Personal Information

Father Claudio M. Burgaleta, S.J. was born in a suburb of Havana, Cuba in 1960, and grew up in Belleville and Nutley, N.J.  In 1980 he entered the New York Province of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits), and was ordained a Roman Catholic priest in 1992.  In 1996 Fr. Burgaleta was graduated from Boston College with a Ph.D. in Historical and Systematic Theology, having studied with John W. O'Malley, S.J., and written on the life and thought of José de Acosta, S.J. (1540-1600), the so-called "intellectual author" of the famous Jesuit Reductions of Latin America.

He has taught at the high school level, done formation work for the Jesuits, been director of a pastoral and spirituality institute for Latinos/as, as well as lectured widely and given retreats to Spanish-speaking audiences in the U.S. and abroad.  In addition to his faculty appointment at the GSRRE, he is a member of Fordham University's Latin American and Latino Studies Institute.  He also serves on the advisory board of MyCatholicVoice.com.  Fr. Burgaleta also serves the local church as spiritual director, and as a weekend assistant for the Spanish-speaking community at St. Frances de Chantal Parish in the Bronx.  


Current Projects and Research Interests:

     Isidoro, an online web resource for Latino/a Ministry

     Ignatian Spirituality and Jesuit History, especially in Latin America and Spain

     Similarities and differences among the Catholicisms of Latin America

     Latino/a Ministry in the United States, especially the formation of lay ecclesial ministers

     A Spanish primer to theology for US Hispanics.  Manual de teología para el Católico de hoy under contract with Liguori Publications, publication expected in Summer, 2009.

    The thought of Benedict XVI   

    Online Education