Archive for the ‘Social Justice’ Category

For family and friends following him on Facebook, Jesuit Father Joseph Laramie has been posting weekly narrative and photo updates about his Belizian experience. These reflections vary widely, from on mud-stuck trucks, inconsiderate roosters and people seemingly from another time.

Fr. Laramie, a St. Louis-area native, was ordained last June and finished his Jesuit theology classes at Boston College in January.

A month later, he began what will be a four-month pastoral assignment in Belize helping the Missouri Province Jesuits staff St. Peter Claver Parish in Punta Gorda and providing sacraments to the 40-plus Mayan villages in the surrounding area, most of which have a Catholic chapel.

Punta Gorda’s 5,000 diverse residents include Garufina, people of African and Caribbean descent; Mopan- and Kekchi-speaking Mayans; and Mestizo, people with a mix of Spanish and Mayan ancestry.

Fr. Laramie’s work is mostly sacramental; Mass at St. Peter Claver Parish, Masses for school kids in Punta Gorda and villages, and Sunday Masses in Mayan villages, where his homily is usually translated into Kekchi by a Mayan leader at the villages. Songs and readings also are in Kekchi.

Next stop on his Jesuit journey is Kansas City, Mo.’s Rockhurst High School, where he’ll serve as director of pastoral ministry starting June 1.

But until then, readers can follow a Jesuit in Belize whose dispatches and reflections illuminate, educate and entertain.

Check out his Facebook page to read more about Fr. Laramie’s work.

[Missouri Jesuits]

A new study conducted by Fairfield University’s Center for Faith and Public Life has dug deeper into India’s gender ratio imbalance crisis to find that it is being fueled by complex family pressures, including the belief that boys will be better wage earners, and that men will more likely take better care of their aging parents. The study also indicates that elders in the family and often husbands prefer a male child, while many wives pointed out that their voices were not being heard and had little choice in the matter.

Fairfield University’s innovative survey examined how gender dynamics and family pressures in India lead to the birth of a significantly greater number of boys than girls. The study suggests that male child preference is quite prevalent and the gender ratio imbalance – which is on the increase and was evident in the 2011 Indian National Census – is likely to be a major impediment to the future development of India.

Jesuit Father Richard Ryscavage, professor of sociology and director of The Center for Faith and Public Life, conducted the study and recently sat down for an interview with National Jesuit News.

According to the 2011 National Census of India, there were 914 girls born for every 1,000 boys; in some regions reaching as low as 824 girls. These figures are alarming in comparison to the United Nation’s 2010 Population Sex Ratio norm of 101.7 males to 100 females. The Indian census numbers therefore show a severe gender ratio imbalance in the nation. The Indian government, numerous global agencies, NGOs and researchers contend that as women become a minority in the population, there is bound to be a detrimental effect on both India’s economic development and social stability.

Undertaken in partnership with two Jesuit schools in India – St. Xavier College in Mumbai and Loyola College in Chennai – the research also found that girls are being systematically devalued in society. Yet, the findings also revealed many wives responding that daughters would be better caregivers than sons.

Fairfield’s researchers surveyed the upper layer of the lower class and the lower layer of the middle class. The assumption was that those families could be the part of the population that can make changes in their attitudes towards the son preference practice, a change that could be discernible by the next census, in 2021.

For more information on the “Impact India” study, visit http://www.fairfield.edu/cfpl/cfpl_gsri.html.

Jesuits have recently provided 127 flood-affected families with new homes in Raichur, India. Residents there lost their homes in late 2009 when flooding swept through the southwestern region of the country.

The Jesuits in the region have been working for the last two years to help rebuild the homes, especially for the poorest in the community.

“We are handing over 127 houses in Manvi and Sindanoor subdistrict,” said Jesuit Father Eric Mathias, director of the Centre for Non Formal and Continuing Education, a Jesuit-run non-governmental organization (NGO).

“We have been given a lovely house with a bedroom, hall and kitchen. This is a great gift to all of us who had no shelter, said Arogyappa, one of the beneficiaries.

Each home cost 150,000 rupees (US $3,000). Ninety percent of the funds to build the homes were provided by the Jesuit-run center, the rest came from donations.

Hampayya Nayak, a local legislator, praised the Jesuits for their efforts during the handing over ceremony in late February.

“I appreciate the Jesuits’ commitment to the cause of the poor. They have shown people through their work where God is really found.”

