Click here to read the bilingual press release.

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June 11, 2024—Joshuar and Stephanie want what every parent wants for their children—freedom, safety, a good education. For them to be good people. That’s why they fled Venezuela with their 10-year-old Andres and toddler Victoria.

By foot and bus, they traveled to the US-Mexico border to seek asylum. In the border town of Reynosa, a cartel kidnapped the family and held Joshuar for nine days demanding a hefty ransom. Since their release, they have lived in a migrant shelter. Every day they request an immigration appointment with U.S. authorities. They have waited for six months.

Unable to work or send Andres to school for fear of the cartel, Joshuar and Stephanie feel frustrated and powerless.

“Sometimes I want to collapse and cry and cry and cry,” Joshuar says. Sometimes he considers the alternative—he wonders if he should just “throw” himself and his family into the Rio Grande, cross the river and try to enter the U.S. without authorization.

Joshuar and Stephanie’s situation is not unique. Their story sheds light on the harsh realities of the US-Mexico border and how changing U.S. policy impacts vulnerable families. Watch our video to learn more.

Currently, there are few ways for migrants and asylum seekers to enter the U.S. with authorization. Those at the southern border are asked to use a U.S. government app, called CBP One. People seeking asylum must make an account and apply for an appointment every day. Only 1,450 appointments are available each day, causing a backlog of migrants waiting several months in Mexico before they can enter the U.S.

Out of desperation, many families give up on seeking an appointment. Instead, they cross the river clandestinely.

If you were following the news last week, you might know that a new executive order from the Biden Administration cracks down on unauthorized border crossings. Before this order, it was a standard part of asylum law that someone for fear of their lives could make an unauthorized crossing in order to present themselves to a border security agent and claim asylum. Now, however, unauthorized migrants will be automatically denied asylum and placed into immediate deportation proceedings.

This policy will have devastating impacts for asylum seekers, who have fled violence, insecurity, gangs, and coercion. After surviving harrowing journeys northward, many of them could be sent immediately back to the perilous situations from which they hoped to escape.

Across the U.S., the Jesuit network is trying to respond to this new policy through advocacy and through direct support of migrants. Learn how Jesuit Refugee Service USA and the Kino Border Initiative are responding.

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March 13, 2024 — “Hey, can you come over here?”

My colleague Maria Teresa waved me down across a busy migrant shelter in McAllen, Texas. We had already been there a few hours and by that point were getting ready to leave — or so I thought.

She introduced me to the family she was speaking with and explained, “They’re from Colombia. They left their home because they were receiving death threats, but the person who was supposed to receive them in the U.S. has stopped responding to their messages.”

“They have an ICE appointment in Washington, DC,” she added, looking me straight in the eyes.

I saw where this was going. I live in DC.

“When is their flight?” I asked uncomfortably.

“Tomorrow.”

§

Maria Teresa and I were in Texas for the gathering of the Jesuit Migration Network, a group of over 25 people from Jesuit organizations across the US and Canada advocating for migrant rights.

At times, the three-day meeting had a heaviness to it. The number of displaced people across the globe is at an all-time high of 108 million. Migrant encounters at the U.S. Southern border are at record highs.

It’s challenging for us in the U.S. to comprehend the circumstances that give rise to these figures. The Venezuelan economy has crashed, contracting by 75 percent. Ecuador, once hailed as a model of peace and prosperity in South America, has seen homicides increase 8-fold in the last few years. In Haiti, criminal gangs hold more power than the remnants of the government.

The journey migrants must undergo is also harrowing. In 2022, 1,400 people lost their lives while migrating north through Latin America. Gangs from the perilous Darien Gap to northern Mexico kidnap and extort hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of migrants and extort them for thousands of dollars in exchange for their lives.

Much of what we talked about during our meetings was how we respond to this reality as individuals, as a group and as a Church. Despite the challenges, the network’s efforts give me hope. Holy Trinity Parish in DC, for example, has supported and accompanied 25 migrant families over the past few years. Each night, Dolores Mission Parish in Los Angeles transforms into a night shelter for homeless migrants. Jesuit Refugee Services USA’s new program, the Migrant Accompaniment Network, connects recently arrived migrants with Jesuit parishes and volunteers across the country.

