By Samantha Bronson

Mike Finnerty has always been curious. As a college student, while in the U.S. Army, and during his career as a librarian.

So, when he looked around at his home, Finnerty - a widower with no children - found himself curious about its benefits beyond himself. He wondered: Could he use his house to somehow help the Society of Jesus?

The answer he found out is yes. Finnerty established a charitable gift annuity with Jesuits West, using his Mission Viejo, California, home to fund it. With this arrangement, Finnerty receives fixed annuity payments for life while retaining a Life Estate in exchange for supporting the Society of Jesus, which he credits with bringing him back to his faith.

"With the Jesuits, you could ask questions, throw an idea out there and bat it around," he says. "They're approachable and knowledgeable and able to convey that knowledge to you."

Finnerty did not attend Jesuit schools growing up but knew of the Society of Jesus through his father who had encouraged him to consider their local Jesuit high school. He instead chose another Catholic preparatory school and then headed to the Villanova University, where he studied both history and philosophy and asked questions - lots of them - in his classes.

At the suggestion of a professor and mentor, Finnerty went on to earn a master's degree in Latin American studies from Johns Hopkins SAIS. His goal was to enter the U.S. Foreign Service, but with the Vietnam War raging, that dream was sidelined when he was drafted right after graduating. Given his degree and Spanish fluency, Finnerty was sent to the Panama Canal Zone and stayed in Latin America for his three years of active duty, including training Vietnam-bound soldiers at the Army's Jungle Warfare Training Center.

After the Army, Finnerty hoped to pursue the foreign service once again, but had no luck getting a job. He pivoted and earned another master's degree at the Catholic University, this time in library science, where his innate curiosity was an asset. He joined Baltimore's public library system and, at one point, took a leave of absence to intern with the Congressional Research Service, a subdivision of the Library of Congress.

Finnerty returned to the Baltimore system after his internship, but when he and his wife decided to move closer to Washington, D.C., he wanted to work nearby. An ad for a librarian position at Gonzaga College High School, a Jesuit high school in Washington, intrigued him.

From the moment Finnerty walked in for his interview, he felt at home. Not only did the school remind him of the Catholic prep school he had attended as a teenager, but there was just something else about the school. Finnerty says he did not realize it then but says that "being surrounded by Jesuits was among the best things that happened to me."

At the time, Finnerty did not consider himself a big churchgoer, but found himself looking forward to the Jesuits' weekly Mass. "The Jesuits always have a nice Mass," he says. "The homily was always right on target. The homilies were directed to the students, but they were right on the money with whatever topic."

Finnerty's connection with the Jesuits deepened while he recovered from knee surgery. Unable to use stairs to enter the library, he worked with Fr. Henry Haske, S.J., rector and superior of the Jesuit community, to unseal an old passageway between the library and the Jesuit community. Finnerty could then use the Jesuit community's elevator to get to work.

The opening also allowed Fr. Haske to visit the library more easily, bringing with him the knowledge, patience, and guidance of a spiritual adviser.

"I was working, I was busy, I was in a hurry," Finnerty says. "But Fr. Haske would bring something in and say, 'Here, read this passage.' I never did the Spiritual Exercises, but he would say, 'Here's some stuff to read and we'll talk about it next time we meet.' Looking back on it, I realized he knew what he was doing. He knew what areas I needed help with, what areas I needed to focus on."

Yearly faculty retreats on Maryland's eastern shore further strengthened Finnerty's appreciation of the Jesuit approach. The school's Jesuits led the retreats, allowing time for discussion and the opportunity to walk in nature and think.

When Finnerty and his wife Joan retired, they headed west, first settling in Arizona before moving to California. Joan passed away in 2018. Given the impact the Jesuits had on him, the Society of Jesus seemed a natural fit to use his home to fund a charitable gift annuity. After Finnerty's passing, the home goes to the Jesuits.

"God meets you where you are," Finnerty says. "The Jesuits met me where I was at, and they pulled me closer to God."