Archive for the ‘Justice’ Category

Jesuit Father Michael Kennedy, executive director of the Jesuit Restorative Justice Initiative (JRJI), was given the 2010 Distinguished Service Award by the Chief Probation Officers of California in January.

Fr. Kennedy, who advocates for the transformation of the justice system to become more restorative than punitive, was honored for his work at Barry J. Nidorf Juvenile Hall in Los Angeles, where he is co-chaplain. His focus is on juveniles who are facing life sentences for serious crimes.

Kennedy introduces the youth to contemplative prayer using the Spiritual Exercises and guides them in meditation, which enables them to lead each other in prayer and meditation. For more on Kennedy’s ministry, read The Tidings story.

Six months after the earthquake devastated Haiti on January 12, more than one million survivors continue to live in appalling conditions, with inadequate sanitation, limited access to services and food shortages, say the Jesuits who are working to provide humanitarian assistance.

Conditions in many of the nearly 1,400 camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs) around the capital, Port-au-Prince, are extremely critical. The conditions at the largest Jesuit Refugee Services’ (JRS) camp, Automeca, with a population of 12,000, are typical. Here, residents continue to live in shacks held up by rags and poles. There are no schools or electricity, sanitation is poor and the water barely drinkable. When heavy rain falls, garbage rushes through the camp.

For many years, JRS has had a grassroots presence in Haiti and has provided humanitarian assistance to displaced Haitians in both the Dominican Republic and along the Haitian border. JRS – Haiti is focusing its current relief efforts in the Port-au-Prince area, working in seven camps that serve the needs of more than 21,000 displaced people in and around the capital by providing emergency assistance, psychosocial support, and training to community leaders to manage camps and civil society organizations.

“Camp management and aid delivery structures should always include consultation and cooperation with the displaced people who are swiftly forming their own organizations to advocate for their own particular needs,” said JRS/USA Director Jesuit Father Kenneth J. Gavin. “More attention must be placed on supporting the food and relief needs for IDP recipient communities and people not living in camps so that moving to a camp is not the only way for people to receive minimal food, water, and livelihood assistance.”

At a meeting with JRS – Haiti on June 20, seven IDP camp leaders highlighted numerous concerns, including the lack of security, particularly in camps that don’t have electricity and lighting at night, which pose a particular threat to women and children.

The situation in unofficial camps is even worse. Throughout the city, unofficial camp residents receive little or no care from large aid organizations or international coordinating bodies; many have even been told leave the camps but have not been provided with alternative housing.

“JRS welcomes the moratorium on forced evictions issued by the Haitian government. Unfortunately, pressure from landowners on IDPs to evacuate the sites continues. Actions go so far as intermittent disconnection of the water supply, and refusals to allow the construction of more permanent shelters and street lighting. ,” said JRS – Haiti Director Jesuit Father Wismith Lazard. “The government needs to use its authority to protect camp residents from this kind of harassment, and put more effort into identifying suitable shelter.”

In the video below, Frs. Lazard and Kawas Francois, president of the Jesuit Interprovincial Committee for the Reconstruction of Haiti, discuss the conditions in the camps in Haiti and the plans to open 17 Jesuit Fe y Alegria (Hope & Joy) schools in the next year in Haiti.

Since 1995, Jesuits, lay partners and members of the broader Ignatian family have gathered with others organizations at the gates of Fort Benning, Ga., to call for the closure of the School of the Americas, now known as the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation. On Nov. 16, 1989, six Jesuit priests were shot to death by a Salvadoran military squad, who then proceeded to murder the Jesuits’ housekeeper and her daughter while they slept. The Salvadoran soldiers, who killed these Jesuits and their companions, were trained at the SOA. The Ignatian Solidarity Network annually hosted a teach-in for justice prior to the protest at the fort’s gates.

In 2009, the ISN gathered the national Ignatian family for its final year of participation in the SOA protest. While other groups will carry on at Fort Benning, the ISN is transitioning to a regional model of raising awareness. The focus will be on teaching and informing the public about a variety of issues in their local area.

Watch the video below to hear more about last fall’s protest and the transition plans for ISN.

Since 1995, Jesuits, lay partners and members of the broader Ignatian family have gathered with others organizations at the gates of Fort Benning, Ga., to call for the closure of the School of the Americas, now known as the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation. On Nov. 16, 1989, six Jesuit priests were shot to death by a Salvadoran military squad, who then proceeded to murder the Jesuits’ housekeeper and her daughter while they slept. The Salvadoran soldiers, who killed these Jesuits and their companions, were trained at the SOA. The Ignatian Solidarity Network annually hosted a teach-in for justice prior to the protest at the fort’s gates.

In 2009, the ISN gathered the national Ignatian family for its final year of participation in the SOA protest. While other groups will carry on at Fort Benning, the ISN is transitioning to a regional model of raising awareness. The focus will be on teaching and informing the public about a variety of issues in their local area.

Watch the video below to hear more about last fall’s protest and the transition plans for ISN.

Today, a letter signed by every Jesuit major superior in the United States was hand delivered to the White House and each individual Congressional office. Their canvassing effort seeks immediate and comprehensive immigration reform.  “With the new Arizona law, there is a real risk that life on our national borders will become subject to a patchwork of state responses; Congress is faced with both a constitutional and moral imperative to act,” said Jesuit Father Thomas H. Smolich, president of the Jesuit Conference of the United States.  “Despite what some reactionary politicians would have us believe,” Smolich added, “we can secure our borders in a way that does not cost us our humanity.”

With important primary elections on Tuesday and Capitol Hill staffers working on the legislative agenda for the resumption of the Congressional session, the Jesuits took the rare step of issuing a joint letter from all ten of their Provincial major superiors across the country.  “In our language of religious life, we would refer to this as a kairos moment,” Smolich said.  “Or in the language of a baseball fan,” he continued, “now is the time for Congress to get in the game.”  John Kleiderer, director of social and international ministries at the Jesuit Conference, worries that if Congress does not act quickly, “the lives of thousands of people on both sides of the border will be hostage to the mid-term elections and neither side of the debate will see progress toward either security or justice.”   Referencing the Justice for Immigrants Campaign sponsored by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Smolich said “the Catholic Church has been a leading advocate of immigration reform.  We wanted to send a clear message to the President and Congress as well as invite all Jesuits and our many lay partners to join us in support of the Church, speak out for the least among us and ask your members of Congress to act now.”

The Jesuits are asking for legislation based on five core principals shared by the Justice for Immigrants Campaign.

1.    A path to legalization that ensures undocumented immigrants have access to full rights.
2.    A legal employment structure for future workers that protects both migrants and United States workers.
3.    Expedited family reunification and emphasis on family unity.
4.    The need for due process and humane enforcement of our immigration laws.
5.    Economic development assistance and fair market access for developing countries.

For the complete text of the letter, you can click here.