Jozef, “Jeff” Goethals, was born in Torhout, Belgium in 1937. After six years of classical humanities at St. Rembert College in his hometown, he joined the international missionary congregation of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (CICM or Scheut Fathers) in 1956. After studying 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 the U.S.A. that year, resigned from the ministry, and became a teacher in Baltimore, Maryland. For 32 years he taught a variety of subjects (philosophy, theology, Latin, French, Greek and Italian) at Notre Dame Preparatory School, and Italian at the Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University. After his retirement in 2001 he dedicated himself for several years to his hobby: genealogy. He has published three family histories on the Goethals, and a manual on Belgian genealogy research. Since 2012 he published a memoir, 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. Damian’s Dance is his fourth novel. In 2022 his book "Ponderings of an Old Theologian. Vatican II: A Life-Shaping Event" will be published. He resides in Baltimore, Maryland, with his wife, Felicitas.