 |
About Woodstock | Programs | Publications | Search |
Safe Passages Initiative
of Dolores Mission ChurchFrom East L.A. to Georgetown:
A Chain of Theological Reflection[Woodstock Report, March 2005, No. 81]
It is 3:00 p.m. in the Boyle Heights section of East Los Angeles, and a band of mothers are doing what they do every day when school lets out - they are intentionally putting themselves in harm's way. Wearing dark green windbreakers and keeping watch on street corners, they are making sure the children move about safely - without being shot at by gang members.
This head-on confrontation with street gangs may seem distantly removed from the refined realms of contemplation and theological reflection. But these mothers and their "Safe Passage" initiative are standing on ground that runs deeper than the turfs carved out by street gangs.
They are engaged in a ministry that links them to their Jesuit-run parish, the wider Catholic Church, and in a quiet way, the Woodstock Theological Center.
Most of the women belong to small parish groups that meet one night a week to prayerfully reflect on their lives in light of Scripture. In these Base Christian Communities, participants carry on spiritual discernment in the tradition of St. Ignatius of Loyola.
On the afternoon of January 11, elementary and middle school students in Boyle Heights poured out of school buildings, and Safe Passage mothers offered up their everyday example of contemplation in action. This time, they had an audience.
A delegation of journalists and others connected with the Catholic Campaign for Human Development were there as part of a one-day "poverty tour" sponsored by the campaign, also known by its acronym, CCHD. Along with other social ministries of Dolores Mission Church, the safety initiative receives grants from CCHD, an arm of the U.S. Bishops Conference that funds grassroots projects led by low-income people. More than 4,000 of these groups nationwide have received $270 million from CCHD over the past 35 years.
Street-smart mothers, of course, are not the only ones who reap benefits from Ignatian discernment. At the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in Washington, CCHD staff members have taken part in retreats facilitated by Woodstock director Gasper F. Lo Biondo, S.J., and Woodstock senior fellow Dolores R. Leckey. Each session is based on a chapter of the book, Spiritual Exercises for Church Leaders, which Leckey wrote with freelance writer Paula Minaert.
"The whole idea is to help lay out a spiritual foundation, so they can see their work as a mission that flows out of their inner spiritual lives," Leckey said. She directs Woodstock's Church Leadership Program, which produced the Spiritual Exercises book and facilitator's guide (both of which were published by in 2003 by Paulist Press).
Leckey came away from the first two retreats last September and December with keen impressions of CCHD's national staff (about two dozen of whom have gathered on these occasions). "You could just feel the level of respect and concern and sense of cause that they have. That is the Catholic Church on mission, at its best," she said. The next retreat is scheduled for June.
Woodstock has been learning from CCHD's work as well as helping to facilitate the staff's theological reflections. In their monthly seminars at the Woodstock Jesuit residence, the center's senior fellows have drawn upon the book, Credible Signs of Christ Alive: Case Studies from the Catholic Campaign for Human Development, by economic development expert and Woodstock friend John P. Hogan.
Last semester, one senior fellow, Father Raymond Kemp, introduced his Georgetown undergraduate students to CCHD through Credible Signs (Rowman and Littlefield, 2003).
Father Kemp, who directs Woodstock's Preaching the Just Word project, asked his 43 students to conduct their own research on CCHD-funded projects profiled by Hogan. "They were absolutely the best presentations I've had at Georgetown in the six years I've been teaching here," he said, noting that some students visited projects in the Washington area or while at home during Thanksgiving break.
Beyond the classroom, Father Kemp said CCHD fits with his hope of leading the popular Preaching the Just Word program into a new phase involving follow-up efforts in local communities. As he put it, "You can preach about justice, but what are you going to preach people into?" CCHD-type projects are a natural outflow of the justiceoriented preaching that Woodstock has helped bring about, he said.
In East Los Angeles, the Safe Passage initiative is part of one such organizing project, Communidad en Movimiento (Community in Action). Rita Chairez, one of the mothers and community organizers, summarized the group's Ignatian-style approach in straightforward terms. "We see. We think. We act," she said.
Chairez added, "I don't see this going anywhere, without faith."
