<p>Read Dr. Sue Weishar&#39;s article for the April 2018 edition of&nbsp;<em>JustSouth Monthly&nbsp;</em>about our latest Ignatian Teach-In on Mass Incarceration.&nbsp;</p>
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<p><a href="https://jsri.loyno.edu/building-culture-encounter">READ MORE &gt;&gt;</a></p>

<p>Today is Loyola Loyal Day!</p>
<p>Join the Loyola community in the third annual Loyola Loyal Day, a 24-hour fundraising campaign, to celebrate the founding of Loyola University New Orleans. The celebration starts today at noon and concludes April 12th at noon (CST). Will you help us reach our goal of 500 gifts in 24 hours?</p>
<p>GIVE</p>
<p>Make your gift to the Loyola Fund, the University&#39;s unrestricted fund, which helps fill the gap between tuition revenue and operating expenses OR designate your gift to the program of your choice. Each gift, no matter the amount, puts us one step closer to our goal of 500 gifts in 24 hours. <a href="https://spark.loyno.edu/pages/jsri">Click here</a> to make your gift to JSRI.</p>
<p>SHARE</p>
<p>As faculty and staff members, you interact with our students daily, and the close relationships you make with students go on to be one of the hallmarks of a Loyola New Orleans education. We hope you will help share the Loyola Loyal Day message with your network of current and former students, as well as your friends. Click here to see the social media toolkit and help share our message.</p>
<p>CELEBRATE</p>
<p>Join the Loyola Alumni Association at the Loyola tent at YLC Wednesday at the Square. The celebration starts at 5:00 p.m. at Lafayette Square. We will be dancing to Flow Tribe and celebrating Loyola&rsquo;s 106th birthday. We&rsquo;ll be raffling off some great Loyola prizes each hour. Learn more here.</p>
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<p>Give. Share. Celebrate!</p>

<p>Here to Learn: El Paso Border Immersion Experience and the Grace of &ldquo;Encounter&rdquo;</p>
<p>In the heart of El Paso&rsquo;s Segundo Barrio neighborhood, at the edge of the United States &ndash; Mexico border, Sacred Heart Parish is a source of help and hope for its community. A Jesuit parish since its founding 120 years ago, Sacred Heart, or Parroquia Sagrado Coraz&oacute;n, is more than a religious home; it also provides programs for the immigrant community, a food bank and a weekend food service and catering project. This March, it was a focal point for a border immersion experience, welcoming 18 Jesuit partners in mission who came to learn more about immigration and the experiences of people who seek to start new lives in the United States.</p>
<p>Father Rafael Garc&iacute;a, SJ, associate pastor of Sacred Heart Parish, and Mary Baudouin, USA Central and Southern Province&rsquo;s provincial assistant for social ministry, organized and led the border immersion in El Paso and Ciudad Ju&aacute;rez, Mexico, March 15-18. The trip included four full days of opportunities to hear diverse perspectives about immigration, encounter migrants who have come to the United States seeking asylum, safety and stability and learn about some of the organizations migrants encounter.</p>
<p>Immersion trip participants traveled to El Paso from all over the Jesuits USA Central and Southern Province and beyond. Some were members of Jesuit parishes in Kansas City, Mo.; New Orleans, Saint Louis and San Antonio, Texas. Other participants are employees of Jesuit apostolates, including the Ignatian Solidarity Network, Loyola University and Jesuit Volunteer Corps. Two Jesuit novices who are ministering in El Paso also joined the group. Participants&rsquo; ages ranged from 22 to 81, establishing a foundation for rich, intergenerational dialogue and reflection. The convent of the Sisters of St. Joseph, where the group stayed, provided a welcoming and reflective space to unpack each day.</p>
<p>The Spanish word for &ldquo;encounter&rdquo; &ndash; encuentro &ndash; translates more precisely to &ldquo;discovery.&rdquo; Indeed, immersion participants related that their experiences on the trip revealed the deeper aspect of the word, as they not only encountered new facts and ideas, but also felt authentic connections, kindled by meeting people where they were on their journey.</p>
<p>While visiting the border wall between El Paso and Ciudad Ju&aacute;rez, participants met with a Border Patrol agent who discussed his work. His was the first of many varied points of view on migration that the visitors would hear. Members of the group also visited El Paso nonprofits like Diocesan Migrant and Refugee Services and Manos Amigas, each of which provides important services to immigrants and refugees, from safe shelter to legal assistance.</p>
<div>
<p>Anna Hey of Diocesan Migrant and Refugee Services, Dylan Corbett of Hope Border Institute, and Ruben Garcia of Annunciation House, each offered their expertise and knowledge to aid the visitors in understanding the complexity and challenges of the U.S. immigration system.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Hey, an attorney, presented on the challenges and myths about the immigration system, noting that in El Paso, only about 2% of applicants are granted asylum, compared to the national average of 50%.&nbsp;</p>
