Title:Called to be…a conversation starter

Christopher Steck, S.J.

Christopher Steck, S.J., is the Thomas Healey Family Distinguished Professor in Ethical Issues and an associate professor in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies. A residential minister since 2000, Steck was also the caretaker for Jack the Bulldog and established the “Jack Crew” of student caretakers. Steck recently authored A Heaven for Animals. 

See how he has been called to engage with Georgetown.

What was your first impression of Georgetown?

I originally got a degree in engineering, and I later entered the Jesuits with the goal of teaching high school science. While working at a Jesuit high school, I was asked to teach ethics, which was interesting because all the students disagreed with me. As I was finishing my Ph.D., when it came time to choose a school, I got this letter saying, ‘Do you want to come visit Georgetown sometime?’ Georgetown hadn’t been on my radar, but I came down, visited, and had a pretty good time. I was a little surprised by how nice, collegial, and friendly the people were. It’s a great opportunity for someone with a doctorate in ethics to be in Washington, DC.

I am so grateful to Georgetown in part because it allowed me, as a Jesuit, to get a dog. I knew entering the priesthood I would never have a dog again, and I love dogs a lot. I came to Georgetown and three years later, I got a dog: Jack the Bulldog. He really connected me to the good stuff: encountering students, alumni, and their families. 

How did your time at Georgetown shape you?

Georgetown is academically elite and has important things happening—dialoging with other people and engaging certain issues. When I came to Georgetown as a younger Jesuit and began to think about what it meant to be working as a Jesuit at a university, I kept returning to this line from Pope Paul VI. He said, “Where the crossroads of the burning exigencies of the human condition and the demands of the gospel encounter each other, there are Jesuits.” That really struck me. This is what I love about Georgetown: it is a place where we’re grappling with the needs, the dramas, the intellectual currencies of the world—engaging all this with the Gospel. I found that engagement at Georgetown in ways I hadn’t anticipated. 

If you look, you’ll find this engagement right there on our shield, in the eagle talons. In one of the talons is the world, and in the other is the cross. That symbolizes for me what I love about Georgetown: to keep coming back to those crossroads between the world and Christianity where there needs to be dialogue.

Can you talk about the community you found at Georgetown? 

Jesuits go where their presence is needed. It’s great to be somewhere that believes in this 450+ year tradition, encouraging a deeper engagement with the world. I think in our best moments, we form students not to believe a particular way, but gain the capacity to reflect on their own lives and make well-informed choices about what it means to be a good, flourishing human in the world. 

Being the Jesuit representative to the Board of Governors has helped me meet wonderful alumni and become really deep friends with many of them. I get to baptize or marry their children, witness their marriages and experience their connections with each other. 

One of the great joys I have is teaching the Problem of God course. I love the culture of encounter and engagement it encourages: students from different ideological perspectives, religious perspectives coming together and talking about complex human issues. My other course that I love teaching is Dogs and Theology.

How do you feel about Georgetown today?

Every Thursday I have a 10 p.m. Mass in my dorm, followed by brownies and quesadillas at 10:30. I go through about 120 brownies. It’s open to anyone.

I think it’s important to all of us, especially now, to keep expanding our imagination and remember that there’s a larger horizon to our lives. My hope is that the Mass offers a moment of such an expansion; encouraging students and offering them an opportunity to meet each other. Georgetown has great students.

Georgetown keeps pushing crossroads encounters. I think [President Emeritus] Jack DeGioia was fantastic with that. I really do believe Georgetown can contribute to the world in a way other universities cannot.

In recognition of his service to Georgetown, Steck received the Patrick Healy Award in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on April 5, 2025. Established in 1969, this award is conferred upon an individual who is not an alumnus but whose achievements and record of service exemplify the ideals and traditions of Georgetown.