§

After the meeting ended, Maria Teresa and I visited the Jesuit-led Del Camino Border Ministries to learn about their work in Texas’s Rio Grande Valley. They brought us to the migrant shelters and camps where they minister, including the Catholic Charities shelter in McAllen. This was where I found myself standing in front of the Washington DC-bound immigrant family — Guadalupe, her husband, Misael, and their 11-year-old son Wilmer.

There in the shelter, surrounded by hundreds of people with similar stories, and trying to decide how to respond to this situation, I thought, Why is this my problem?

But one verse began to pop up in the back of my mind: “For I was a stranger and you welcomed me.”

Despite my reservations, I found myself asking my housemates if the family could stay with us. They were understandably hesitant. As one of them quipped, “I’m an armchair liberal. I like to talk about this stuff, but I don’t want to do anything about it!”

The family only had money for one plane ticket, so Guadalupe flew alone to DC, where a willing friend of mine picked her up and brought her to stay at his family’s house.

The next morning, a parishioner from Holy Trinity drove Guadalupe to her appointments with ICE, shuttling her around town all day.
My housemates ultimately agreed to host Guadalupe, and she stayed with us for the next few weeks. Other friends pitched in to get her clothes, basic toiletries and a cell phone.

A few days later, another couple visiting the McAllen shelter met Misael and Wilmer and generously bought their plane tickets to DC. Now they are paying the family’s legal fees as well.

Reunited in DC, Guadalupe and her family are now staying in yet another of my friend’s homes. As they say, it takes a village.

“I was a stranger and you welcomed me…”

Throughout the Jesuit Migration Network gathering, we reflected on the border: A line drawn in the sand, a fence built in the desert, a wall erected to keep us apart. We also reflected on the borders in our own hearts. Walls that we build inside of us, under the auspices of safety, that ultimately divide us from our sisters and brothers and separate what’s mine from what’s yours.

These physical and emotional barriers at times seem insurmountable, but the story of Guadalupe’s family illustrates how change begins with small, personal actions. The call to welcome the stranger isn’t just a theological concept but a lived reality that invites a response from each of us. This family’s journey became a shared endeavor—from Maria Teresa to my “armchair liberal” housemate who, now that Guadalupe has moved out of our house, often asks me how she’s doing and if she’s okay. The community that rallied around this family is a testament to the potential for goodness when we set aside our hesitations and extend a helping hand.

My daily work consists of coordinating political advocacy around issues such as immigration, with the hope that by creating just policies we will create a more just society. However, policy is a reflection of our culture, and the barriers that each of us build in our own hearts play out in the public square. Our hope for a better world lies not just in policy change, but in embodying hospitality, empathy and love. In the end, it’s the small acts of kindness that have the power to create the culture of welcome and compassion that we long for and challenge the narratives that divide us.

*The names of the migrants have been changed.

Harrison Hanvey is the Manager of Outreach and Partnerships for the Jesuit Conference Office of Justice and Ecology. Born and raised in Wichita Falls, Texas, he graduated with a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Texas Christian University. Soon after graduation, he moved to Central America to work with vulnerable populations in rural communities. Before joining the Jesuit Conference, he worked at the Catholic University of America in the Office of Campus Ministry as the Associate Director of Community Engagement, Social Justice and Catholic Social Teaching Initiatives.

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January 10, 2024 — When I first met Erica Jeanine, in July of 2022, she was bubbly and bursting with energy for the trove of ideas she had for how to expand her small business, Think Happy Live Happy. She told me of her plans for mental health workshops, a mental health resource app, self-care packages and possible funding streams. Self-aware, Erica acknowledged she had passion, but lacked structure and focus. That’s why she turned to Innovation Works, a Jesuit-sponsored nonprofit that aims to reduce Baltimore’s racial wealth divide by supporting what they call “social entrepreneurs” — small business owners developing solutions to community challenges.   

Through interviews filmed over the course of 2022 and 2023, I watched Erica’s business gather momentum with the support of Innovation Works. She honed her strategic vision, weathered setbacks, and succeeded in rolling out a series of mental health workshops with Baltimore College. More than Think Happy Live Happy’s expansion, I saw Erica grow in confidence and poise as an entrepreneur.  

