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COMPANIONS JESUIT VOLUNTEERS SERVE THE SOUTHWEST FRESH INSIGHTS INTO IGNATIAN SPIRITUALITY ETHICAL THINKING IN A HIGH-TECH WORLD LEARNING BEYOND THE COMFORT ZONE CELEBRATING THE FIRST COMPANIONS

“THE SOCIETY PLACES ITSELF AT THE SERVICE OF THE MISSION OF THE LAITY BY OFFERING THEM WHAT WE ARE AND HAVE RECEIVED; NAMELY, FORMATION IN OUR APOSTOLIC SPIRITUALITY, ESPECIALLY…THE EXPERIENCE OF THE SPIRITUAL EXERCISES AND SPIRITUAL DIRECTION AND DISCERNMENT, EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES FOR DEVELOPING THEIR PASTOR AL AND APOSTOLIC CAPABILITIES, AND OUR FRIENDSHIP.”

NORMS OF THE SOCIETY OF JESUS, PART VII, CHAPTER 5, 306

JESUITS OF THE CALIFORNIA PROVINCE WINTER 2006

6 GROWING IN THE SPIRIT The Loyola Institute for Spirituality offers Californians new opportunities to draw closer to God through prayer and faith-sharing groups.

10 ETHICAL ADVOCATE FOR A SILICON WORLD Chris Mannion mentors students at Verbum Dei High School in Los Angeles. See “Just Faith in Action,” page 14.

Anastacio Rivera, S.J., and Lupe Amézquita at the Loyola Institute for Spirituality.

Located in the heart of Silicon Valley, the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics reaches out to a high-tech world, encouraging people to do the right thing.

IN EVERY ISSUE

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FROM THE PROVINCIAL Walking Together in the Spirit by John P. McGarry, S.J.

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PROVINCE NEWS Jesuit Institute for Family Life goes international, Cristo Rey school to open in Sacramento, and other reports

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14 JUST FAITH IN ACTION Young men and women of the Jesuit Volunteer Corps are putting their faith to work in communities around the Southwest.

ON POINT Education Beyond the Comfort Zone by Stephen A. Privett, S.J.

24 MEDITATIONS Celebrating the First Companions by Charles J. Jackson, S.J.

Maggie Belasco works with her students at 112th Street Elementary School in Los Angeles.

ON THE COVER: Jesuit Volunteer Corps member Laura Mailander, 23, of Holyoke, Colo., enjoys an energizing class at St. Matthew Elementary School in Phoenix. COVER PHOTOGRAPH BY LEE THOMAS.

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WALKING TOGETHER IN THE SPIRIT

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mission EDITOR Richards E. Bushnell EDITORIAL CONTRIBUTORS Allan Figueroa Deck, S.J. Charles J. Jackson, S.J. Dan Peterson, S.J. Stephen A. Privett, S.J. Gail Tyson DESIGN Zehno Cross Media Communications DEVELOPMENT OFFICE William F. Masterson Assistant for Development and Communications Elizabeth L. Winer Associate Director of Annual Giving Richards E. Bushnell Associate Director of Communications Chelsea Boyer Development Assistant Mission is published three times a year by the Jesuits of the California Province P.O. Box 68 Los Gatos, CA, 95031-0068 Phone: (408) 884-1630 E-mail: [email protected] www.calprov.org ©2006 California Province of the Society of Jesus. All rights reserved. The comments and opinions expressed in Mission magazine are those of the authors and editors and do not necessarily reflect official positions of the California Province of the Society of Jesus. If you receive more than one copy of Mission, please inform us using the envelope inside. Give your extra copy to your family, friends, or colleagues.

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’ve done a lot of walking in my life as a Jesuit so far. It is a journey that leads me to all sorts of places where I have encountered God in so many good people. As I walk, I try to stay close to Jesus, for I have found that he is a great companion who always invites me to walk in the Spirit—to let God’s Spirit lead me and guide me where God wants me to go, whether I want to go there or not. As I journey deeper into my first year as Provincial of the California Province, one of my greatest hopes for our partnership of Jesuits and laypersons is that we walk together in the Spirit of Jesus who invites us to put our faith into action to make this world a better place. In this issue of Mission, you will read about many examples of partnership at work in our province, including these vibrant and vital ministries: Jesuit Volunteer Corps Southwest, the Loyola Institute for Spirituality, and the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University. Recently, new ministry initiatives have come to fruition. The California Province signed a new five-year agreement with the Archdiocese of Los Angeles to cosponsor Verbum Dei High School which serves the young men of South Central Los Angeles. Verbum Dei is part of the Cristo Rey Network, a national model of secondary education based on a workstudy program which enables students to learn life skills in the workplace as they earn wages to pay their tuition.

Yet another partnership with Cristo Rey has borne fruit in Sacramento, where a co-educational high school will open this summer under the co-sponsorship of the California Province, the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, and the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas. I have begun this ministry of service and leadership in the California Province with a heart full of hope and joy and a willingness to trust, because trust yields an abundance of grace. That grace for me, and I hope for all of us, is that we are all in this together, rooted in the Gospel, grounded in the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, and striving for service, justice, and peace in our ever-changing, ever-needy world. We are all challenged to trust God and trust each other in laboring together. My gratitude goes out to all of you—Jesuits, lay partners in ministry, benefactors, family, and friends of the California Province—for your generosity, support, and prayers. Let’s walk together in the Spirit, my sisters and brothers, in partnership, companionship, and community. This is our invitation from the Lord: If we follow Him, our yield will be great! Peace

Rev. John P. McGarry, S.J.

Provincial

JESUIT INSTITUTE FOR FAMILY LIFE EXPANDS TO AFRICA, MEXICO Tshikendwa Mattada, S.J., who is fluent in ounded in 1977 as the Jesuit InstiEnglish, French, Kikuyu, and Swahili. He tute for Family Life, the ministry has is assisted by two laypersons: Mr. Dennis grown lately to become the Jesuit and Mrs. Therese, as they prefer to call Institute for Family Life International Netthemselves. One of the institute’s primary work (JIFLIN), reflecting the recent opening missions is working with those who are of centers in West Africa and Mexico. dealing with the loss of a family member to Headquartered at the Jesuit Retreat AIDs. “Families are being destroyed,” Fr. House in Los Altos, California, JIFLIN ofMattada says. Being with them and listening fers counseling and therapy for children, to them in their suffering is “what adolescents, married couples, I think Jesus asks us to do.” individuals, and families of In Tijuana, the Christus Institute all faiths and walks of life. for Family Life is based at the Composed of religious and Casa de los Pobres. It is staffed laypersons, institute staff by Father Gil Gentile, S.J., and members are professionals Dr. Charles Farrow, a clinical who are licensed, trained, and psychologist who speaks Spanexperienced in their fields. ish fluently. In the early going, The international expanthe staff there is “listening and sion could only have been Father Robert Fabing, S.J. working with basic family issues,” achieved “on the shoulders” Fr. Fabing reports. of dedicated laywomen, laymen, and Fr. Gentile, who is also a “founding Jesuit priests “who are the founders father” of the Christus Institute for Famand mothers of the Jesuit Institute for ily Life in San Diego, has been involved Family Life,” says Father Robert Fabing, with JIFL for 17 years. “Our philosophy S.J., co-founder and director. “We have of providing psychotherapy in a spiritual grown from a small center in Los Altos context and with the power and imagery over 30 years ago to 49 centers comprisof spirituality is, I believe, exactly what ing the JIFL Network,” he adds. people in our times are seeking,” he says. The new international sites opened “And I believe it is the best way for me as in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the both a clinician and a priest to be of service Congo, in January 2005, and in Tijuana, to individuals and families, to the church, Baja California, last September. and to the world.” In Kinshasa, the Jesuit Institute for For more information, call (650) 948-4854. Family Life is directed by Father Ghislain

NEWS BRIEFS • The California Province was the first Jesuit province in the United States to be accredited by Praesidium for meeting the criteria regarding the prevention of and response to sexual abuse of minors by members. The criteria were established by the Conference of Major Superiors of Men to implement the Dallas Charter developed by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The accreditation is an expression of the province’s commitment to providing a safe environment for all minors who come in contact with its communities or ministries. • Father Thomas S. Smolich, S.J., who recently completed a six-year term as provincial of the California Province, has been appointed the next president of the United States Jesuit Conference. Starting in June, Fr. Smolich will preside over the leadership group of the 10 American provinces.

SACRAMENTO BEE /FLORENCE LOW

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Sister Kathryn Camacho, S.N.D. de N.

NEW CRISTO REY SCHOOL he Cristo Rey Network has given its approval to open a new Cristo Rey model high school in Sacramento to be sponsored jointly by the California Province of the Society of Jesus, the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas, and the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur. “Our co-sponsorship will be a new model for partnership in our Province and the Church,” noted Provincial John P. McGarry, S.J. When the school opens in fall 2006, it will enroll 100 students in the first freshman class. Each year, another class will be added until enrollment reaches 420 by 2010. Sister Kathryn Camacho of the Sisters of Notre Name will be the first principal of the high school which has yet to be named. “We’re looking for students who wouldn’t otherwise have access to a Catholic education,” Sister Camacho told the Sacramento Bee. The Cristo Rey model is intended to serve primarily low-income students through a work-study program that allows them to pay a portion of their tuition by working one day a week at a participating local business. Under the program, each student works five school days a month at an entry-level job with one of the sponsoring companies. The school received start-up funding from the Cassin Educational Foundation, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the Mercy Foundation, as well as supplementary grants from the Province. Fundraising for endowments and scholarships is ongoing. For more information on the school, call Sister Camacho at (916) 733-2660.

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AUTHORS CELEBRATE THE HISTORIES OF ST. IGNATIUS COLLEGE PREP, USF

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pair of new books trace the history of two Jesuit schools that grew from the same roots: St. Ignatius College Preparatory and the University of San Francisco. In fact, both schools were founded as a single institution and didn’t formally separate until 1959.

Spiritus Magis: 150 Years of St. Ignatius College Preparatory by Paul Totah

The author, a long-time English teacher and SI public information director, recounts the school’s history, including its beginning during the California Gold Rush; its survival despite debt, earthquake, and fire; and its success in becoming one of the top-ranked college prep schools in the country. A chapter devoted to the San Francisco Earthquake and Fire is particularly dramatic: As flames consumed St. Ignatius Church and College on April 18, 1906, student Joseph Vaughan observed: “All hell seemed dancing with joy, watching this fiery liquidation of the Jesuits in San Francisco.” The book is profusely illustrated with period photographs reproduced as sepiatones on buff paper stock. For information on obtaining Spiritus Magis, go to www.siprep.org or send a check for $30 to St. Ignatius College Preparatory, c/o Paul Totah, 2001 37th Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94116

Legacy & Promise: 150 Years of Jesuit Education at the University of San Francisco by Alan Ziajka

A former history teacher and now director of institutional research for USF, Dr. Ziajka, traces the school’s story from its founding by Anthony Maraschi, an Italian Jesuit priest, to the present when Stephen A. Privett, a California-born Jesuit, presides over a rich legacy. The author fulfills the promise he sets forth in the prologue: to tell the university’s story in a series of 150 vignettes highlighting important individuals, key influences, and major events in the school’s growth and development. Like a gold miner, Ziajka has unearthed enough historical nuggets to stock a treasury. For example, in recounting Michael Accolti’s arrival in San Francisco in 1849, the Jesuit priest exclaims “Whether it should be called a madhouse or Babylon I am at a loss to determine.” In a more hopeful vein, Father Antoine Langlois proclaims “in spite of the temptations of bar-rooms and saloons…it was possible for a person to save his soul in San Francisco.”

Like a gold miner, Ziajka has unearthed enough historical nuggets to stock a treasury. The book is handsomely illustrated with 350 photographs accompanied by wellwritten captions that add another layer of information. Legacy & Promise is available for $18.55 from the USF Bookstore.

Correction In “Restoring Connections” (Spring/Summer 2005, page 18), we misspelled the name of J. Alberto Yépez, chairman and CEO of Thor Technologies and supporter of Colegio Miguel Pro in Tacna, Peru. Likewise, we regret misspelling the name of his son Sean Yépez, whose photographs illustrated the story.

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PROVINCIAL MINISTRIES PROVIDE RELIEF TO STORM VICTIMS oon after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans and much of the Gulf Coast in August 2005, the ministries of the California Province swung into action, providing various forms of relief to storm victims. From Hawaii to Utah, provincial schools and pastoral ministries raised more than $157,000 in charitable contributions through collections, bake sales, and car washes. At Our Lady of Sorrows Parish in Santa Barbara, students collected toys to send to the children of the Gulf Coast. In Phoenix, Brophy College Preparatory and St. Francis Xavier Parish chose to adopt the town of Petal, Miss., and sent a truckload of supplies there. But ministries around the province also provided more personal forms of relief to Katrina’s victims. Because many educational institutions in New Orleans were damaged by floodwaters or rendered inoperable because of the dire circumstances surrounding them, thousands of students were left without schools just as a new academic year was about to begin. Provincial universities and high schools quickly reached out and offered Jesuit High School in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina their hospitality to nearly 240 displaced students from Loyola University, Tulane, and other colleges. The University of San Francisco admitted 120 displaced students, Santa Clara University admitted 64, Loyola Marymount University enrolled 60, Brophy took in four students from hard-hit Jesuit High School in New Orleans, and four other high schools took one student each.

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WWW.CALPROV.ORG Province News and more information .

Help Us Make A Difference

DEDICATED TO JUSTICE, A YOUNG WOMAN FINDS PEACE

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hen she was deciding which college to attend, Moira Erin O’Donnell of Pacifica, California, visited a number of different campuses. At Santa Clara University, she saw something that inspired her to make a decision. What she saw was eight small white crosses rising up in front of Mission Santa Clara de Asis. The crosses represented the six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper and her daughter who were ruthlessly murdered on November 16, 1989, in El Salvador. Moved by that humble memorial, she enrolled at SCU and in due course graduated magna cum laude, receiving a B.A. in English and becoming a member of Alpha Signa Nu, the honorary Jesuit society. Moira went on to do graduate work at Boston College, Oxford University, and the University of London. After her studies, she worked at the Hamilton Family Shelter in San Francisco from 1998 to 2004, helping to provide services for homeless families and children. Then, in early 2005, Moira became the executive director of the Ignatian Solidarity Network (ISN), a social justice ministry supported by the U.S. Assistancy. The ISN sponsors the Ignatian Family Teach-in for Justice held each November in

Columbus, Georgia, to protest the U.S. Army’s Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, infamously known as the School of the Americas. While she was organizing the 2005 Teach-in, Moira died suddenly and unexpectedly on October 9, 2005, at the age of 33. At her funeral Mass, Father Thomas Carroll, S.J., one of Moira’s relatives, spoke of her character in his homily: “Moira O’Donnell was inspired by the vision of the integral connection between faith and justice that she encountered at SCU and Boston College, and she made her own the mission of encouraging and constructing peace, building bridges to other persons, one at a time. A dreamer and visionary she was, and also a worker. She was profoundly grateful to find what she considered her perfect job, with the Ignatian Solidarity Network— with the Jesuits, once again, and teaching the ways of peace with others.”

Who Will… Teach students to value God, ethics, and morality? Provide spiritual guidance to all who seek it? Fight for social justice wherever there is injustice? Carry the Gospel of Jesus Christ around the world? Form new leaders to serve the Church? Care for elderly Jesuits who gave their all to God’s work?

IN REMEMBR ANCE Father Thomas G. Hand, S.J., 84.

Father Everett J. Mibach, S.J., 88.

Tuesday, October 11, 2005, at Regis Infirmary, Sacred Heart Jesuit Center, Los Gatos, California, of cancer. He and a twin sister were born on Halloween 1920 in East Palo Alto, California. Graduating from Bellarmine College Preparatory in San Jose, he entered the Jesuits in 1938. Ordained in 1951, he went to Japan in 1954 and taught English at Hiroshima Gakuin high school (1956-64) and was a retreat director at Kamakura (1964-82). He had a deep interest in Eastern spirituality and was one of the first western priests to study Zen. In 1984, he founded the East-West Meditation Center at Mercy Spirituality Center in Burlingame, California, bringing the discipline of the Zen tradition to Christian meditation programs. He retired to Los Gatos in 2004. He was the author of two books and in the weeks before his death completed a novel.

Tuesday, November 1, 2005, at Sacred Heart Jesuit Center, Los Gatos. Born on November 7, 1916, in San Francisco, he entered the Jesuits in 1937. He volunteered for the China Mission and in 1947 went to Beijing for language studies. His theological studies in Shanghai were interrupted by the Communist revolution and he returned to the United States, where he was ordained in 1951. He went to Taiwan in 1953 and taught English at the National University and the National Normal University, both in Taipei. In 1983, he returned to San Francisco and taught in the Intensive English Program at the University of San Francisco, where he also served as a pastoral minister and guest master until retiring to Los Gatos in 1999.

Jesuits Can. Jesuits Will— With Your Help. Please consider a gift to the Jesuits of the California Province using the attached postage-paid envelope. For information on how to include Jesuits in your will or estate, call us at (408) 884-1630.

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By Gail Tyson Photography by Lee Thomas

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Allan Deck, S.J., president of the Loyola Institute for Spirituality

GROWING in the SPIRIT The Loyola Institute for Spirituality is p i o n e e r i n g new m o d e l s of faith formation for the culturally diverse communities of California. CITRUS AND NUT ORCHARDS have long flourished in California’s Orange County, but another kind of growth—the spiritual kind—is taking root here and bearing fruit. Through the Loyola Institute for Spirituality (LIS), laymen and laywomen are prepared to work as spiritual leaders in many communities. This model stimulates the imagination as to how the Spirit can be delivered,” says LIS president Allan Figueroa Deck, S.J. “Our ministry promotes conversion that changes people’s lives.” Jesuits have offered retreats in Southern California for many years, but over time they realized that only a limited number of people could participate in a residential program. “We were not covering thousands MISSION WINTER 2006

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“It is a gift to see what God is doing in someone else’s life. It is like seeing the Kingdom of Heaven.” HUMBERTO RAMIREZ, EQUIPO LATINO IGNACIANO

Anastacio “Tacho” Rivera, S.J., associate director of the Loyola Institute for Spirituality, speaks with Julia and Humberto Ramirez.

of other people,” says LIS associate director Anastacio “Tacho” Rivera, S.J. Increasingly, the people hungry for spiritual development are immigrants who have literally changed the face of our Province and the Catholic Church in the United States.” “Hispanic people are not offered many opportunities for developing new kinds of prayer and forming faith-sharing groups,” says Deck. And while many of the Church’s leadership programs spend time forming skills, they often neglect spiritual development. “Ignatian spirituality is uniquely positioned for lay ministry, because it is focused on helping people be close to God in the midst of their busy lives.” Julia and Humberto Ramirez of Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif., can testify to that. About six years ago, they completed Pastoral Studies in Spanish, a certificate program at Loyola Marymount University’s Center for Religion and Spirituality, and it whetted a deep spiritual hunger. “I wanted to become a spiritual director,” remembers Julia. “I had gone through some spiritual direction myself, and I thought, ‘Why isn’t help like this available in Spanish?’ ” Then the couple joined Equipo Latino Ignaciano, a threeyear spiritual leadership program for Hispanics offered by LIS. Initially, Humberto resisted, feeling he needed to devote time to his new landscape business. “I had a lot of fears and anxiety [about his business], but I decided to believe in God’s love, no matter what. Taking the time to do this has helped me to grow my business.” As part of their training, they each went through the Spiritual Exercises. Every Sunday, they would recount their prayer experiences with their daughters. “Our kids were used to seeing

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Exercising legal minds “Before the Spiritual Exercises my relationship with God was in black and white,” says the Francisco Firmat. “Now it’s in color.” He is describing the impact the 500-year-old practice had on him in 1992. Firmat is the supervising judge of family law for the Superior Court of California for Orange County. The judge has been connected with Loyola Institute for Spirituality since 1997. Since then, about 300 judicial officers and attorneys, including Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Lutherans, and Mormons, have met in his chambers to make the Exercises. Firmat began by inviting friends and colleagues, but now people often call him because they have noticed “something different” about those who have gone through the 35 weeks of prayer and reflection. “Galatians 5:22 talks about the fingerprints of the Holy Spirit, and love, joy, kindness, and gentleness are obvious in a person who has gone through the Exercises.” The process is “surprisingly simple but not easy,” Firmat explains. “Some days are dry as desert sand. Other times, the Scripture just blossoms into a lived, felt understanding. It is all a gift; the best facilitator in the world can’t make that happen. You just step into the picture and wait.” The result is transformative. “About five weeks into the Exercises, it’s a common experience for people to ask, ‘What have I done?’” says Firmat. “And about three weeks before the end, they often say, ‘I don’t ever want this to end.’”

Mom, but not Dad, praying,” says Julia, “so it was very powerful for them to see both of us doing it. The experience brought us together not just as a couple, but as a family.” Now they serve as spiritual companions to the second Equipo Latino Ignaciano (ELI) group. “It is a gift to see what God is doing in someone else’s life,” says Humberto. “It is like seeing the Kingdom of Heaven.” Julia and Humberto are part of a growing network of laity who are implementing the mission and vision of LIS — getting spirituality out into the community—through several programs. Besides ELI, which Rivera coordinates, Chi Ngo, S.J., directs the Ignatian Spiritual Formation Program, which attracts Anglos and first- and second-generation Chinese, Koreans, and Vietnamese. David Schwartz, S.J., coordinates the Ignatian Spiritual Leadership Program for parishes. Graduates of these programs are busy leading retreats for married couples, facilitating community growth in parishes, serving as spiritual companions, and working with Christian Life Communities. “Doing these things is progressive and sometimes neither the clergy nor the parish are ready for this,” notes Rivera. “They will say, ‘I was looking for a Jesuit.’ But if laypeople step out into the limelight, parishioners will say, ‘I can do that.’” With these programs under way, LIS staff are formulating a bold new program: the Spiritual Ministry Network would provide training, resources, and support for “ministers of spirituality”—laypeople Chi Ngo, S.J., director of the Ignatian who would continue Spiritual Formation Program, with David Schwartz, S.J., coordinator of the Ignatian the current work of the Institute and “funnel Leadership Program. people toward deeper spiritual experiences.” Eventually, LIS would provide fewer direct services and become a resource for these ministers. “We wanted to empower a greater number of people in promoting spiritual growth,” says Deck. “Now we have a critical mass of spiritual ministers, and they can have a multiplier effect.” For more information on the programs offered by the LIS, call (714) 997-9587 or go to www.loyolainstitute.org

What is Ignatian spirituality ? By Allan Figueroa Deck, S.J. The core of St. Ignatius Loyola’s spirituality is found in the Spiritual Exercises, a small manual he wrote to help those who accompany others seeking God. Breakthroughs in Ignatius’ own life story shed light on his unique spirituality. He enjoyed a deep sensitivity to interior movements, his most authentic desires. Ignatius found that what attracted him, filled his imagination with hope, and motivated him, often came from God. He learned that God encounters us in these affections, in powerful emotions that move us to act. We need to be truly free to discern among the various spirits that move us. Ignatius referred to them in terms Cynthia Galvez and Allan Deck, S.J. of “consolation and desolation.” When we learn to properly interpret them, we have a sure way to distinguish between good and evil spirits and opt for life and not death. God thus encounters us interiorly and beckons us to fall in love with and follow him by contemplating the Gospel, entering deeply into the mystery of Jesus Christ. The habit of daily prayer is the key for this ongoing process. We are called to follow Christ as disciples, thus integrating our life through loving service of others, especially the poor and marginalized. And we live Christ’s values in the Church, in Christian community. St. Ignatius viewed all life as participation in an intense love affair, the one eternally unfolding in the Blessed Trinity. We integrate our lives by faithfully responding to God’s creative generosity. We gratefully love in return, showing it “more in deeds than in words.” Ignatian spirituality stresses that the marvelous gift of “finding God in all things” is possible for all. We become contemplatives in action united with God in ordinary activities, not just in special moments of prayer. Ignatian spirituality breaks down the barriers between the sacred and the secular, so it is specially suited to the laity, to men and women who seek to make sense out of their busy lives.

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PHOTOGRAPH BY CHARLES BARRY

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FOR A SILICON WORLD The Markkula Center for Applied Ethics encourages people to do the right thing in business, government, and other fields. BY DICK BUSHNELL

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When most people think of ethics, if they think of them at all, they tend to associate ethics with religion or law. Yet ethics are not about religion or following the law. “Simply stated, ethics are standards of behavior that tell us how human beings ought to act” in various situations. That’s the definition offered by the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University. Why are ethics so widely misunderstood? Kirk O. Hanson, the center’s executive director, explains that American institutions have been slow to embrace ethics. Not until the political and corporate scandals of the 1970s had outraged the nation did secular universities appoint their first business ethics professors. “Prior to that time, only Jesuit universities had done that; they understood the importance,” says Hanson. “SCU provided an ideal setting to do the work of addressing the ethical problems of Silicon Valley,” notes Hanson. So in 1986-1987, the center was founded and initially funded by Mike and Linda Markkula. In 2001, SCU President Paul Locatelli asked Hanson to take over as executive director. Hanson, who graduated from Bellarmine College Preparatory, earned an M.B.A. from Stanford University and a Ph.D. from Harvard. Returning to Stanford, he became its first business ethics professor and taught there for 23 years. When he came to SCU, Hanson set out to organize the center’s work into formal programs, each dedicated to exploring ethical issues in business, biotechnology/health care, character education in schools, government, and global ethics. Today, the center has a staff of 16, making it the largest university-based ethics center in the United States, according to Hanson. MISSION winter 2006

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BECOMING A FAITHFUL PUBLIC SERVANT Once upon a time, Judy Nadler didn’t like what she was seeing in Santa Clara, California. “I saw things happening that were less than family-friendly. There was a lot of development and I wanted to maintain a sense of community.” So in 1985 she ran for city council, won a seat, and served for two terms — the limit set by city charter. So in 1994 she ran for mayor and was elected the first woman mayor of Santa Clara. Again, she reached the term limit and in December 2002 left office. What inspired Judy to devote nearly two decades of her life to city government? “I was really drawn to public service through my faith,” says Judy, a practicing Roman Catholic. “My family believed that we were put on earth to make the world a better place and that we each had a responsibility to do that whatever way we could. So it is not surprising that I find myself at a Jesuit university.” After serving as mayor, Judy took a one-month vacation, and in January 2003 went to work at Santa Clara University as a half-time instructor in political science. At the same time, Judy was offered a half-time position to start a government ethics program at the Markkula Center. Today, she is as an adjunct professor and senior fellow in government ethics at the center. Judy says her work at SCU gives her the best of both of those worlds: “I use my experience as an elected official to work with other office holders and encourage them to be responsive to the public; and I also work with students and encourage them to become involved in public life.” She proudly points to the fact that four of her students are employed in government jobs. On a personal level, Judy says, “I have the benefit of being married to someone who is Jewish, so we have a multi-faith family which makes my spiritual life even richer.” In fact, she is married to Jerome S. Nadler, a 1977 graduate of SCU law school, who serves as a superior court judge in Santa Clara County. As for ethics in government, Judy says her goal is “to run workshops that teach people how to campaign ethically and to educate the public so that they will only vote for the ethical candidate, then when those ethical people are in office do a workshop about how to avoid ethical dilemmas and do the right thing.” She envisions a “wonderful system where people put the public interest before their personal interest and take seriously the honor and responsibility of being a servant.”

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The center operates on three different levels: on the campus, in the community, and on the world scene. For example, to foster its contacts in business, health care, and government, the center has developed partnerships with 12 companies, three hospitals, and a roundtable of 25 mayors and city council members. In the field of character education, the center has contracts with the offices of education in 25 California counties to provide training for teachers on how to introduce moral values and character development into the classroom. The program includes a curriculum for the 7th through 12th grades. On the global scale, the center’s Interaction Council, which is composed of former heads of state, has been dealing with diplomatic issues such as nuclear disarmament and intervention on the humanitarian or military level. Currently, 52 SCU faculty and staff members are scholars of the center. Their contributions range from serving on study groups to making presentations at various events. Jesuits who have been involved with the center include Paul G. Crowley, Paul J. Fitzgerald, Paul L. Locatelli, George J. Max Oliva, Mark A. Ravizza, Michael A. Zampelli, the late Bill Spohn, and Gerald F. Cavanagh, a visiting professor from the University of Detroit. Lay faculty and Jesuits, including Thomas J. Reese, also participate in a theological ethics reading group that examines Catholic and religious issues. The center enjoys a designation as one of the university’s three “centers of distinction.” “Our role is in part to integrate across the departments of the schools so that people from business disciplines, sociology, engineering, or religious studies can work on practical problems. Recently, the center has been instrumental in developing the first business ethics study program in China. Last October, the Center for International Business Ethics opened at Beijing’s University of International Business and Economics under the direction of a Jesuit—Ronald J. Anton. Hanson is serving as honorary chairman. “The center’s establishment was sanctioned by the Communist Party,” he notes. Finally, the center has launched the Architects of Peace Project. It includes the Architect of Peace Award presented by SCU to honor global figures who have been forces for peace. The first recipients were Mary Robinson, former U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, and the late Marla Ruzicka, founder of Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict, who was killed in a car bomb blast in Baghdad in April 2005. The project also includes an on-line curriculum for educators, which like all of the center’s materials, is available on the worldwide web for viewing and downloading. Visit www.scu.edu/ethics/ “Paul Locatelli’s challenge to me was to make this the bestknown ethics center in the world and we’re getting close, but we can do a lot more,” Hanson concludes.

Kirk O. Hanson, executive director of the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, moderates a panel discussion.

A FRAMEWORK FOR ETHICAL DECISION-MAKING The following guidelines for thinking ethically are the product of dialogue and debate at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at SCU. Primary contributors include Manuel Velasquez, Dennis Moberg, Michael Meyer, Thomas Shanks, Margaret R. McLean, David DeCosse, and Kirk O. Hanson. RECOGNIZE AN ETHICAL ISSUE

1. Is there something wrong personally, interpersonally, or socially? Could the conflict, the situation or the decision be damaging to people or to the community? 2. Does the issue go deeper than legal or institutional concerns? What does it do to people as persons who have dignity, rights, and hopes for a better life together? GET THE FACTS

3. What are the relevant facts of the case? 4. What individuals and groups have an important stake in the outcome? Do some have a greater stake because they have a special need or because we have special obligations to them? 5. What are the options for acting? Have all the relevant persons and groups been consulted? If you showed your list of options to someone you respect, what would that person say? EVALUATE ALTERNATIVE ACTIONS FROM VARIOUS ETHICAL PERSPECTIVES

6. Which option will produce the most good and do the least harm? Utilitarian approach: the ethical action is the one that will produce the greatest balance of benefits over harms. 7. Even if not everyone gets all they want, will everyone’s rights and dignity still be respected? Rights and duties approach: the ethical action is the one which best respects the rights of all affected and is faithful to one’s duties.

8. Which option is fair to all stakeholders? Justice or fairness approach: the ethical action is the one that treats people equally, or if unequally, that treats people proportionately and fairly. 9. Which option would help all participate more fully in the life we share as a family, community, society? Common good approach: the ethical action is the one that contributes most to the achievement of a quality common life together. 10. Would you want to become the sort of person who acts this way (e.g., a person of courage or compassion)? Virtues approach: the ethical action is the one which invites performance of key dispositions and habits which represent humans at their best. MAKE A DECISION AND TEST IT

11. Considering all these perspectives, which of the options is the right or best thing to do? 12. If you told someone you respect why you chose this option, what would that person say? If you had to explain your decision on television, would you be comfortable? ACT, THEN REFLECT ON THE DECISION LATER

13. Implement your decision. How did it turn out for all concerned? If you have to do it over again, what would you do differently?

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JUST FAITH

Left to right: Maggie Belasco, Andrew Lynch, Alison Cevasco, John Stevens, Chris Mannion, Kate Walsh, and Michelle Jardine at Casa Maura Clarke in Los Angeles.

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YEARNING FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE, YOUNG ADULTS JOIN THE JESUIT VOLUNTEER CORPS TO SERVE POOR AND MARGINALIZED PEOPLE AROUND THE SOUTH WEST, AS THEY EXPLORE THEIR OWN SPIRITUALIT Y. BY GAIL TYSON

PHOTOGRAPHY BY LEE THOMAS

IN ACTION

Left: Students at Verbum Dei High School in Los Angeles. Center: Kate Walsh at the Daybreak Day Center in Santa Monica. Right: Student at St. Matthew Elementary School in Phoenix. MISSION winter 2006

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“CHRIST IS THE LIGHT THAT SHINES THROUGH OUR VOLUNTEERS.”

stand in the midst of the [consumer] culture, which can be a unique struggle. Within the Southwest, we’re different in naming our formation process within the context of the Spiritual Exercises.” When people join JVCSW today, they live in small communities and serve in major metropolitan areas, including Phoenix, San Diego, Santa Monica, Sacramento, and the San Francisco Bay Area. They sign a covenant, agreeing to live by four tenets: social justice, spirituality, community, and simple living. These tenets are distinct components that form a singular web of experience—one that serves as a platform for career and life-style choices, lifelong spiritual practice, and an abiding commitment to social justice.

SOCIAL JUSTICE JVCSW ministries range from longestablished partnerships such as Loaves & Fishes in Sacramento (see sidebar on page 20) to new ventures, including an

ANNE HAMERSKY

Sister Kathleen Sinclair

lder than the Peace Corps, the Jesuit Volunteer Corps has been attracting young adults to serve in ministries since 1956. Today, the JVC includes five domestic regions and Jesuit Volunteers International, which operates in the Americas, Africa, Asia, and Oceania. Wherever they serve, JVs cheerfully claim that the experience “ruins” them for life. At the Southwest region’s headquarters—three modest rooms in San Francisco’s Mission District—JVC staff match applicants with placements that meet a wide range of needs. As of last summer, a total of 2,200 volunteers have served in Arizona and California. This year alone, 64 volunteers are working in 49 agencies. “The year-long commitment distinguishes us from immersion experiences and mission trips,” says program coordinator Sister Kathleen Sinclair, B.V.M. “Second, domestic volunteers make a commitment to living simply while they

Left: Chris Mannion speaks with a work-study program student at Verbum Dei High School in Los Angeles. Right: Sister Kathleen Sinclair and Yvonne Prowse at the JVCSW office in San Francisco.

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inner-city high school and an immigration and refugee rights project. In the beginning, JVCSW often went where Jesuits served, a tradition that continues in several cities. “We really like to partner with Jesuit works,” says executive director Yvonne Prowse. With the number of Jesuits diminishing, she adds, “The question comes up: Can we be a Jesuit presence?” Because the Jesuits worldwide have identified migration as a primary issue, two regions—Southwest and South—are exploring where services are needed on the U.S. border with Mexico. More than a third of JVCSW service is focused on immigrants, and it is also assessing a return to the rural communities of California’s agriculturally rich Central Valley, where many migrant workers live in poor, isolated neighborhoods. “More and more, college students want a place where they can use their Spanish, says Prowse. “I’m seeing a

Alex McShiras works at a shelter for immigrants in Phoenix.

Maggie Belasco assists one of her students at 112th Street Elementary School in Los Angeles.

need on both ends which could be a good match.” For example, volunteer Alex McShiras, 22, from Lee, Mass., uses his Spanish to assist undocumented youths, mostly from Central and South America, who are detained in Phoenix. His work is part of the Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project, a nonprofit organization providing free legal services to men, women, and children detained by the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The youths come to the U.S. to escape poverty, starvation, lack of employment and educational opportunities, child abuse, and war. “One of my jobs is to document how the Border Patrol treated them,” says McShiras. “I do presentations on their legal rights and then do intakes one by one.” With the dramatic increase in detained, unaccompanied minors and only two lawyers working on these cases, his days can be frustrating. “Our job is to find the best defense against deportation,” he explains. “If there’s no defense, we let them know that. Sometimes I feel powerless. All I can do is talk to these kids. They come and go so quickly, but they always smile when they see me.” What keeps him going? “I don’t think I’d be able to do this work without JVC and my faith,” Alex admits. “I was raised

in the United Church of Christ, but I’ve been educated by the Jesuits, and I feel passionate about their commitment to social justice.” Another new partnership, with Verbum Dei High School, has drawn volunteers Chris Mannion, 22, from Jermyn, Pa., and Maggie Belasco, 22, from North Wildwood, N.J., to the Los Angeles neighborhood of Watts. When this inner-city school almost closed several years ago, Cardinal Roger Mahoney, Archbishop of Los Angeles, asked the Jesuits to help. They adopted the Cristo Rey educational model, which combines academics with a corporate work-study program that employs students. Today, 330 Verbum Dei students work in nearly 90 organizations. Mannion, a program coordinator, maintains corporate relationships, grades essays the students write about their work experience, and mentors them if they are having difficulties. “This program is so important to breaking the cycle of poverty and for the Jesuit educational model. I’ve been blessed to be educated by the Jesuits the past eight years, and this is the ninth.” Belasco helps coordinate Urban Compass, a nonprofit organization working at 112th Street Elementary School in Watts. Students from Verbum Dei and other schools tutor and mentor the K-5th MISSION winter 2006

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graders. “Being Catholic, white, female, and fairly young, and working with minority adolescent men, I wasn’t sure what to expect,” Belasco admits. “It’s inspiring to know what kind of opportunities are ahead for them. They might not realize it, but I can see it—and play a small role in making that happen.”

SPIRITUALITY

Clockwise from top left: Notes pinned on spiritual inspiration board at Casa Soujourner Truth in Phoenix; casa mates Laura Mailander, Melissa Monaco, Elizabeth Duthie, and Theresa Levy gather together for spirituality night; students at Verbum Dei High School.

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Daily confrontation with injustice can be a draining experience, but a strong commitment to spiritual practice, both personally and communally, grounds the volunteers. “This is a very formative year,” says Prowse. “Here, social justice and spirituality are inseparable, and others are looking at the Southwest as a model for the faith that does justice.” Volunteers attend retreats in the fall and spring, sandwiched between an August orientation, a January re-orientation, and July’s “dis-orientation,” which enables them to process what they have learned and to think about how they can live the four tenets individually. The program coordinator has designed this spiritual development and integration

program to follow the progression of themes in the Spiritual Exercises. “We describe our volunteers as ‘contemplatives in action,’” says Prowse. “We ask them to pray daily, to undertake weekly reflection in community, and to maintain a group, prayerful silence on retreat.” Weekly spirituality nights serve as a common ground for people from different religious backgrounds, or who come from different faith experiences. Community prayer can take many forms, from saying the rosary to chanting Taizé melodies. The outcome should be evident in the person of each volunteer. “Our volunteers go to help people have justice,” says Sinclair. “For some, it’s a meal in a soup kitchen. For others, it’s a child’s access to education, and hopefully education in the faith. Christ is the light that shines through our volunteers. What color that light is depends on their personality and character, how they undertake being in relationship with the people they serve and helping them have human dignity.”

COMMUNITY The most frequently heard comments from volunteers, Sinclair observes, are “I never realized how much effort it takes to live in community” and “It’s changed me completely.” The Southwest defines community as living with four to seven casa (house) mates—holding weekly community nights and agenda meetings, and meeting bimonthly with a local support team. Each casa makes financial decisions by consensus. Area directors, who visit the casas regularly, and support teams, which include former JVs, help challenge the volunteers to grow. “Living in an intentional community is probably the biggest challenge for the volunteers,” says area director Julien Goulet. “But if they can figure out how to get vulnerable with each other, they come out of it with skills that last them for a lifetime.” Support team members help the JVs live out the four values and bond as casa mates. “I like to help JVs reflect on ministry of presence,” says Jill Blasi, a former JV who works as a social worker in infant mental health. “We’re important to people just because we are present.

MY TURN: JULIEN GOULET “Community takes up a big piece of the Volunteers’ mental energy,” observes JVCSW area director Julien Goulet, who works with casa mates in Phoenix and Oakland. “Everyone is bringing home these new experiences that may challenge their world view, and everyone has a different way of dealing with it. “All their securities, everything they’ve known for 20-something years has gone away. In part, that’s why it’s so transformative. This is a form of adult formation. It seems to crystallize around the retreat in January. That’s when they connect all the pieces, and the web starts to come together for them.

When you form relationships with people whom most of society sees as ‘other,’ you can’t see them as ‘other’ any more, and you become their advocate.” JVCSW volunteers live in 12 communities named for champions of social justice. This year, seven reside at Casa Maura Clarke in Los Angeles and serve a wide range of people: teenage boys,

“When a community is able to gel and get vulnerable with each other, that can be the catalyst for a great year. Those interpersonal relationships serve as a microcosm of the whole experience. Within those relationships in that community, you have to be doing justice. Another volunteer—the person who is scraping the toast—is also the face of God. If they can really get into that community experience, they will have the tools to do that in their jobs and at church and wherever they go. This is actually the start of the journey. You realize why you’re ‘ruined’ for life.”

homeless adults, community members organized for urban renewal, and mentally ill women living on the street. Kate Walsh, 22, from Braintree, Mass., is a counselor/advocate at OPCC’s Daybreak Day Center and Shelter, a community organization that runs a network of shelters and services. Kate draws on her casa mates’ support as she faces the

“I’VE LEARNED TO CHERISH THE TINIEST SPECK OF HOPE.” Kate Walsh, JVCSW volunteer

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“THE TENETS OF JVC ARE SUCH GOOD REFERENCE POINTS IN LIFE.” Shawna Smith Gotreau, program director for Taller San Jose and former JV

enormous gulf between rich and poor. “Daybreak is a drop-in center for homeless, mentally ill women,” she explains. “Right next door is one of the most expensive restaurants in Santa Monica. It’s mind-boggling to think about all the money being exchanged at the same time so much homelessness is on their doorsteps.” Empowering the women she serves requires patience and respect for their right to make their own decisions. “I’ve learned to cherish the tiniest speck of hope,” says Kate. “One woman came in every other day wearing a black garbage bag as a skirt. For weeks I tried to give her some pants, and then about a month ago she came in wearing a pair.” That kind of change, says Kate, “keeps me coming back every day.”

SIMPLE LIVING

Maggie Belasco and Chris Mannion prepare dinner at Casa Maura Clarke.

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Each volunteer agrees to live within an $85 monthly stipend—an opportunity, the JVCSW handbook points out, “to learn the difference between necessities and luxuries.” “In our culture and our lives, simple living is the most difficult tenet to abide by,” says Kate Chatfield. In 1996, she and her husband, Peter Stiehler, another JV alum, started a Catholic Worker house in San Bruno, Calif. They shelter 10 to 12 guests every night and feed 60 to 80 at meals four times a week. Even guests who need a place to sleep or food to eat can wonder why the house has no television. “Simple living often gets distorted,” says Chatfield. “A friend said, ‘You have to know how to live when the money’s there and when it’s not, and be the same person.’ The continuum that is important are the personal relationships.” The spiritual growth JVs experience also becomes a gift that benefits others. “They really bring the faith that does justice,” says John Savard, S.J., a JVCSW board member who employs many former JVs in the resident ministry program at the University of San Francisco.

IT REALLY DOES TAKE A VILLAGE

“It’s not a place, it’s a parable.” That’s how co-director Jim Peth describes Loaves & Fishes Friendship Park, an extraordinary urban village that provides survival services for the homeless, in Sacramento, Calif. Beginning in a small dining room in 1983, it has grown into a complex of 1930s-era cottages, vintage cars, washhouse and laundry, library, kitchen and dining room, a women’s sanctuary, and the Mustard Seed, a school for homeless children. Up to 800 people come here every day for a meal, a shower, and treatment with dignity. Jesuit Volunteers have served here since 1984, and Peth says, “The JVs bring energy, spirit, and tremendous creativity. Our guests talk about them for years.” The JVs leave their mark—designing the memorial wall and fountain, becoming staff members, and helping children unlearn the helplessness their parents feel. “We build their confidence and pretty soon they learn to pick up their things,” says Tanya Meneses, 22, from Tulare, Calif., a kindergarten teacher at Mustard Seed. “To have a pre-schooler running to give you a hug first thing in the day, and so proud to accomplish something, makes me feel better that I can make a difference for these few.”

Left: Shawna Smith Gotreau works with participants in the Taller San Jose program in Santa Ana, Calif. Right: JVCSW volunteer Elizabeth Duthie hopes to attend graduate school in sociology and social policy after teaching kindergarten at St. Matthew Elementary School in Phoenix.

“Each week they often do a ministry with the students, such as taking them to St. Anthony’s women’s shelter or a soup kitchen,” he says. “When I look at all the former JVs still in the Bay Area as directors of campus ministry and teachers, the ripple effect is incredible,” adds Savard. JVC’s influence is felt in many professions, and a number of volunteers have joined the Society of Jesus. For example, Luke Hansen, 23, from Kaukauna, Wis., who served at the Mental Health Advocacy Project in San Jose, Calif., during 2004-05, is a novice of the Wisconsin Province. “My work experiences certainly influenced my decision to join,” says Hansen. “I found it to be a transformative experience to be in contact with people on the margins. Working as an advocate for incarcerated people makes you grateful for the gifts God has given us, and it made me think about how I was using those gifts.”

“I worked almost exclusively on the psychiatric unit at Santa Clara County Main Jail, empowering these men and women to have a voice in their treatment and their community when they otherwise wouldn’t have one,” says Hansen. For both laypersons and religious alike, the impact of the JVC year lingers. “The tenets of JVC are such good reference points in life,” says JVCSW board member Shawna Smith Gotreau, who served as a volunteer during 1997-98. The tenets have influenced key decisions in her life: “to get married, what kind of community we wanted to live in, and the kind of companies I patronize.” Today, Gotreau works as a program director for Taller San Jose, a continuing education and job-training center in Santa Ana, Calif., that assists young adults to overcome barriers of poverty and violence. “I’m a college-educated white woman from a rural community, and

every day I work with urban, inner-city youth who are immigrants or children of immigrants,” she reflects. “But my students have something to teach me about living in the world, just as I have something to give them about breaking the cycle in their families. When care and concern are at the root of the relationship, differences just become different strengths.” JVC welcomes women and men who are 21 or older and have a college degree or other applicable work experience. Spanish competence is helpful in many placements and required for some. Each year JVC needs registered nurses and persons with law degrees. For more information, call the JVCSW at (415) 522-1599 or visit www.JesuitVolunteers.org

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education B E YOND T HE Stepping out of one’s “comfort zone” to experience firsthand the glaring inequities and rampant injustices of our world has the power to change our perspectives and priorities.

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t is a truism that Jesuit schools do not educate in a vacuum. We educate in a world where approximately 40,000 people die each day from easily preventable diseases; where $2.4 billion a day is spent on weapons of destruction; where three billion people live on less than $2 a day; where the total assets of the wealthiest 358 individuals exceed the combined annual income of the poorest 45 percent of the entire world’s population. Consider if the world were reduced to a village of 100 people, 80 of them

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By Stephen A. Privett, S.J., President, University of San Francisco

would live in poverty; six people would control 59 percent of the village’s wealth and all six of them would be U.S. citizens; only one would have a college degree. As for the United States, Hurricane Katrina showed us how many Americans are left behind in poverty and revealed the connection between race, age, and poverty, as well as the destructive power of a political ideology with no sense of the common good. Do Jesuit universities and colleges devote enough attention to the 75 percent

of the world whose life circumstances deny them the possibility of ever attending a university? Where do those poor Black seniors who were abandoned in Gulf Coast rest homes fit into Jesuit education? Would a poll about the role and responsibility of Jesuit higher education conducted among our trustees, faculty, staff, students, and alumni yield dramatically different answers from those obtained by a sampling of the three billion people in the world who live on less than $2 a day? How would that

75 percent of the world who do not own a fridge, keep their clothes in a closet, or sleep in a bed feel about what we are doing with Jesuit higher education in the United States? Should they have anything to say to us about education? Is it appropriate for Jesuit universities to measure their excellence simply by the standards of U.S. News & World Report or Princeton Review? Such questions evoke the memory of Thomas Meagher and his assessment of the education he received at Clongowes, the very best Jesuit school in 19th century Ireland: “They talked to us

Another USF nursing student wrote of his time in rural Guatemala: “I lived for two weeks with people who had nothing, but offered us everything they had. They always welcomed me, a complete stranger, like a long lost relative from California. I have completely changed my priorities.” Our perspectives and priorities change when we stand with the people who cannot keep their food in a fridge or their clothes in a closet. From a global perspective, Jesuit higher education embraces a very privileged elite. The ethical question for higher education generally—even more so for

Jesuits, Fr. Peter-Hans Kolvenbach, expressed this same truth in an address at Santa Clara University when he challenged Jesuit schools to “educate the whole person of solidarity for the real world.” He emphasized that such solidarity is the product of contact, not concepts, and that “personal involvement with innocent suffering, with the injustice others suffer, is the catalyst for solidarity, which then gives rise to intellectual inquiry and moral reflection.” It is important to note that the intended outcome of global solidarity is rigorous inquiry and serious moral reflection. Solidarity is an enhancement, not a diminishment, of academic rigor and intellectual integrity. Fr. Kolvenbach, like Donne before him, believes that to be humanly in today’s world one must be fully cognizant that our world is not the real world for the majority of people in the global village and that the suffering of others touches and even diminishes us. Stepping out of one’s “comfort zone” to experience firsthand the glaring inequities and rampant injustices of our world has the power to change our perspectives and priorities. A former student told me that his experience in Guatemala taught him that if all the people in the world were stretched out in a single file line, he would be up toward the very front of the line. He has decided that rather than spend the rest of his life pushing to be the very first in line, he would try to look back at the billions of people behind him. That decision, he said, has made all the difference. Such is the perspective that should characterize “persons of solidarity for the real world” that Jesuit universities aim to educate. Only with that perspective will the Jesuit-educated graduate make a difference for the other 99 people in our global village and realize the fullness of their humanity.

COMFORT ZONE about Mount Olympus and the Vale of Tempe; they birched us into a flippant acquaintance with the disreputable Gods and Goddesses of the golden and heroic ages; they entangled us in Euclid...gave us a look ... at what was doing in the New World; but, as far as Ireland was concerned, they left us like blind and crippled children in the dark.”—from The Great Shame Thus did Meagher lament an excellent academic education that left him completely in the dark about deliberate, widespread starvation in the Irish countryside and the brutal repression of poor Catholics by British troops throughout the country. It is axiomatic that where we stand determines what we see. The squalid favelas of Rio De Janeiro look very different to the sun-worshippers of Ipanema than they do to the desperate slum-dwellers who populate them. A University of San Francisco student referred to her experience in Central America as pushing away from her comfort zone and daring to understand the world from the perspective of a poor peasant woman.

Jesuit education—is as much about 99 people in the village who are not there, as it is about the one person who is. Can we educate people to be humanly in the world without attending to the two-thirds of the world whose lives are marked by grinding poverty and quiet despair— those three billion people who live on less than the $2 that some of us pay for a bottle of designer water? It is said that on the eve of India’s independence and in the face of insurmountable challenges, when Gandhi was asked what he feared most, he replied, “hardness of heart in the educated.” Gandhi’s fear was well placed and should haunt all of us involved with Jesuit education in this country. When John Donne wrote: “No man is an island entire of itself; every man is a piece of the Continent, a part of the main.... Any man’s death diminishes me because I am involved in Mankind” he was underscoring the truth that we are inextricably joined to one another and that we cannot achieve the fullness of our graced humanity in isolation from one another, much less at the expense of others. The Superior General of the

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meditations

celebrating the first companions By Brother Charles J. Jackson, S.J., Director of Vocations, California Province

God works in mysterious ways. The men we know today as St. Ignatius Loyola, St. Francis Xavier, and Bl. Peter Faber met for the first time in that Paris loft.

O

n October 1, 1529, a 38-year-old Basque from the Spanish province of Guipúzcoa, Iñigo de Loyola, climbed the stairs to a loft in Paris. He had arrived in Paris a year and a half earlier. His experience of previous studies in Spain, however, had underscored his faulty preparation and he had wisely spent the time since arriving in Paris studying Latin at Collège de Montaigu. He had now matriculated to the study of philosophy at Collège Sainte-Barbe and was about to meet his two roommates. Francisco de Javier and Pierre Favre were both 23 years old and since 1525 had been students at Collège Sainte-Barbe. Most of the similarity between them ended there. Francisco, from an affluent family in the Spanish province of Navarre, was outgoing, energetic, and self-assured. Pierre, from a poor family in Savoy in southeastern France, was shy, unassuming, and unsure of himself. Yet each of them, under Iñigo’s careful guidance, would gradually open himself to God and allow God to work in him and through him. Pierre’s reflections on that time convey a sense of the happiness their shared experience engendered in them: “Eternally blessed be all this that divine providence arranged for my good and for my salvation. For after providence decreed that I was to be the instructor of that holy man, we conversed first about secular matters, then about spiritual things. Then followed a life in common in which we two shared the same room, the same table, and the same purse. As time passed he became my master in spiritual things and gave me a method of raising myself to a knowledge of the divine will and of myself. In the end we became one in desire and will and one in a firm

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resolve to take up the life we lead today.”— The Spiritual Writings of Pierre Favre God works in mysterious ways. The men we know today as St. Ignatius Loyola, St. Francis Xavier, and Bl. Peter Faber met for the first time in that Paris loft. It is, perhaps, of greatest importance that one of them saw something in the other two and invited each to open himself to God and to what God was inviting him. Faber’s remark—“we conversed first about secular matters, then about spiritual things” is telling. That is how a vocation often begins: in casual conversation and even, as Peter alluded, in helping the other person understand himself. In 1540, the three companions, along with a few others, formed the Society of Jesus. Ignatius, who had already written the Spiritual Exercises and would later write the Society’s Constitutions, served tirelessly as its Superior General until his death in 1556. Francis left for Asia before the Society received papal approval and became one of the Church’s great missionaries, serving there until his death in 1553. Peter, who had a natural empathy for everyone he met, was tireless in preaching, hearing confessions, and giving the Exercises throughout Europe until his death in 1546. This year, the Society of Jesus celebrates the 450th anniversary of Ignatius’s death and the 500th anniversary of Francis and Peter’s birth. In the spirit of this jubilee year and of the men who became companions that day in Paris, let us all work and pray for vocations. May God bless us in our efforts. Three Companions of Jesus, an icon by George W. Drance, S.J., is featured on cards and posters available from the Jesuit Conference at www.jesuit.org

Jesuit “Shirt Factory” When the San Francisco Earthquake and Fire of 1906 destroyed St. Ignatius Church and College, Jesuit administrators quickly built a new schoolhouse. “Shortly after it opened, students began calling the…school the ‘Shirt Factory,’ as the school building resembled the omnibus factory buildings south of Market Street.” This “temporary” campus would serve the school for 23 years. From Spiritus Magis: 150 Years of Saint Ignatius College Preparatory by Paul Totah

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