Archive for November, 2009

On October 20, the Ignatian Solidarity Network (ISN) presented Jesuit Father Charles Currie, president of the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities (AJCU), with the “Robert M. Holstein Award: Faith Doing Justice” award.  Fr. Currie was the first recipient of the award, which recognizes an individual who exhibits a commitment to the Ignatian values of leadership, service and social justice.

Among those in attendance at the event were Congressmen Jim McGovern (D-MA) and Alan Mollohan (D-WV), who offered their congratulations to Fr. Currie for his leadership and his work on behalf of social justice.

 “I have never met a man more committed to social justice, and all causes that are good, than my dear friend Charlie Currie,” said Congressman McGovern. “His work with the Ignatian Solidarity Network inspires new generations to serve all humanity.”

“Whether he is ministering to our individual needs – attending to us when we’re born, when we marry, when we fall ill, and when we die – or pursuing social justice in the larger world, Father Currie is a priest’s priest,” said Congressman Mollohan. “He’s a man of uncommon strength and profound compassion.  He carries with him both a vision of a better world and a commitment to make that vision reality.”

Read more about  Fr. Currie’s acceptance of the Robert M. Holstein Award at AJCU’s website.

Lunch period at an inner-city all-boys school is an event associated with the sounds of chaos, not classical music. And yet there are definitely strains of Beethoven coming from the piano in the cafeteria at the University of Detroit Jesuit High School and Academy. Behind the pianist, another student waits patiently for his turn. Upstairs in the art room, a senior is using the lunch hour to apply more brushstrokes to a portrait. A few kids are playing pickup ball in the gym, but more are crowded in the library. 

In a city where 47% of adults are functionally illiterate and only 25% of high school freshmen make it to graduation, U of D is the chute through which bright young men can get to college. The school boasts a near perfect graduation rate and sends 99% of its graduates on to higher education. 

Catholic high schools have long provided a way out for high-achieving urban students. But in Detroit, most Catholic schools either closed down or left the city decades ago, after the race riots in 1967, when white Catholics fled to the suburbs and the city’s population dropped by half. Only the Jesuits stayed, maintaining U of D’s imposing stone structure on the corner of 7 Mile and Cherrylawn. The Catholic order is known for its education systems and its missionary work. In Detroit, they have become one and the same.

Read more about the University of Detroit Jesuit High School and Academy in Time’s “Assignment Detroit” special feature.

Lunch period at an inner-city all-boys school is an event associated with the sounds of chaos, not classical music. And yet there are definitely strains of Beethoven coming from the piano in the cafeteria at the University of Detroit Jesuit High School and Academy. Behind the pianist, another student waits patiently for his turn. Upstairs in the art room, a senior is using the lunch hour to apply more brushstrokes to a portrait. A few kids are playing pickup ball in the gym, but more are crowded in the library. 

In a city where 47% of adults are functionally illiterate and only 25% of high school freshmen make it to graduation, U of D is the chute through which bright young men can get to college. The school boasts a near perfect graduation rate and sends 99% of its graduates on to higher education. 

Catholic high schools have long provided a way out for high-achieving urban students. But in Detroit, most Catholic schools either closed down or left the city decades ago, after the race riots in 1967, when white Catholics fled to the suburbs and the city’s population dropped by half. Only the Jesuits stayed, maintaining U of D’s imposing stone structure on the corner of 7 Mile and Cherrylawn. The Catholic order is known for its education systems and its missionary work. In Detroit, they have become one and the same.

Read more about the University of Detroit Jesuit High School and Academy in Time’s “Assignment Detroit” special feature.