As Presidents of the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities we feel spiritually and morally compelled to raise a collective voice confirming our values and commitments as Americans and educators. We represent colleges and universities from across our nation with more than 215,000 students and 21,000 faculty, and over 2 million living alumni.
Grounded in our Catholic and Jesuit mission, we are guided by our commitment to uphold the dignity of every person, to work for the common good of our nation, and to promote a living faith that works for justice. We see our work of teaching, scholarship and the formation of minds and spirits as a sacred trust.
That trust prompts us to labor for solidarity among all people, and especially with and for the poor and marginalized of our society. That trust calls us to embrace the entire human family, regardless of their immigration status (1) or religious allegiance. And experience has shown us that our communities are immeasurably enriched by the presence, intelligence, and committed contributions of undocumented students, as well as of faculty and staff of every color and from every faith tradition.
Therefore, we will continue working:
• To protect to the fullest extent of the law undocumented students on our campuses;
• To promote retention of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Program (DACA);
• To support and stand with our students, faculty and staff regardless of their faith traditions;
• To preserve the religious freedoms on which our nation was founded.
As we conclude this Year of Mercy, we make our own the aims enunciated by Pope Francis:
“Every human being is a child of God! He or she bears the image of Christ! We ourselves need to see, and then to enable others to see, that migrants and refugees do not only represent a problem to be solved, but are brothers and sisters to be welcomed, respected and loved.” (2)
We hope that this statement will inspire members of our University communities, as well as the larger national community, to promote efforts at welcome, dialogue, and reconciliation among all that share our land. We welcome further conversation and commit ourselves to modeling the kind of discourse and debate that are at the heart of our nation’s ideals. And we promise to bring the best resources of our institutions – of intellect, reflection, and service – to bear in the task of fostering understanding in the United States at this particular time in our history.
Signed,
John J. Hurley
Canisius CollegeDaniel S. Hendrickson, S.J.
Creighton UniversityJoseph M. McShane, S.J.
Fordham UniversityThayne M. McCulloh
Gonzaga University
Linda M. LeMura
Le Moyne College
Jo Ann Rooney
Loyola University Chicago
Kevin Wm. Wildes, S.J.
Loyola University New Orleans
John P. Fitzgibbons, S.J.
Regis University
Mark C. Reed
Saint Joseph’s University
Eugene J. Cornacchia
Saint Peter’s University
Stephen Sundborg, S.J.
Seattle University
Antoine M. Garibaldi
University of Detroit Mercy
Kevin P. Quinn, S.J.
University of Scranton
Michael J. Graham, S.J.
Xavier University
Philip L. Boroughs, S.J.
College of the Holy CrossJeffrey P. von Arx, S.J.
Fairfield UniversityJohn J. DeGioia
Georgetown UniversityRobert L. Niehoff, S.J.
John Carroll University
Timothy Law Snyder
Loyola Marymount University
Brian F. Linnane, S.J.
Loyola University Maryland
Michael Lovell
Marquette University
Thomas Curran, S.J.
Rockhurst University
Fred P. Pestello
Saint Louis University
Michael E. Engh, S.J.
Santa Clara University
Christopher P. Puto
Spring Hill College
Paul J. Fitzgerald, S.J.
University of San Francisco
James Fleming, S.J.
Wheeling Jesuit University
Michael J. Sheeran, S.J.
Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities
(1) AJCU Presidents Statement in Support of Undocumented Individuals, January 2013 (http://bit.ly/2fNj9V6) (2) Message of His Holiness Pope Francis for The World Day Of Migrants And Refugees (5 August 2014).
Advent is the liturgical period leading up to the feast of Christmas.
A driving dynamic of Advent is hope. If we had nothing to hope for,
there would be no point to this season. The original hope was for a
child to be born who would bring justice and peace to the world and
who would heal the rift between humanity and God. But that larger
hope is filled with smaller ones—daily hopes that can shape us as people.
Some hopes will shape our relationships. The Christ Child grew to be a
man who embodied forgiveness and generosity. A life of hope sees
the good in others, is patient with their shortcomings, and tenaciously
envisions them at their best.
Some hopes will shape our work. The promised Messiah proclaimed
God’s realm of justice and mercy. No matter what jobs we do or work
positions we hold, as hopeful people we maintain fairness and integrity
as short-term and long-term goals. We make our work matter for the
common good.
Some hopes will shape our character. Jesus exemplified hope that cultivates
true freedom. A hopeful person cannot continue in anxiety, grasping,
need for control, and habitual anger.
How is hope visible in your life?
Where has it failed?
Advent is the liturgical period leading up to the feast of Christmas.
A driving dynamic of Advent is hope. If we had nothing to hope for,
there would be no point to this season. The original hope was for a
child to be born who would bring justice and peace to the world and
who would heal the rift between humanity and God. But that larger
hope is filled with smaller ones—daily hopes that can shape us as people.
