In addition to Wildes, Sunday’s ceremony recognized Marlin Gusman, Orleans Parish sheriff; Wm. Raymond Manning, president and CEO of Manning Architects; Bill Summers, master percussionist; Jim Singleton, chairman of the Dryades YMCA; Dwight Payne, director of VIP Services for the House of Blues; and Stephen Perry, president and CEO of the New Orleans Metropolitan Convention and Visitors Bureau.

The Martin Luther King Jr. Jazz Award honors individuals who have contributed to enriching their community, advancing cultural awareness through music and art, and furthering economic opportunity while adhering to the principles of non-violence.

Fr. Wildes, was appointed in July to the New Orleans Civil Service Commission. This appointment continues Fr. Wildes’ long-time record of service for the city. Following Hurricane Katrina, he played a key role in establishing the city’s Ethics Review Board and in setting up an independent Office of the Inspector General. Wildes currently sits on the Public Belt Railroad Commission.

“While I believe public service is always important, the challenges for post-Katrina New Orleans make public service even more vital today,” said Wildes. “New Orleans citizens are demanding, and rightly so, to live within a city government that functions transparently, efficiently and justly. I am honored to be able to assist in this effort.”

On April 4, 1968, the death of Martin Luther King Jr. shocked the nation. A few days later, Jesuit Father John E. Brooks, then a professor of theology at the College of the Holy Cross who shared Dr. King’s dream of an integrated society, drove up and down the East Coast searching for African American high school recruits, young men he felt had the potential to succeed if given an opportunity.

Among the 20 students he had a hand in recruiting that year were Clarence Thomas ‘71, the future Supreme Court justice; Edward P. Jones ‘72, who would go on to win a Pulitzer Prize for literature and Eddie Jenkins ‘72, who would play for the Miami Dolphins during their 1972 perfect season.

Now, the stories of their time at Holy Cross are being told in a new book, Fraternity, which follows the men through their college years, reporting on how their time at Holy Cross and their relationships with Fr. Brooks helped shape who they are today. In a recent interview, Fr. Brooks sat down with National Catholic Reporter to talk about the experiences that Fraternity was based on.

Jesuit Father John Brooks paused, his fork temporarily suspended above his apple crumble. The 88-year-old Holy Cross president emeritus, his West Roxbury accent clear and direct, told the National Catholic Reporter during lunch in the Hogan Campus Center, “Clarence Thomas called this morning — it was more of a joke really.” The U.S. Supreme Court justice, a former Holy Cross student of Brooks’, “wanted to know did I really have a tear in my eye.” Thomas was referring to the concluding line in an excerpt from Diane Brady’s book Fraternity, reprinted in the fall 2011 Holy Cross Magazine, that ran, “One of the students saw Fr. Brooks standing to the side, slipping out quietly with tears in his eyes.”

Joked Thomas, on the phone to Brooks, “You never shed a tear.”

Brooks hasn’t had much time for tears. Toughness was required when Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination impelled then theology professor Brooks into an East Coast recruitment drive for African-American students. Regardless of how historically salutary his decision, in the short term it brought neither tranquility nor harmony to the college.

To accomplish even the first steps, Brooks needed the support of the somewhat besieged Holy Cross president, Jesuit Fr. Raymond J. Swords. Both men engaged in a great deal of persuasive argument to eventually quell consternation among the trustees, uproar from the alumni, divisions among the faculty, and doubt, dismay and/or anger among the white students. It certainly didn’t help with the endowment drive. Not least, there was the matter of $80,000 in scholarships Brooks had promised to those he recruited.

When Brooks was growing up in West Roxbury, he said, it was all white, “and it’s still all white now.” At Boston Latin, there were perhaps a handful of black students in a 2,400-student body. His first exposure to the College of the Holy Cross, was with his dad, a New England Telephone Company divisional manager, bringing him to the football games. “Those were the days,” he said, nostalgically about the Holy Cross team. Yet when he enrolled at Holy Cross in 1942, he had one black classmate. “I don’t know how he survived the four years, the isolation.”