When I pitched the idea for this video feature in the spring of 2022, my idea was to track the progress of a social entrepreneur in the Innovation Works pipeline for four months (a timeline which ultimately stretched to 12 months). A year and a half later, I think the end product is less about progress and more about accompaniment and community. About the power of one person saying to another: “I believe in you. How can we get you there?” 

I believe Erica’s story personifies Innovation Works and what it seeks to accomplish in Baltimore.  

Erica lived in public housing for nine years of her childhood. As an adult, she’s had to process experiences of childhood trauma—often without access to insurance-covered mental health resources. Her experiences inspired Erica to found Think Happy Live Happy, a for-profit-enterprise that aims to make mental health resources available to communities at a lower cost.  

According to Jay Nwachu, Director and CEO of Innovation Works, investing in people like Erica is the key to social transformation.  

“The notion of social entrepreneurship is: If we start with the challenges you recognize because you lived it, and we know your community needs solutions, it’s a different place of starting, of empowering people based on things they know,” says Nwachu. 

As a post-industrial city, Baltimore has struggled with economic decline, exacerbated by racial inequities. The median Black household brought home $34,000 in 2017 compared to $64,000 for white households. Similarly, majority Black neighborhoods in the city receive six times less investment than majority non-Black neighborhoods.  

This economic reality creates power imbalances, even as non-profits and enterprises attempt to solve issues of poverty, inequality and disinvestment. Often, social organizations in low-income neighborhoods are run by people who have not had these experiences of economic and racial inequality. 

“You have folks trying to design for your life when they have absolutely no clue what you are going through on a day-to-day basis,” Nwachu says. By supporting entrepreneurship within communities in need, Innovation Works “empowers those who are actually living through [social] challenges to be the ones to architect the future and to architect the solutions.”  

Through its entrepreneurship curriculum and programming, Innovation Works helps these “social entrepreneurs” address the challenges in their community and build sustainable neighborhood economies. But it also provides a crucial support network to early-stage entrepreneurs, offering mentors and a community of peers. 

As Erica told me, “Innovation Works is like a family.”  

Learn more about Innovation Works here. 

MegAnne Liebsch is the communications manager for the Office of Justice and Ecology at the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States. She holds a master’s in media and international conflict from University College Dublin and is an alumna of La Salle University. She lives in Washington, DC.

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Farmers come to Kasisi’s facilities from across central Zambia to learn about sustainable crop growth, animal husbandry, and grain and yogurt production. The Jesuit Conference team, Eric Clayton and MegAnne Liebsch, visited Kasisi to see firsthand how this community is carving a unique path through agricultural methods that both respond to climate change and return a profit to small-scale farmers.

Watch our video to learn more.

Check out more of KATC’s work here. You can also support their work through Canadian Jesuits International.

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October 11, 2023 — This October 11, the Permanent Council of the Organization of American States, OAS, has issued a clear condemnation of the Ortega-Murillo regime’s repression against universities, religious institutions and the Catholic Church. It urges the Nicaraguan government to respect and guarantee the rights “to freedom of thought and expression, freedom of conscience, religion or belief, freedom of association, the right to peaceful assembly and the right to education and work.” It rejects repressive measures against educational centers and the Church, and calls for the “restitution of fundamental rights,” as well as “the protection of education.” Although the Ortega-Murillo government has officially shown its desire to remove Nicaragua from the OAS, the process of withdrawal lasts two years and therefore the country continues to belong to the OAS and is obliged to comply with the conventions and treaties it ratified in the past.

It is difficult for a regime like the current one in Nicaraguan to heed international demands, when inside the country it has closed off all possible origins of critical thought or differing opinions from the official narrative, be they from political parties or civil society institutions. More than 3,000 NGOs have been closed, be they secular or religious, working in education, development and solidarity. As a result, in addition to the loss of jobs, foreign aid has diminished enormously, and Nicaragua is already one of the countries in Central America with the highest rates of poverty.  Among clergy, more than 150 priests and nuns, both religious and secular, have been expelled from the country, many of them having their citizenship revoked. Bishop Rolando Alvarez continues to be held hostage in prison and the regime continues to detain priests along with anyone who breathes contrary to their abuses of power. Evangelical churches have also seen 80 pastors expelled. The slightest insinuation in a religious ceremony, such as praying for the imprisoned, can be motive for expulsion from the country, or even imprisonment and loss of citizenship if one is Nicaraguan. The internal espionage, the presence of police at worship services, the harassment of the families of Nicaraguans who criticize the government from abroad, has condemned the churches to a great silence, which can only be broken from the outside.