Some hopes will shape our relationships. The Christ Child grew to be a
man who embodied forgiveness and generosity. A life of hope sees
the good in others, is patient with their shortcomings, and tenaciously
envisions them at their best.
Some hopes will shape our work. The promised Messiah proclaimed
God’s realm of justice and mercy. No matter what jobs we do or work
positions we hold, as hopeful people we maintain fairness and integrity
as short-term and long-term goals. We make our work matter for the
common good.
Some hopes will shape our character. Jesus exemplified hope that cultivates
true freedom. A hopeful person cannot continue in anxiety, grasping,
need for control, and habitual anger.
How is hope visible in your life?
Where has it failed?
It is our sincere hope that this letter finds you well. We are contacting you as fellow Loyola University Chicago alumni and members of the Development Committee of the Institute of Pastoral Studies Advisory Council. In brief, we are seeking your assistance in identifying outstanding IPS alumni as candidates for the Damen Award.
The Damen Award is an annual award, named for Arnold J. Damen, S.J., one of the founders of Loyola University Chicago. It is bestowed on alumni from every school and college at LUC to recognize their exemplary leadership and service to others. The most recent Institute of Pastoral Studies honoree for 2016 was Sr. Norma S. Pimentel (MA’95), a sister with the Missionaries of Jesus and executive director of Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley. Sr. Pimentel’s ministry has been devoted to serving people in need and advocating for justice in social structures. Pope Francis has praised her ministry to immigrants and refugees on the U.S. southern border. Click here or see below to learn more about past nominees.
Loyola’s IPS has been educating students for ministry for more than 50 years and alumni are geographically scattered near and far. As a result, many IPS alumni, along with their ministry and accomplishments, are unknown to us or current faculty and staff. We need you to raise our awareness of inspiring alumni whose commitment and service deserve recognition and honor. A likely candidate is someone who graduated from an IPS program more than a few years ago and has shown outstanding ministerial leadership and service to Church and beyond.
We invite you to nominate IPS alumni for the 2017 Damen Award by completing this short form online with the name, a description of their work and accomplishments, and why you think they deserve this award. Deadline is November 29, 2016.
Thank you, in advance, for participating in this search and nomination process. Through the Damen Award, IPS’ outstanding alumni will be recognized for their leadership and service, and the honor they bring to their alma mater. We look forward to learning from you and celebrating the extraordinary lives and service of our fellow alumni.
Peace and Blessings,
The Development Committee of the Institute of Pastoral Studies Advisory Council
Nancy Braund Boruch (MBA ’79, MPS ’02)
Donna Gawlas (BS ’75, MPS ’88)
Laura Howard (MPS ’01, MDiv ’07)
Meredith Onion (MSIR ’87, MDiv ’13)
Beth Reece (MDiv ’10)
Institute of Pastoral Studies Damen Awardees
2008 – Dr. Terrance P. McGuire, MPS ‘02
2009 – Rich F. Clark, MRE ’78
2010 – Ms. Shirley A. Giacomi, MPS ’98, MDiv ‘ 02
2011 – Sr. Maura Twohig, MA ’95
2011 – Sr. Mary M. Daly, MA ’95
2012 – Joseph Paprocki, BA ’81, MPS ’85
2013 – Rev. Jimmie L. Flewellen, MPS ‘83
2014 – Dr. Terry Nelson-Johnson, MPS ‘82
2015 – Pam Coster, MRE ’02
2016 – Sr. Norma Pimentel, MAPC ’95
11-21-2016|Comments Off on IPS Damen Award nominations
It is our sincere hope that this letter finds you well. We are contacting you as fellow Loyola University Chicago alumni and members of the Development Committee of the Institute of Pastoral Studies Advisory Council. In brief, we are seeking your assistance in identifying outstanding IPS alumni as candidates for the Damen Award.
The Damen Award is an annual award, named for Arnold J. Damen, S.J., one of the founders of Loyola University Chicago. It is bestowed on alumni from every school and college at LUC to recognize their exemplary leadership and service to others. The most recent Institute of Pastoral Studies honoree for 2016 was Sr. Norma S. Pimentel (MA’95), a sister with the Missionaries of Jesus and executive director of Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley. Sr. Pimentel’s ministry has been devoted to serving people in need and advocating for justice in social structures. Pope Francis has praised her ministry to immigrants and refugees on the U.S. southern border. Click here or see below to learn more about past nominees.
Loyola’s IPS has been educating students for ministry for more than 50 years and alumni are geographically scattered near and far. As a result, many IPS alumni, along with their ministry and accomplishments, are unknown to us or current faculty and staff. We need you to raise our awareness of inspiring alumni whose commitment and service deserve recognition and honor. A likely candidate is someone who graduated from an IPS program more than a few years ago and has shown outstanding ministerial leadership and service to Church and beyond.
