The Third Year [2009 - 2010]

Summer Activities:

  • On July 17, Dr. Alex Mikulich, in his role as a member of Pax Christi USA’s Anti- Racism Team, served as a co-presenter for a one day anti-racism training at Pax Christi USA’s Annual Conference held in Chicago, IL. The theme of the conference and training was “Know Justice, Know Peace: Ending the Wars at Home and Abroad.”
  • On July 1, Fred Kammer, SJ gave two presentations as the request of Catholic Charities of Louisville, KY.  In the afternoon, he conducted a workshop on preaching justice for priests and deacons of the area.  In the evening, as part of their Faithful Citizenship series, he gave a talk entitled, "Doing Faithjustice: The Role of the Parish."
  • From June 14-20, 2010, Fr. Fred Kammer, SJ,  and Mary Baudouin worked with the participants in the Ministry of Management program (Cycle two) of the New Orleans Province, providing input on leadership, decision-making, boards, and Ignatian spirituality.
  • From June 2-3, Dr. Alex Mikulich planned and co-facilitated a two day training on Race, Diversity, and Pedagogy for fifteen theologians at the College Theology Society’s Annual Meeting in Portland, Oregon. 

Spring Activities:


  • On May 20, Dr. Alex Mikulich presented “White Privilege and the Privilege of Ministry in Gospel Perspective” to faculty and students from the University of Notre Dame Pastoral Leadership Practicum at the Duchesne Volunteer House in New Orleans. View the PowerPoint presentation »

  • On May 18, Anna Chavez presented on the "Challenges and Gifts of the New Latino Presence in New Orleans and the Gulf South" to faculty and students from the University of Notre Dame Pastoral Leadership Practicum at the Duchesne Volunteer House in New Orleans .

  • From May 10-16, Anna Chavez (in photo, below, on left) accompanied Loyola's Ignacio Volunteers on their hands-on visit to the realities of the Texas-Mexico border in the area in and around El Paso.
  • From May 4-6, Fred Kammer, SJ was moderator for the semi-annual meeting of the Executive Committee of Caritas Internationalis in Rome, Italy as they considered new statutes and internal rules for the international organization of Catholic charitable agencies, as well as other business.
  • From April 8-11, Dr. Alex Mikulich met in Raymond, MS, at the St. Moses the Black Priory with the Pax Christi USA Anti-Racism Team.  The training session included meetings with Owen Brooks, long-time civil rights leader and founder of the Mississippi Civil Rights Veterans.
  • In March, Anna Chavez led a weekend training session through Catholic Relief Services at the Tepeyac Institute in El Paso, TX for adult youth ministers who will lead and mentor youth in peace building initiatives along the U.S.-Mexico border.
  • On March 19-20, the JSRI Advisory Board met on campus to consider the work of the Institute and to advise the staff on its work.  The meeting included a special focus session on Immigration Detention Policy and Centers.
  • On March 16, as the first in a new Jesuit speaker series sponsored by Loyola's student affairs, Fred Kammer, SJ spoke on "Memories in Black and White: A White Jesuit Reflects on Growing up in a Racially Divided City, Country, and Church."
  • On March 15-16, Anna Chavez helped the Justice for Immigrants committee of the Archdiocese of New Orleans to plan and present six workshops designed for clergy and laity of the Archdiocese on the scriptural and theological foundations of the Church's welcome for immigrants and practical strategies for promoting the campaign.  Fred Kammer, SJ was the presenter for two of the workshops.  On the following day, Anna met in Grand Coteau, LA, with delegates from Louisiana dioceses working on the campaign.
  • On March 9, 2010, Dr. Alex Mikulich gave a presentation in New Orleans to students in a "Race, Religion, and Poverty" course from Vanderbilt University.  Most of the students were from the Vanderbilt Divinity School.
  • From March 2-8, 2010, Fr. Fred Kammer, SJ made a Florida outreach visit to organizations working in Miami, Venice, Tampa, and Orlando to explore possibilities for collaboration in the future and distribution of the publications of JSRI.

Winter Activities:

  • From January 23-February 4, JSRI hosted Latin American immigration researchers for a ten-day intensive seminar-workshop in the realities of the US immigration picture. Leaders from Jesuit Refugee Service and Jesuit Migration Service in Mexico, Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, and Nicaragua participated in activities in Louisiana and Texas designed to enhance their knowledge of US immigration history, migration patterns, detention and deportation practices, economic factors, police practices, and legal proceedings.  Funded by the ALMAR Foundation, the seminar was coordinated by Father Tom Greene, SJ, JSRI Associate for Migration and Loyola professor. 

    For a full description see The Immigrant Experience by Julie Bourbon, reprinted with permission from The Southern Jesuit, Spring 2010. Read more.

  • On January 30, Fr. Fred Kammer, SJ presented a workshop on Catholic Social Teaching to members of the Louisiana Conference of Catholic Students (LCCS) at their annual meeting held this year at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.
  • On January 27, Dr. Alex Mikulich attended the “Cornerstone Builders Symposium for Systemic Change,” on January 27, 2010 at St Joseph Abbey in Covington, LA. Ronnie Moore, Program Director of Cornerstone Builders, a program of Catholic Charities New Orleans, organized the third annual symposium as a prayerful retreat and conference for social activists, government and law enforcement officials, prisoner mentors, and formerly incarcerated persons who work together to facilitate successful re-entry of formerly incarcerated persons into society. Mikulich is collaborating with organizers and participants of the symposium as part of his ongoing research and advocacy to address intersecting issues of race, poverty, and the prison system.
  • From January 24-25, 2010, Fr. Fred Kammer, SJ facilitated the mid-year retreat for the Board of Directors of Strake Jesuit College Prep in Houston.
  • From January 21-23, 2010, Fr. Fred Kammer, SJ and Mary Baudouin led sixty volunteers of the southern region of the Jesuit Volunteer Corps through their winter retreat at the H.E.B. Camp in the Texas hill country on social justice, Catholic social teaching, and ways to connect justice and spirituality.
  • From January 15-17, 2010, Fr. Fred Kammer, SJ led eighty volunteers of the eastern region of the Jesuit Volunteer Corps through their winter retreat at the Assisi Retreat Center outside Scranton, PA on social justice, Catholic social teaching, and ways to connect justice and spirituality.
  • On January 9, 2010, Dr Alex Mikulich presented “White Privilege and the Economic Conditions of African American Families” as part of a panel concerning African American families at the Society of Christian Ethics Annual Meeting in San Jose, CA.
  • On January 8, 2010, Dr Alex Mikulich presented “Privilege from Somewhere: (Mis)Placing Race and (Re)Placing Whiteness in Economic Justice for All” on January 8, 2010 as part of a panel discussing the upcoming 25th Anniversary of Economic Justice for All at the Society of Christian Ethics Annual Meeting in San Jose, CA. 
  • On January, 7, 2010, Dr Alex Mikulich, presented a lecture “Catholic Social Teaching and White Privilege in the Age of Obama” at the Markula Center for Applied Ethics of Santa Clara University.  He also facilitated a conversation with twelve Santa Clara University student-leaders concerned about manifestations of white privilege and racism on their campus, including racist-theme parties, which Mikulich addressed in his lecture.
  • On December16, 2009, Fr. Ted Arroyo, SJ, completed research in collaboration with the Loyola Institute for Ministry on the feasibility of developing a ministry training program to be of service to the increasing immigrant populations in the South.

Fall Activities:

     2009 Conference: People on the Move and the Common Good

  • On November 17, 2009, JSRI completed its annual conference spanning three weeks of activities: People on the Move and the Common Good: Migration, Poverty, and Racism: Converging Concerns for our Future.  See "JSRI Forums."  The conference took the participants from the local experience of Katrina-displaced people to the worldwide experience of refugees and asylum-seekers (see photos above and below).

                                                                            Jesuit Refugee Service photo

  • On October 30, 2009, Anna Alicia Chavez presented a workshop in Houston TX to teach parish leaders how to use the materials for the US bishops' Justice for Immigrants Campaign.  This was done at the request of Catholic Relief Services.
  • During the Jackson MS priests' convocation of October 12-15, 2009, Anna Alicia Chavez presented an all-day workshop on Evangelization and Multiculturalism.

  • In September and October, 2009 , Father Fred Kammer, SJ, gave the following nine addresses across the country:

    • “Pope Benedict XVI and the Church in the Public Square,” to the City Club of Cleveland (September 15, 2009), drawing from the Pope's Deus Caritas Est and Caritas in Veritate.
    • “Spirituality: Seeing the Divine in Our Midst,” to the Catholic Community Connection in Cleveland (September 16, 2009)
    • Three talks—“Charity and the Call of the Gospel,” “The Eucharist and Justice,” and “Preaching Social Ministry and Social Justice,”—to the Indianapolis Archdiocesan Conference on Spreading Hope in Neighborhoods Everywhere (October 1, 2009)
    • Two talks—one on health care reform and the other on spirituality for social ministry—for a conference sponsored by the Justice and Peace Office and Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Raleigh (October 2-3, 2009)
    • Two talks—“At the Heart of the Matter: Justice and the Internal and External Challenges in Catholic Healthcare”—to the Collaborative Sponsor Formation Program in Oak Brook, Illinois (October 10, 2009)
  • On September 29, 2009, Anna Alicia Chavez gave a presentation to the Louisiana Interchurch Conference board of bishops and denominational leaders on immigration and immigration reform. On September 23, 2009, she did a similar presentation for the members of the regional meeting of the Conference of Major Superiors of Men (CMSM).
  • On September 28, 2009, Dr. Alex Mikulich presented a talk on white privilege and racism in Louisiana and the U.S. to the Louisiana Interchurch Conference board of bishops and denominational leaders.
  • On September 25, 2009, Dr. Alex Mikulich presented the keynote address to the Archdiocese of Chicago's Anti-Racism Leadership Development Day--"Walking the Walk toward Racial Justice."
  • In late September, 2009, Wipf and Stock Publishers produced the new book by Fr. Fred Kammer, SJ, entitled Faith. Works. Wonders.--An Insider's Guide to Catholic Charities as his contribution to kicking off the celebration of the centennial of Catholic Charities USA (2009-2010)..

New Staff:

  • In September, 2009, Ms. Christi Schott joined the staff as Administrative Assistant.  See "Staff" for her background.
  • In August, 2009, Ms. Anna Alicia Chavez joined the staff as Migration Specialist.  See "Staff" for her background.  Fr. Arroyo and Fr. Greene assumed new responsibilities as Associates of the Institute.