Social and Pastoral Research Support

This project seeks to broaden and strengthen the environmental movement in the Northwest by providing concrete tools for fostering ecological sustainability and developing “green congregations” in six Jesuit parishes in Oregon and Washington.  The IPJC is a non-profit organization sponsored by 16 Catholic religious communities.  This grant is part of a one-year pilot program to provide a toolkit for parishes that links faith, justice, and environmental stewardship.

This research project will investigate the intersection of faith, church teaching, and political attitudes to offer insight into how Catholic social and political ministries can better shape the attitudes and conscience of the faithful toward solidarity with immigrants.  The research will examine Catholic voting patterns and various forms of social sin that contribute to resistance to Catholic teaching on immigration.  The project will then offer concrete strategies and models for overcoming obstacles to the reception of the social teaching of the Church on immigration.

This project will provide Jesuits and lay leaders with easily understood information about what happens and what to do when undocumented immigrants are apprehended and detained for deportation (as they have been in several recent ICE raids around the country).  It will also provide a comprehensive list of resources that clergy and lay ministers can refer to when people approach a church in search of help for someone who has been detained.  The research will involve collecting and digesting all of the technical information about detention and deportation across the country and creating an accessible, easy-to-follow summary in English and Spanish.

Woodstock is planning to launch a 2-year project to provide academic and theological foundations for Catholic Church teaching, its ministries, and its public policy work on behalf of migrants.  Phase I includes academic reflection, dialogue, and study that begins with experience and moves through analysis and the verifications of values to the level of decision-making and action.  Phase II involves producing a multi-disciplinary “source book” on theological, historical, legal, economic and other analyses in support of the Justice for Immigrants campaign.  Woodstock will then coordinate an extensive public “roll-out” for this book that involves a Public Forum, press activities, and outreach to universities, seminaries, religious orders, etc.