Cleric, educator, author.
Born at Port Arthur [now Thunder Bay], Ontario in 1939, son of John Pungente (1912-2001) and Mary Wikien, his childhood was spent at Brandon. He entered the Jesuit religious order in 1957 and was ordained as a Catholic priest in 1971. He taught at St. Paul's High School and served as its Principal (1977-1983). During this time, he was Chairman of the Manitoba Film Classification Board (1972-1976). In 1985, he moved to Toronto, Ontario to become Director of the Jesuit Communication Project, a role that he held for the next 34 years.
He wrote Media Literacy: A Resource Guide (1989), Meet the Media (1990), Scanning Television (1996), More Than Meets the Eye: Watching TV Watching Us (1999), and Finding God in the Dark: The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius Go to the Movies (2004). In 1997, he created and hosted the television program Scanning the Movies and produced the video A Heart to Understand. He was President of the Canadian Association of Media Education Organizations. In 2018, he began editing the Jesuit blog IgNation.
In March 2023, a “credible accusation of inappropriate conduct with a student” was brought to light by the Jesuits of Canada.
He died at Pickering, Ontario on 6 December 2023 and was buried in the Jesuit cemetery at Guelph, Ontario.
See also:
A Leap in the Dark: The Transition from Film Censorship to Classification in Manitoba, 1970-72 by James M. Skinner
Manitoba History, Number 25, Spring 1993
Obituary, Winnipeg Free Press, 16 December 2023.
We thank Samantha Eadie (St. Paul's High School) for providing additional information used here.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 21 May 2024
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