[UCANews]

This Sunday, Japan will mark the one-year anniversary of a catastrophic tsunami, which flooded villages and wiped coastal towns off the map. Caused by a 9.0 magnitude earthquake, the tsunami killed thousands and  left unimaginable devastation in its wake.

To commemorate this tragic event, we’ve reposted a reflection from Filipino Jesuit Joseph “Jody” Magtoto about the grueling, and at times, dangerous relief work that volunteers performed in those early days.  

By Jody Magtoto, SJ

When the rector of the Jesuit Scholasticate [house of formation -Ed.] in Tokyo, Jesuit Father Juan Haidar, asked me whether I was interested in volunteering for relief efforts of Caritas Japan, I initially hesitated since my command of the Japanese language is not good. Yet I felt moved to respond despite this disability and despite the risks.

We called ourselves the Tokyo 12. I found myself among this group of five men and seven women who responded to Mr Sakagawa’s call to help in the Caritas Japan relief efforts. We did not know each other prior to this trip and had met only once for an orientation meeting April 4. Bony James, an Indian Jesuit scholastic, and I were probably the only Christians in this group.

Tokyo 12 left for the Northern coastal town of Kamaishi on April 5.  Kamaishi is one of the towns that was badly hit by the tsunami. This is the town where a huge ship rammed into the tsunami wall. The sidewalks were still full of debris—everything from old toys to the remains of a baby shark.

For one week we were housed in a small convent that was not so much affected by the tsunami since the convent and chapel are located on a slightly elevated area.

Upon arrival, we were briefed about the types of work involved – first, to clean up nearby houses that were devastated by the tsunami; second, to help in the sorting and distribution of relief goods; third, to assist in the preparation of food for those affected by the disaster.

The clean-up operations were gruelling and rather dangerous.   Volunteers had to clear up debris in and around the house —thick wooden planks, car parts, waterlogged containers, even a heavy stairwell that the tsunami water had tossed onto the lawn. The debris was at times several metres deep, and we had to dig through the wreckage with a shovel or our hands in order to move the rubble to a nearby lot. There was so much debris that we had to create a makeshift pathway out of disposed tatami mats so as to be able to dump the debris further inside the lot. The dumpsite reeked of things that the tsunami had flung into the city.

We had to proceed with caution.  Several volunteers stepped on beams with exposed nails that had rusted under the corrosive salt water and had to get first aid and tetanus shots. I almost met with an accident myself when a heavy beam I was carrying snagged on an overturned car.

Read the rest of this entry »

With the motto, “nothing stops a bullet like a job,” Homeboy Industries in Los Angeles works to help gang members leave their lives formed on the streets and in prisons and instead learn skills to improve their lives. Offering tattoo removal, counseling former “homies” in drug rehabilitation and mental health, and even providing jobs in its bakery, café and t-shirt store, Homeboy Industries is a haven for former gang members looking to turn their lives around. The ministry helps approximately 12,000 individuals each year learn life skills to lead them away from the streets.

Founded in 1992 by charismatic Jesuit Father Greg Boyle during the height of the city’s gang wars, Homeboy Industries has become a model program that other cities, like Chattanooga, are trying to replicate.

Fr. Boyle’s innovative program was featured recently in a piece by The Economist. An excerpt appears below and you can read the full story on The Economist’s website.

It can take between three and 40 treatments to remove a prison tattoo, says Troy, a volunteer doctor at Homeboy Industries in central Los Angeles, as another former gang member takes a seat. Troy zaps the tattoos with a laser, breaking up the ink so that the immune system can destroy it. This is painful, and the laser’s sharp cracking sound reminds some patients of shooting or of the prison yard, explains Andre, who is 27, spent seven years in prison, and got his first tattoo when he was 11. But it is still good to get rid of tattoos. “We focus on the visible ones,” says Troy, “the ones that make you a target when you’re walking decades later with your son and somebody shoots you, or the ones that prevent you from getting a job.”

“We’re a trauma-informed family here,” says Jesuit Father Greg Boyle. Eventually, they experience an unfamiliar feeling that he calls the “no-matter-whatness”. They realize that the staff do not judge their past but are ready to help them build a better future.

Homeboy Industries also recently opened a new diner in Los Angeles’ City Hall. You can find out more about Homeboy Diner in this Ignatian News Network video: