Peter Rogers

It is with a heavy heart that we share that Fr. Peter Rogers, S.J., retired associate professor of French, passed away on Sunday, October 10, 2021. Fr. Rogers had been courageously undergoing chemotherapy treatment for cancer over the summer and fall. In his suffering, his great faith shone forth as he accepted the uncertainty of his health and the weakness of his body with an abiding trust that all would be made well through God's grace. He died as he lived—peacefully and joyfully surrounded by members of the Jesuit Community who had anointed him and prayed with him.

Fr. Rogers' contributions to Loyola are most visibly seen in the generations of students whose lives he touched from the beginning of his service to Loyola in 1982. He loved inspiring young minds and hearts through his passion for French culture and language. And as a Jesuit scholar, he delighted in the prospect that within the worlds of his students and his texts there was a pathway for discovery to find God through pursuing understanding, truth, and beauty. As a colleague, friend, mentor, and beloved uncle, he was frequently called upon because of his deep faith, compassion, and utter discretion in all matters. These qualities supported his work as Rector of the Jesuit Community from 2009-2014.

Fr. Peter Rogers, S.J., Ph.D., is the rector of the Loyola Jesuit Community and professor of French at Loyola University New Orleans. He is a native of Jeanerette, Louisiana, and has been a member of the Loyola Jesuit community and Loyola faculty since 1982. A leave from the university allowed him to teach at Texas A&M and Wake Forest University. He earned his bachelor of arts degree in French from Spring Hill College in Mobile, Alabama, and his master of arts degree from Middlebury College in Vermont. He also holds a masters in theology from the Centre Sèvres in Paris. He earned doctorates in French literature from the University of Paris and Columbia University.

He is the author of Proust: Speculative Scripture (Studies in 20th Century Literature, 1993).  In the winter of 2009, Fr. Rogers published an essay on Flaubert in L'Esprit Créateur.  Then appeared his full-length study, The Mystery Play in Madame Bovary: moeurs de province. According to Éric Le Calvez, Georgia State University, this "new reading of the novel... has revealed an extensive network of religious signs embedded in the text; his study therefore remains refreshing and interesting." (Nineteenth-Century French Studies 39, Nos. 3 & 4 Spring-Summer 2011). 

For Marquette University Press, Fr. Rogers has translated a study of Paul Beauchamps "Fifty Biblical Portraits" (2011), with illustrations by Pierre Grassignoux.

Classes Taught

• First Year French I
• 19th Century Prose
• 20th Century Novels
• French Poetry and Theatre
• Advanced Conversation and Phonetics