The Center for Faith and Public Life has sponsored an initiative to create a network of faculty from 22 Jesuit universities and institutes who are teaching or studying migration. Fairfield University has created and hosts a website for this network that will be based in the Center. The conference was intended to forge links between practitioners and advocates working in the field of migration, and the 28 members of the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities (AJCU).

Jesuits, with a proud tradition in Lithuania since 1569, strive to promote the moral and intellectual life of the Baltic region by nurturing human dignity and mature faith, by emphasizing scholarship and excellence in Catholic education, and by supporting a truly civil society based upon truth and service to others.

One week duration service trip with Franciscans as local contacts but hoping for more Jesuit Involvement.
 

 A group of students and faculty leaders will travel to Mexico for a 12-day Immersion in language, culture, and service. Starting in Mexico City the group will explore the vast capital city and familiarize themselves with the smells, the sights and the sounds of this metropolis of over 21 million people.  Students then travel to the outskirts of Puebla, living in solidarity with the orphan boys at IPODERAC. The group completes 50 hours of service at the orphanage while living as the community lives and helping daily with jobs that have included harvesting alfalfa for goats, woodworking, gardening, and maintenance. After 6 days of work the group heads north to the small colonial town Guanajuato, where the group will explore many attractions and reflect on their experience at the orphanage.  A final afternoon is spent back in Mexico City, where the group will further explore the city in a special walking tour.

As we meet and work with refugees who have confronted evil and suffering, it is important to remind them and ourselves as well to keep in touch with God, the source of all good and love. This is the only way to withstand evil.
 

The Social Justice Ministry responds in prayer and reflection, direct service, education, advocacy, and donations to the needs of the parish, to the social needs in the diverse urban diocese and community who are our neighbors, and beyond these borders to a sister parish and national and international Jesuit social services. When program priorities are being set and choices made about resource allocation, the Ministry actively advocates for preferential treatment for the poor and marginalized in our community in light of the Gospel, Catholic Social Teaching and the priorities of the Jesuit Conference.

This program brings together immigrants, academics from different disciplines, migrant service providers, theologians, and Church leaders to consider many issues related to the spirituality of migrants and the emerging theology of migration, including root causes of migration, integration of immigrants into society, and the ways in which the Church addresses the needs of migrants. The project is driven by a desire to increase public understanding of the academic and theological foundations of the Catholic Church’s teaching on issues of migration, and to assist the Church’s ministries and its public policy work on behalf of migrants and newcomers.