus on his day off.

“I like just talking to people,” he said. “The students are very much the same now, they’re very good students. It’s a very nice environment to spend time in. I have all the advantages of living here without working here.”

He originally became a Jesuit because he didn’t want to become a diocesan priest.

“I did a lot of reading on the 16th century and learned about the Jesuits that way,” Strittmatter said.

Strittmatter has been a Jesuit for 45 years, and for the past 13 he has been a pastor in three towns in Iowa – Dunlap, Woodbine and Mondamin – with his opinion of pastoral life changing as well.

“My past is full of contradictions like that,” Strittmatter said.

Before becoming a pastor, Strittmatter spent 13 years on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota. These years, in addition to Strittmatter’s Jesuit training and open-minded personality, have “brought a dimension to the parish that we’ve never had before,” said Dolores V. Klein, one of Strittmatter’s Dunlap parishioners.

“He broadens the minds because of the experiences that he talks about,” Klein said.

When Strittmatter gives Mass, he greets each parishoner as he or she enters and leaves the church.

“If he happens to see someone across the street coming to mass, he’ll wait for them,” Klein said. “He’s always concerned about how people are.”

Strittmatter is an avid reader and “is extremely intelligent,” Klein said. “He’s up on different things, and he does a really good job.”

Strittmatter said he enjoys the life of a parish priest combined with the Jesuit freedom

and ideals.

“[Pastoral life] combines teaching and counseling, and I have the privilege to get to know people on a long-term basis. It’s nice to marry people you’ve baptized,” Strittmatter said.

Strittmatter is an active member of the communities in the three towns for which he is a pastor and “is always present,” Klein said.

“I had back surgery a couple months ago, and he came to visit every week. He made me feel so much better. He said ‘don’t forget, you have to think first before you do anything,'” Klein said.

Strittmatter puts the needs of the community first, even when it requires extra education on his part.

“A few years ago, a woman’s dying wish was for me to sing the Latin Mass at her funeral, so I learned it for her,” Strittmatter said.

In addition to attending community events in Iowa and at Creighton, Strittmatter enjoys reading about history and collects prints from Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer. Admittedly behind on technology, Strittmatter said that instead, “I’ve been reading from the great books of life.”