Last month in this column [1] Fred Kammer, SJ, treated the four Jesuit universal preferences for the future of our ministries, noting that “preferences” are more inclusive than that other oft-used term “priorities,” which tend to exclude more than they include.

Early last year, the Jesuit Superior General Arturo Sosa, SJ, invited Jesuits and our colleagues worldwide to provide input in developing what are called “universal apostolic preferences.” These are to guide all Jesuit ministries for the next ten years.  Here in Loyola’s Ignatius Chapel, on a Saturday in April of 2018, Jesuits and colleagues from Loyola University, Jesuit High School, Holy Name of Jesus Parish, Immaculate Conception Parish, and Manresa Retreat

In early February, nearly 600 Catholics from 42 states gathered in Washington, D.C.

According to the American Community Survey, men earned $12,739 more on average than women in 2017. Pay inequality between men and women is not a new problem, but one that has seen too little progress.  In fact, since 2010, the gap between men and women’s average earnings has only closed by about $100. 

by Alí Bustamante, Ph.D.

Across the U.S., more than 6.1 million citizens are disenfranchised because of felony convictions.1 Nearly half of these Americans live in our communities and contribute to society having fully completed sentences, including any term of parole or probation. Yet, these citizens are deprived of the right to vote because of antiquated laws intended to suppress the votes of marginalized communities, especially African Americans. 

by Ted Arroyo, S.J.

Since JSRI’s founding in 2007, our mission has focused on research, education, and advocacy in the three social justice-related areas of poverty, migration, and racism, especially in the Gulf South region of the United States.

by Nicholas Mitchell, Ph.D.

by Nicholas Mitchell, Ph.D.

by Fred Kammer, S.J., J.D.

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’s oldest continuous democracy flails about in the face of real but not insoluble problems.

by Fred Kammer, S.J.

Since the 2016 election, we have had demonstrations, confrontations, and calls to be “resisters” or even “disrupters.”[1] In this tumultuous time, spiritual writer Henri Nouwen has much to tell us. Discerning our nuclear-armed culture, Father Nouwen wrote of resistance as "the daily life of peacemakers." He called for, not just acts of resistance, but our whole being resisting the powers leading to injustice, war, and destruction. He highlighted three aspects of this lifestyle of resistance.[2]