Fr. Manuel Williams, C.R., Director of Resurrection Catholic Missions, offered the closing plenary session at the 2011 Social Action Summer Institute. His rousing commissioning of the attendees included honest truths, powerful storytelling, encouragement and even song. If you weren’t able to be with us, hear his presentations via the videos posted here.
By: Genevieve Jordan, Romero Center, Diocese of Camden
If we start with service, incorporate meaningful reflection on experience, and accommodate their state in life, we’ve begun well on the journey of integrating faith, service and justice in ministry with young adults.
About 30 people in ministry to young adults gathered from May 22-26, 2011, at Romero Center Ministries in Camden, NJ, for, “Integrating Faith, Service and Justice: Catholic Young Adult Ministry for the 21st Century,” the National Catholic Young Adult Ministry Association’s Mid-Atlantic regional gathering.
Conference participants represented a variety of ministerial fields: campus ministry, parish ministry, diocesan directors, Catholic volunteer programs and Catholic non-profits that engage young adults in service and reflection. They gathered for professional development and renewal through prayer and reflection, service immersion, workshop presentations and facilitated discussions.
There was so much insight gleaned from the week, but below are just three practical takeaways that can help us to integrate faith, service and justice in Catholic young adult ministry.
1. Start with Service
A few months ago, I said to Patricia Slater, former Director of Romero Center Ministries and the Pastoral Associate for Peace and Justice Ministry at Christ Our Light Catholic Community in Cherry Hill, NJ, that service experience is the backdoor for engaging young adults.
“Gen,” she corrected me, “it’s the front door.”
Melissa Cidade, Director of Pastoral Assistance Surveys and Services Service for CARA (Center for Applied Research and the Apostolate) shared data with conference participants that suggests Slater is right. Cidade’s data showed that 90% of millennial Catholics (born between 1982 and 1990, age 18 to 26 in 2008, and make up 15% of adult Catholics according to CARA data) said that as Catholics, helping the poor is very important to them.
Anyone in ministry with young adults knows that many either disagree with the Church on some issues, or place so much value on certain issues that they neglect others. It is staggering that an overwhelming percentage of millennial Catholics agree that helping the poor is very important to being Catholic. (It’s also staggering that as ministers, we continue to miss this, though it’s one of the most definitive statistics we have about young adults and the Church!) This Fall 2010 article from St. Anthony’s Messenger also suggests that service is a Catholic value, second nature to millennials. In my own ministry, I hear repeatedly that Church teaching and values are irrelevant to the world and daily life; service is an exception.
While most Catholic young adults believe that helping the poor is important, significantly fewer connect service to justice and even fewer can articulate a theology about why helping the poor is essential to our faith. Cidade’s data showed that 55% of millennial Catholics think Church involvement in social justice activities is somewhat important and 31% of millennial Catholics think it is very important. Only 10% said they were very familiar with Catholic Social Teaching.
The implication of this data for ministry is that service experience makes sense and is important to most millennial Catholics: so we should start there. Nothing can replace service in providing encounters with others that lead to personal reflection and transformation. Service experience ignites an interest in justice issues and the theology connected with a need for service.
2. Don’t Throw Out the Reflection
Reflection is an essential part of integrating faith, service and justice. Conference participants spent a few sessions reflecting on their own service experience through various models of theological reflection.
David Golembowski, board member of JustFaith Ministries and Associate Lobbyist for NETWORK, guided participants in theological reflection after the service they had done that day at sites in and near the city of Camden. He used resources from JustFaith’s program for college aged young adults, JusticeWalking. JusticeWalking’s model for reflection is great for young adults: it includes ritual, music, Scripture, and questions that relate directly to service experience and life.
After their second day of service, Patricia Slater led conference participants in reflection using the pastoral circle. The pastoral circle method of reflection leads with social analysis of the service experience. This model may be helpful when working with young adults who do not know each other or feel uncomfortable diving right into faith sharing, since social analysis allows folks to collectively troubleshoot an external issue. The conversation can’t stop there, however, and we shouldn’t be afraid to encourage young adults to move from social analysis into deeper conversations about where God is working and how they’re called to serve.