However, the churches remain alive. As in other countries that in the past severely repressed religion, the people have opted for a culture of resistance that manifests itself in fidelity to worship and the Christian way of life. And close friends and neighbors talk among themselves, maintain their ideals, grow in a conviction of the necessary transformation and change of the political system of the country, and wait. At the same time, networks are being formed and strengthened which communicate amongst themselves the outrages and abuses of the regime. Among the exiles there are intellectuals, politicians, university professors, writers and poets, journalists, trade unionists, priests, pastors and nuns. A whole network of components of civil society receives and passes on information to the growing groups of exiles and the world of solidarity. Communication and opinion have grown through digital media outside Nicaragua, directed by journalists who had their radios and newspapers shut down in their country, and by young professionals who see the need to inform their fellow citizens of the abuses of the regime. And while the regime gloats over its internal control, the truth is making a way and awareness is growing stronger.

On the other hand, the constant and increasing abuses throughout 2023, are opening cracks in government circles. The empty and repetitive ideology of the regime is not enough to compensate for the suffering of many people nor to hide the irrationality of revoking the citizenship of one of the best modern-day novelists in Latin America, of closing universities, of painting hate messages on the walls of temples, of prohibiting processions rooted in the people’s culture and religion. The blind attacks of the government often hurt the interests even of those who support them. In his ode to Theodore Roosevelt, president of the United States in the early years of the 20th century, the Nicaraguan poet Rubén Darío, foreseeing the repeated US invasions of small Latin American countries, told him the following: “Roosevelt, one would have to be, through God himself, the-fearful Rifleman and strong Hunter, to manage to grab us in your iron claws.” The claws are now inside Nicaragua, and they belong to lesser gods, an obsolete mimicry of ancient bloody idolatries. But as the same poet said, “And, although you count on everything, you lack one thing: God!” Thus, in solidarity and unity with the majority of the Nicaraguan people.

* This article was originally published in Spanish for Religion Digital. 

Fr. José M. “Chema” Tojeira, SJ, is a Spanish and Salvadoran Jesuit, who has dedicated his ministry to Central America.  He previously served as the rector of the University of Central America (UCA) in El Salvador and is a former Provincial of the Central American Jesuit province. He is the spokesperson for the Central American province on the current situation in Nicaragua.

The post Repression and Hope: A reflection on Nicaragua today appeared first on Jesuits.org.

This summer, Luis was a mere two semesters away from graduating. Now, his future is up in the air.

On August 15,  the Nicaraguan government accused the UCA of being a “center of terrorism,” among other charges, and announced that the university would be confiscated and turned over to the State. The next day, officials arrived to remove its name from the front gates. Within the week, the Jesuits who lived on an adjacent property were expelled from their house, not even permitted to take their most basic belongings.

“The university never was a center of terrorism. Our only weapons were our books and our studies,” Luis says.

Trumped up terrorism charges have been one of the most egregious excuses the government of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo have given for the confiscation of the UCA — the 27^th university they have seized control of in the past several years, along with over 3000 non-governmental organizations.

The last major bastion of free speech in the country, the UCA has been in the crosshairs of the Nicaraguan government since 2018 when it opened its gates to peaceful protesters seeking refuge from the attacks of government-backed parapolice. Precisely because the university has always been an independent voice in the country, a space where students and staff could express themselves as their conscience dictated, it came under attack.

NOCHE DE INFAMIA Y DE ROBO. Podrán arrancar las letras de la Universidad Centroamericana (UCA) pero jamás podrán borrar la historia. #NICARAGUA #TodosSomosUCA pic.twitter.com/N4Ac7966Jx

— Arturo McFields Yescas (@ArturoMcfields) August 18, 2023

[Video footage of  officials removing the name of the University from its front gates.]

