John Hardon

John Anthony Hardon was born on 18 June 1914 in Midland, Pennsylvania, to John and Anna (née Jevin) Hardon. His father died in a workplace accident while John was still an infant, and he was raised by his mother, a devout Catholic who supported the household by cleaning. He received a Catholic education and, after completing college studies, entered the Society of Jesus on 1 September 1936. The long Jesuit course of novitiate, philosophy, regency, and theology followed. He was ordained a priest on 18 June 1947 and later sent to Rome, where he earned a doctorate in theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University in 1951.

Returning to the United States, Hardon taught theology at Jesuit houses of study, including West Baden College in Indiana, and later at other institutions in the Midwest and at St. John’s University in New York. He became known as a systematic and outspoken defender of traditional Catholic doctrine in the decades after the Second Vatican Council, when catechesis and seminary instruction in many places were in flux. He wrote and lectured extensively on the sacraments, the Church, and the spiritual life, and he served as a consultant in the preparation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church promulgated in the 1990s.

Hardon was a prolific author of more than forty books and many articles. His Catholic Catechism (1975) offered a full presentation of Catholic teaching for a general audience and was widely used before the appearance of the official Catechism. Other well-known titles include The Question and Answer Catholic Catechism and works on the spiritual life and religious institutes. He founded or helped establish several apostolates devoted to catechesis and the religious life, among them Eternal Life, the Institute on Religious Life, and the Marian Catechist Apostolate, which trained lay people to teach the faith. He also served as a spiritual director and adviser to religious communities, including members of the Missionaries of Charity.

In later years he lived at the Jesuit community at Colombiere Center in Clarkston, Michigan, continuing to write, teach, and direct souls despite declining health. He died there on 30 December 2000. After his death a cause for canonization was introduced; he has been given the title Servant of God. He has not been beatified or canonized, and no feast day or official patronages have been assigned to him.