The Teaching Years with Fr. James Heft, SM

Meet Father Rivers

As a newly-ordained priest, Fr. Rivers served as an English teacher, guidance counselor and drama coach at Purcell High School in Cincinnati in the late 1950s into the 1960s. There, he changed lives. Emily and Eric start their investigation of Fr. Rivers as high school teacher with Purcell teaching colleague, Fr. James Heft, SM. Fr. Jim was fresh out of college at the time of his encounter with Fr. Rivers, but went on to a distinguished career in the academy as an expert in Catholic secondary and higher education. Fr. Heft talks about the way Fr. Rivers set high standards for the English and drama curriculum at Purcell and the seamless way Rivers’ teaching expressed his interests in drama and the human experience. Fr. Heft also discusses how Rivers—along with his personal encounters with the Black American writer James Baldwin—helped him understand the commonalities among all of humanity and what he calls the elasticity of Catholicism. Finally, Fr. Heft offers Emily and Eric some welcome encouragement in telling Fr. Rivers’ story. For show notes, click here.