A Mass of Christian Burial for Father Thomas Hoffman, SJ, was celebrated May 31 in the chapel of St. Ignatius Hall in Florissant. Father Hoffman died May 21 at St. Ignatius Hall. He was 80 years old, a Jesuit for 60 years and a priest for 48 years.
Tom Hoffman was born in the Bronx, New York, on Jan. 21, 1945, to William G. and Alice Jane (Slattery) Hoffman. A graduate of Jesuit High School in Tampa, he entered the Society of Jesus on July 30, 1964, at St. Charles College in Grand Coteau, Louisiana. He pronounced his first vows on July 31, 1966, and was ordained a priest on May 29, 1976, at Sacred Heart Church in Tampa. He professed his final vows at Spring Hill College on April 22, 1983.
In formation, he was missioned to Jesuit High School and Sacred Heart Parish in Tampa. His first assignment as a priest was as director of campus ministry at Spring Hill College (1977-83). He then taught for a year at Jesuit High School in Tampa, before moving to Jesuit High School of New Orleans (1984-2000), where he taught theology and served as moderator or chaplain for a variety of activities.
After a year’s sabbatical, he continued pastoral work. He ministered at St. Joseph Church in Long Beach, California, at St. Thomas the Apostle Church and the Newman Center at the University of New Orleans (2002-08), and for many years at St. Jude Parish in Alamogordo, New Mexico (2008-21). He ended life praying for the Church and the Society at the St. Alphonsus Rodriguez Pavilion in Grand Coteau and St. Ignatius Hall.
Father Hoffman was chaplain at UNO at the time of Hurricane Katrina (2005) and operated the Catholic Center while the campus was decimated.
He studied at Spring Hill College in Mobile, Alabama, and Loyola University in New Orleans, earning a bachelor’s degree in philosophy and sociology from the latter. He earned a Master of Divinity, a bachelor’s in sacred theology and a master’s in spirituality at Regis College in Toronto, Canada.
In addition to his parents, he was preceded in death by his stepmother, Joan; his brother, Dean; and his half-sister Mary. He is survived by his half-sister Joan DeBlasio and her husband, Jeffrey. Burial was at Calvary Cemetery.