With World War II under way, Brooks was soon in uniform and spent three years in Europe. “The Army was segregated then.” Postwar it was back to Holy Cross, one of 300 25- to 28-year-old GI college freshmen and sophomores. He studied geophysics with a view to oil exploration, graduated, then headed to Penn State for graduate studies. “I found I missed the Jesuits for some reason, but I didn’t feel that way when I was at Holy Cross.” He applied to enter the Society of Jesus, was told to go back and finish graduate school, but to his surprise was called to enter early in 1950. It was an era, he noted, when any black Jesuits were usually assigned to Jamaica.

By 1963, after graduate work in theology at the Gregorian in Rome, he was back at Holy Cross. What happened while in Rome, he said, was “one of the great gifts in life God has given to me — the Second Vatican Council opened.”

Back in the United States racial tensions were rising. Then came King’s assassination. Fraternity recounts in detail Brooks’ East Coast recruiting excursions.

Asked if it was tough to convince the black students to attend Holy Cross, even with the promise of scholarships, he replied, “Yes. First they saw it as a Catholic school. Then they saw it as an all-white school. What I probably emphasized was the importance of a quality education. They were students who took academic life seriously. One of the things that bothered me was their likely isolation.” Brooks felt the only answer was to give the black students their own residence. “We received a lot of criticism — we couldn’t do anything to overcome the isolation issues without being criticized. Everyone’s goal was to make the students all the same. Well, you can’t just do that, it takes time.” It took more than that when, in 1969, to protest perceived college racism in a judicial review, 65 black students quit Holy Cross in protest.

That same year, Swords asked Brooks, now college dean, to cover alumni groups. “Because it was I and not he, they clobbered him in front of me: very blunt, hard, negative. I always defended him. I admired him. It was a good thing he didn’t hear it.” The next year, Brooks was named president.

He had a second goal: admitting women students. “The coeducation push probably generated more alumni negativity than anything. The black situation was more nasty, they said mean things, the words used. It was awful.”

Even so, Brooks prevailed. He prevailed again in his determination to keep Holy Cross as a top-flight liberal arts college.

There was one graduate program, in chemistry. As president, “I got rid of it. It was a struggle. Of the 28-29 Jesuit colleges, we’re the one that held the fort for undergraduate education. There’s always a fight. A fight with admissions to make sure you’re getting the quality of students you want. I wanted Holy Cross to be as good as, or better than Amherst or Williams.”

Brooks still teaches, and he’s still a tough taskmaster. He interviews each student he admits to his course in contemporary Christology. “I come down hard at the very beginning. I tell them I expect them to be there for every session. Expect them to do the readings. I base my acceptance on their willingness to read, their habit of reading. Each student marries a theologian — Hans Küng, [Karl] Rahner, [Edward] Schillebeeckx, [Jon] Sobrino, [Dietrich] Bonhoeffer. At the end of semester they have a two-and-a-half hour oral exam. I bring in outside examiners. They’re petrified. At the end there’s a little reception, a dinner of students and examiners — and they’re very happy, for they’ve proven to themselves they’ve learned something. I’m very committed to the liberal arts. I think we acquired a reputation for high ratings, we get them. You may disagree with them but you have to be in there.

“That’s why I was so happy with the first group [of African-American students he recruited]. They were so good academically and intellectually.”

The Fraternity five still keep in touch. As do so many of the others, black and white.

Fr. Devron has come full circle in many ways. In 1995 he was a Jesuit novice in Chicago when he witnessed the beginning of the country’s first Cristo Rey school, Cristo Rey Jesuit High School, while attending the press conference announcing that the Jesuits were starting the school.

Christ the King, which follows the Cristo Rey work-study model, opened at a temporary site with 120 students in 2008, and its brand new building opened in January 2010.

Ignatian News Network met up with Fr. Devron to learn more about the man behind the collar.

