Originally posted at the Jesuit Conference website

28 November 2012

Editor’s Note: The U.S. Congress and the Obama Administration are working to agree to a deal that would avert the so-called fiscal cliff, the convergence of an estimated $1.2 trillion in tax increases and spending cuts over the course of the next decade that threaten to trigger another recession. As policymakers weigh their respective positions, the Jesuit Conference of the United States asks all those involved in this critical debate to remember the many Americans standing at the edge of this cliff.

Policymakers in Washington face difficult choices as they attempt to reach a deficit reduction agreement before year’s end. Their decisions will have long-lasting implications for our nation’s future, and underlying these decisions is a moral question: What kind of society do we want to be? Presumably a moral one, and being a moral society requires feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, welcoming the stranger and caring for the sick.

A moral society also shares burdens in difficult times; therefore it asks more from its members who have more. Accordingly, the Jesuit Conference, representing the Society of Jesus in the United States, the largest religious community of priests and brothers in the Roman Catholic Church, opposes any deficit reduction plan that requires more from those who have less by balancing the nation’s budget on the backs of the poor and vulnerable. Government has a responsibility to provide for its citizens in their time of need, particularly those who cannot provide for themselves.

Recent census data reveals the wealthiest households in the U.S. saw unprecedented income growth over the past ten years while low income and middle class Americans suffered significantly from the economic downturn. Median household income has decreased for all but the top 5% of income groups. Poor and working-class Americans cannot afford to shoulder an even greater portion of our country’s economic burden.

A number of deficit reduction alternatives can reduce our nation’s debt without dramatically altering the social safety net. First and foremost is an increase in revenue, but revenues will not rise if the government continues to provide tax cuts and exemptions for top income earners.

The U.S. Conference of Catholics of Bishops stresses that, “The tax system should be continually evaluated in terms of its impact on the poor.” When faced with the choice of preserving essential services or preserving tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans, the moral choice is clear. The Jesuit Conference of the United States supports a tax system that seeks more from the economically prosperous because doing so is a fiscally sound and equitable means to balance the budget. Deficit reduction must not increase the burden on members of our society who have seen incomes decline, jobs disappear and public benefits evaporate. Rather, now is the time to commit to just and fair deficit reduction policies that foster the common good and protect the most vulnerable members of our society.

On June 14, 2012, a group of Jesuits began a five-week journey along the “migration corridor” from Central America to the United States (El Progresso, Honduras to Nogales, Arizona). Along the way, they visited shelters, human rights organizations and parishes that assist migrants moving through the corridor. Through a blog, Journey Moments: The Migrant Corridor, these Jesuits are mapped their path (in both English and Spanish), and chronicled the journey with photos and reflections. They set forth a hope to better understand the complexities and hardships faced by migrants who journey to the U.S.

This three-and-a-half-minute video, produced by the Ignatian News Network (INN), vividly illustrates, in their own words, the experiences of the Jesuits’ journey with the migrants.

My Summer on the Migrant Corridor

by Bryan Y. Norton, S.J.

This past summer, I learned more about “living the Exercises” by travelling “the migrant corridor ” from Honduras to Nogales, AZ—some 3,000+ miles in five weeks flat. What does an Irish kid from the suburbs of Cleveland know about the international dynamics of Latin American migration? Well, not much, to be honest. I had a lot to learn. Seven of us Jesuits made the journey, seeking to study and experience the multinational complexities of emigration and transit, immigration and deportation. To do so, we visited rural, indigenous communities. We stayed in migrant shelters. We dialogued with Mexican ambassadors and university professors. We toured detention and deportation centers. We heard from mothers, grieving the disappearance of their migrant children. We met with anguished families, separated from their loved ones by deportation. Migrants kidnapped by border-based cartels told us their awful stories of survival and escape. To be frank, I found it hard learning. At times, the abyss of suffering seemed to swallow us alive. By the end of the trip, I felt physically and spiritually “uprooted”—a word which sums up the migrants’ lives.

We were celebrating Mass with the migrants in Saltillo, home of the largest and final albergue, or shelter, before the Mexican-U.S. border. At this particular Mass, the shelter brought in a karaoke machine for liturgical music; and the Lord used the gift of song to effect a glorious transformation, within both the community and my own heart. The hundreds of migrants present, hailing from so many different places, saddled with so many different sufferings, broke out into a processional song that lasted over twenty minutes. Suddenly, before my very eyes, I saw the members of the Christ’s Body caught up in the beauty and joy of the heavenly banquet. “They” were no longer “migrants,” only sons and daughters of the same heavenly Father. In the course of that opening hymn, chanted over and over again, I vividly remember praying: “O my God, I love them; and I want to be here with them.”

There, in the shelter at Saltillo, the Exercises came to life in a new, profound way. After weeks of solidarity, suffering, and accompaniment, I finally came to know the migrants—not abstractly, as some statistic, but personally, as my own brothers and sisters in Christ. This conversion experience follows the Ignatian dynamic of the Exercises. Just as interior knowledge of Christ spurs His love and service, so too does personal knowledge of the migrants awaken desires for their love and service. Such profound parallelism makes good Gospel sense, given our Lord’s own identification with the poor and vulnerable. Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me (Mt 25:40).

Truth be told, the migrants “did” far more for us than we for them. In their goodness and courage, they opened their hearts and their homes. They shared their joys and their sorrows, their hopes and their fears. Very simply, they let themselves be known by us; and from this intimate encounter flows the deep, Ignatian desire for greater love and service. In so doing, the migrants helped me to understand more the meaning of my Jesuit vocation. They taught me how to “live the Exercises,” how to find and follow Christ in the heart of a hurting world.

Bryan, 28, grew up in Cleveland, OH, where he graduated from St. Ignatius High School (2003). Currently, he is studying classics (Latin and Greek) at Washington University in Saint Louis. He lives with his brother scholastics at the Bellarmine House of Studies.

About the “Long Retreat”
Since the days of St. Ignatius and the First Companions, every Jesuit has shared the same foundational experience of Christian prayer: the Spiritual Exercises, a series of meditations made over thirty silent days. Based upon the spiritual movements of Ignatius’s own conversion, and rooted in the Gospel texts, these exercises draw the Jesuit deeply into the hidden life, public ministry, and Paschal Mystery of Jesus Christ. As a result, Jesuits invariably emerge from the “Long Retreat” with a more personal knowledge of who Jesus is. As we come to know Him more intimately, we naturally come to love Him more intensely; and with this growth in love, our hearts naturally long to serve Him more generously. Interior knowledge, leading to intense love, overflowing into passionate service: this is the “Ignatian dynamic” that marks our Jesuit charism. We learn it as first-year novices, through the genius of the Spiritual Exercises; and we spend the rest of our lives learning how to “live the Exercises” everyday.

UPDATE
On June 15, President Obama announced a policy change to provide administrative relief for undocumented youth and allow them to legally reside in the USA through work permits. This action would end the threat of deportation for almost 1 million undocumented immigrants under the age of 30. The precise details of this hopeful development are still being developed, but it is certainly an important step in the right direction toward the Church’s eventual goal of a more comprehensive immigration reform to allow earned citizenship for the 12 million undocumented currently living in the United States. Click here for USCCB statement of support for the President’s move with a congressional call to action to go one step further and pass the DREAM Act. Click here for an overview by Catholic Legal Immigration Network /// On June 25, the Supreme Court rejected most aspects of Arizona’s controversial and legislation known as SB 1070 which became a model for other municipalities and states, most note-ably Alabama. This flawed anti-immigrant legislation has been long criticized by the USCCB so the Supreme Court ruling was generally affirmed by the Bishops and immigrant rights groups. However, the Bishops caution that ruling does not fully lift the requirement that immigrants have to show papers in some circumstances, known as provision 2 (B) of SB 1070. This “show me your papers” provision may in time prove unconstitutional if it leads to racial profiling and other human rights abuses.  Click here for USCCB statement on the Court Ruling and click here for a statement by Jesuit Advocates USA (a service of the Jesuit Conference and JRS) /// As always, the go-to website is Justice for Immigrants.

June 19, 2012
On June 15, the most recent immigration  announcement by President Obama seems to be good news for many young undocumented immigrants (approximately 800,000 nationwide).

While it does not provide everything the DREAM act would deliver (namely a pathway to citizenship) at least this policy change will allow them to live without constant threat of deportation and remain in the US with a work permit.

It was formally announced at a press conference on June 15. A USCCB response or statement will probably be coming soon. As you know, Comprehensive Immigration Reform has long been an advocacy focus area for the Assistancy, largely because of the immigrants that Jesuits and colleagues have accompanied in our various ministries. This policy change is one incremental step in that direction. Just let me know if you want additional information or you can follow news on the Justice for Immigrants website.

For more information, please view the following documents:

• White House Deportation Deferment for Youth
• Administrative Relief for Immigrant Youth
• Deportation Deferment Action

The service of the Jesuits in Peru is highlighted in the Spring, 2012 issue of Partners.

Photo Gallery: Peru

Recently, a video detailing atrocities committed by Joseph Kony and the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), which he heads, caused an Internet sensation. The LRA is a vicious militia group founded in Uganda that has terrorized communities in multiple central and east African countries. The video makes a pointed case for U.S. military intervention to capture Joseph Kony and dismantle the LRA.

While there’s been a great deal of controversy regarding the video, one fact is indisputable:  more people now know about the horrors endured by the people of Uganda than ever before.

The Jesuits have worked in Uganda for more than 40 years.  The Society’s Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) has conducted peace-building workshops, run schools and economic development projects and ministered to refugees in Uganda. In 2005, the Jesuits of the Eastern Africa Province began planning for a secondary school in northern Uganda, the Ocer Campion Jesuit College in Gulu. The co-educational high school admitted its first students in early 2010 and is already having a tremendously positive impact in a region devastated by over twenty years of civil war. The school will grow to a capacity of 1,200 students and includes agricultural and vocational training as well as rigorous academic formation in the Jesuit tradition, religious formation and peace education.

In November, 2011, Father A. E. Orobator, the Jesuit provincial of Eastern Africa, spoke about Uganda and the Obama Administration’s recently announced plan to deploy U.S. military personnel to the region to help fight the LRA.  His remarks were delivered at Georgetown University, at the annual Ignatian Family Teach-In for Justice sponsored by the Ignatian Solidarity Network.

Father Orobator discussed the progress made in Uganda in recent years and suggested the U.S. government can help Uganda’s people – “by sending teachers, doctors, engineers, experts in agriculture and development – not more soldiers, guns and ammunition.

To read the full message, view an interview with Father Orobator, and learn more about Jesuit works in Eastern Africa, visit the Jesuit Conference website here.

For more information about the peace and reconciliation efforts being made to bring peace to Uganda following the civil war, please watch Mato Oput, a film by Creighton University students recently nominated for a Peace on Earth Film Festival Award