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Students from Jesuit Institutions Participate in 9th Annual Ignatian Family Teach-In

Sponsored by the Ignatian Solidarity Network, which was developed to foster "communication and collaboration among Jesuit-affiliated organizations and individuals throughout the U.S. to advance the service of faith and the promotion of justice," the Teach-In is linked to the annual gathering that calls for the closing of the School of the Americas (SOA), now named the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHISC).  Graduates of the school are connected to the murders of the Jesuits and their co-workers in El Salvador on November 16, 1989, and with many other victims of human rights abuses. The Teach-In itself speaks to a broader agenda of justice issues, including sweat shops, minimum wage, fair trade, poverty and capital punishment.

In his talk, AJCU President Charles Currie, who has attended all but one Teach-In in the last nine years, stated how the Teach-In can be a transforming event and encouraged students to look for ways they might apply what they learn to finding solutions to the many forms of injustice in today's world.

"It would be tragic if this weekend were only a short-term, feel-good experience for you, rather than a life-transforming event that will change the kind of life you will lead and the decisions you will make." said Currie.  "All the issues we will talk about this weekend are complex and without easy answers.  They will require long-term commitments that you are challenged to make and solutions that you are challenged to find.  That is why many students who have come here have decided to join the Jesuit Volunteers, to go to graduate school to study the root causes of and find lasting solutions to the problems we discuss here, to choose careers of service - in a word, to make different decisions because of what they experience here."

For the first time this year, the Teach-In was held in the Columbus Convention Center rather than the familiar white tent from years' past.  In addition to Fr. Currie, attendees of the Teach-In listened to students from Jesuit colleges, universities and high schools, and a range of Jesuit and other speakers, including Joseph Carver, S.J., from the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley; David Robinson, Executive Director of Pax Christi USA; and Marie Dennis, Director of the Maryknoll Office of Global Concerns. Other presenters included Fr. Roy Bourgeois, M.M., the founder of the School of the Americas (SOA) Watch, Sr. Helen Prejean, C.S.J., author of The Death of Innocents: An Eyewitness Account of Wrongful Executions, and anti-death penalty advocate; and Imam Yahya Hendi, the Muslim Chaplin at Georgetown University.

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