Archive for the ‘Social Justice’ Category

Over 1,000 students, teachers, parish members, and others passionate about faith-inspired social justice will gather in Washington, DC, from November 12-14, 2011, for the 14th annual Ignatian Family Teach-In for Justice (IFTJ) sponsored by the Ignatian Solidarity Network.

The Teach-In is an opportunity for members of Jesuit institutions and partners to gather for learning, prayer, networking and legislative advocacy on Capitol Hill. Teach-In attendees represent twenty-eight Jesuit universities, over twenty-five Jesuit high schools, Jesuit parishes, Jesuit volunteer communities, and many other Catholic institutions and organizations.

Keynote speakers include Jesuit Father Agbonkhianmeghe Orobator, Provincial of the East African Province of the Society of Jesus, among others.

Fr. Orobator is a lecturer at Hekima College Jesuit School of Theology, Nairobi, Kenya, the author of Theology Brewed in an African Pot and often presents on ethical and theological issues in church, religion, and society in Africa.

The theme of IFTJ 2011 is “The Gritty Reality: Feel It, Think It, Engage It,” derived from a speech given by former Jesuit Superior General, Jesuit Father Peter-Hans Kolvenbach, in 2000 entitled, “The Service of Faith and the Promotion of Justice in American Jesuit Higher Education.” Kolvenbach said, “Students, in the course of their formation, must let the gritty reality of this world into their lives, so they can learn to feel it, think about it critically, respond to its suffering and engage it constructively.”

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Jesuit Father Alberto Hurtado

A robust New Yorker of Irish ancestery, Jesuit Father Eugene Rooney has traveled the World. Missioned to places like Africa and Uruguay, it was in Chile where he discovered his real mission. In 1969 he left his position as librarian at Georgetown University to move to Chile to maintain the files and personal manuscripts of Saint Alberto Hurtado, Jesuit and founder of Hogar de Cristo, an outreach organization serving the poorest of the poor.

Since moving to Chile, Fr. Rooney has indexed the original manuscript collection of Alberto Hurtado, which were located at behind Saint Ignatius High School on Alonso Ovalle St.

There are eight kardex placed in four storage bins in which the original manuscripts of the creator of the Hogar de Cristo are stored. One document has phrase written in a passionate and elegant calligraphy and preached by Hurtado; “Love your neighbor is the most important thing of all.”

Some of these manuscripts are yellowish papers with faded edges and most of them have footer notes and ink stains. Rooney points out a phrase and some drawings that show the lighter side of a young man who wanted to be a priest. Finally, the librarian with strong and tender hands closes the manuscripts and carefully puts them back in the metal box as though they were fragile relics.

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Fifth grade students from Our St. Joseph Jesuit Parish Primary School in Kasungu, Malawi visit the site of the future Loyola Jesuit Secondary School with their headmaster (back left), Fr. Peter Henriot, SJ, development director of Loyola Jesuit Secondary School (back center) and Fr. Alojz Podgrajsek, SJ, project director of Loyola Jesuit Secondary School (back right).

Serving in Zambia on sabbatical in 1989 had a life-changing affect on Jesuit Father Peter Henriot. “Working in a village development project with local people and doing simple tasks did almost more for my education than all the other learning I gathered while studying and working in the United States. And at the end of that year, the people there gave me the best gift – the desire to stay.”

And for the next 21 years that’s exactly what Fr. Henriot was able to do, having joined the Zambia-Malawi Province (transferring from the Oregon Province) while working with the Jesuit Centre for Theological Reflection in Zambia after having spent the previous 16 years with Center of Concern in Washington, D.C.  And, then in 2010, he was assigned to another purpose – to help establish Loyola Jesuit Secondary School (LJSS) in Malawi.

Although it is a country rich in natural resources, Malawi, whose nickname is “The Warm Heart of Africa,” continues to be one of the poorest countries in the world in terms of human development. It ranks a somber 153 out of 169 on the United Nations Human Development Index, which is largely caused by lack of educational opportunities for its youth.

“There simply is no future for Malawi without better education for the young people,” Henriot states.

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Jesuit Father Ted Arroyo said that protesting Alabama’s new immigration law isn’t an act of politics, it’s an act of faith.

“It’s challenging us to welcome the alien and show mercy to the stranger,” said Fr. Arroyo, rector of the Jesuit community at Spring Hill College, “because what we do for them we do for God.”

Arroyo spoke on August 27 to about 100 people gathered in Lyons Park in Mobile who sang, prayed and created signs expressing their distress with the bill approved by the Legislature and signed into law by Gov. Robert Bentley in June.

The law allows local police to detain people suspected of being in the United States illegally; requires public schools to inquire into immigration status of students; makes it a crime for an illegal immigrant to seek work; and makes it a crime to knowingly transport or harbor an illegal immigrant.

The U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Birmingham to block the bill’s implementation. The case is pending.

Arroyo told the crowd to find out stories of their ancestors’ and families’ immigrations to new places. He also urged people to volunteer to help new immigrants in their own communities.

“If you meet the immigrant and welcome the stranger, soon enough they will be strangers no more,” Arroyo said.

Visit al.com for more on the protest.

Jesuit Father Thomas Massaro spoke at the recent assembly of the Congregation of Major Superiors of Men in Orlando, during which he offered his insights on encouraging action.

“It is just not reasonable to expect to impact lives in the most profound ways through classroom activities alone,” Fr. Massaro, a professor of moral theology at Boston College, said in an address. “If you want to change the world, you will have to contribute to transforming people, not just reshuffling the ideas in their heads.”

Massaro added, “True conversion for social justice springs from personal experience and exposure to social problems and engagement in efforts to solve them. You cannot succeed without some ideas and intellectual commitments, but principles only get you so far. At the risk of lapsing into clichés, it is a matter of hearts and hands, not just heads.”

Massaro said that while there are still unresolved questions on how to best serve the poor, it is clear the Catholic Church “will continue to understand its mission as including ample engagement with the political and economic realms. … There will continue to be a crucial role for men and women religious to play in front-line work for both charity and justice.”

For more on Massaro’s address, visit the Criterion Online.