Archive for the ‘Pastoral Ministry’ Category

On August 29, 2005, New Orleans experienced one of the worse natural disasters in U.S. history. While the city escaped a direct hit from Hurricane Katrina, the rising waters breached the levees that surround the city, leaving 80 percent of New Orleans under water. Five years later, New Orleans is a city rebuilding.

There has been a strong Jesuit presence in New Orleans from the days of the city’s founding over 300 years ago. The Jesuits have been in New Orleans in times of crisis like typhoid and yellow fever outbreaks at the turn of the 19th century and when the city flooded previously in the 1920s. Jesuit works like Good Shepherd Nativity School, which provides educational opportunities to disadvantaged children in the city, and Café Reconcile, a youth training program that provides on the job training in its restaurant, continue to help the city look toward a vibrant future. Schools like Loyola University and Jesuit High School continue to provide top notch education opportunities, while the Harry Thompson Center, a day shelter for the city’s homeless, reach out to the city’s most vulnerable. Today, the Jesuits continue to serve the spiritual needs of people of New Orleans and will continue be there for the city as it rebuilds and recovers.

National Jesuit News highlights the outreach and the dedication of the New Orleans Jesuits in the video piece below and provides a comprehensive overview of the Jesuit works in New Orleans five years after Katrina in the article following the video below.

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Jesuit Father Rick Curry runs the Academy for Veterans at Georgetown University for those retuning from Iraq and Afghanistan. The program aims to assist veterans who have been disabled in combat in rebuilding their lives and responding to their needs. The program also includes emotional rehabilitation through performing arts.

Fr. Curry recently spoke to Vatican Radio about the unique experience of working with the disabled veterans. You can listen to Curry’s interview here

Where does a Jesuit come from?

Why does he join the Society of Jesus?

How does he know his calling?

The Jesuit Conference of the United States has launched a new video series interviewing Jesuits from across the country discussing their vocations, their various paths to becoming a Jesuit and what it has meant to them to answer God’s call. National Jesuit News will feature a new video interview each week. You can watch additional videos by going to the Jesuits Revealed channel on YouTube.

Today’s video features Jesuit Father Kurt Denk of the Maryland Province of the Society of Jesus discussing his experience of finding Jesus during his ministry to prison inmates. You can watch additional videos with Fr. Denk here and here at the Jesuits Revealed channel on YouTube.

Attempts to arrest an alleged drug kingpin in Kingston, Jamaica turned into urban warfare that has left dozens dead in Tivoli Gardens, the Kingston neighborhood that has been under siege for days as the security forces battle heavily-armed gangsters defending their leader, Christopher Coke, known as Dudus.

In the midst of this violence sits St. Anne’s parish, as well as the Jesuits and the schools that they oversee. Canadian Jesuit Father Peter McIsaac, Regional Superior of the Jesuits in Jamaica, recently sent this letter to the New England Province of the Society of Jesus. Since 1929, the New England Jesuits have overseen the Jamaica Mission for the Society.

Below is a message received by the New England Province of the Society of Jesus from Jesuit Father Peter McIsaac, Regional Superior, Jamaica regarding the Jesuits in Jamaica:

Dear brothers,

Many thanks for your concern and prayers for the Jesuits in Jamaica, and for the stability of the country at this time.

Over the past few months tensions have escalated between inner city “garrison” communities, particularly those in West Kingston (Tivoli Gardens and Denham Town), and the Jamaican government over the U.S. request for the extradition of Christopher “Dudus” Coke, one of the most powerful criminal “dons” in Jamaica, a man with strong links to crime in the U.S., Canada and the U.K.

After a political crisis over a week ago in which the Prime Minister apologized for his exposed connection to a legal contract intended to protect the West Kingston strongman, the extradition papers were signed. The network of Tivoli Gardens and Denham Town gunmen in reaction erected road blocks and barricaded the two communities in an effort to frustrate the execution of the warrant for the arrest of Coke.

On Tuesday, just a short distance from St. Anne’s Church and schools, an army vehicle that attempted to clear a roadblock was assaulted by gunman and made a retreat. The roadblocks were intensified by the local gunmen, and by Saturday morning there was no road access to the two communities (in which St. Anne’s is located). The St. Anne’s Infant, Primary and High Schools were closed Thursday and Friday.

On Sunday, the police attempted a preliminary incursion into the communities, but were repelled, and in retaliation the Hannah Town Police Station (about two hundred meters from the Church) was overtaken and burned. Two other police stations were attacked and bombed. The Prime Minister announced a limited state of emergency.

On Monday, May 24, the army began their offensive. The gun battles continued for eight hours, and it seems that they have successfully recaptured the communities. One soldier and two policeman have been killed, and many more have been injured. There is no official count of the civilian dead (including the gunmen), but given the length and intensity of the gun battles, it seems as though the casualties will be very high. Gun battles were often accompanied by the bomb explosions.

This morning, the soldiers are out in full force, and going from corner to corner. There is sporadic gun fire, and no one is permitted on the road.

Peter McIsaac and John Sullivan have been at St. Anne’s Rectory throughout the conflict, and remain confined to the house, but are fine. Chris Llanos and John O’Brien are not far away on St. George’s College at the novitiate community, and are also fine. We thank you for your continued prayers for peace in West Kingston, and for the safety of our Jesuits here.

Father Gregory Boyle greets one of the many young men who offered support and comfort after he announced that most of Homeboy Industries' employees would be laid off. (Francine Orr, Los Angeles Times / May 13, 2010)

The country’s largest anti-gang program, Homeboy Industries in Los Angeles, has laid off most of its employees because of a decline in donations.

Jesuit Father Gregory Boyle, who started Homeboy Industries in the Boyle Heights neighborhood during the height of the city’s gang wars 20 years ago, said 300 people were laid off, including all senior staff and administrators.

The organization will continue to offer tattoo removal and counseling services but the silk-screening factory, landscaping company and other businesses where former rival gang members work side by side will be shut down. The Homegirl Cafe, which employs 100 people near downtown, will stay open.

The acclaimed anti-gang program ran into financial trouble last year when contributions dried up and government contracts were cut. For two decades, Homeboy Industries has offered counseling, removed tattoos and helped gang members find jobs. Its motto: “Nothing stops a bullet like a job.”

But Boyle said no amount of campaigning and fundraising could make up the roughly $5 million the organization needed to operate. He said pleas for donations had resulted in some help, but not nearly enough.

Boyle recently published a memoir about ministering with gang members entitled “Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion.” Read more about Homeboy Industries precarious financial situation via The Los Angeles Times.

To donate to help Homeboy Industries, please click here to be taken to their online donation page.You can also watch Boyle speak about the mission of Homeboy Industries in the video below: