Long Retreat: Short biography of Ron Darwen SJ

The 30 day retreat being offered later this year has, as one of the directors, a distinguished British Jesuit with a deep interest in spirituality and social justice.

Robert Ronald Darwen (Ron) was born in 1931, in Preston, a very Catholic part of England. He grew up aware that his home county of Lancashire was the stronghold of the English Catholic survival during penal times. He attended high school at Preston Catholic College and then entered the Jesuits at the age of 18. He was ordained to the priesthood at the age of 33.

Ron spent his early years in the priesthood working in parishes in Glasgow, Worcester, Coventry and Liverpool. During these years he became very concerned about issues of social justice in Britain's inner cities. He was particularly concerned about the inadequate housing for the poor and vulnerable, and was involved in several Catholic housing projects providing sheltered housing to the elderly and marginalised.

At the age of 51 Ron went to the Ignatian retreat house in Wernersville, USA, where he trained in giving the Spiritual Exercises. The following year he became novice master of the British Province, and directed novices from South Africa, Zimbabwe and the UK.

After six years as novice master, he was appointed director of tertians (the final years of Jesuit formation) in the joint Irish-British tertianship in Belfast, Northern Ireland. In this capacity he helped Jesuits from all over the world to prepare for their final vows and integration into the Society.

Ron is currently a member of the novitiate community in Birmingham, England, where he is a sought-after director of the Spiritual Exercises, and continues his work in issues of social justice.