2024 Franklin College Baccalaureate Ceremony

The Rev. Gregory I. Carlson, S.J., Associate Professor of Literature and Theology and Associate Director of the Deglman Center for Ignatian Spirituality at Creighton University, will be the featured speaker at the Baccalaureate Service. 

Father Carlson entered the Jesuit order in 1959 and was ordained in 1974.  He has taught at Georgetown, John Carroll, and Marquette besides Creighton, the first two as holder of their “Jesuit Chair” positions.   At Creighton, he has taught in Classics, English, the Honors Program, and the Graduate School and currently teaches in the Theology Department.   

He holds Master’s Degrees in Classics from St. Louis University and Divinity from Santa Clara University as well as a doctorate in Classics from the University of Heidelberg.  An award-winning teacher, Fr. Carlson has written and lectured on Homer, Greek tragedy, Vergil, Horace, Catullus, Aesop, and Phaedrus.  He has been a regular contributor to the Renard Society and the International Beast Fable Society and has written for their journals.  He has also published three courses with “Learn 25” Media, including “Fables and Faith: Understanding the Gospel with Aesop’s Fables.” 

One of Fr. Carlson’s passions has to do with fables like those we associate with the name Aesop, a form of literature that plays with story.  Fr. Carlson has developed a world-class collection at Creighton of some 10,900 books in 75 languages and thousands of objects representing fables.