Sweeney, Francis, 1916-2002

Jesuit, English professor, poet, author and founder of the Boston College Humanities Series.

Francis W. Sweeney, Jesuit.

Sweeney was born in 1916 in Milford, Massachusetts. He attended the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts, entered the Shadowbrook Novitiate in 1939, and earned his MA in Philosophy and English in 1944. He was a seminarian at Weston College from 1945-1949 and was ordained to the priesthood by Archbishop Richard Cushing. Sweeney was assigned to Boston College in 1951. At Boston College, Sweeney taught writing and literature courses, served as moderator and faculty advisor to the student literary magazine Stylus, and founded the Humanities Series. He served as director of the Humanities Series from 1958 to 1998. Sweeney died in 2002.

Humanities Series, program at Boston College.

The Humanities Series was founded by Francis W. Sweeney in 1958 to enrich campus life and to bring world-renowned creative minds to Boston College to encounter with students and faculty. The Series was inaugurated by Pulitzer-prize winning poet and historian Peter Viereck's lecture entitled "The Unadjusted Man." The Series was preceded by the David B. Steinman Visiting Poets Series (academic year 1957-1958) and later became the Lowell Humanities Series (1987-present). While best known for lectures, it also included fine arts performances and art exhibits. Speakers have included poets, novelists, dramatists, theologians, historians, classicists, and actors.