Rev. John J. Deeney, 88, Jesuit priest

It may be unusual for a native-born American to give up U.S. citizenship, especially for no political reason. But when he was in his late 60s, a Jesuit priest from Philadelphia did just that.

In a November interview with the Indian magazine Jivan, the Rev. John J. Deeney explained, "I was granted Indian citizenship in February 1991.

"I renounced my American citizenship to express my complete solidarity with . . . the many Indian brother priests I live and work with."

A representative for the office that oversees Jesuit operations in India said it was not known whether any other priest had ever done that.

On Jan. 18, Father Deeney, 88, a missionary who had served in India since 1949, died of gall bladder cancer at Mercy Hospital in Jamshedpur, in the northeastern state of Jharkhand.

A Memorial Mass is planned for the chapel at St. Joseph's University at 11 a.m. tomorrow.

A Funeral Mass was said last Friday in Chaibasa, India. Burial was in St. Xavier's parish cemetery there.

The Jesuit representative reported that Father Deeney had been so well-known and respected that "120 priests concelebrated the Funeral Mass in Chaibasa, including his nephew, (the Rev.) George Deeney."

"More than 2,000 people attended, so the Mass was offered outside."

In the interview with Jivan, a news magazine for Jesuits in India, Father Deeney said there was another reason for renouncing his U.S. citizenship. It was to confirm his commitment to the Ho tribal people.

The article did not indicate whether he had contacted the State Department to announce his decision.

In that interview, Father Deeney said, "I worked on the first ever Ho-English dictionary," a Ho grammar book, a prayer book, a hymnal, and others.

Besides the books in the Ho language, he said, he wrote one work in English, The Spirit World of the Hos.

Raised in Southwest Philadelphia, Father Deeney graduated from St. Joseph's Preparatory School in 1939 and entered the Jesuit novitiate in Wernersville, Berks County. After four years, Father Deeney was assigned to philosophy studies at the former Weston (Mass.) College.

From 1946 to 1949, he taught mathematics and physics at Scranton Preparatory School.

Assigned to the Jesuits' Jamshedpur Mission in 1949, he studied theology at De Nobile College, Poona, for a year and continued at St. Mary's College, Kurseong, before being ordained there in 1952.

Father Deeney celebrated his first Mass in the States at Most Blessed Sacrament Church, 56th Street and Chester Avenue in Philadelphia, in 1955.

In India, he was headmaster for seven years, from 1955, at St. Xavier's High School in Chaibasa.

From 1962 to 1974, he said in November's interview, he worked with the Ho people, and then was assigned to a high school in Lupungutu where he began to work on his Ho publications.

Besides his linguistic work from 1974 to 1995, he said, every Sunday he cycled to a village to say Mass. After being assigned to parish work in 1995, "I used to cycle from village to village getting to know the people entrusted to me."

He is survived by brothers Gerald and Edward and a sister, Nancy Curtis.