Conference participants and presenters alike voiced that unprocessed service experience may only encourage stereotypes or expectations of a particular community. It’s also a missed opportunity to connect the service experience with the life and call of the individual. Reflection should ideally take place directly after service experience, even if it’s only for a short period of time and sends folks with questions for the road. Though post-service reflection often feels uncomfortable or inconvenient, it is grounds for transformation. Don’t throw it out!
3. Accommodate Busy-ness and State in Life
If we want people to take part in our activities, we need to provide activities that accommodate their schedules. In my own listening through the conference week, I heard that young adults are incredibly busy.
A panel of five post-college young adults spoke to conference participants about how service and justice can bridge campus and parish life. Many of them were involved in service in college or completed a year of post-graduate service.
They represented a slice of the young adult population stretched thin with commitments but that still hopes to be involved with other young adults in faith-based opportunities. All of the panelists voiced interest in service experience, but didn’t want to commit to something too frequent or ongoing. One panelist said she appreciated when parishes offered young adult events every few weeks, as long as she could drop in without feeling pressure to show up every time.
Slater reminded us that service experience attracts young adults who are single or married without children. If we advertise an event for “young adults, single and married,” then we need to provide babysitting. Slater suggested that respecting the state in life of young adults with families might mean creating a session for families that simulates the kind of reflections one might have after a few hours of service, such as a hunger banquet or a short, relevant video.
We heard over and over again from conference participants that the young adults they minister with are overextended. We need to show young adults that we respect their commitments and busy-ness by providing opportunities that are one-time events and accommodate their state in life.
Genevieve Jordan is currently the Director of Young Adult Ministry at Romero Center Ministries and transitioning to Executive Director this summer. She holds a Master’s degree in Theology through the University of Notre Dame’s Echo Faith Formation Leadership Program. She is a regional representative for the National Catholic Young Adult Ministry Association for the Mid-Atlantic region.
By Peter Denio, Standards for Excellence Project Manager
When Rob Gorman, Director of Catholic Charities in the Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux, first decided to implement the Standards for 
Excellence in the organization his interests were financial. “I originally thought that by implementing the Standards for Excellence, Catholic Charities would be a better contender for grant funding from foundations,” he said. And while obtaining the Seal of Excellence may be an appealing indicator for foundations seeking to grant money to well-run Catholic organizations this was not the most immediately evident benefit from implementing the Standards. “I discovered that as we worked to implement the Standards for Excellence that the board members were more engaged than I could ever recall,” said Gorman. In fact Gorman explicitly recalls having 100% board attendance during the implementation process.
Greater participation from the laity is a common observation by dioceses, parishes, and Catholic nonprofits who have become Partners in Excellence, a title donned by those entities who commit themselves to the eight guiding principles of the Standards for Excellence. The National Leadership Roundtable on Church Management, a national Catholic nonprofit customized the best management practices from the nonprofit sector to be in alignment with the Code of Canon Law for the Catholic sector. The eight guiding principles fall under the following categories: Mission Statement and Ministry Programs, Governing Bodies, Conflict of Interest, Human Resources, Finance and Legal Issues, Openness, Fundraising, Public Life and Public Policy.
Over time, Gorman completed the circle between greater lay involvement and the financial funding that originally started him on this quest. During the implementation of the Standards for Excellence Gorman and his board discovered that the codes encourage the active involvement of those in an advisory capacity [such as boards, pastoral and finance councils, leadership committees] in the activities of the organization. “One board member, through his participation in one of our programs, became so excited about what was happening that he not only invited his entire extended family to volunteer with our child development center but he started a family foundation that was dedicated to supporting well-run nonprofits in the community,” Gorman explains. “Now,” he says, “Catholic Charities is one of the beneficiaries of this family foundation.”
But the benefits and involvement did not stop there. Gorman found that with the implementation of the Standards for Excellence, programs and ministries essential to the mission of the organization were better evaluated and more effectively managed. “While evaluating our organization’s efforts our board determined that our micro-enterprise program was not properly staffed. By using the impact measures provided by the Standards for Excellence we were able to clearly determine that this mission-critical program was being underserved and the board decided to add additional staff. Now the program is flourishing,” Gorman says.