“Every person there was free to have their own ideas, and because your thoughts are your own, everyone had to respect that,” says Enrique, a friend of Luis who also was on the verge of graduating from the UCA.

“Other universities are not the same,” Enrique explains. “In the public universities, one can’t speak out against the government because you can get expelled.” Or worse: “When they closed the UCA, a young woman riding the bus spoke against the government and someone reported her. She got thrown in jail … and we don’t know if she’s still there or not.”

It’s a loss of immeasurable proportions for this small Central American country, as the UCA provided quality education and hope to young people desiring to make a difference in their homeland. “It had a great campus, great professors, and they taught you values beyond just what you learned in class,” Luis says.

As an upperclassman, Enrique participated in a tutoring program for first year students. “I saw the importance of helping others, and it also felt good to help,” he says. “[At the UCA] I developed this love of service and collaboration. … As the Jesuits say, ‘In all things, to love and serve.’”

The seizure of the university hit Enrique hard. “Some of us didn’t want to accept it,” he says. “A few students went to the UCA and saw their professors removing their things. That week was quite depressing and affected me a lot emotionally.”

When I asked him what his dreams for the future were, he replied, “Now that’s a question I like! Since I started university classes, I’ve been forming my life’s plan: to be a university graduate, to get a good job … to have my own house, to have a car … but first of all, to support my family. That is what comes first for me. If I can help my family, I will do it.” Enrique’s dreams were ambitious when he began his university career. But with the seizure of the UCA, hope has become harder to find.

It has not been easy for Enrique’s family. As the Nicaraguan economy has worsened in recent years and jobs have grown scarce, his mom had to leave the country to work in Panama. “I haven’t been able to see her since that time,” Enrique says. “Now there are just five of us: my grandparents, my two siblings and me.”

“When they confiscated the university, I thought about leaving too … what can I do?” he continues. “There’s no future in this country, and the majority of my friends have the same idea. Here, they’re suffocating us, and so people try their luck elsewhere. A whole generation is going to abandon the country, and it’s sad because nobody wants to leave their homeland, but our hands are tied.”

The situation in Nicaragua is dire and continues to deteriorate. Over 5000 students from the UCA don’t know when, where or if they will be able to continue their studies. Over 1500 staff members of the UCA are in limbo and without a paycheck. In response, global Jesuit institutions are standing in solidarity.

Jesuit sister universities in El Salvador and Guatemala are creating possibilities for these students to study at their institutions. The Jesuit USA Central and Southern Province has created an Emergency Fund to raise money and help UCA students and staff, especially since the government has frozen many Jesuit bank accounts in Nicaragua. The Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities, along with many other Jesuit institutions, has condemned the government of Nicaragua and called on it to reverse its actions.

In the meantime, though, Luis and Enrique wait. They pray that one day they will be able to complete their university degree and wonder if they will be able to pursue their dreams in the country that they love.

*Luis and Enrique’s names have been changed to protect their identities.

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September 6, 2023 — Fr. John Baumann, SJ, is not what he calls an “upfront person.” A lifelong community organizer, he prefers to keep a low profile, whether at protests, city council meetings or press conferences. For him, community organizing is about empowering others to create change in their communities.

“Organizing is putting the people up front,” says Fr. Baumann. “One of my early mentors, he would say, ‘If you get quoted in the newspaper, you’re fired.’”

Having hewn closely to this directive over his five-decade career, Fr. Baumann is a tricky subject for a feature article. His work in founding the international organizing network Faith in Action (FIA) has helped to shape the mission of West Coast Jesuits and improved the livelihoods of thousands of people around the world. But Fr. Baumann deflects many of these accolades, crediting grassroots leadership as the key to FIA’s success.

“What impresses me most about John is that he’s in no way, shape or form flashy, and yet he’s a powerful quiet force,” says Fr. Bob Fambrini, SJ, pastor of St. Francis Xavier Parish in Phoenix and FIA board member.

Recognizable by a swooping tuft of white hair and rimless rectangular glasses, Fr. Baumann elicits reverence from those who know him. The day after I interviewed him, we both attended a community organizing conference at the University of San Francisco. Although his legacy partially inspired the conference, Fr. Baumann tucked into the less-coveted seats typically left for latecomers. Still, people flocked to him — from old friends and colleagues to strangers who professed their admiration for his work. A patrician set to his shoulders, he leaned in with his whole body to listen.

Today, Faith in Action is one of the largest Jesuit-sponsored ministries in the world, organizing faith communities in 27 U.S. states, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Haiti, Ghana and Rwanda. Since its founding in 1972, FIA grassroots campaigns have improved local education systems, increased health care and affordable housing access, and reduced community violence. While campaigns look different based on their context, each is rooted in Fr. Baumann’s organizing philosophy, which acknowledges that the people most impacted by systems of injustice are the best suited to lead the transformation of those systems.

“Community organizing gives people the tools that they need to fight for justice and work toward a more equitable society,” says Fr. Baumann. “It creates a world where everyone belongs, can thrive and has a say in decisions that shape their lives.”

Historically, Catholic clergy and lay people played prominent roles in U.S. social movements, such as labor and union organizing during the Industrial Revolution, the farmworkers movement led by Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta, and peace activism during the 1970s. Like FIA, many national organizing networks, including the Industrial Areas Foundation and Gamaliel Network, were co-founded by Catholics. For over 100 years, organized movements have harnessed the collective power of Catholics to transform American public life, yet this historical relationship between faith and organizing is often overlooked.

Empowering communities

Growing up the youngest of eight children on his parent’s dairy farm in San Jose, California, Fr. Baumann learned the value of community at a young age. As a family of 10, they worked together, relying on each other to keep the farm afloat. Faith was lived in community, whether at the family dinner table or at the local Jesuit church, which Fr. Baumann’s parents and grandparents had helped build. A great source of pride for the Baumanns, their church was a tangible symbol of what could be accomplished when a community comes together.

This early connection to faith and the Jesuits paved the way for Fr. Baumann to enter the Society in 1956.  As a Jesuit, he expected to become a high school teacher, but while he was studying for his master’s in theology, the first documents from the Vatican II Council were released. The ideas he read in them would change the course of his life.

He was enthralled by the way Vatican II conceived of a humanistic church, a church that not only celebrated sacraments and weekly Mass but lived and responded to the challenges facing its parishioners. More than charity, Vatican II called on the church to work for justice, striving to change systems that created poverty and violence. Though the tenets of Catholic social teaching predate Vatican II, the council brought the notion of a faith that does justice to the forefront.

Inspired by these ideas, Fr. Baumann and a fellow Jesuit theology student Fr. Jerry Helfrich attended a clergy organizing seminar at the Chicago Urban Training Center for Christian Mission, where organizing pioneer Saul Alinsky frequently gave workshops.

“I was fascinated with Alinksy’s message about the importance of empowering people to have a voice in the community,” Fr. Baumann says.

That summer at an organizing placement on the West Side of Chicago, he worked for what felt like 24 hours a day nonstop. Observing the poor housing conditions in this Black neighborhood, Fr. Baumann convened a group of 30 community members to discuss how to address the widespread dilapidation. The attendees questioned Fr. Baumann’s authority, arguing he had no right to dictate what they needed.

“I learned quickly a basic principle in organizing: Take people where they are, not from where you want them to be,” he says. “I needed to set aside my personal ideology to really listen.”

It was a powerful lesson in subsidiarity — the Catholic social principle which argues that those closest to injustice should have a leading role in addressing it. Ultimately, community leaders decided to focus their campaign on a local apartment building riddled with code violations. By the end of the summer, they had pushed the absentee landlord to bring the building up to code.

“Chicago was really changing my whole view on what I wanted to do as a Jesuit, and I saw community organizing could be a ministry,” says Fr. Baumann. “Suddenly, theology became alive.”

Fr. Baumann began the summer with questions: How can the church respond to injustice? What am I being called to do? By the end of the summer, he had his answer: organizing.

Congregations come alive

In 1972, after several years of training in Chicago, Fr. Baumann and Fr. Helfrich returned to Oakland, California, to spearhead a local organizing movement, which they initially called the Pacific Institute for Community Organizing (PICO). Working out of a Franciscan church, the pair canvassed Oakland, going door-to-door to interview people about the issues in their community. They organized the neighborhood around everything from infrastructure concerns to abandoned houses and community safety. Most importantly, they trained community leaders to bring these issues before the Oakland city council and demand action. As the model grew more successful — amassing local participants and Jesuit volunteers — PICO began to expand across California.

At first, PICO focused on neighborhood-based organizing, but as it grew, the staff realized that community leaders in this model were prone to burn out. They pushed from campaign to campaign without building relationships that could nurture their work during challenging campaigns.

The staff at PICO began to wonder: What if we organized through congregations?

“I thought, I can help implement Vatican II and what my Jesuit spirituality was all about — how God’s present in the community, and how I can respond to what God would like to see happen in the community,” Fr. Baumann explains.

PICO began developing a faith-based model, working first with pastors, priests, rabbis and imams, who could bring together core groups of congregants to work on community issues. PICO developed trainings for these leaders to conduct one-to-ones in the community — not just with other congregants but with neighbors, too. One of PICO’s first faith-based campaigns included an action and a town hall meeting with the Oakland chief of police to discuss community violence. One thousand people attended.

After the actions, PICO and the community would gather for reflections. “Congregations came alive,” says Fr. Baumann, “People were saying, ‘Yeah, this is what church is all about.’”

Power is the product of relationship

Energized by this faith-based model, PICO quickly grew into a national organization, eventually renamed Faith in Action. It now works with over 3,000 congregations across 34 denominations, and since 2006, FIA has expanded internationally. In the U.S., FIA groups helped pass the Affordable Care Act in 2010, which expanded Medicaid access in 34 states and currently provides health insurance to 40 million Americans. FIA is also a close collaborator of U.S. Bishops and the Catholic Campaign for Human Development, which strives to break cycles of poverty through advocacy and nonprofit grantmaking.

While each FIA federation focuses on different issues according to local needs, broadly put, FIA organizing works to dismantle systemic racism and socioeconomic exclusion. By uniting faith voices on issues such as health care, immigration, education and property foreclosure, FIA harnesses the power of interfaith collaboration to achieve change.

“It is very powerful when you have people across races, across religious faiths coming together,” says Fr. Baumann. Where some might see doctrinal differences as a source of irreconcilable division, Fr. Baumann sees the shared experience of religion as an opportunity for transformative encounter.

At the center of FIA’s interfaith collaboration is Fr. Baumann’s credo: “Power is the product of relationship.” Faith provides a common language of values that unifies disparate congregations. Shared concepts of human dignity, the common good and love of neighbor are the cornerstones from which communities can build relationships and justice. What’s more, Fr. Baumann argues, is faith congregations share a radical belief in transformation — that change is not only achievable but also sacred.

“Working in a faith context brings a capacity for perseverance and hope, and a protection from cynicism and despair,” he says.

More than policy change

Situated in the Boyle Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles, Dolores Mission parish is a prime example of how organizing can strengthen a faith community. Since the Jesuits arrived in the 1980s, Dolores Mission has fostered a spirit of activism in parishioners, frequently partnering with the local FIA federation, LA Voice. While pastor at Dolores Mission, Fr. Scott Santarosa, SJ, remembers attending one event where migrants and clergy members affiliated with LA Voice stood on the steps of city hall and called on elected officials to protect migrant families from deportation.

After the protest finished, Fr. Santarosa clambered onto the bus with other parishioners. One undocumented man turned to him and said, “This was a special day. I feel like I already have my documents.”

For Fr. Santarosa, this was a poignant reminder that organizing is not just planning actions or achieving policy changes. It can also return dignity to those who have been robbed of it by unjust structures. “Even though we didn’t really move any issues that day, the process itself can bring people dignity,” he says. “It can remind people they’re worthy.”

Theology in the real world

For Fr. Baumann, organizing is the lens that clarifies the Jesuit dictum to find God in all things. “Theology is about the real world — it interacts with people,” he says. “If we believe that God is among us, how can we allow divisions based on ethnicity, religion or background to create animosity, injustice and violence?”

Annie Fox considers herself a “disciple” of Fr. Baumann. She was an organizer for Faith in Action in California before being hired as the Jesuits West Assistant for Justice, Ecology and Organizing.

