Jozef J. Goethals

Jozef “Jeff” Goethals, was born in Torhout, Belgium, in 1937. After six years of classical humanities he joined the missionary congregation of the CICM- Scheut Fathers in 1956. After two years of philosophy in Nijmegen, the Netherlands, he spent seven years at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, Italy, where he obtained degrees in theology and missiology and did post-graduate studies. Subsequently, he served as a missionary in the Philippines until 1970.

He emigrated to U.S.A., resigned from the ministry, and became a teacher in Baltimore, Maryland. For 32 years, he taught philosophy, religion, Latin, French, and Italian at Notre Dame Preparatory School. After his retirement in 2002, he dedicated ten years on his genealogy hobby. He published three family histories on the Goethals family and a manual on Belgian genealogy research.

Since 2012, he has published two memoirs, a novel on The Second Vatican Council, and a historical novel on the German occupation of his hometown, which was also published in Dutch in Belgium. In 2024 he published Ponderings of an Old Theologian. Vatican II: A Life-Shaping Event, and a book on the meaning of life, Seppe's Quest. What's it all about? He resides in Baltimore, Maryland, with his wife, Felicitas.