Food for Thought Friday: Los Angeles Archbishop José H. Gomez spoke at Boston College on immigration last month. He stressed the need to remember the people amid the statistics. Amid considerations on immigration policies, the Archbishop pointed out how “it’s also important to remember that behind every “statistic” is a soul — a soul who has dignity as a child of God, a soul who has rights and needs that are both spiritual and material.”
Read the full remarks here.
Food for Thought Friday: The death of a college student, a friend, classmate, and community member, brings great grief to a campus. During these difficult times, campus ministry staff, faculty, and other campus staff provide care for students and help them process their grief. In an article published in the July 2016 issue of U.S. Catholic, writer Jessie Bazan, Director of Retreats and Social Outreach at Saint John’s University explores the impact of the liturgy, both memorial services and the Mass, on campus communities after the death of a student. In her own experience, she finds that although the liturgy does not reverse the situation, it often helps in the grieving process. She writes, “Our liturgy didn’t take away the hurt, but it gave us a safe space to hurt. It didn’t bring our dead classmate back to life, but it honored the life he had – and his life to come.” Read the full article here.
Food for Thought Friday: On June 20, the world celebrated World Refugee Day in honor and commemoration of the 65 million refugees and displaced persons around the world. As a way of making sure those whom we celebrated were actually heard, Catholic Relief Services released a video, featuring the question “What will you be doing in 17 years?” 17 years is the average amount of time a refugee will wait to be permanently resettled. Watch the video here!
How does your campus support refugees? Let us know!
Food for Thought Friday: Pope Francis’s latest apostolic exhortation, Amoris Laetitia: On Love in the Family, focuses on Church teaching on morality and sexuality; however, as Catholic Ecology writes, Amoris Laetitia and Laudato Si’ are “united by the same truths”, for example, in criticizing the throwaway culture. For an interesting article on the link between Amoris Laetitia and Laudato Si’, read the Catholic Ecology post here!
Food For Thought Friday: Where will you be doing in 17 years? That’s the question that Catholic Relief Services asked ordinary people in the United States, as well as refugees from around the world. 17 years is the average amount of time it takes for refugees and displaced persons to be permanently resettled. Watch the video and hear from refugees themselves where they hope to be in 17 years.
Food for Thought Friday: With a new cohort of first-year students starting in college soon, Busted Halo, a Catholic digital magazine, has found a way to incorporate the wisdom of Pope Francis into their yearly advice for incoming students. With advice such as ‘Be open to new people,’ and ‘Take care of others,’ Busted Halo brings to light how Our Holy Father’s words can accompany students, both new and returning, in their journey through higher education. Read the full article here!
Food for Thought Friday: A recent story in U.S. Catholic, an online and print magazine about ‘Faith in Real Life’, focused on one student’s experience in Catholic higher education. Shanna Johnson, a current student at Loyola University Chicago, wrote a beautiful tribute to her experience with the “Catholic presence” at the institution. Read the full article here!
Food for Thought Friday: In a recent America Magazine article, , author Alex Mikulich highlights how Jesuit colleges and universities can increase diversity and combat racism. He calls for greater diversity among student bodies and faculties and multicultural programming, noting that “The rationale for Jesuit institutions to develop bold initiatives for both diversity and racial equity are deeply rooted in Jesuit and Catholic values”. He calls for an “analysis of white privilege, power, and racism in the context of US history”, transformative training and practices to increase diversity in students, faculty, and staff, and liberation from intellectual, moral, human, and spiritual deformities caused by racism.
Mikulich mentions some Jesuit higher education institutions have begun to act on their commitment to diversity, equality. He writes “some schools, like Fordham University and other institutions, have engaged in proactive, antiracist institutional training through Crossroads Ministry or the People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond, which offer training, resources, and capacity-building to engage racial equity practices.” Read more in his essay, Breathing Space.
Food for Thought Friday: Saint Louis University’s Hannah Vestal shares her story of how carrying a forty pound jerry can not only changed her life but the lives of those suffering from the water crisis. What started as an act of support for a friend, ultimately turned into Vestal carrying a forty pound jerry can everywhere she went for eight months.
This act of solidarity changed her outlook on the world and helped inspire other students to spread awareness about the water crisis. It also elicited a response from her Senator, and raised over $7,500 to purchase a new windmill aqueduct for a village in Panama. Her story reminds us that significant change can be sparked by simple actions. Read the whole story in Millenial.
Read more about Catholic higher education, sustainability and the environment on the ACCU website.
Food for Thought Friday: Read the interview with Guadalupe Avila, a senior at Saint Xavier University and Jillian Rubino, a junior at Carlow University, two of twenty students from campuses affiliated with the Sisters of Mercy who spent several days in Washington learning about the Clean Power Act. The students spoke to representatives in Congress about the act, as well as members of the Catholic Climate Covenant, the Franciscan Action Network, the Friends Committee on National Legislation, WE ACT for Environment Justice, and the Religious Action Center for Reform Judaism. The students were interested in learning more about President Obama’s act and its connection to the call to care for creation made in “Laudato Si,” Pope Francis’ recent encyclical.
To read the full article, click here.
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