Provincial
Fr Steve Curtin

Before joining the Jesuits in 1985 at the age of 28 Steve worked as a youth worker with juvenile offenders. During his training for ordination he had a variety of brief placements which included spending time with traditional aboriginal communities in the eastern Kimberley and in Alice Springs. In 1990 he worked as a teacher at, St Aloysius College in Sydney and as a pastoral worker with the homeless. In 1991 he worked as a counselor with refugees from Vietnam in the Philippines.

Steve grew up in a large happy very Catholic family in Sydney where his 87 year old mother Marie still lives. Steve attended school at St Ignatius College Riverview and then studied psychology at Macquarie University. The family is still growing with a new grand-nephew having arrived while Steve was on a recent visit to the Philippines. Two more of his nephews and their wives are expecting soon and in June Steve will preside at another family wedding in Lismore. Steve says his family is immensely loving and supportive and he continues to feel the love and support of his father Bryan who died 4 years ago.

Steve completed his theological studies at the United Faculty of Theology in Melbourne and was ordained in 1994, after which he spent a year at St Ignatius Parish in Richmond, Melbourne before moving to Bangkok in 1996. He worked for 5 years with the Jesuit Refugee Service Asia Pacific, first as Assistant Regional Director and then as Regional Director. A great deal of his work in Thailand was with refugees from Burma but he also traveled extensively in South East Asia managing projects in Indonesia, East Timor, Thailand, Cambodia and Nepal.

Steve completed the Jesuit Tertianship program at Canisius College in Sydney in 2001 and in October of that year he was appointed Director of Jesuit Mission. With his knowledge of South East Asia, Steve was given the task of broadening Jesuit Mission's support to newer mission areas whilst also maintaining support for the original overseas work of the Australian Jesuits in Hazaribag in India.

Whilst working as Director of Jesuit Mission Steve has served as Chair of the Board of the Jesuit Refugee Service and has served on the Boards of the Loyola Institute and the Australian Jesuit Foundation. He has served on the Province Finance and Building Committee, on the Catholic Church Film and Broadcasting Advisory Council and on the St Ignatius College Riverview Welfare & Bursary Committee. In September 2007 he was appointed a Consultor to the Provincial of the Australian Jesuits.

Steve was appointed Provincial of the Australian Jesuits May 2008 and took up his role in July 2008.