We invite you to nominate IPS alumni for the 2017 Damen Award by completing this short form online with the name, a description of their work and accomplishments, and why you think they deserve this award. Deadline is November 29, 2016.
Thank you, in advance, for participating in this search and nomination process. Through the Damen Award, IPS’ outstanding alumni will be recognized for their leadership and service, and the honor they bring to their alma mater. We look forward to learning from you and celebrating the extraordinary lives and service of our fellow alumni.
Peace and Blessings,
The Development Committee of the Institute of Pastoral Studies Advisory Council
Nancy Braund Boruch (MBA ’79, MPS ’02)
Donna Gawlas (BS ’75, MPS ’88)
Laura Howard (MPS ’01, MDiv ’07)
Meredith Onion (MSIR ’87, MDiv ’13)
Beth Reece (MDiv ’10)
Institute of Pastoral Studies Damen Awardees
2008 – Dr. Terrance P. McGuire, MPS ‘02
2009 – Rich F. Clark, MRE ’78
2010 – Ms. Shirley A. Giacomi, MPS ’98, MDiv ‘ 02
2011 – Sr. Maura Twohig, MA ’95
2011 – Sr. Mary M. Daly, MA ’95
2012 – Joseph Paprocki, BA ’81, MPS ’85
2013 – Rev. Jimmie L. Flewellen, MPS ‘83
2014 – Dr. Terry Nelson-Johnson, MPS ‘82
2015 – Pam Coster, MRE ’02
2016 – Sr. Norma Pimentel, MAPC ’95
Today marks one week since our nation’s historic election. Thoughtful and informed statements have been issued by Loyola’s new President Dr. Rooney, our Vice President for Student Development and President of Student Government, our Archbishop, and countless others calling for harmony in working for the common good, mutual respect and dialogue, and care for one another based in our Jesuit sense of cura personalis. I echo and endorse these sentiments and add this short note to the IPS community.
This campaign was perhaps the most divisive in living memory and many people feel hurt, marginalized, and demeaned while some are feeling empowered, emboldened, and hopeful. We have seen racial and other intimidation and even violence erupt this week in direct response to the election. Some have likened the feelings provoked by the election results to that of 9/11 and that comparison itself is uncomfortable for others.
This tumultuous week calls to mind our own IPS mission statement, which says in part that we are developing “diverse and dynamic leaders for creative, compassionate, and courageous service to church and society.”
The day after the election our IPS faculty came together and discussed what it will mean to live our mission as we move forward. We are firmly rooted in our Jesuit values, particularly solidarity with the poor and the marginalized; and we uphold the American ideal of “liberty and justice for all.” Creative, compassionate, and courageous service has been at the heart of IPS and each of us are dedicated to that. In the days and weeks ahead we encourage you to speak with one another, including your faculty and colleagues, to provide mutual understanding and support based on our common mission, as we adapt to the “rapidly changing religious and social landscapes” in which we find ourselves.
Meet Mike McCauley, in coming to IPS, he’s actually training for his third or fourth career. He’s worked as a journalist, communication professor and health communication researcher. Now Mike is in the IPS Mdiv program.
Why did you decide to come study at Loyola?
While I was good at my past jobs, they did not allow me to work as directly as I’d like with other people – in terms of being a one-on-one helper. Over the past few years, I’ve been captivated with the idea of becoming either a chaplain or pastoral counselor. So, I’m here to begin a new journey!
What do you do outside of class?
I like to run, and enjoy nice meals with friends. I also enjoy movies and books, and will sometimes sneak away to a club to hear great blues or jazz.
Talk a little about a class, professor or mentor who inspired you.
Jack McLeod, my first grad school mentor at the University of Wisconsin, is a wonderful man who’s had a huge influence on my life. Every time I went to Jack’s office with a question, he gave me two or three more questions to think about. That’s the mark of someone who really understands mentorship – a teacher who wants to know, with all his heart, that his students will surpass him one day, in the name of greater knowledge and understanding for all.
Any spots on campus or in Chicago that you like the most?
I spend lots of time in Highland Park on the weekends, and enjoy many of the restaurants, pubs and shops there.
What is your favorite quote?
“Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” ~ Howard Thurman
A favorite book, or one that impacted you and why?
Illusions by Richard Bach. If you want to know why, just read it yourself!
What is the best compliment that someone has given you?
That I think about ordinary things in really interesting ways. 😉
Tell us about your volunteer/service work and what it means to you.
I spent last summer working as a CPE Intern at Aurora Sinai, a medical center In Milwaukee which serves traditionally marginalized population groups. I’ve never met a group of patients who were so deeply in need of care – and so grateful to the people who cared enough to provide it.
