Father John grew up in Quincy, Massachusetts where he graduated from Quincy High School. He attended Boston College for two years before entering the Jesuits. He earned Masters Degrees in Philosophy and Theology from Boston College and a Masters degree in English Literature from the University of Maine. As a Jesuit, Father John taught High School in Portland, Maine, Stamford, CT, and Kingston, Jamaica in the West Indies. He worked in Brazil for fourteen years, where he was pastor of three parishes. Here in the U.S. he has worked in parishes in Stamford, CT, New Bedford, MA, Lowell, MA, Rockland, MA, and Cambridge, MA.

Father John recently studied Spiritual Direction at the Berkeley Jesuit School of Theology in California and the giving of Ignatian retreats in the Jesuit Center for Spiritual Growth in Wernersville, PA. In the parishes where he worked before, Father John gave courses in Centering Prayer, Praying with the Psalms, Sacred Classical Music, Healing through the Spirit, and Praying with Poetry. He has also done Worldwide Marriage Encounters in Brazil and the US and accompanied Charismatic Prayer groups in English and Portuguese. For his spare time he likes Literature and Classical Music.