Jesuit Community
In 1921 St. Michael's Church was again entrusted to the Jesuits for pastoral care. Regular confession opportunities and great liturgies with splendid music and sermons have been hallmarks of our church from the very beginning. Today, pastoral care at St. Michael's is carried by a team of Jesuits, full-time staff and volunteers.
Our concern as Jesuits is "helping the souls", as St. Ignatius von Loyola (1491-1556), the founder of the Jesuit order, phrased it. Ignatian spirituality embraces the world and focuses on Christ. It serves the church and takes every single human being and their abilities seriously. To convery faith in freedom, to reorganize the world in justice - these are the great aims of the Jesuit order to which even the community of St. Michael's is committed.
Directly "behind" the choir of the church, seven Jesuits currently live, five more Jesuits live and work outside the Jesuit community. Superior and leader of the community is Fr Martin Stark SJ, who is also church rector and director of the St Michael's Centre. Fr Franz Schall SJ is the minister responsible for the practical matters of the community. Fr. Andreas Batlogg SJ strengthens the offer of St. Michael as pastor and preacher and collaborates in the faith orientation. Fr. Herbert Graupner SJ offers retreats in everyday life and spiritual guidance and, like Fr. Klemens Stock SJ, is also part of the pastoral team of St. Michael. The community of St. Michael also includes Br. Karl Heinz Lang SJ and Fr. Gunnar Bauer SJ, the Ecclesiastical Assistant of the Christian Life Community (CLC).
Five confreres live outside the community: Fr Johannes Gesthuisen SJ, who is part of the pastoral team at St Michael's, lives in the Motherhouse of the Sisters of Mercy; Fr Bernd Franke SJ lives in Waldram and works as a pastoral worker in the Wolfratshausen parish association; Fr Matthias Huber SJ is a pastoral worker with the Sisters of the Congregatio Jesu in Nymphenburg; and Fr Georg Kappeler SJ is a pastoral worker in the Utting-Schondorf parish community. Fr Bernhard Dietrich SJ lives in the forest sanatorium in Krailling.
