Lieutenant Governor Cyrus Habib to serve out term, leave politics, and join the Jesuits

Lieu­tenant Gov­er­nor Cyrus Habib announced today that he will be leav­ing pol­i­tics at the end of the 2020 pres­i­den­tial elec­tion cycle to join the Soci­ety of Jesus, bet­ter known to some as the Jesuits or the Jesuit Order. Habib revealed in a post pub­lished on Amer­i­ca (a promi­nent Jesuit pub­li­ca­tion) that he has cho­sen not to seek reelec­tion this year. Instead, he will serve out the remain­der of his cur­rent term as Lieu­tenant Gov­er­nor and then depart pub­lic life for reli­gious life.

Said Habib:

“I have felt a call­ing to ded­i­cate my life in a more direct and per­son­al way to serv­ing the mar­gin­al­ized, empow­er­ing the vul­ner­a­ble, heal­ing those who suf­fer from spir­i­tu­al wounds and accom­pa­ny­ing those dis­cern­ing their own futures.”

“For me, this is root­ed in my faith in Christ’s Gospel. But my desire to encounter some­thing greater than myself by walk­ing with the poor and aban­doned of this world will be famil­iar to those of many dif­fer­ent spir­i­tu­al tra­di­tions. I have come to believe that the best way to deep­en my com­mit­ment to social jus­tice is to reduce the com­plex­i­ty in my own life and ded­i­cate it to serv­ing others.”

“I have also come to believe that, while we cer­tain­ly con­tin­ue to need peo­ple of good will to serve in elect­ed office, meet­ing the chal­lenges our coun­try faces will require more than just pol­i­cy-mak­ing,” Habib elaborated.

“Peo­ple are in dire need of spir­i­tu­al sup­port and com­pan­ion­ship. From our throw­away cul­ture that treats work­ers and our envi­ron­ment as dis­pos­able to a new gen­er­a­tion of young peo­ple eager to change the world but strug­gling with unprece­dent­ed anx­i­ety, alien­ation and oth­er men­tal health chal­lenges to the fear and iso­la­tion we are all expe­ri­enc­ing as a result of the coron­avirus, this is a time when we need to ground our­selves in the wis­dom of those who came before and cul­ti­vate new forms of wis­dom forged in the fires of our present moment.”

In an inter­view with Amer­i­ca’s Zac Davis, Habib cit­ed Father Michael Ryan, the pas­tor of St. James Cathe­dral, as a role mod­el and key influ­ence, not­ing that Father Ryan gave him a copy of James Mar­t­in’s The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Every­thing when he was grap­pling with his father’s ill­ness and death four years ago.

Read­ing that pas­sage brought a smile to my face, because Father Ryan is one of the wis­est, kind­est men I know. He is an extra­or­di­nary priest who has com­fort­ed and coun­seled so many dur­ing his decades of ser­vice to Christ. His hom­i­lies pro­vide great intel­lec­tu­al nour­ish­ment. They’re men­tal­ly and emo­tion­al­ly therapeutic.

As a Catholic myself and as fel­low wor­ship­per at St. James, I under­stand and respect Cyrus’ deci­sion, and I am very hap­py for him. It’s total­ly in keep­ing with the man that I know and admire. We do not often see peo­ple for­go their polit­i­cal ambi­tions in order to enter reli­gious life. But if the Roman Catholic Church is to sur­vive and thrive, then it needs lead­ers like Cyrus Habib.

I look for­ward to Cyrus’ ordination.

Jesuit faith for­ma­tion can take over a decade — seri­ous­ly, it’s a long process! — but I am con­fi­dent Cyrus will get there, and when he does, I’ll be hon­ored and delight­ed to cel­e­brate his accom­plish­ment with him.

Gov­er­nor Jay Inslee offered his best wish­es in a state­ment released this morning.

“Cyrus’ life and career are an inspi­ra­tion to many,” the Gov­er­nor said.

“He has had a mete­oric career in elect­ed pub­lic ser­vice, so I was sur­prised when he called me this morn­ing to say he was­n’t run­ning again.”

“While the news was unex­pect­ed, any­one who knows Cyrus is not sur­prised by his com­mit­ment to faith. I have no doubt his future in the Jesuit priest­hood will bring much good to a world that needs it right now.”

“Tru­di and I wish Cyrus all the best as his life of pub­lic ser­vice now turns to a new stage that will be impact­ful to many.”

I have faith that my path and Cyrus’ paths will cross again in the future because we share a faith tra­di­tion. So I will not say fare thee well to Cyrus when I see him. Instead, I will say Au revoir — because I know we will be meet­ing again.

Thank you, Cyrus, for every­thing, and best wish­es as you under­take this new jour­ney. The NPI team and I are pulling for you!