<p>&ldquo;Seeking asylum is not a crime, and denial in an asylum case can be a death sentence&rdquo; when people are fleeing violence, threats, extortion, political instability and extreme poverty, Hey noted.</p>
<p>Across the border in Anapra, one of several impoverished neighborhoods in Ju&aacute;rez, the group toured a construction site where nearly 40 young volunteers from the community were helping to build sustainable, low-cost houses, and visited a parish, a nonprofit and a support group for impoverished women with cancer. Members of the support group, housed at Centro Mujeres Tonantzin, shared their testimonies and experiences with the health care system. The system, they said, looks great on paper, but fails to meet the needs of those on the margins. Citing one example of unforeseen challenges, the women explained that chemotherapy can only be received in the capital city four hours away. That requires the sick woman to arrange for child care, then pay the $70 bus fare just to make it to the treatment center. If they also have to pay for lodging, it can become an insurmountable burden for women in rural areas. This is one of the many &ldquo;problems that come from being a poor woman with cancer,&rdquo; said one member of the support group.</p>
<p>While in Anapra, the group also visited the Kansas City organization Manos Amigas, which supports ministry to students and the elderly, and has been accompanying this community for over 25 years.</p>
<div>
<p>One beautiful and challenging encounter was a visit to the El Paso U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center where migrants are held while they await trial. Father Garcia regularly provides pastoral care there. Father Garc&iacute;a and Fr. Eddie Gros, pastor of Holy Name Parish, New Orleans, concelebrated two masses for detainees.&nbsp;</p>
<p><span>Participants also learned about the many ways in which the combined community of El Paso and Ciudad Ju&aacute;rez accompanies those who are affected by the issues and challenges of life on the border. The two cities, nestled together, divided only by a border, are forever encountering each other. Many people live as if there is no border and see El Paso and Ciudad Ju&aacute;rez as one community that will not be isolated by a border. In some areas, like Anapra, that border is an 18-foot steel fence, and in others, it is a natural boundary such as a river.</span></p>
<p>Ruben Garcia, director of Annunciation House, a hospitality home for migrants, said, &ldquo;The world will no longer allow us to live in isolation.&rdquo; It is imperative, Garcia urged, that U.S. citizens come to see the nation&rsquo;s &ldquo;intimate relationship&rdquo; with migrants, many of whom are fleeing their home countries for reasons not unconnected to American foreign policy, the drug trade and a low standard of living.</p>
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<p>The group had ample time to reflect on their experiences, the moments of challenge, confusion, discomfort and joy throughout the trip, and the pull to be more radically welcoming to all God&rsquo;s people.</p>
<p>Father Garc&iacute;a and Mary Baudouin hope this immersion will be the first of many opportunities to experience encuentro at the border. At the end of their stay, the group was invited to question: What am I being called to do in response to what I have seen? What can I do to continue to learn about borders in my community?&nbsp;</p>
<p>The border immersion experience was a collaboration between the USA Central and Southern Province and the Jesuit Social Research Institute (JSRI). JSRI, which this year celebrates its tenth anniversary, is itself a collaboration between the UCS Province and Loyola University New Orleans. Based at the university, JSRI seeks to educate and advocate on issues of race, poverty and migration. Father Garc&iacute;a, who ministers to immigrants and refugees in El Paso, is also an associate of JSRI.</p>
<p><a href="http://jesuitscentralsouthern.org/story?TN=PROJECT-20180403032150">SEE PICTURES &gt;&gt;</a></p>
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<p>by Nicholas Mitchell, Ph.D.</p>
<p>On February 14, 2018, 17 people were murdered and 17 people were wounded at Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.[1] None of the victims had walked into their school that day expecting to be the victim of a mass shooting. None of the family members of the victims said goodbye to their loved ones that morning expecting it to be the last time. Most people never will experience the horror that the students and faculty of Stoneman Douglas were confronted with; but, because of the availability of social media, the world got to witness the horror of those trapped in the school in real time.[2] The Parkland mass shooting has proven to be a catalyst for a new phase of the very public intergenerational discourse about gun control and school safety. A policy suggestion that has emerged on both the local and national levels is the arming of teachers to protect students from an attacker.</p>
<p><a href="https://jsri.loyno.edu/arming-teachers">READ MORE &gt;&gt;</a></p>

<p>JSRI recently published our&nbsp;<em>JustSouth Quarterly&nbsp;</em>Winter 2018 edition. To read the full edition click <a href="https://jsri.loyno.edu/justsouth-quarterly">here</a>. To subscribe to our publications and receive our publications right to your mailbox, sign-up <a href="https://jsri.loyno.edu/subscribe-jsri-publications">here</a>.</p>

<p>By Rhina Guidos, Catholic News Service</p>
<div>
<p>WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Dozens of Catholics, including men and women religious, were arrested near the U.S. Capitol Feb. 27 in the rotunda of a Senate building in Washington as they called on lawmakers to help young undocumented adults brought to the U.S. as minors obtain some sort of permanent legal status.</p>
<p>Some of them sang and prayed, and many of them -- such as Dominican Sister Elise Garcia and Mercy Sister JoAnn Persch -- said they had no option but to participate in the act of civil disobedience to speak out against the failure of Congress and the Trump administration to help the young adults.</p>
<p>&quot;I have never been arrested in my life, but with the blessing of my community, I am joining with two dozen other Catholic sisters and Catholic allies to risk arrest today as an act of solidarity with our nation&#39;s wonderful, beautiful Dreamers,&quot; said Sister Garcia. &quot;To our leaders in Congress and in the White House, I say &#39;arrest a nun, not a Dreamer.&#39;&quot;</p>
<p>She said she was there to support those like Daniel Neri, a Catholic from Indiana who was present at the event and would benefit from any legislation to help the 1.8 million estimated young adults in the country facing an uncertain future.</p>
<p>&quot;What are we doing to the body of Christ when are hurting families? When we are hurting people?&quot; he asked.</p>
<p>He also said, he wanted people to know that &quot;we are not criminals, we are not rapists, we are good people.&quot;</p>
<p>Young adults called &quot;Dreamers&quot; -- a reference to the DREAM Act, one of the proposed pieces of legislation that could help them stay in the country legally -- have to go through extensive background checks, he said, and they wouldn&#39;t pass those checks if they were troublemakers.</p>
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<p><a href="http://www.catholicnews.com/services/englishnews/2018/dozens-of-catholics-arrested-as-they-call-on-congress-to-help-dreamers.cfm">READ MORE &gt;&gt;</a></p>
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<p>by Fred Kammer, S.J., J.D.</p>
<p>The headlines staring from my morning newspapers are all too familiar: Another unstable person uses an automatic weapon to slaughter teenagers at their high school and the U.S. Senate stumbles again on immigration reforms. We have been down both roads far too many times and bemoaned our inability to take common sense steps to remove combat weapons from our communities or to reasonably accommodate people fleeing poverty, starvation, and war. The world&rsquo;s oldest continuous democracy flails about in the face of real but not insoluble problems.</p>
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<p>Despair is not an option. While almost everyone acknowledges the current heightened political polarization, we must not abandon the political process. Political participation is one essential way in which we exercise our responsibility for co-creating the world entrusted to us by God and through which we express the communitarian nature of the human person. &ldquo;Justice is both the aim and the intrinsic criterion of all politics.&rdquo;[1] Political participation also enhances human freedom because, &ldquo;Freedom acquires new strength &hellip; when a person consents to the unavoidable requirements of social life, takes on the manifold demands of human partnership, and commits himself to the service of the humancommunity.&rdquo;[2]</p>
<p>As the U.S. Bishops put it recently, &ldquo;In the Catholic Tradition, responsible citizenship is a virtue, and participation in political life is a moral obligation.&rdquo;[3] This obligation flows from our duty to promote the common good and &ldquo;is inherent in the dignity of the human person.&rdquo;[4]&nbsp;</p>
<p>When we look at the issues facing us now, despair tempts us powerfully. Yes, the National Rifle Association repeatedly has used its disproportionate wealth and power in servitude to gun manufacturers to block the expressed desire of the American people for safer streets and safer schools. Yes, unwarranted fears of dark-skinned foreigners have been stoked intentionally for political gain, even from the highest offices in the land. But there is an antidote to despair.</p>
<p>It is hope. Hope tells us that we must go to the public square again and again, demanding what is right and just from policy-makers&mdash;whose fundamental moral responsibility is the common good. They must be reminded continually that they are to serve &ldquo;we the people,&rdquo; not party, nor donor, nor career. If that is too high a moral standard for them, they should step down; or we the people must remove them from office. Hope tells us that &ldquo;no&rdquo; is not an acceptable answer and failure is not an acceptable endpoint.</p>
<p>In 1986, in the face of the Communist oppression of his homeland, Czech poet V&aacute;clav Havel described hope this way:</p>
<p class="rteindent1">Hope, in this deep and powerful sense, is not the same as joy that things are going well, or willingness to invest in enterprises that are obviously headed for early success, but rather, an ability to work for something because it is good, not just because it stands a chance to succeed.</p>
<p class="rteindent1">Hope is definitely not the same thing as optimism. It is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out. . . . It is this hope, above all, which gives us the strength to live and continually try new things, even in conditions that seem as hopeless as ours do, here and now.[5]</p>
<p>This irrepressible hope must renew and sustain our ceaseless efforts to create the just and peaceful world longed for by people of good will here and across the world.</p>
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<p>[1] Pope Benedict XVI. (2005). Deus Caritas Est: God Is Love, 28.</p>
<p>[2] Second Vatican Council. (1965). Gaudium et Spes: The Church in the Modern World, 31.</p>
<p>[3] U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. (2015). Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship: A Call to Political Responsibility, 13.</p>
<p>[4] United States Catholic Conference. (1995). Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1913.</p>
<p>[5] Havel, V. (1991). Disturbing the Peace: A Conversation with Karel Huizdala (Chap. 5). New York: Vintage Books.</p>
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<p><a href="https://jsri.loyno.edu/sites/loyno.edu.jsri/files/justsouth_monthly_february_2018_kammer.pdf">READ MORE &gt;&gt;</a></p>
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<p>During the 2018 Lenten season, the Ignatian Solidarity Network will bring together more than forty contributors from the national Jesuit network for a Lenten series titled &ldquo;Break Forth,&rdquo; exploring a response to systemic injustice from a Catholic perspective.</p>
<p>Hosted by the Ignatian Solidarity Network, the blog will feature reflections from February 14 (Ash Wednesday) through April 2 (Easter Monday). Uniting individuals engaged in work for immigration advocacy, racial equality, criminal justice reform, alleviation of poverty, and environmental justice, &ldquo;Break Forth&rdquo; will offer reflections through the lens of daily readings and Ignatian spirituality.</p>
<p>Contributors to the 2018 series include Jesuit priests, religious sisters, students and alumni of Jesuit institutions, community advocates, grassroots organizers, professors, authors, and social ministry leaders.</p>
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<p><a href="https://ignatiansolidarity.net/blog/2018/02/05/break-forth-lenten-series-jesuit-network/">READ MORE &gt;&gt;</a></p>

<div>
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE</div>
<div>
February 8, 2018</div>
<div>
Contact: Ashley Ridlon</div>
<div>
aridlon@bpcaction.org</div>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>Washington, D.C. &ndash; BPC Action supports the significant health care improvements included in the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018, and commends congressional leaders for including in its legislation policies to:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>Support rural health care delivery under the Medicare program, including extensions of special Medicare payments to certain small and low-volume hospitals and rural ambulance services; and of the National Health Service Corps (NHSC) program which plays a vital role in bolstering the health care workforce for rural and other underserved areas.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Provide a ten-year extension of the bipartisan Children&rsquo;s Health Insurance Program. The long-term extension provides the level of certainty eligible families need to provide for their health care and for states to operate stable and efficient programs.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Provide two-year funding for Community Health Centers (CHC), which provide community-based, comprehensive health services to medically underserved populations, and serve one in every 13 Americans. BPC has recommended multi-year funding for CHIP, CHCs, and the NHSC.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Devote $6 billion to fight the national opioid epidemic and treat mental health issues. BPC has published recommendations on how to prioritize these critically-needed resources.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Provide multi-year funding for the Maternal, Infant and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program, as in the bipartisan Strong Families Act of 2017. This program provides grants to states, territories, and tribal entities to develop and implement evidence-based, voluntary programs to improve maternal and child health, prevent child abuse, and promote child development and school readiness.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Improve care for patients with complex needs, including provisions of the bipartisan Senate-passed Creating High-Quality Results and Outcomes Necessary to Improve Chronic (CHRONIC) Care Act of 2017. BPC has proposed and testified before Congress on several of these, including:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>Allowing Medicare Advantage greater flexibility for providing health-related services to improve or maintain the health or overall function of chronically ill individuals;</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Providing Medicare beneficiaries with greater incentives to participate in high-value health care while preserving patients&rsquo; choices of health care providers;</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Permanently extending the Medicare Advantage Special Needs Program (SNP), to support millions of vulnerable Americans including those who are dually eligible for Medicare and Medicaid and those living with chronic conditions;</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Expanding the successful Independence at Home demonstration program to help seniors access quality, team-based care in the home; and</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Expanding access to telehealth services under Medicare Advantage, and in certain accountable care organizations (ACOs) that bear risk for quality and cost savings, as well as for dialysis and stroke patients.</p>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<p><em>We call on Congress to also advance provisions that would:</em></p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>Make health insurance more affordable for individuals not benefiting under the current subsidy system. Providing reinsurance funds and increasing states&rsquo; flexibility to design lower-cost plans would begin to address the needs of these individuals, help to stabilize individual market premiums in the short-term and pave the way for longer-term bipartisan solutions.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Promote competition and lower costs of prescription drugs. For example, the bipartisan Creating and Restoring Equal Access to Equivalent Samples (CREATES) Act of 2016 aims to prevent drug companies from unnecessarily delaying entry by generic competitors by denying access to drug samples or denying their participation in shared risk evaluation and mitigation strategies (REMS) processes to assure safe use of the drug. This policy could not only save money but also save lives and is consistent with the administration&rsquo;s goals of lowering drug prices.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p>As Congress proceeds to the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 and works toward a resolution on spending legislation leading up to the new March 23 deadline, we call on their support for all of these important provisions to improve health care in America. Congress must also face the fiscal realities of unprecedented deficits stemming from this legislation and the recently-enacted tax bill, and must come together to set the country on a more sustainable path.</p>

<p>United Church youth group members</p>
<p>We are members of the Youth Initiation to Adulthood program at the United Church of Santa Fe, a United Church of Christ, and we believe Congress should act to protect &ldquo;Dreamers&rdquo; and not build more walls. We believe immigration authorities should not be allowed to do as they please with young people who grew up here, went to the same schools we do, have the same dreams, and are just like us.</p>
<p>Other than Native Americans, we are all immigrants from somewhere. Any of us could have been a Dreamer.</p>
<p>To send today&rsquo;s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals or Dreamers back to a country and to a language they do not know, where they do not have family or friends to help them, is not right. That story would be one of shock, horror and despair for them and for us.</p>
<p>The Dreamers&rsquo; stories are stories of hope &mdash; that they can have a happy and successful life, that society will accept them rather than disown them because they have no citizenship papers, and that we can make a difference in their lives.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.santafenewmexican.com/opinion/my_view/protect-the-dreamers-and-don-t-build-more-walls/article_4cb685d8-0ec4-5b0d-b092-b689f2964ee5.html?utm_content=buffer6109e&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_source=facebook.com&amp;utm_campaign=buffer">READ MORE &gt;&gt;</a></p>