Any advice you would give students about how to get the most out of their education?
Spend enough time discerning your path, working to better understand just what, and who, you’re called to become. Once you can see this path (at least for now), dive into your studies head-on!
And finally, what do you hope to be doing 10 years from now?
Working in a role where I can use my life experience to help other people find their way. This could mean working as a chaplain or pastoral counselor, or it might involve some sort of job that I haven’t even thought of yet.
Meet Elesha West, she’s a recent grad of Baylor University in Waco,Texas. During her undergraduate career she studied Medical Humanities and Religion. Over the years she has been actively involved in outreach and evangelism ministry in the capacity of running a summer outreach program for the south suburbs of Chicago for six consecutive years. She did Mission Work in Haiti, Croatia, Washington, D.C. , and Detroit and worked as Assistant Director for Chicago Urban Outreach.
Elesha is currently a first semester grad student in the dual Master of Divinity/ Master of Pastoral Counseling Programs.
I am so excited to start this new journey with the Loyola community. While in undergrad I was enrolled Church History and Old Testament. So, I have some knowledge of the history and the Bible, but I am eager to learn more on a greater level.
What do you do outside of class?
I love traveling, going to plays and culture events, and anything to do with water (I love the beach!).
Any spots on campus or in Chicago that you like the most?
If I had to pick a spot in Chicago I like the most is anywhere sitting in front of the lakefront. Often times I will go up north and sit by the water for hours.
A favorite book, or one that impacted you and why?
The Healers Calling- Daniel Sulmasy- focuses on professionals administering healthcare from a holistic perspective . I enjoy topics such as health care from a Christian perspective, end of life care, suffering, and medical ethics.
Any advice you would give students about how to get the most out of their education?
Ask a lot of questions and submit yourself to someone bigger and better to you! Learn from those who are doing what you would like to do.
What do you do outside of school?
I currently work part-time at Arrupe College of Loyola University and Cornerstone Christian Center.
What is your favorite quote?
Proverbs 31: 17-18 – She equips herself with strength [spiritual, mental, and physical fitness for her God-given task] And makes her arms strong.18 She sees that her gain is good; Her lamp does not go out, but it burns continually through the night [she is prepared for whatever lies ahead].
What are your plans for after graduation?
When my program is over, I aspire to open up my own counseling practice focusing on family counseling and adolescents. My desire is to see other young people lay their life down for the church, unashamed, unhindered, and free to do what God has called them to do. Also, to be on pastoral staff at a local church as an evangelism/teaching pastor.
Meet Elesha West, she’s a recent grad of Baylor University in Waco,Texas. During her undergraduate career she studied Medical Humanities and Religion. Over the years she has been actively involved in outreach and evangelism ministry in the capacity of running a summer outreach program for the south suburbs of Chicago for six consecutive years. She did Mission Work in Haiti, Croatia, Washington, D.C. , and Detroit and worked as Assistant Director for Chicago Urban Outreach.
Elesha is currently a first semester grad student in the dual Master of Divinity/ Master of Pastoral Counseling Programs.
I am so excited to start this new journey with the Loyola community. While in undergrad I was enrolled Church History and Old Testament. So, I have some knowledge of the history and the Bible, but I am eager to learn more on a greater level.
What do you do outside of class?
I love traveling, going to plays and culture events, and anything to do with water (I love the beach!).
Any spots on campus or in Chicago that you like the most?
If I had to pick a spot in Chicago I like the most is anywhere sitting in front of the lakefront. Often times I will go up north and sit by the water for hours.
A favorite book, or one that impacted you and why?
The Healers Calling- Daniel Sulmasy- focuses on professionals administering healthcare from a holistic perspective . I enjoy topics such as health care from a Christian perspective, end of life care, suffering, and medical ethics.
Any advice you would give students about how to get the most out of their education?
Ask a lot of questions and submit yourself to someone bigger and better to you! Learn from those who are doing what you would like to do.
What do you do outside of school?
I currently work part-time at Arrupe College of Loyola University and Cornerstone Christian Center.
What is your favorite quote?
Proverbs 31: 17-18 – She equips herself with strength [spiritual, mental, and physical fitness for her God-given task] And makes her arms strong.18 She sees that her gain is good; Her lamp does not go out, but it burns continually through the night [she is prepared for whatever lies ahead].
What are your plans for after graduation?
When my program is over, I aspire to open up my own counseling practice focusing on family counseling and adolescents. My desire is to see other young people lay their life down for the church, unashamed, unhindered, and free to do what God has called them to do. Also, to be on pastoral staff at a local church as an evangelism/teaching pastor.
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
AFP PHOTO/BULENT KILIC (Photo credit should read BULENT KILIC/AFP/Getty Images)
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
