On April 6, 2017, The Institute of Pastoral Studies and Alumni Relations cosponsored a panel discussion event to discuss homelessness at the international, national and local levels. The panel of distinguished guests was made up of: Mark McGreevey from the Institute of Global Homelessness, Dr. Nonie Brennen, the CEO of All Chicago, Making Homelessness History, and Charles Levesque, the Executive Director of Depaul USA.
If you were unable to attend the event please see the video of the evening below, and click on the photo to the right where you will find the IPS Flickr album from this event.
Watch Dr. Daniel Rhodes, IPS faculty member,talk about his recently released book: Organizing Church: Grassroots Practices for Embodying Change in Your Congregation, Your Community, and Our World.
Reviews
“Lots of people are fed up with ‘organized religion.’ They recognize that religion is too often poorly organized-or well organized around the wrong purposes! Drawing wisdom from the important field of community organizing, this book helps you imagine a church organizing well and for the right purposes.” – Brian D. McLaren, Activist, Author
“Conder and Rhodes have led community organizing ministry in their contexts; now they guide us in organizing the church Christ means for us to be.” – Will Willimon, Duke Divinity School, United Methodist School (retired)
“A very timely book! Tim and Dan invite you down a path that’s not for the faint of heart or the dull of spirit.” – Vanna Fox, Senior Vice President, Wild Goose Festival
“The Church is badly in need of an ecclesiology that is world-centered and not self-centered.” – Gerald Kellman, Reinvestment Organizer and Barack Obama’s Organizing Mentor
3-28-2017|Comments Off on Book Announcement: Organizing Church: Grassroots Practices for Embodying Change in Your Congregation, Your Community, and Our World
Just a few days after the new president was inaugurated, he began making drastic changes in our country. People took to the streets, and the airports, in protest of the measure which banned immigrants from seven Muslim countries, and Syrian refugees. Though it was denied that this was a “Muslim ban”, it is hard to reason why Christian refugees were still allowed to enter the country, under this temporary executive order. In response to this order many bishops of the Catholic Church have spoken out against the order, calling the faithful to act in solidarity with the refugees and make their voices heard in defense of human dignity, citing the Church’s long-standing commitment to care for the defenseless of other faiths. The Catholic Church is a refuge for the defenseless, the stranger, the marginalized. Likewise, many institutions across the country have proclaimed their status as a sanctuary for those affected by this executive order, or any future order which does not regard their human dignity and basic human rights.
In a letter to the school in December, Loyola University Chicago President, Dr. Jo Ann Rooney said the following:
On Wednesday, a statement of support was published by the presidents of the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities (AJCU) to reaffirm our commitment to undocumented students on our campuses and our unwavering support for all students, faculty, and staff, regardless of their faith traditions. This statement reflects the shared mission and values that are central to our Jesuit, Catholic tradition.
On behalf of the University, I also signed on to a statement of support initiated by Pomona College, which now has more than 400 signatures.
I encourage you to read both statements and thank you for your continued support and contributions to our mission.
The events of the past weeks have been troubling in so many ways, but one note of encouragement has been the way people are coming together in solidarity across the country to stand up for the rights of others. I attended the protests at Chicago O’Hare airport and witnessed the diversity of the people protesting. The love and acceptance was palpable. These events have reminded people of basic shared humanity, and how the threat to basic human rights can tear lives apart. People stood together to make a statement that these actions will continue to be resisted, challenged, and overturned. Those with any amount of power will continue to use their power to help the powerless and the defenseless. At Loyola, we will continue to be people with and for others.
On January 21, 2017, the day after the new presidential inauguration, people marched in cities all over the country for the largest protest in the history of the United States of America and more joined around the world in organized events with the title of “Women’s March”. Students and faculty of Loyola’s Institute of Pastoral Studies marched to show the new administration that people will not back down in the face of injustice. It was the Women’s March, but we marched for so much more. We marched for all those facing the many forms of injustice including, racial, gender, and religious discrimination, violence, poverty, for the marginalized of our society, for refugees and immigrants, for access to affordable healthcare, for environmental protection, and for much more.
