Coronavirus restrictions caused
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events were cancelled, such as the
Men for Others Dinner and the Senior-
Alumni Luncheon.
Others have been postponed and
rescheduled. The Hartnett Golf Classic
is now June 15 at Carrollwood Country
Club, and graduation is now June 18 at
the Straz Center.
However, the pandemic and virtual
school period at Jesuit have witnessed
many positive developments, such
as a daily spiritual addition: Mass live
streamed from Sacred Heart Chapel on
campus seven days a week.
Every day since March 23, the Jesuit
16 JESUIT PERSPECTIVES • SPRING 2020
fathers have
celebrated Mass at
Noon, along with
anywhere from
a few dozen to
several hundred
viewing online
on any given
day. There were
more than 300 on
Easter Sunday.
“Above all, it is
vitally important
for us to address
the spiritual needs
of our students,
families, and
friends,” Father
Hermes said in a
message to the
school community
on March 23. “So, beginning today, we
will live-stream daily Mass from Sacred
Heart Chapel.”
The daily Masses have uplifted
Jesuit families during these especially
challenging times (go to www.
jesuittampa.org to access the live
stream link). The Mass homilies have
been catalogued on a special webpage
created during the virtual school period,
www.jesuittampa.org/JesuitNews,
which also has links to fresh news, to
previous announcements, to video
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important school information.
Jesuit students also have continued
to excel as ‘Men for Others’ in service
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MARTINEZ ’ 91
FEDERSPIEL ’74
SUPPORTING
FIGHT AGAINST
CORONAVIRUS
Jose Martinez ’91 has his finger on the
pulse of New York City, a deep institutional
knowledge from decades of experience that
has placed him at the national forefront of the
coronavirus pandemic.
A longtime Big Apple news reporter, Martinez
has forged a particular expertise in the city’s
Mass Transit Authority (MTA), the nation’s
largest with 70,000 employees. As NYC
became the epicenter of the crisis, Martinez
reported from the front line through the news
website The City (thecity.nyc) and via major
national outlets.
“The transport workers union had been
pushing for their workers to be allowed to wear
masks … the MTA initially did not distribute
masks,” Martinez said on a CBS news report
at the apex of the emergency in mid-April.
“You need look no further than the number of
dead transit workers in New York to tell a really
somber story. At this point, 59 workers from the
(MTA) have died of COVID-19. Those numbers
are significantly higher than (for the police and
during the virtual school period, despite
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assistance for people in need. Many
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students from the past two months are
detailed on pages 6-7, as is the service
initiative created Holden Fernandez ’23.
Fernandez established the “Feed Our
Health Heroes” fundraiser via social
media and generated $1,000, which he
used to deliver 150 meals to the night
staff at St. Joseph’s Hospital one evening
in April.
Another freshman, ������������������������������������,
turned a simple gesture into a
neighborhood happening. He gathered
up his childhood toys and books,
disinfected them all, and placed them
on tables along the sidewalk outside his
house, making these “boredom busters”
available for free to neighborhood kids.
Brothers Camden Minacci ’20 and
Chase Minacci ’22 continued to deliver
food each week to Pinellas Hope,
a program of Catholic Charities in
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on Bay News 9.
In the new Robotics and Engineering
Lab at Jesuit, Engineering teacher Eric
Price used the school’s 3D printer to
make the plastic shells for N95 masks for
local health care workers, including the
nursing staff of Tampa neonatologist Dr.
Alfonso Vargas, P ’20, ’22.
Such a spirit of service and generosity
in the face of adversity shined through
during the annual Mission Drive, which
was perhaps the most unique in the
drive’s 80+ year history.
fire departments).”
Martinez earned a Master’s in Journalism from Columbia
University and parlayed that into 13 years as reporter at
two famed tabloids, the Daily News (1999-2011) and New
York Post (2011-12), writing about high-profile cases such
as the rape charges against International Monetary Fund
chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the 9/11 terrorist attacks on
the World Trade Center, and the crash of American Airlines
Flight 587.
For the past seven years his focus has been the transit
beat, first as a video and web content reporter for NY1
News and then hosting a weekly show, “In Transit.” Since
2019, Martinez has been dedicated to daily reporting with
The City, largely on the MTA, and has appeared on CNN,
MSNBC, and international radio.
“Everyone calls this ‘the city that never sleeps,’ but right
now it’s very much ‘the city that’s sort-of taking a nap,’”
Martinez said. “But you know who’s not taking a nap? It is
those transit workers, it is those (essential workers) who
are moving by the transit system, and they need a safe and
reliable and clean system.”
The Jesuit fathers have been celebrating
daily Mass at Noon via live stream from
Sacred Heart Chapel on campus since
mid-March
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/jesuittampa.org
/JesuitNews