Catholic Charities of Houma-Thibodaux is one of a number of Catholic Charities in the United States to become a Partner in Excellence and commit to implementing the Standards. The Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Harrisburg and the Diocese of Wilmington have both signed on as Partners in Excellence. Richelle Vible, Executive Director of Catholic Charities in Wilmington committed the organization as a Partner in Excellence to learn from other organizations that are working towards best practices. “I found I needed a supportive network to help me think through some of the challenges our organization is facing,” Vible explains. Vible joined over 300 Partners in Excellence of the Leadership Roundtable, including six dioceses, 19 Catholic nonprofits, and about 30 parishes from 20 different dioceses that are all a part of an online forum where challenging scenarios can be worked through and best practices can be shared.
If you are a Social Action Director of a diocese but not a director of a Catholic Charities, you can certainly benefit from the Standards for Excellence by your agency or diocese becoming a Partner in Excellence. “Good human resource practices, strong financial controls, and transparent communications are equally issues of justice and stewardship. Any Social Action Director can get behind these best practices in the diocese by advocating for their implementation within the diocesan structure,” Gorman acknowledges.
For more information on how you can implement the Standards for Excellence in your parish, diocese, or Catholic organization please visit www.CatholicStandardsForExcellence.org or call me at 201-335-0315.
For more information, download the Standards for Excellence Sell Sheet.
This August, Roundtable members joined Fr. Daniel Groody for a Summer Book Discussion on his 2007 book Globalization, Spirituality, and Justice. This was the first book selected through an online vote by the whole membership.
Fr. Groody, a Holy Cross priest, scholar, and professor at the University of Notre Dame is director of the Center for Latino Spirituality and Culture. He has written extensively on issues related to immigration, theology, Latino spirituality, Catholic social teaching, and globalization.
Globalization, Spirituality, and Justice is a text written as a journey tracing themes in the Catholic tradition related to the intersection of these three issues. Fr. Daniel’s focus is the spirituality of right relationships within the context of an increasingly globalized world. He was attracted to this idea of right relationships because he found it free of the anger he sometimes encountered when advocating for social justice through protesting and other means and closer to the biblical vision of justice.
During the writing process, Fr. Daniel participated in a JustFaith class because he wanted to relearn the foundations of justice and Catholic
social teaching from the ground up. He attributes much of the shaping of the book to his JustFaith classmates. For Fr. Daniel, the book was an opportunity to take the themes of liberation theology and rework them in the context of current issues related to globalization.
Groody begins the text with the current reality of our world through globalization. The rest of the book examines what scripture, the Church Fathers and early texts, and the principles that emerged from that teaching have to say about this current reality. The following chapters discuss how Catholic social teaching dialogues with other religions, how we can look to icons of justice who share a common hope for liberation, and how the liturgy and sacraments lead us to deeper spirituality and to action.
Participants posed questions around finding hope in our current realities, and within the questions there was a significant focus on the liturgy; members talked about how the Eucharist can be an act of liberation and freedom, and how mass can be an example of right relationships - “If no one is asking for papers at the door and we’re celebrating Eucharist together, what does mean about our relationship with each other?” one participant asked.
The book is designed to be used by students or for a small group study and includes discussion questions with each chapter. Several members expressed their intention to use this book for study with their global solidarity committees or with new priests.
Throughout the conversations, members offered additional resources that can further instruct around issues raised in this book. Participants recognized Education for Justice for having good resources on the relationship between liturgy and justice. Additionally, the JustFaith Ministries’ Engaging Spirituality and immigration module were lifted up. Groody’s film Dying to Live was also recommended by members as being a very moving DVD teaching tool.
Our next book discussion will take place this fall. If you have suggestions for an upcoming discussion, please email them to coordinator@catholicroundtable.org.
By Taylor Kingston, Office of Youth and Young Adult Ministry, Archdiocese of Santa Fe
I recently attended the 24th annual Social Action Summer Institute (SASI) at Santa Clara University in San Jose, CA for parish and diocesan social ministry. The theme for this year’s SASI was Peacebuilding for the 21st Century. Seven representatives from the Archdiocese of Santa Fe attended including Anne Avellone, Director of Social Justice and Respect Life, Bunny Miller, theology teacher at St. Pius, Susan Tomita from St. Bernadette, Emmet Garrity from Newman Center, Christina Benitez from Holy Rosary and UNM student, Joseph Montiel from Holy Rosary and UNM student, and myself, Taylor Kingston from St. Charles, UNM student and office aide for the Office of Youth and Young Adult Ministry.
The 4-day conference focused on how Catholic leaders could be peacemakers in these times of conflict in our world and was packed with prayer, workshops, and speakers from around the world. SASI was a great opportunity to learn about social issues across the globe and how Catholics are called to respond. I learned about how social justice is rooted in Scripture and about the basics of Catholic social teaching. I heard about great work being done in parishes, in dioceses and organizations such as the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), Catholic Relief Services (CRS), Catholic Charities USA, and JustFaith Ministries.
Like many young people, I knew that social justice is about respect for human life, service to the poor, and aiding those who have been through natural disasters. While these are all important parts of our faith, I learned that social justice is all those things and more! For instance, one presenter told a story of how young people wanted a skate park in their community so they could have a safe place to skate. Community organizing members from parishes in this community trained these young people in leadership and gave them the tools to advocate for themselves. They approached city officials, presented their reasoning for a skate park and in the end received it. Giving those who do not have a voice the tools to speak for themselves is a part of social justice that I am excited to put into action throughout our diocese.
I also learned new ideas for other ministries in which I am involved. For example, there was a wonderful workshop Hispanics and Social Ministry: Time for a New Conversation? with Fr. Eduardo Fernandez and Ms. Anne Grycz, Diocese of San Jose. These speakers talked about how they have been successful with Hispanic Ministry in their diocese, what challenges they faced and how they overcame them.
Another workshop was a panel on the state of social action and included Greg Kepferle, Catholic Charities of Santa Clara County, Ralph McCloud, USCCB/CCHD, Joan Rosenhauer, CRS, Kath Saile, USCCB/JPHD and others. Panel members were asked various questions about their organizations and about social justice issues. One question raised was about how young people fit into social justice ministry and what is being done to help these young people stay involved. Panelists mentioned that young people need to have opportunities to do service for others, that we need to encourage them to ask questions, to reflect on their service and to give them tools to speak for themselves. In the end the best advocates for young people are in fact young people.
As a first-time attendee, I found SASI very helpful, educational, spiritual and fun. The Archdiocese of Santa Fe Young Adult Advisory Team is looking to grow in numbers, spiritually, educationally and now in social justice ministry. Through this conference I learned there are many resources and organizations that will be able to help the young adults implement plans in the area of charity and justice. I am looking forward to working with others on social justice issues and helping build from the strong social justice communities the Archdiocese of Santa Fe has in place.
On August 1, the Social Action Summer Institute opened with liturgy celebrated by Bishop Patrick J. McGrath at the Mission Church at Santa Clara University. In case you missed it, check out his homily below (originally posted at the Diocese of San Jose’s website).
Ecclesiastes 1:2; 2:21-23 | Colossians 3:1-5, 9-11 | Luke 12:13-21
For those of us who work tirelessly for “peace and justice” in a world so often consumed by greed, these readings, are in a sense, “preaching to the choir.” We see all too well the futility of our consumerist culture where the gospel proclaimed is of “individual prosperity” rather than care for the “common good” and whose greatest commandment is “Look out for yourself” instead of “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
Yet all of us, I think, are sometimes a little like the rich man in today’s Gospel. At some point in our lives, we are afraid of losing something—whether it’s something we worked hard for or, like an especially good harvest or something unearned, like a family inheritance.
When I was appointed Auxiliary Bishop in San Francisco I was the Pastor of St. Mary’s Cathedral. The Cathedral Parish was made up of about Six Hundred PEOPLE, not Families, but they were my people. I told Archbishop Quinn that I was afraid of loosing my “ family”. He said “Oh P.J. you will have the whole Diocese”. Yes and No. I still miss them 21 years later.
In our daily interactions as people attuned to the needs of others, we have witnessed this “fear of loss” in very sobering ways: we see it in the eyes of struggling families about to lose homes to foreclosure; in the homeless man afraid to lose his place in line for a bed at the shelter; in the single mother who lost her job and her children’s health insurance; in the friend losing his battle with cancer. As recently happened to me.
In our own ministries, we, too, have our fears. Will we lose funding? Will our programs be eliminated? Will there be enough volunteers? Can I get enough petitions? Will I have enough energy? Will I lose my faith “in the goodness” of people? Will I lose heart in the work I do?
There is so much work to do and so much at stake, and there never seems to be enough to go around.
Yet our very presence here proclaims that this “myth” of scarcity is a lie. Your presence here at this conference professes that God’s imagination is always more than enough. From the beginning, God’s imagination created everything, blessing it abundantly and calling it good—very good in fact. Out of God’s imagination, we were created—in God’s image—not to be fearful but to stand in wonder and awe of God’s irrational, overflowing, almost embarrassing love for humankind.
Your effort to be with one another here, in support, encouragement, learning, and conversation about the “ways of peace” reminds all of us that God called us, from the beginning, to be in right relationship—with our Creator, with creation, with ourselves, and with each other.
When we allow the fear of scarcity to obscure the original grace of God’s abundance, (present from the beginning of time), we grab and we hoard. We seize control in an attempt to secure our own outcome. The sin of the rich man was not that he was rich but that he was in relationship only with himself—speaking only to himself, planning for only himself, keeping the blessings he received only for himself.
When we are afraid that there will not be enough, we disconnect ourselves from God who gives us everything we have, from each other for whom we are called to share the gifts given to us, and even from ourselves. For when we are afraid, we are not our true selves; we are not the image of the God in whose image we were created. The fearful “old self” is what died at our baptism, and the new creation, free from anxiety, joyful in God’s abundance is what we are now.
Every Sunday is a sabbath-time when we recall who we truly are. It is a time when we let go of anxiety and acknowledge that we are not in control (for only those who truly believe in God’s abundance would take a day off from work). Every Sunday is a time when we let go of our fear and we taste and see God’s utter goodness. Here we offer back to God what is only on loan to us: the fruit of our labor and the gift of our lives. Here we feast on the Body and Blood of Christ, given to us without cost, without fear of not having enough or not being good enough. Here, in this Eucharist, the wood of the Cross becomes the “bridge of peace” between those who once were enemies, wood transformed into the altar of God’s overflowing abundance.
Here, we reject the anxiety which leads to futile toil and embrace again the “dignity of labor” and the privilege of being co-creators with God. Here, we confront the fear which leads to greed and recommit ourselves to being a “living parable” of God’s abundance in these times of scarcity. Here we refuse to continue the lie that there is not enough and we feast on the manna from heaven, given freely, given daily, and given that we may share it with all.
May we strive always to be rich in what matters to God.
Dear Social Action Summer Institute Participants,
Please allow me to welcome you to the 2010 Social Action Summer Institute. I am very pleased that the Diocese of San Jose is able to host this important national event at Santa Clara University. Our Church, locally, nationally, and internationally is truly blessed by your presence here and honored to collaborate with the partner organizations that are sponsoring this event: Catholic Charities USA, Catholic Relief Services, JustFaith Ministries, The Roundtable Association of Catholic Diocesan Social Action Directors, USCCB Catholic Campaign for Human Development, and USCCB Justice, Peace & Human Development.
I would like to thank and commend these organizations—as well as those who are attending the conference—for their commitment to justice. The call to justice has never been without challenges, but I believe that in today’s world, these challenges are even greater.
It is my hope that these days of the conference will provide us with the opportunity to be renewed in mind and spirit so that each of us may be an effective and credible witness of the Kingdom in which justice and peace will flourish.
Once again, thank you for all that you do in your many efforts to make our world and our communities better places for all.
With every best wish and kind regard, I remain,
Patrick J. McGrath
Bishop of San Jose
By Deacon Jim Merle
Clarity of purpose in understanding the need for social justice was not always a paramount idea in my life. It wasn’t until I was 14 in Quigley’s Minor Preparatory Seminary in Chicago that I was face-to-face with a black person who shared many of the same ideas I had that I began to understand equality or lack thereof in any form. A few short years later I was a reporter/writer for the Chicago Tribune and my mantra was “Don’t Trust Anyone,” if you want the ‘real truth.’ After 11½ years, such cynicism in the newspaper business provided me with insights that brought me 180 degrees toward an ideology that took a foothold to help me clarify why I believe in social justice: God wants us to take care of those in need because He created us to love one another as He loves us.
Ordained as a deacon on April 30, 2005, it wasn’t until I entered into formation in 2000 that I began understand the difference between charity and social justice. What I had been doing since my awakening some 35 years before then was to reach out to others in charitable ways that might help them for a short period of time but would never give them a solution to overcome the problem for the remainder of their lives. I wore a mask of delusion not to obfuscate their plight, but to spread a bit of hollow joy to a situation I didn’t understand so I could cope with and have my conscience soothed for the disaster at hand.
Formation taught me a valuable lesson: Nothing will change for me unless I become a proactive minister in addressing social injustice for those who are unable to do so on their own for whatever reason. Ordination to proclaiming the Gospel and serving at the altar is hollow without working in the trenches with those who suffer the indignities of man’s indifference towards life. The Diaconate must be a living, breathing organism that practices the servant attitude that Christ taught us while He ministered to us on earth.
For me that was spending five years in detention ministry with the incarcerated and working in hospitals and nursing homes with the sick and dying and with the homeless, hungry and poor at Catholic Worker. It is making sure that all of my homilies touch on the plight of those who are disenfranchised from society as we know it and to meet with parish groups to make sure they consider social justice as part of their ministry.
More than six years ago I was invited by the diaconate director to join the local board of the Catholic Campaign for Human Development which has as its primary purpose to empower those in poverty. Three years ago I was named the chairperson and until recently I have fought an uphill battle with the members to help them understand the difference between charity and justice. All of the board members have been replaced since I became the chair. With national and local criticisms of CCHD’s process and of those in charge, it has been a difficult, uphill struggle to work towards institutional changes.
Fifty one years ago, as a young seminarian studying for the priesthood, I came face-to-face with God’s purpose for me as I met a young man of color from the south side ghettos of Chicago who taught me about the love God has for all His creation. Today, God has given me the opportunity to serve Him in my Diocese of Orange California as the Diocesan Director of CCHD and as deacon living my ordination as His servant. I have been exceedingly blessed and hope that I will continue to have the courage, strength, wisdom, understanding, peace, joy and grace to be obedient to His will as I strive to be one with the Lord in thought, word and deed in my love of Him and of all His creation.
By Adrienne Curry, Symposium Chair
In spite of the blizzards that caused Washington DC to come to a standstill, social action directors gathered for the 2010 Roundtable Symposium. Our theme this year was “Restoring All Things in Christ: Reclaiming God’s Covenant through Right Relationship.” In our 25th year, the Symposium’s focus was the care and renewal of the social action directors by inspiring a sense of community and new life and helping us reconnect spiritually with the core experience of our faith in Jesus Christ and in his abiding presence in our community. It was my pleasure to serve as the chair for the symposium this year.
Saturday, we began the Symposium with the words of Dr. Diana Hayes, who was unable to join us due to weather. Her talk, Created by Love to Love: God’s Covenant with Humanity highlighted biblical images that reminded us of our own interconnectedness, followed by a time of reflection questions. Rob Gorman, Rob Shelledy, Suzanne Belongia and I took turns reading sections of her paper. Dr. Hayes’ reflection included a recognition of our call today, “We are called to bring about the renewal of God’s covenant with creation and humanity by our actions on behalf of that creation in all of its myriad forms. May God continue to lift us up on every leaning side so that we may become truly one holy catholic people, God’s covenant in flesh and spirit.”
Saturday night Fr. Bryan Massingale, S.T.D., a priest of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee and an Associate Professor at Marquette, was the recipient of the Harry A. Fagan Award. He received the award for his prophetic words and work in the fields of Catholic social ethics and racial justice. In accepting the award he focused on “truth telling and hope keeping.” He shared, “Justice depends on truth. Truth is the mother of justice. Every action of justice is a surprise done by those who dared to put God at their disposal. Hope without action does not end in justice. Without hope justice doesn’t have a chance.”
On Sunday morning we heard again from Rev. Massingale who spoke on the theme of The Challenge of Unity with Our Adversaries. A copy of his talk will be posted on the Roundtable web page.
At the Roundtable Luncheon, we presented our first ever Servant of Justice Award. The Servant of Justice Award is designed to honor a Roundtable member or former member who has made unique contributions to the achievement of the Catholic vision of social justice in his/her diocese or region. The recipient of the first Servant of Justice Award went to Joanne Welter, Director of the Office of Catholic Social Mission of the Diocese of Tucson. She led the coordination of two major bi-national Border Conferences that provided experiential and educational awareness of the border realities for diocesan Social Ministry directors from across the nation. Following the Southwest Regional Conference on the Border in 1999, Catholic Relief Services opened an office on the U.S.-Mexico border. Joanne advocated for a partnership between the Diocese of Tucson and the Archdiocese of Hermosillo which has been established, called “Diocese Without Borders: Hermosillo, Tucson, Phoenix.” Jack Jezreel, Director of JustFaith Ministries was the keynote at the luncheon (read the text here).
Check out this interview with SASI 2010 Keynote Speaker Dr. Scott Appleby, which was featured in the April 2010 issue of the Roundtable Report. Scott Appleby is director of the Kroc Institute at Notre Dame and the Roundtable Report spoke with him in March for the interview.
Roundtable Report: We know you are an active expert today in the world of peace and particularly in the field of religious peacebuilding. We thank you for accepting the Roundtable’s invitation to an interview and we very much look forward to you being with us as a keynote presenter and advanced track co-leader during this year’s Social Action Summer Institute August 1-4, 2010 at Santa Clara University.
First, could you talk briefly about your academic and professional background? And how did you get into peace work?
Scott Appleby: I received my undergraduate degree from Notre Dame in 1978 and my PhD from the University of Chicago in 1985, where I focused on the History of Christianity. As a Catholic, the study of religion has always interested me. After I graduated, I taught at Saint Xavier College in Chicago, and then in 1986 I was recruited by my doctoral mentor, Martin E. Marty, to work on a research initiative that changed my career and my life – it was called The Fundamentalism Project. It was a multi-year, interdisciplinary study of global religious resurgence in the world’s major religions. The project produced five encyclopedic volumes of scholarly essays, three PBS TV documentaries, and an NPR radio series.
As a scholar, I focus on religion in the modern period. The question most central to my work is “How can people remain faithful to a religious tradition during the era of modernity, when secular trends and forces conspire to dominate our thinking and behavior?” This is a time in history when patterns of social life and thought tend to erode traditional ways of life and belief. In response religions are forced to react, resist and adapt in various ways. In so doing, they risk manipulating the very tradition they are trying to preserve by politicizing it and reducing it to a “social program” or ideology. Some reactions distort the tradition by or placing an excessive emphasis on certain doctrines and scriptures and construing them as ingredients of a political platform. This is the foundation for both fundamentalisms and modernisms.
After my time at the Fundamentalism Project, in 1994 I came to Notre Dame to direct the Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism and teach in the History department. In 2000 I was asked to become the director of the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies. My time at Kroc has deepened my appreciation of the larger world of peacebuilding and conflict resolution, and I see strong links between the quest for peace in this world and the religious life as it is unfolds in conflict settings.
At Kroc we focus on conflict and the social and political foundations for building a sustainable peace. Our interlocutors include governments, intergovernmental organizations, NGOs and faith communities that are working for peace, justice, economic development and human rights. A peacebuilder’s vision must incorporate every social good, from access to clean drinking water and education, to protection of women and children from exploitation, to the negotiated resolution of civil wars. We examine what it means to develop lasting peace in societies that are emerging from years or even decades of destructive conflict – it is a long and arduous process that requires patience and wisdom as well as technical know-how.
RR: What is the difference between being a peace maker, as the scriptures say, and a peacebuilder? What exactly is peace building?
SA: Let’s first take the word peace. It is a word with a theological or eschatological connotation, but also a practical, this-worldly meaning. The risen Lord says to the frightened apostles huddled together: “Peace be with you.” Jesus was offering eschatological peace, the final peace that accompanies perfect unity with God. Here on terra firma, our realization of peace is always partial, as we attempt to bring a chaotic and conflicted world a measure of the love and compassion that God offers us all.
Peacemaking and peacebuilding are two related but different ideas. Peacemaking usually has the connotation of official treaties and settlements that unfold at a political and national level. Peacebuilding, on the other hand, refers to a grassroots process that moves “from the ground up” eventually to reach the high level elites who are involved in peacemaking. Peacebuilding begins with local communities and calls upon a variety of local and regional actors, including political officials, religious and business leaders, young people, the media, etc. to form alliances and partnerships for sustainable development, conflict management and human rights. Aside from official negotiations, which often characterize peacemaking, peacebuilding also strives to prevent destructive conflict, at one end of the conflict cycle, and to implement peace accords and rebuild institutions, from courts and schools to churches and mosques, in societies coming out of violent conflict, at the other end of the cycle. If the negotiations and peace accords do not resonate with the people on the ground, if the settlement is not inclusive and just, there will not be lasting peace. All of this is part of the peacebuilding process.
RR: Can you give us a preview of what you’ll be sharing during the Social Action Summer Institute?
SA: I will ask the participants to think of themselves primarily as peacebuilders, and ask how this self-identification would affect their self-understanding and sense of vocation, and prod them and re-conceptualize what they are doing. Thinking of yourself as a peacebuilder suggests a different notion of time and space, process and outcomes, more in keeping with “building the kingdom of God” than with “Getting to Yes” in a negotiation process. The spiritual charisms of peacebuilding include discernment, patience, and fortitude.
The first part of my presentation, then, will focus on what it means to be a peacebuilder and how that lens might affects the work of social justice and charity. We’ll also look at how peacebuilding is situated within Catholic social doctrine and scripture. The second section will focus on “reconciliation” and what that might mean as a distant goal for peacebuilders. Healing includes not only the physical but also psychological and spiritual wounds as well. Finally, we will ask how the Catholic religious imagination informs and can be informed by the concept and practice of peacebuilding.
RR: How does your Catholic faith influence your peacebuilding work?
SA: Peacebuilding is not merely a mundane occupation. We are called to live in the Kingdom of God, a state of being that is measured not merely by how many people are fed or diseases cured –these things are, of course, important— but how we nurture and show compassion toward one another and ourselves. We are not going to bring peace in the final sense; we are not going to eradicate original sin. Catholics understand that the interplay of grace, freedom and sin are part of the human condition, and that perfection will not be achieved until the human heart is purified in a definitive unity with God. Being a peacebuilder changes your way of being in the world, however. You measure progress and success not only through numbers and empirical studies, but also through questions such as “Am I growing spiritually, in the practice of compassion? Am I participating in the Kingdom of mercy and forgiveness?” When those are the metrics, you are more forgiving of yourself –and you realize that Jesus has already overcome the world. Such spiritual insights and religious convictions cast the daily work of “building peace and pursuing justice” in a different light.
RR: What are the biggest challenges peacebuilders face in the 21st Century, particularly those who identify as Catholics or work in ministry?
SA: Peacebuilding today faces many challenges, particularly in this economy where money is tight and budgets and staff are being reduced, people are out of work. Preparing people to be professional peacebuilders is costly; they need cultural studies and language training, interdisciplinary education and technical skills. Peacebuilding is an enterprise and a vocation that integrates many types of knowledge and resources. But now we have fewer resources to do this work. Catholic Relief Services (CRS), for example, has had to cut back on its peacebuilding budget. In the financial crisis, the first thing that has suffered is “peace.”
A second major challenge is burnout. There are many talented people working for justice and peace, but they can very quickly become exhausted. This work takes great patience and persistence, and the question is how these workers can be renewed and persist on a long path to peace.
Image is a third challenge. Someone might ask, “What do peace people do?” They march on Washington, they negotiate settlements, they advocate for human rights, they fight corruption in government—the reality is that peacebuilders perform all of these activities, and more. The actual profile of the peacebuilder, who must be a strategic thinker and a coordinator of various skilled and gifted colleagues, is not widely known or appreciated, as it should be. Only then will professional peacebuilders be integrated more fully into government and civil society and humanitarian agencies like CRS.
RR: Are you currently working on any research or writing?
SA: I am leading a major interdisciplinary, multi-year research project called “Contending Modernities: Catholic, Muslim and secular.” It is an attempt to understand how these two major religious traditions and communities have been affected by secularization—by the “separation of church and state,” the rise of religious pluralism, the drive toward democratization, the human rights revolution and other modern trends and forces. The study attempts to anticipate ways in which Catholic, Muslim and secular actors might collaborate in the future in battling poverty and disease, reducing violence, and advancing human rights for all.
RR: Do you have any reading recommendations for Roundtable members and SASI attendees?
SA: Strategies of Peace, edited by Daniel Philpott and Gerard Powers and recently published by Oxford University Press, provides the best definition and discussion of strategic peacebuilding (and it just came out in paperback!). Also, I recommend The Moral Imagination by my friend and colleague John Paul Lederach.