As a Catholic Jesuit school, we are called to be people for others, to stand up for social justice and follow in the footsteps of activists like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Dorothy Day who began the Catholic Worker movement, and Jane Addams the founder of the Hull House here in Chicago, to name on a few in the long line of modern-day prophets working for justice. The signs of the march echoed the seven themes of Catholic Social Teaching: honoring the dignity of the human person, the call to family community and participation, the protection of rights and responsibilities, the preferential option for the poor and vulnerable of our society, the dignity of work and the rights of workers, the call to solidarity as one human and global family, and a call to care for God’s creation.
DukhNiwaran Kaur Khalsa(pictured center-left in the photo to the right), a pastoral counseling student at IPS, travelled to Washington DC for the march. She said of her experience, “What an empowering experience of unity in diversity! 500,000 people from all walks of life each with our own passionate agenda, standing up for the rights of ALL of us without exception. THIS is what democracy looks like!”
Kate Wester (pictured left), a pastoral counseling student at IPS, said this of her experience at the Women’s March in Chicago: “Being at the women’s march was an incredibly moving and positive experience. I saw all kinds of people coming together, peacefully to voice their vision for our country and our world. I went because I believe change will only happen from the bottom up. I want my voice to be heard, and I want to share my vision for a world without oppression that is inclusive and affirming for all people, and reverent towards our environment. Or, as a sign I saw said, ‘The patriarchy won’t smash itself!'”
Dr. Therese Lysaught (pictured far-left) attended the Women’s March in Madison, WI. She said: “Before we left Saturday morning, news sites were estimating that approximately 10-15K people would turn out for the Women’s March in Madison. Madison turned out to be one of the biggest marches in the country with 75-100K. We were stunned by how many people were with us. We were delighted by the age range—from babies to 85 year old women, the presence of so many men, the coalition of real issues named on the signs. Seeing so many who were willing to come out, to show up, to use their bodies as well as their voices to protest what is happening gave me a huge sense of relief as well as a re-infusion of hope. It also motivated me to continue to take concrete actions to add my voice to our political process in ways that I never really have done before. I’m so glad to be at the IPS and Loyola University Chicago, surrounded by colleagues and friends to whom all these things matter as well.”
Patrice Nerone, IPS student attended the Women’s March in Chicago and said: “I joined the women’s march as a sign of my intention to be committed to myself and to the best interests of vulnerable people, to mark an end to complacency in the face of social injustice. By marching, I pledged to resist policies that I believe infringe upon our basic human rights, freedoms, and dignity. By marching, I found my voice and raised it in unison with others and for others, thereby empowering myself with the hope of empowering others.”
As a student here at IPS and a future counselor, I plan to be involved in social justice and in our community, and so I was eager to travel to Washington DC to join in the Women’s March on Washington, to listen to the stories of others marching and to be seen and counted in this effort. Marchers were friendly but passionate, angry but peaceful, and saddened yet committed to action. We heard the words of intersectional feminism and the challenge to do more for our sisters and brothers, calling our senators and being heard. It was wonderful to be surrounded by so many people fighting for what they believe. This was solidarity and love in action. It is only the beginning of the consistent work that is needed. Check out more photos of the Women’s March on Washington below.
Victor Hugo once wrote that “contemplating shadows is a serious thing.” And to a large degree, I think that’s what this panel is an effort to do, to fix our collective gazes upon marginalized communities who are living at the existential peripheries of an interconnected and interdependent world. That is to say, to those dwelling in the shadows.
Hopefully, we all likely realize that this panel and the Jesuit Refugee Services concert series with which it is connected are intentionally tied to Lampedusa for a very specific reason: It was there that in the pope’s first official visit outside of Rome, he lamented the “globalization of indifference” which continues to fail to turn its sights upon the countless refugees and displaced persons around the world in search of security, opportunity, and dignity.