A small percentage of the $1.5 million endowment will fund the chair in perpetuity and bring in a new Jesuit scholar from another institution for one semester each year. The chair will have the opportunity to do research, attend conferences, network with faculty across departments, and deliver a public lecture. The chair will also teach one course; for Fr. Turgeon, it’s a history of mathematics class in the Spring 2012 semester.

“Accomplished outside experts like Fr. Turgeon bring new perspectives, new ideas, new life to Loyola,” said Jesuit Father James J. Miracky, dean of Loyola College, Loyola’s school of arts and sciences. “As a Jesuit, he understands our tradition and mission, and he’s rooted in our spirituality. I am confident he will make an immediate connection with our faculty and the rest of the Loyola community.”

Fr. Turgeon has taught at the University of Montreal since 1970. He received a Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of Toronto and has published dozens of books, chapters, and articles in his career. Fr. Turgeon joined the Society of Jesus in 1956, was ordained in 1971, and took his last vows as a Jesuit in 1978. He is fluent in English and French.

Loyola actively recruits Jesuits who are in the early stages of their careers, and the chair, which reaches out to established professors, adds experience to that mix.

“While the Jesuit tradition at Loyola is still active and thriving within our teaching, scholarship, and conversations, we are constantly challenging ourselves to improve and we value having Jesuits on campus who have had the primary experience and learning associated with being a Jesuit,” said Timothy Snyder, Ph.D., vice president for academic affairs at Loyola. “With that experience, Fr. Turgeon will make vigorous contributions to conversations already taking place at Loyola.”

A recent addition to Brophy is Loyola Academy, which provides a Catholic, Jesuit education to 6th, 7th, and 8th grade boys who demonstrate academic promise but have had limited educational opportunities. Loyola Academy currently serves one class of sixth grade boys, and will add a new sixth grade class for the 2012/2013 school year.

Fr. Reese recently spoke with us by phone from Phoenix to discuss the work of Loyola Academy and about his own background as a Jesuit. You can listen to our podcast with Reese via the player below.

These extraordinary individuals have made a significant impact on the students, families, and educators through Catholic schools and universities throughout America. Their innovative ideas and dedication to students and to the wider community, demonstrate the strong commitment to ensuring that every child has an opportunity for greatness.

“We are thrilled to recognize these extraordinary Champions in Catholic Education at the White House. Each of these nine leaders embody the values of education, innovation and service  through their stellar contributions to Catholic schools and the wider communities they serve,” said Alexia Kelley, Senior Policy Advisor White House Office of Faith-Based and  Neighborhood Partnerships. “These Champions, like their colleagues in Catholic education across the country, inspire all of us to build up our communities and our nation’s young people.”

The Champions of Change program was created as a part of President Obama’s Winning the Future initiative. Each week, a different sector is highlighted and groups of Champions, ranging from educators to entrepreneurs to community leaders, are recognized for the work they are doing to serve and strengthen their communities.

Fr. Luedtke is a native of Chicago and a graduate of St. Ignatius College Prep and Georgetown University. After working in retail sales and marketing after college, he entered the Society of Jesus in 1999. He taught and worked in campus ministry during his three-year regency at Cristo Rey Jesuit High School in Chicago. Upon completion of his studies at the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley, he was ordained to the priesthood in 2010. For the past three semesters, he has been interning at Jesuit high schools in Sacramento, San Francisco, and New York City. In January, he will move to Detroit and begin immersing himself in the Loyola community.

As a member of Loyola’s Board of Trustees, Fr. Luedtke is very familiar with the school and is fully committed to its unique mission that has been fostered so carefully by Fr. Mastrangelo and Loyola’s staff.

To read the full announcement from Fr. Mastrangelo and other news in Loyola High School’s “Landmark” magazine, click here.

To view a video featuring Fr. Luedtke reflecting on his Jesuit vocation, click here.

The goal of the National Seminar on Jesuit Higher Education and its publication of Conversations is to strengthen the Jesuit identity of our 28 colleges and universities. Each issue is written to stimulate the campus dialogue – through departmental discussions or faculty symposiums – on the pursuit of various ideals.

The following articles are excerpts from the current issue of Conversations magazine. An archive of past issues may be found here.

