JUSTICE JOTTINGS

October 2024

MSJC EVENTS & OPPORTUNITIES

Nominate Someone to Volunteer with MSJC!

We are seeking volunteer nominations, especially for MSJC's Death Penalty Abolition/Restorative Justice (DP-RJ) and Racial Justice Teams, and are in an active recruitment period right now. Folks who would be a great fit for MSJC: 

• Committed to building a more just Catholic Church and world. 
• Want to broaden their commitment to the Marianist charism.
• Hope to expand professional skills and expertise in social justice. 
• Have a few hours every month to support the work of justice in the Marianist Family, Catholic Church, and beyond.

All are welcome to volunteer with MSJC (no specific location required)! Read our full volunteer role description here.

Do you know someone who would be a great MSJC volunteer? Are you interested? Please fill in the form below and let us know (self-nominations welcome)!

Come discuss the movie Cabrini with us!

What: Join MSJC's Immigrant Justice and Women & Justice Teams to discuss the powerful and timely themes featured in the motion picture Cabrini. All are welcome to join in this discussion! Clips from the film will be shared and participants will have the opportunity to share their reflections about this moving film.  

When: Wednesday, November 13th starting at: 7pm ET / 6pm CT / 5pm MT / 4pm PT / 2pm HT

Race Dialogues Book Discussion Group

MSJC's Racial Justice Team has spent the past several years exploring how bridges built between people who have differing mindsets through effective communication. During our team's 2022 in-person meeting, we collected our best practices on leading group discussion. This was inspired by a situation in one of our own programs where we got feedback that not everyone at the table felt heard. Our team created the Facilitating Difficult Conversations resource and expanded the guide into a breakout presentation during the 2023 MLC-NA Lay Assembly. Though we don’t consider ourselves experts on this subject matter, we are trying to raise awareness and share what we’ve learned.  

When our team came together again this past summer, we met with an organization at the University of Dayton called The Dialogue Zone. This initiative at UD that has been developing students, staff, and community members for over ten years to “build understanding between diverse groups” by making space and facilitating dialogue on a range of difficult topics.  

Is this something you are interested in learning more about? The Dialogue Zone staff recommended a book to us called Race Dialogues, A Facilitator’s Guide to Tackling the Elephant in the Classroom, by Donna Rich Kaplowitz. We are looking for anyone who would like to join us in reading and discussing this book in depth. The length and frequency of our discussions will be based on who is interested in participating. We look forward to exploring this resource with you! Don't hesitate to contact us at info@marianistsjc.net if you have any questions.

MSJC REFLECTIONS & RESOURCES

INTEGRAL ECOLOGY

Marianist Encounters Conference Reflection

By Sarah Gray, Executive Director of MSJC

On the first weekend of October, I was grateful to be a part of the Marianist Encounters Conference held at the Bergamo Center in Dayton, OH. The focus of the conference was for groups and individuals to share how they had been living out their commitment to advancing integral ecology and global education, and how we might support one another in this continued work...[Read Sarah's full reflection here.]

...At the first plenary session, Conference Planning Team Member Sr. Leanne Jablonski, FMI, asked us to ponder these questions: What is inspiring you? What is challenging you? I carried that invitation throughout the weekend during all the sessions I attended, and I share with you a few of my personal highlights below:

Inspiring:

• If you were to envision a common home for all, what might that look, feel, and sound like? 
• Chaminade attempted to teach the laity to be shifters of the paradigm. It was not a secret club but a public community–a spectacle that others could see and breathe.
• Creating opportunities for stakeholders to develop their own goals in the buy in process (subsidiarity practice vs. mandated)
• Waste is the gateway for sustainability conversation and living; Energy is often the gateway for funding/institutional commitment

Challenging: 

• The Marianist Family’s justice work often focuses on workshops, discussions, resources, but we need metanoia at the center of our work. 
• “You say you know the plight of the poor. Tell me their names.” - Fr. Greg Boyle
• Chaminade was given the unique title “missionary apostolic” and was to be a missionary in his home country, and even his hometown–what does that mean for us today?

As you can see just from the snippet reflection above, there is much for MSJC to consider and expand upon after the Marianist Encounters Conference.

Marianist Meatless Mondays



Below are 4 new meatless recipes to try in the next month including two Indian dishes, and two that feature pumpkin, a great ingredient for fall. You can still sign up to participate in Meatless Mondays here.

We are collecting recipes for our Marianist Family! Have an amazing vegetarian or vegan recipe you love? Please send it to us at info@marianistsjc.net. 

Additionally, Mike Schulz, Executive Director of Mission of Mary Cooperative in Dayton, OH, contributed a guest reflection this month as part of our food justice initiative:

Why We Do What We Do at Mission of Mary Cooperative

We’re an urban farm, located in the Twin Towers neighborhood of Dayton, one of the most impoverished neighborhoods in all of Ohio.

Around the farm, we know that “food is love.” We say it all the time. When I was a small child, I thought I understood that phrase: “Food is love” meant that Mom makes mac ‘n cheese for me because she loves me. She did, and she does, but as I grew older I learned to understand it better...

LGBTQ+ INITIATIVE

Watch Hill & Harper on Netflix

In the film Will & Harper, which dropped on Netflix on September 27, Will Ferrell and his SNL friend Harper Steele take a road trip across the US from New York to California. The premise is that Harper, who originally met Ferrell in 1995 when she was a writer for SNL and other projects, shared the news of her transition from male to female with Will via a letter. They’d been out of touch for a few years. In a heartfelt gesture of friendship, Will suggests traveling together. The two of them have several significant conversations in the movie, one of them about US cultural standards of beauty. Following this communication and in one of my favorite scenes from the movie, Will buys Harper a gift of jewelry, telling her she has the right to feel beautiful. The discussions between the two in the movie are realistic and touching. I laughed at several scenes while others caused me to cry. Attached is an interview of Will Ferrell and Harper Steele. .I’d recommend the film to you as informative and poignant. It may just have the power to change a few hearts of stone to hearts of flesh.