In case some people here are not aware, the tiny island off the coast of Sicily is an entry point for the desperate and destitute to gain a first foothold into Europe. People living on the precipitous edge of subsistence existence with nothing more than they can carry are common images from this rocky outcrop in the Mediterranean, as are rows of coffins of recovered bodies, and the wreckage of any kind of floating vessel you can imagine littering the tiny island. The highlight of the trip was the pope’s memorial and comments given in a makeshift “boat cemetery.” The destabilization of places like Libya and Tunisia, as well as further south in Africa and east towards Egypt and Syria have led tens of thousands of people to risk what is now the deadliest migratory route in the world across the waves, where hundreds die at a time. And yet, so many in the world react as if this is not of their concern….. there is, as the pope put it, a “globalization of indifference.”
“Am I my brother’s keeper?” they seem to echo Cain in callously asking.
Their ambivalence is now being superseded in many quarters by outright hostility.
That day the pope made clear:
“The blood of the lifeless cries out to me, says the Lord. What have you done?
This is not a question directed to others; it is a question directed to me, to you, to each of us. These brothers and sisters of ours were trying to escape difficult situations to find some serenity and peace; they were looking for a better place for themselves and their families, but instead they found death. How often do such people fail to find understanding, fail to find acceptance, fail to find solidarity. And their cry rises up to God!”
What then, if any, is the responsibility of a Jesuit, Catholic institution of higher ed, such as Loyola, to address this “indifference”? Are we called to “contemplate these shadows” of their difficult plight, and if so, what resources, whether intellectual, theological, or material do we have to respond?
First, Christians are given an unambiguous mandate to care for the widow, oppressed, and exile in their scriptures. The xenophobia (fear of foreigners, strangers, aliens, travelers) that is bandied about in our political discourse is rarely counterbalanced by the antidote put forward in the Old and New Testaments. There we find the explicit call to “philoxenia” (love of foreigners, strangers, aliens, travelers). In fact, the entire Christian experience is one of pilgrimage-movement-exile, the first Christians were called practitioners of The Way, all of religious life can in some sense be seen, as Thomas Tweed has put it, as the sort of complementary mutually-informing experiences of crossing and dwelling. We move from darkness toward light, from sin toward redemption, from history toward eternity, a process of unfolding, migration, movement. And in so doing we find resettlement, home, community, “our true native land to be” as the English translation of St. Thomas’s O Salutaris Hostia puts it. So we, as the inheritors of the Christian and Ignatian tradition, are in fact a people of exile, a people received and interwoven into and in solidarity with: a wider vista of community than the provincial and nativist among us would like us to admit. We are all refugees, who seek shelter in the transcendent and in the experience of authentic humanity. Whoever receives you, receives me, says Christ. And Matthew’s gospel makes clear that on the Last Day we will be judged according to how we treat the exile. How prophetic do Jesus’s words ring out when read metaphorically with the rise of today’s majority world: “At the judgment, the queen of the south will rise up against this current generation and condemn it.”
In addition to these biblical mandates, the whole history of Catholic Social Teaching prioritizes the necessity of working for justice, peace, and the common good, with a preferential option for the poor. Theologians like Gutierrez and Boff have consistently argued that the primary issues of our day for all men and women of good will do not revolve around those described as “non-believers” so much as those who societal forces name as “non-persons.” Chief among these are the staggering number of refugees and displaced persons, who the powers that be continue to insist are invisible, irredeemable, and thus, inadmissible (anywhere).
Our commitment cannot stem from a patronizing sense of charity, drawn from privileged largesse, but as the Arrupe College initiative here at Loyola makes clear, it is a moral imperative that all in our community work with, learn from, and better understand ourselves through solidarity with marginalized communities…much more than simply a mandate to “help” the disadvantaged.
However, in this vein, I may surprise some of you here, because I do in fact think we need a wall. A “big, beautiful, powerful” wall. Completely impenetrable. It’s the only way we can make our people great again, recover our true patrimony and protect our historic culture. And, I agree that we ought not be the ones responsible for its construction, someone else ultimately will be the one underwriting it, and be willing to do so to boot.
“For the Lord said to Jeremiah: If you utter what is worthwhile and not what is vile then I will make you unto this people into a fortified wall of bronze; they shall fight against you, but they shall not prevail over you. For I am with you, to save you and deliver you, says the Lord. I will deliver you out of the hand of the wicked, and redeem you from the grasp of the ruthless.” (Jeremiah 15).
Thus we are called, as both Christian and Americans, to serve as a prophetic “wall of bronze” against hatred, racism, fear of the unknown or protectionism. Hardness of heart and narrowness of mind are not excuses for putting polic
ies ahead of people.
We must stand firm against those who tell us to pay no attention to that man behind the curtain, to the myopia infecting a world that wants desperately to somehow un-remember or rationalize away those troublesome words on the statue of liberty, forged in the crucible of a world torn asunder by hatred and division:
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
Do we have the courage to stand as a brass wall against those intellectual vandals who rush headlong toward this New Colossus with pitchforks and crowbars to deface our national identity? Is America (in relationship with her allies around the world) still “the mother of exiles”? How do we balance legitimate concerns about national
security and internal peacekeeping with those “tired and poor, homeless and tempest-tossed” we pledged to welcome, without fear-mongering allegations that they could not be properly “vetted?” The answer lies in speaking what is worthwhile and not what is vile.
As members of the Loyola community we are called to recognize the value and dignity of all God’s people, especially the most vulnerable, the “bruised hurting and dirty” — the same adjectives Pope Francis uses to describe the church as a “field hospital” can be seen in the faces of Syrian children in shelters and ambulances. We must offer our time, talent, and treasure in support of those in the shadows of death. We cannot fall prey to false narratives where all victims of war and systems of violence are equal, but some victims are more equal than others, to borrow an Orwellian phrase.Can Christians see in the church and its partners like Loyola (of course enthusiastically open to people of all faiths and none) a reflection of those divine attributes we acknowledge with all children of Abraham: a defense for the defenseless, a refuge in the day of distress, a fortress, a shield and a stronghold? For the breath of the ruthless, as Isaiah puts it, is no more than “rain against a wall.”
Let us always remember that we are that wall, and thus Make Christian Witness Great Again.
-Dr. Michael Canaris | Profesor at Loyola University Chicago, Institute of Pastoral Studies | Theologian
A university as a straight line from the Jesuits must point to a global formation, not only intellectual, a formation of the whole human person. In fact if the university becomes simply an academy of ideas or a «factory» of professionals or a mentality centered on business prevails in its structure then it is truly off the path. We have the [Spiritual] Exercises in hand. Here’s the challenge: take the university on the path of the Exercises. This means risking on the truth, and not on the «closed truth» that no one discusses. The truth of the encounter with people is open and requires that we let ourselves make enquiries truly from reality. And the Jesuit university must be involved with the real life of the Church and the Nation: also this is reality, in fact. A particular attention must be always be given to the marginalized, to the defense of those have more need of being protected. And this—it is clear—is not being a Communist: it is simply being truly involved with reality. In this case, in particular a Jesuit university must be fully involved with reality expressing the social thought of the Church. The free-market thought that removes man and woman from the center and puts money at the center is not ours. The doctrine of the Church is clear and it must move forward in this sense. – Pope Francis
This was drawn from a recent conversation with Pope Francis. With the Jesuits now gathered in their General Congregation to elect a new superior and to map out the future initiatives and strategies of the Society of Jesus, and the nation involved in an obviously polemical presidential campaign, join the whole community of IPS – students, faculty, staff, and alumni – in praying that the Holy Spirit guide us toward fulfilling this mandate.Let us follow our individual vocation to work for the in-breaking reign of God and to share our particular and collective charisms, thus playing our part in living the witness to which each of us is called.Let us never abandon our role to serve as prophets, ministers, educators, and disciples, or forsake the gospel for comfort, pride, wealth, or power. Let us live lives of justice, peace, solidarity, and holiness, realizing always that “Christ plays in ten thousand places, lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not his, to the Father through the features of men’s faces.”
