Faith Doing Justice Summit

2022-2023 Summit: Peacemaking in the Face of Violence

Sponsored by the Social Justice Committee
March 7, 2023

The program will explore Christian understandings of peace as more than just the absence of conflict. Representatives from two organizations will speak to our community about their work trying to break the cycle of violence:

• 9/11 Families for Peaceful Tomorrows advocates for peace and healing in the wake of the loss of loved ones in the 9/11 attacks. Mrs. Colleen Kelly will join us.
• Thrive for Life, a Jesuit-founded ministry, offers the resources of Ignatian spirituality and companionship to those who are incarcerated as well as holistic services and educational opportunities at Ignacio House in Manhattan to those who are seeking to rebuild their lives after prison. Father Zach Presutti, SJ and guests will join us.

 

The Universal Apostolic Preferences of the Society of Jesus, invite  all Jesuit institutions to consider how to best accompany young people in the creation of a hope-filled future.  

We are living through a period of change from which will emerge a new humanity and a new way of structuring human life in its personal and social dimensions.  Young people are the bearers of this new form of human life that can find, in the experience of encounter with the Lord Jesus, light for the path toward justice, reconciliation, and peace.

•     Fr. Arturo Sosa, Superior General of the Society of Jesus

The 2021-2022 Faith Doing Justice Summit invites the Fordham Prep community to consider how the promotion of Dignity, Belonging, and Justice in our community supports the building of this hope-filled future.

Dignity helps our community recognize all people are made in the image and likeness of God and so possess an equal and inalienable worth. This understanding leads us to treat each other with love, respect, and compassion while working actively to challenge and respond to bias, harassment, and discrimination.

Belonging ensures our community is a place where differences are welcomed, all perspectives are respectfully heard, and where every individual feels a sense that she/he is a valued member of the community.

Justice inspires our community to engage in serious conversation with all our brothers and sisters and to act when we see inequity. It empowers us to be advocates for and with those who hunger and thirst for justice.  

The following programs will be part of this year’s Summit:

Diversity Dialogue
Sponsored by the Diversity Alliance
(Date in March to be determined)

The Diversity Alliance, a student-led organization, will hold a dialogue to discuss our world’s evolving understanding of gender and its implications in the FP community as we strive to promote greater dignity, belonging and justice.  

Faith Doing Justice Summit Assembly
Sponsored by the Social Justice Committee
March 8, 2022

Keynote Address by Fr. Bryan Masingale, STD

Fr. Bryan Massingale is one of the world’s leading Catholic social ethicists and scholars of African-American theological ethics, racial justice, and liberation theology.  Fr. Massingale joined the Fordham University theology department in the fall of 2016.  Before coming to Fordham, Father Massingale was a member of the faculty at Marquette University, where in 2009 he received that institution’s highest award for excellence in teaching. He has served as president of the Catholic Theological Society of America and convener of the Black Catholic Theological Symposium, and holds two honorary doctorates.  He has written over 80 articles, book chapters, and book reviews for publications, including Theological Studies, New Theology Review, Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics, Philosophy and Theology, Journal of Religion and Society, The National Catholic Reporter, and Catholic Peace Voice. His book, Racial Justice and the Catholic Church (Orbis Books, 2010) won a first place book award from the Catholic Press Association.

Refugee Simulation and Assembly
Sponsored by the Global Education Committee
March 29, 2022
Keynote Address to sophomores by Mr. Josh Utter, Outreach Officer for Jesuit Refugee Services/USA

Josh is the Outreach Officer of Jesuit Refugee Service/USA. He assists with JRS/USA’s effort to grow and mobilize a diverse and active constituency dedicated to defending the rights of refugees and displaced persons, and to advocate on behalf of U.S. policies that support refugee needs. Before joining JRS/USA in 2018, Josh taught English to high school students in Sierra Leone as a Peace Corps Volunteer and spent time in discernment with the Jesuits. Josh is originally from Madison, WI, and is currently based in Phoenix, AZ.

Josh will present to sophomores at their assembly on March 29, 2022.  He will speak about Jesuit Refugee Services in general,  and more specifically on the impact and implementation of  a refugee simulation project.  The assembly will be followed by a refugee simulation event in April.

We look forward to engaging the community in dialogue about these important issues as we strive to become men and women ever more “committed to doing justice” (Profile of the Graduate at Graduation) and to promoting dignity, belonging, and justice.

In the encyclical Laudato Si’, Pope Francis reminds us that all human beings share responsibility for care of creation, considered by many peoples "mother earth". “This sister now cries out to us because of the harm we have inflicted on her by our irresponsible use and abuse of the goods with which God has endowed her.,”

"The damage done to the earth is also damage done to the most vulnerable, such as indigenous peoples, peasants forced to emigrate, and the inhabitants of urban peripheries. The environmental destruction being caused by the dominant economic system is inflicting intergenerational damage: not only does it affect those now living on earth, particularly the very young, but it also conditions and jeopardizes the life of future generations. 

We resolve, considering who we are and the means that we have, to collaborate with others in the construction of alternative models of life that are based on respect for creation and on a sustainable development capable of producing goods that, when justly distributed, ensure a decent life for all human beings on our planet.” 

- Fr. Arturo Sosa, SJ, Superior General of the Society of Jesus, Universal Apostolic Preferences of the Society of Jesus, 2019-2029

The 2020-2021 Faith Doing Justice Summit invites the Fordham Prep community to consider what it means to “collaborate for the care of our common” as we share in the universal mission of Jesuit schools “to be companions of reconciliation and justice with God, within humanity and with creation (General Congregation 36, Decree #1).

On Monday, March 8th the Social Justice Committee will hold our annual Faith Doing Justice assembly through a zoom webinar. Our panelists for the assembly will be Dr. Nancy Tuchman, Dean of Loyola University's School for Environmental Sustainability, Matt Lorentz, a student from the School of Environmental Sustainability, and Lee Zappas, the regional in-house environmental manager for UBS in the Americas.  Students will participate in the panel discussion in their classrooms at the end of the first block and remote students will receive a link to participate from home. A recording will be made available after the program.

In addition to the assembly, our student-led Environmental Sustainability Task Force launched an education and awareness campaign this semester to help our community learn more about environmental issues, church teaching on this topic, and what we can do to be a more environmentally sustainable community at the Prep.  They have shared information on the Prep website, Schoology, the Commons screens, and a new Instagram account @fpenvironmental. Also, students in our Global Scholars program will be running an awareness campaign the week of March 15th.

We look forward to engaging the community in dialogue about these important issues in the coming weeks as we strive to become men and women ever more “committed to doing justice” (Profile of the Graduate at Graduation).

Sent as companions in a mission of reconciliation and justice, we resolve to walk with individuals and communities that are vulnerable, excluded, marginalized, and humanly impoverished. We commit ourselves to walk with the victims of abuse of power, abuse of conscience, and sexual abuse; with the outcasts of this world; with all those whom the biblical tradition knows as the poor of the earth, to whose cry the Lord responds with his liberating incarnation.

We confirm our commitment to care for migrants, displaced persons, refugees, and victims of wars and human trafficking. We also resolve to defend the culture and the dignified existence of indigenous peoples. Consequently, we will continue to help create conditions of hospitality, to accompany all these people in their process of integration into society, and to promote the defense of their rights.

We accompany the poor, inspired by our faith in God the Father of mercy who invites us to embrace reconciliation as the foundation of a new humanity.” 

- Fr. Arturo Sosa, SJ, Superior General of the Society of Jesus, Universal Apostolic Preferences of the Society of Jesus, 2019-2029

The 2019-2020 Faith Doing Justice Summit invites the Fordham Prep community to consider what it means to “walk with the excluded” as we share in the universal mission of Jesuit schools “to be companions of reconciliation and justice with God, within humanity and with creation (General Congregation 36, Decree #1). Through dialogues, assemblies and curricular connections we will reflect on this mission, the plight of marginalized people in our world, and explore ways we can accompany them on the road to liberation.

The following events are planned for this year’s Summit:

Monday, February 10, 2020
Junior Assembly
Topic: Refugees
Guest speaker: Miriam Ford
Sponsored by Social Justice Committee

Monday, March 2, 2020
Red Chair Campaign Sophomore Assembly
Topic: The Right To Education
Guest speaker Kevin Hacket ‘68 ,
sponsored by Global Education Committee

Sunday, March 8, 2020
3-5 pm in the Leonard Theatre
Fordham Prep and America Media present
Fr. Greg Boyle, SJ, founder of Homeboys Industries,
the largest gang intervention program in the world.
(open to parents, alumni, students, faculty, staff, and the public)
Register at www.fordhamprep.org/march8

Monday, March 9, 2020
Faith Doing Justice Assembly with Guest Speaker Fr. Greg Boyle, SJ, author of the best-selling books Tattoos on the Heart and Barking to the Choir, and founder of Homeboy Industries, the largest gang intervention program in the world.
Leonard Theatre
(students only)

Date TBA
Diversity Dialogue on Gangs and the Criminal Justice System,
sponsored by the Diversity Committee

Resources:
The Universal Apostolic Preferences- Fr. Sosa’s letter

Universal Apostolic Preferences Website

I offer encouragement to all those who are convinced that a just and necessary punishment must never exclude the dimension of hope and the goal of rehabilitation.
- Pope Francis, to U.S. Congress

The theme selected for our inaugural Summit is “Criminal Justice: Reconciliation and Redemption.” During the Summit week and throughout the school year, we will, as a community, look at various justice issues connected to the criminal justice system from the perspective of Catholic Social Teaching and our Ignatian worldview and values. Among the topics covered will be reform in the criminal justice system, the death penalty, restorative justice, equity, racism and migrant incarceration.

Tuesday, November 6
Faith Doing Justice Assembly with Guest Speaker Sr. Helen Prejean, author of the best-selling book, Dead Man Walking: An Eyewitness Account of the Death Penalty.

VIEW SR. HELEN'S ADDRESS TO THE PREP COMMUNITY HERE
Leonard Theatre
10 am to 11 am

Wednesday, November 7
Showing of the documentary 13th followed by dialogue on race and equity in the criminal justice system.
2 Minute Preview of 13th 
Room 232-233
3 pm to 5 pm

Monday- Friday, November 5- 9
Classroom lessons and activities by various teachers.  See a list of classes and topics here

Additional events will be added throughout the year.

 

Resources

Sr. Helen Prejean on misconceptions about death row

Sr. Helen Prejean interview on MSNBC 

Vatican News: “Pope Francis: ‘death penalty inadmissable’” 

Bryan Stevenson TED Talk: “We Need to Talk About an Injustice” - Human rights lawyer Bryan Stevenson shares some hard truths about America's justice system.

Pope Francis’ Address to the International Association of Criminal Law 

Catholic Social Teaching

Ignatian Solidarity Network

The Migrant Caravan through the eyes of Catholic Social Teaching, America Magazine

DeathPenalty.org

Justice for All? Challenging Racial Disparities in the Criminal Justice System- American Bar Association