Dear Faculty, Ask for More
Experiencing The Spirit
How We Got Here
Seeking Work-Family Balance: Perils and Possibilities
So You Want to Be A President?
The Importance of Good Coffee

The opinions stated in the articles herein are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the Jesuit Conference of the United States.

Feedback or comments? Click here to contact the editor.

The Urban Plunge is a credit course offered to any student at Notre Dame by the Social Concerns Department. Its purpose is to demonstrate the problems of homelessness and poverty in the inner city. The core of the program is a 48 hour “urban plunge” during the Christmas vacation at a city near the student’s home. This plunge is preceded by several class periods and readings, and followed by another class period and a final paper.

Fr. Kammer’s lecture to the students, titled “Building Justice in the Cities,” addressed breaking the cycle of urban poverty. Kammer is currently is the executive director of the Jesuit Social Research Institute and has worked as the president of Catholic Charities USA.

“Making the invisible visible is the first step to compassion,” Kammer said. “Standing with the poor is a touchstone that gives us a wisdom that comes from the poor themselves and leads us to make judgments in favor of the poor.”

Kammer said taking a stand with the poor challenges our society’s dominant views.

“Standing with those who are poor introduces us to a new way of seeing the world around us,” he said. “This insistence on personal contact runs against our culture’s proclivity to see the poor as invisible or faceless.”

Kammer said once people make an initial commitment to stand with the poor, they might change the way they live their own lives.

“One of the first reactions that people have is to adopt a simpler lifestyle,” he said. “This choice is a stance appropriate to students.  Individuals who stand with the poor also stand with them in their career choices whether by choosing to teach in inner-city schools instead of the suburbs or doing social work in place of commercial law.

You can read more about Kammer’s lecture and the Urban Plunge program via this article in the university’s Observer newspaper. Kammer’s lecture can be found on video at Notre Dame’s Center for Social Concern’s website here.

“I left some of my remaining pizza back there in order for us to chat,” Donnelly says jokingly. “Now let’s talk.”

Donnelly sits in a reclining chair and begins to share the reasons why he became a Jesuit.

“In 1952 I graduated from Campion Jesuit High School and that summer I was doing a lot of reflecting on the fact that my friends were going into the seminary and then I thought, ‘Hey! That’s a really good idea,’” Donnelly said.

After traveling for educational purposes before his ordination in 1965, Donnelly found his way to Marquette University in 1971. He served as a full-time professor of history until retiring last year. Before Marquette, Donnelly served as a TA while working on his Ph.D. at UW-Madison. He described his time there as “rambunctious” due to the heated political times of the Vietnam War. Donnelly recalled a memorable Saturday morning while in the campus Jesuit house.

“I remember waking up and seeing the police with tear gas and their body protection on,” Donnelly said. “Each threw four (tear gas cans) in different directions to make sure no riots occurred that day.”

Donnelly said the history department at Marquette is refreshing in comparison to his few years at Madison. He prided the department on its respect and harmony.

“I am very happy to be a part of this history department,” Donnelly said. ”We are really blessed with mutual respect and honesty. It is one of my biggest joys here at Marquette.”

Donnelly said he’s taught five courses throughout his tenure here at Marquette: History of the Renaissance, World War II, History of the Reformation Period and the two introductory History of Western Civilizations classes.

Molly Edwards, a sophomore in the College of Communication, had Donnelly in Western Civilization. She said Donnelly’s class was dense in subject manner but brought to life by his relating material to present-day issues.

“The topic was 1700 to present day history and was really dry,” Edwards said. “But he knows an infinite amount of knowledge about it that astounds you.”

Edwards said Donnelly encouraged his students to take a passion about the history and use the ties to modern day history as a tool to create a more tangible connection. She was specifically a fan of a paper where she had to research a historical person. She chose Charles Darwin.

“It was 10 pages long,” Edwards said. “But I am glad I did it because it provided you with a bigger understanding on how people have an impact on society, and he related it back to the Jesuit ideal.”

[Marquette Tribune]