Father Ladislas Szabo, s.j., known by many former students of USJ’s Faculty of Theology, passed away in Beirut on Friday, July 6^th, 2018. Father Szabo was a prominent Bible Studies teacher at the Faculty since 1958, and he then served as Director of the Higher Institute of Religious Education (ISFR, which then became known as the ISSR, the Higher Institute of Religious Studies). He later also worked at the Holy Spirit University of Kaslik.

A Hungarian national, he joined the Society of Jesus in 1942 and specialized in Holy Scripture studies. As such, he became an undisputed master of the subject while teaching Bible Studies in Beirut to hundreds of bishops, priests, and religious men and women of the Eastern churches. In the homily of the funeral mass, Fr Paul Brouwers, s.j., the late Father’s former superior, said of him that “It was truly in Lebanon that he flourished and gave his all. At all the universities and institutions where he taught Holy Scripture, generations of students left much richer faithfully and spiritually because of it, including us, the Jesuits, but also all the clergy, secular and regular, as well as seminarians in the past and, at present, bishops and priests of all rites –  religious and secular – who attended his classes.” Indeed, among the countless professors of the Faculty, Fr. Szabo was one of those most appreciated for his science and kindness (Salim Daccache, s.j., former student of Fr Szabo).

The attached photos were taken in May 2017 when Fr. Szabo received the Monsignor Boulos Féghali Award for Biblical Studies from His Eminence the Patriarch and Cardinal Mar Bechara al Rai).

Photos of Fr. Szabo in May 2017 in Bkerke.