Dr. Michael Canaris
10-12-2016|Comments Off on What is the role of the Jesuit universities?
James Mastaler, a PhD candidate here at Loyola University Chicago and a graduate of the MA in Social Justice program, recently submitted an article to the Catholic Theological Union’s request for proposals to a special edition on “Ecology & Religion” in New Theology Review: A Catholic Journal of Theology and Ministry. The article was accepted and has now been published. Jim is also chair of the alumni committee for the IPS Advisory Council. Great work, Jim!
To read the article, please click here:
“The Role of Christian Ethics, Religious Leaders, and People of Faith at a Time of Ecological and Climate Crisis”
This past week I accompanied 9 of our students from the MA in Social Justice and Community Development program as we attended the 10th Annual Action Research Conference at the University of San Diego. Our students were asked to come and present their research that they completed during their spring Applied Research course. This course is an integration project for MASJCD students where they put what they’ve learned about social justice and community development into action through a community-based, collaborative, Participatory Action Research project. This semester we partnered with Catholic Charities to evaluate their Celebration of Giving program. Students in the class first learned how to do qualitative research and then created a research design and implemented it during the semester. Students divided themselves into five groups, working with clients of Catholic Charities, children who received gifts, volunteers and leaders at Catholic Charities, people from Loyola who gave to the program, and leaders of Christmas giving programs that employ alternative giving models.
In San Diego, students presented their findings by sharing stories from the field and the generative themes that emerged in the project. They integrated their research with Catholic Social Teachings and focused particularly on the relation between charity and justice and the role of human dignity and reciprocity in Christmas giving programs.
The research will be published soon on the IPS website, so stay tuned to the IPS blog in order to read more once the student papers are published!
And a huge congratulations to our student presenters – Madeline Anderson, Aaron Carpenter, Daniel Darmanin, Scott Donovan, Kaela Geschke, Connie Johnson, Lindsey Peletier, Virginia Rivera, Veronica Sims! We’d also like to thank Northwestern Ph.D. candidate, Lynn B.E. Jencks, who was part of our class this semester and presented with us this weekend.
5-05-2013|Comments Off on IPS students present their research in San Diego!
Please join us on October 15 and 16, 2012 at DePaul University in the city of Chicago for a fall symposium co-sponsored by the Catholic Research Resources Alliance (CRRA) and DePaul University.
Our participants – scholars, librarians, and archivists – will explore the multifaceted issue of social justice in the Church and in Catholic history and the way in which resources reflecting this multifaceted issue can be used in support of teaching, learning, scholarship, and service. Beyond this, we will discuss broader issues related to Catholic scholarship and collections, how we can advance the CRRA’s mission to provide enduring global access to Catholic research and resources, and how scholars find and use these resources.
The symposium will feature speakers actively engaged in working for peace and justice, curators of social action collections, and scholars mining the papers of Catholic social activists for research and curricular use.
Additional highlights of the symposium include an exclusive screening of “A Question of Habit,” by filmmaker Bren Murphy, Associate Professor, School of Communication, Loyola University Chicago, will introduce her film and a Q&A session will follow; a poster session; a discussion of CRRA’s program to enhance access to Catholic newspapers in the U.S. and Canada, a reception in the new DePaul Art Museum, and dine-arounds at some of Chicago’s best restaurants.
We look forward to seeing you at what promises to be an engaging and enjoyable event.
Sincerely,
Scott Walter, University Librarian, DePaul University
Janice Welburn, Chair, Board of Directors, CRRA and Dean, University Library, Marquette University
“You are what you eat.” At least that’s what both my mother and the healthy eating campaigns of my childhood constantly reminded me. As an adult consumer, I hope that my choices on what I buy and what I eat, reflect not only my likes but also an informed conscience. Recently appointed Graduate Program Director of the Master of Social Justice Community Development degree, Melissa Browning, PhD, recently wrote an insightful piece on choices and consequences and the need to be true to oneself. To read the whole post, see this link: