Promotion of Justice

The Social Apostolate

Faith inspired work for social justice is essential to Jesuit mission and identity. To be a companion of Jesus requires that Jesuits, our lay partners and Jesuit sponsored ministries proclaim and practice a faith which understands that the struggle for justice is an absolute requirement. Entrenched social and economic disparities diminish the lives of the poor and powerless and our faith calls us to compassion, imagination, and effective response. The spirituality of our Jesuit founder St. Ignatius envisions the contemplative in action. Such a person is formed by direct contact with innocent suffering, critical reflection and prayer and committed to the Gospel message of Good News to the poor. By accompanying those who are excluded, it is we who are evangelized discovering God’s love and presence among them (Matthew 25: 31-46).

Programs, ministries and initiatives affiliated with the Wisconsin Province and its institutions demonstrate this Ignatian faith-justice commitment. Our social action ministries include multiple strategies:

• Direct Service and Accompaniment
• Justice Education and Social Research
• Advocacy for Social Change

The Wisconsin Province and our sponsored institutions are committed to the promotion of justice which is an inseparable dimension of our faith.

Direct Service and Accompaniment

"[Marginalized] groups represent all those whom poverty relegates to the very margins of society where their dignity is ignored, their rights are violated, their humanity is degraded, and their hopes are shattered. Solidarity with them is not a matter of politics. It is part of our solidarity with Christ and the expression of our love for God." US Jesuit Provincials, A Meditation on Our Response to the Call of Christ

As part of an international community of religious men (The Society of Jesus) and a wider network of lay partners, co-workers and friends (the Ignatian Family) Wisconsin Province ministries provide direct services as well as contact and friendships with underserved people and groups.

You can join this effort in a variety of ways: through your interest and your prayer, personal participation and your financial support. This group of listings has been conveniently arranged according to the geographic region of the province. In many cases, the coordinator contact information is included in the website or you may contact John Sealey at the province office for additional information.

Milwaukee

Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin seeks to embody the principles of excellence, faith, leadership, and service. In keeping with this mission, it offers a wide range of programs forming leaders for tomorrow and helping to serve the needs of the larger community.

Marquette Midnight Run - This Campus ministry program offers food and other support for homeless people in the central city.

Marquette Student service organizations and international service programs offer opportunities outside of the regular curriculum for student involvement in critical issues and needs in the area and the world. Opportunities range from Habitat for Humanity to Engineers without Borders.

Marquette Educational Opportunity Program is a federally funded supplemental academic and leadership program enabling lower-income and first generation higher students to enter and succeed in higher education.

Marquette MEDAL (Medicine, Engineering, Dentistry, Architecture, and Law) is a local outreach program for minority disadvantaged high school students in grades 9-12.

Marquette Outreach Clinics of the Dental School, serve to train dental students and provide dental treatment for underserved clients. The Dental School also provides free dental education throughout the Milwaukee area.

Marquette Volunteer Legal Clinic is located at the House of Peace and provides pro bono legal information and referral services to individuals in need of legal assistance.

Marquette Service Learning Programs brings classroom concepts into service settings at non-profits and schools throughout the community.

Marquette Action Program is the week-long Spring Break faith-service immersion program.

Casa Romero Renewal Center offers programs of personal formation and renewal, strengthening families, and forming community, primarily in Milwaukee’s Latino community. Programs reflect Archbishop Oscar Romero’s commitment to a just, peaceful, sustainable world.

Gesu Parish Social Concerns coordinates a meal program and places parishioners in direct central city social ministries which serve the poor. Gesu also has an active twinning with St. Jude’s parish in Haiti.

St Patrick’s and Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish Cluster serve a largely Latino community on Milwaukee’s near south side. In addition to pastoral programming parish social concerns include: youth programs, jail ministry, job training, ESL and an emergency food pantry.

Marquette University High School forms young men into whole persons through offering an outstanding Catholic education which features a yearly opportunity to gain experience in community service, both as part of the curriculum and by means of student organizations. The Senior Shared Life Project requires each senior to spend two weeks in full-time direct community service.

Nativity Jesuit Middle School educates Latino youth for Christian Service as part of the national Nativity schools network. Nativity schools offer extended school day, summer programs and mentoring support of its graduates as they continue through high school and college. Volunteer opportunities are available as tutors, mentors, sponsors are available.

Jesuit Retreat House (OshKosh) provides a variety of preached and directed retreats including opportunities for those in 12-step programs.

Minneapolis and South Dakota

Cristo Rey Jesuit High School - Twin Cities provides college preparatory education to students in an urban setting. Cristo Rey Twin Cities, which opened in 2007) is also the first Jesuit high school in the Twin Cities. It is part of a network of urban Catholic high schools across the country that place low-income students in corporate internships to simultaneously learn practical skills and prepare them for higher education.http://www.cristoreynetwork.org/

St Thomas Moore Catholic Community in St Paul is a Jesuit parish community which coordinates a variety of direct service opportunities including: Nicaraguan Ministry, Interfaith Builders (housing), Loaves and Fishes (nutrition), pregnancy/family support, and volunteer support of a domestic violence shelter.

Jesuit Novitiate is the first stage of Jesuit formation. In addition to studies, prayer and orientation to religious life, Jesuit novices serve the materially poor at a range of non-profit agencies in the Twin Cities.

Native American Ministry has long been a focus of the Wisconsin Province. While centering on educational and pastoral service, work with Native Americans in South Dakota and Wyoming also includes self-help social development in a way that respects indigenous values and heritage and incorporates solidarity. Helping to preserve that artistic and cultural heritage is a goal of the Red Cloud Heritage Center in Pine Ridge SD. The Buechel Memorial Lakota Museum in St. Francis SD offers an extraordinary collection of artifacts on traditional Lakota life. The Mother Butler Center in Rapid City SD offers various catechetical and social outreach programs. The Sioux Spiritual Center in Howes, SD is a cooperative ministry sponsored by the Jesuits and the Rapid City diocese to create a sacred environment, a place between Heaven and Earth where God's Spirit and the Lakota people become one. Postings from the new St. Francis Mission Drug and Alcohol Recovery Program can be found at http://sfmrecovery.blogspot.com/

More information on Wisconsin Province Native Ministries can be found at: http://www.jesuitswisprov.org/works_native_american.php

Omaha

Creighton University seeks to promote and embody service to others, the importance of family life, the inalienable worth of each individual, and appreciation of ethnic and cultural diversity among its core values as a Catholic leader in education. As such, both classes and special programs contain a focus on concern for society.

Creighton Center for Service and Justice coordinates regular service/reflection opportunities for students. CCSJ offers daily service options in the community (from homeless ministries to youth tutoring) as well as Spring/Fall break full week service immersions.

Creighton Institute for Latin American Concerns (ILAC) sponsors programs for dental, medical, nursing, pharmacy, law, physical therapy and occupational therapy for health sciences and undergraduate throughout the Dominican Republic. ILAC provides specialized medical/surgical teams as well as rural-based health promoters.

Creighton Medical School’s Magis Clinic provides free medical services to the homeless and uninsured.

Creighton Lakota Immersion Project supplies educational outreach to students on the Pine Ridge Reservation of South Dakota.

Creighton Cortina Community is a service-learning, living-learning program for selected sophomore students based on four distinct values: Community. Service. Faith. Justice.

Creighton @ Bryant Center offers general computer training courses to the general public on the near north side.

Creighton Educational Opportunity Program is a federally funded supplemental academic and leadership program enabling lower-income and first generation higher students to enter and succeed in higher education.

Creighton Homeless Connect is a new program which brings over 300 homeless citizens to campus to connect with resources including information on employment, housing, healthcare, education, legal resources, clothing for job interviews, nutrition and other benefits.

Creighton Preparatory School seeks to instill a commitment to justice among its graduates. Beyond integrating social concern into the wider curriculum, Prep coordinates direct service projects such as Operation Others a student-run organization that reaches 1,600 underprivileged Omaha families with Christmas food baskets. Creighton Prep’s Mission Week raises awareness (and funding) for projects addressing local and international poverty. Courses such as Awareness Workshop link direct service experience to Catholic Social Teaching and social analysis. Creighton Prep offers both international and domestic service immersions.

Jesuit Middle School Omaha provides young males, of all faiths, a quality educational opportunity and encourages them to claim ownership of their lives and develop themselves into responsible leaders. JMSO is part of the Nativity Network Nativity schools offer extended school day / school year and continues to mentor and support its middle school graduates through high school and college. Volunteer opportunities as tutors, mentors, sponsors.

St Benedict the Moor Parish serves the needs of African-American families in Omaha, and sponsors various social services including a food/clothing pantry and referrals to other services.

Gesu Housing builds efficient, concrete houses to first time home buyers in North Omaha. In so doing, the program supports strengthening families through home ownership and stabilizing neighborhoods.

Computers for Africa, is an independent non-profit founded by a Jesuit and two Ignatian Associates. C4A recycles and re-builds computers for installation to schools and training centers in Eastern Africa sending approximately 250 units per year.

Service Opportunities

Jesuit Volunteer Corps. College graduates who want to contribute to helping meet basic human needs of food, shelter, and education in the United States can volunteer a year or more in the JVC to live in community and support agencies. JVC also sends volunteers internationally to live, work, and learn with and among the poor in regional ministries in seven developing nations: Belize, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nepal, Nicaragua, Peru, and Tanzania.

Ignatian Volunteer Corps provides men and women (age 50+) opportunities to serve others - to address social injustice - and to transform lives. IVC matches the talents of capable Volunteers with the needs of partner non-profit organizations.

Jesuit Refugee Service coordinates the Jesuit apostolic preference to care for refugees and displaced people. International in scope, it attempts to meet the dire needs of those people who are displaced by war, famine, or persecution.

Wisconsin Province Ignatian Associates serve in schools, universities, hospitals, businesses, social services, parishes, and a variety of other settings. Some work in traditional Jesuit institutions and ministries, while others bring the mission of the Jesuits to new situations.

Red Could Volunteers invites men and women to serve the Lakota people of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation through work in Jesuit schools and parishes on the reservation.

Creighton MAGIS Program is a 2-year program that provided M.A. graduate studies (Education) to teachers in under-resourced Catholic schools.

The Jesuit Partnership offers engagement with Wisconsin Province to provides support for Jesuit training, care of elderly Jesuits, and Jesuit international and social projects.

Justice Education & Social Research

Today our prime educational objective must be to form men-and-women-for-others; men and women who will live not for themselves but for God and his Christ - for the God-man who lived and died for all the world; men and women who cannot even conceive of love of God which does not include love for the least of their neighbors; men and women completely convinced that love of God which does not issue in justice for others is a farce.(Fr. Pedro Arrupe, S.J. Men and Women for Others)

Intellectual inquiry on experience, based on Catholic Social teaching, is a critical dimension of Jesuit social apostolate. In this way, reflection and social analysis help to inform our experience as we move toward judgment, planning and strategies for work to address social injustice.

Marquette University Center for Peacemaking invites the university and wider community on the skills needed to become spiritually-centered peacemakers.

Marquette Human Rights Initiative offers opportunities for practical training and research regarding human rights thought and work.

Marquette Restorative Justice Initiative of Marquette Law School offers several programs to begin healing the victim/offender divide and also hosts an annual public forum to highlight the potential of Restorative Justice for areas including international political violence as well as community based initiatives.

Marquette Center for Transnational Justice seeks to provide scholarship, forums and research regarding issues such as human trafficking and illicit economy.

Marquette Manressa Project helps individuals discern their personal gifts and talents to help meet the world's needs from the perspective of the Jesuit faith-justice mission.

Marquette University Dorothy Day Archives and Catholic Worker Collection of the Raynor Library Archives provides opportunities for research with respect to this seminal Catholic social movement.

Marquette Office for Mission and Identity animates the Jesuit mission in the University as well as offering lectures and events on faith-justice concerns to the university community and general public.

Marquette University High School includes courses on Catholic social teaching (theology department) and incorporates social concern across departments. Various clubs and activities allow further pursuit of these themes.

Casa Romero has developed spiritual, family and social justice program which have been useful to the wider network of Hispanic Ministries.

Gesu Parish offers on-going education regarding aspects of Catholic Social Teaching. Free and open to the public.

Creighton University offers a Justice and Peace Studies Program Undergraduate majors and minors are offered as well as the annual Markoe-DePorres social justice lecture.

Creighton Werner Institute for Negotiation and Dispute Resolution provides Master’s and certificate programs on interdisciplinary conflict resolution. In addition to academic work, the institute is also available to apply dispute resolution in practical settings.

Creighton Cardoner Program strives to cultivate a deliberate exploration of vocation, understood as service to others.

Creighton Center for Health Policy and Ethics is dedicated to the study and research of the ethical dimensions of health care and healthcare policy, including health care disparities between the poor and non-poor.

Creighton Sustainability Council is a group of students, faculty and staff committed to increasing ecological awareness

Creighton Kripke Center considers inter-religious dialogue, faith and culture, religion and society.

Creighton Magis Productions Jesuit photographer and professor Don Doll, SJ has travelled and photographed extensively. His images often include topics of social and international concern.

Creighton On-Line Ministries includes resources on faith-justice reflection (Jesuit documents, statements and positions)

Creighton Preparatory School includes courses on Catholic social teaching (theology department) and incorporates social concern across departments. Various clubs and activities allow further pursuit of these themes.

St John’s Parish has an active justice, life and peace ministry program.

National and International Resources

The Center of Concern is a Jesuit founded center for social analysis which serves as a catalyst for social justice concerns in the United States and internationally. Projects include trade/globalization, food security and global women’s project.

The Woodstock Theological Center an independent institute at Georgetown University which engages in theological and ethical reflection on topics of social, economic, business, scientific, cultural, religious, and political importance.

Jesuit Centers for Social Analysis - A roster of some Jesuit centers exercising theological and social reflection on current global challenges.

Jesuit Social Justice Secretariat provides a fine resource for justice information worldwide. Social Justice articles are available from the periodical Promotio Iustiae.

Advocacy for Social Change

"It is becoming more and more evident that the structures of society are among the principal formative influences in our world, shaping people’s ideas and feelings, shaping their most intimate desires and aspirations; in a word, shaping humankind itself. The struggle to transform these structures in the interest of the spiritual and material liberation of fellow human beings is intimately connected to the work of evangelization...All Jesuits, but especially those who belong to the affluent world, should endeavor to work with those who form public opinion, as well as with international organizations, to promote justice among all peoples." General Congregation 32, Decree 4 Our Mission Today: The Service of Faith and the Promotion of Justice

The Wisconsin Province, as part of the national Jesuit Conference lobbies elected representatives and corporations to enact policies on issues of designated concern. While there are many areas of justice concern, we have found that we are most effective if we remain focused on areas where we have proficiency, familiarity, proximity and where our participation might help advance the common good. Our current priorities include:

• comprehensive immigration reform
• domestic poverty
• war and violence
• marginalization of Africa

Jesuits, our friends and multipliers can very effectively support these efforts in a variety of ways.

The Jesuit Conference provides an excellent source of information on efforts in the United States and throughout the world. Jesuit Advocates provides an easy way to connect to U.S. Representatives to voice constituent support for important issues before the Congress.

The Ignatian Solidarity Network includes universities, schools, parishes, religious organizations and individuals in actions that support the Church’s work for social justice. ISN programming includes Teach-Ins, leadership conferences, on-line resources and an advocacy notification among ISN member groups.

The Jesuit Refugee Service advocates for better conditions for the world’s displaced refugees.

National Jesuit Committee on Investment Responsibility encourages socially responsible investing, dialogue and shareholder action with corporations to care for issues such as human rights and global health.

Since 2004, the Wisconsin Province has led a shareholder resolution with Chevron corporation encouraging the company to adopt a comprehensive, transparent and verifiable human rights policy http://www.jesuit.org/SocialJustice/SRI/default.aspx.

Jesuits also participate in a number of national organizations that advocate on justice issues. Jesuits are endorsing and/or active members of:

• Justice for Immigrants Campaign
• Africa Faith and Justice Network
• The National Religious Campaign Against Torture
• National Low Income Housing Coalition
• Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

Furthermore, Jesuit institutions and groups advocate on various local, national and international issues:

• Jesuit parishes are active in regional community organizing efforts including: ISAIAH (Twin Cities), OTOC (Omaha) and MICAH and Common Ground (Milwaukee)
• Gesu Parish, Marquette Students and Wisconsin Province, working with other faith communities, helped to pass a Milwaukee Housing Trust Fund to increase affordable housing units in Milwaukee.
• Creighton Prep is the first Jesuit high school to adopt a sweatshop-free purchasing policy.
• Creighton University is the first Jesuit University to co-file a shareholder resolution on behalf of human rights (Wisconsin Province Human Rights Resolution – Chevron).
• Student and parishioner groups advocate for justice on areas including: ecology, pro-life, human rights, peace-action, genocide, human trafficking/slavery, fair trade, worker-rights, housing/homelessness, immigration reform.