“I believe in a God that calls on us to encounter each other, that changes our assumptions, that leads us to prophetic imagination,” she explains. “There’s nothing that I believe more deeply than that God envisions a kingdom that is better than what we have, and that we do have the power to achieve it if we’re willing to have faith in each other.

“That,” she adds, “is all John Baumann.”

Fr. Baumann’s quiet ethic has shaped what it means to live Ignatian spirituality in the U.S. With the growth of FIA, Fr. Baumann became a key advisor for leaders of the Jesuits West Province, strengthening the Jesuit commitment to social justice work in every sector. He helped hire Fox, tasking her with growing the province’s organizing efforts, such as the Jesuits West Collaborative Organizing for Racial Equity.

“Now, the whole notion of social justice is much more integrated into the life of the province,” says Fr. Fambrini. “John was an absolute model of this.”

As a leader focused on the walk rather than the talk, Fr. Baumann’s career and vocation offer a concrete model for putting contemplation into action. That style of leadership is a delicate balancing act, according to Fox. She admits that a lot of organizers, including herself, like to think of themselves as charismatic. They enjoy the limelight.

“If we’re honest, we fight for space at the front of the room,” Fox says. “John Baumann is the greatest example of servant leadership. What he really cares about is the leadership of others. He sees every individual as a potential leader and as someone who is going to be part of achieving God’s kingdom on earth.”

MegAnne Liebsch is the communications manager for the Office of Justice and Ecology at the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States. She holds a master’s in media and international conflict from University College Dublin and is an alumna of La Salle University. She lives in Washington, DC.

The post Faith in Action Founder John Baumann brings theology to life for thousands of Catholics appeared first on Jesuits.org.

September 6, 2023 — Fr. John Baumann, SJ, is not what he calls an “upfront person.” A lifelong community organizer, he prefers to keep a low profile, whether at protests, city council meetings or press conferences. For him, community organizing is about empowering others to create change in their communities.

“Organizing is putting the people up front,” says Fr. Baumann. “One of my early mentors, he would say, ‘If you get quoted in the newspaper, you’re fired.’”

Having hewn closely to this directive over his five-decade career, Fr. Baumann is a tricky subject for a feature article. His work in founding the international organizing network Faith in Action (FIA) has helped to shape the mission of West Coast Jesuits and improved the livelihoods of thousands of people around the world. But Fr. Baumann deflects many of these accolades, crediting grassroots leadership as the key to FIA’s success.

“What impresses me most about John is that he’s in no way, shape or form flashy, and yet he’s a powerful quiet force,” says Fr. Bob Fambrini, SJ, pastor of St. Francis Xavier Parish in Phoenix and FIA board member.

Recognizable by a swooping tuft of white hair and rimless rectangular glasses, Fr. Baumann elicits reverence from those who know him. The day after I interviewed him, we both attended a community organizing conference at the University of San Francisco. Although his legacy partially inspired the conference, Fr. Baumann tucked into the less-coveted seats typically left for latecomers. Still, people flocked to him — from old friends and colleagues to strangers who professed their admiration for his work. A patrician set to his shoulders, he leaned in with his whole body to listen.

Today, Faith in Action is one of the largest Jesuit-sponsored ministries in the world, organizing faith communities in 27 U.S. states, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Haiti, Ghana and Rwanda. Since its founding in 1972, FIA grassroots campaigns have improved local education systems, increased health care and affordable housing access, and reduced community violence. While campaigns look different based on their context, each is rooted in Fr. Baumann’s organizing philosophy, which acknowledges that the people most impacted by systems of injustice are the best suited to lead the transformation of those systems.

“Community organizing gives people the tools that they need to fight for justice and work toward a more equitable society,” says Fr. Baumann. “It creates a world where everyone belongs, can thrive and has a say in decisions that shape their lives.”

Historically, Catholic clergy and lay people played prominent roles in U.S. social movements, such as labor and union organizing during the Industrial Revolution, the farmworkers movement led by Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta, and peace activism during the 1970s. Like FIA, many national organizing networks, including the Industrial Areas Foundation and Gamaliel Network, were co-founded by Catholics. For over 100 years, organized movements have harnessed the collective power of Catholics to transform American public life, yet this historical relationship between faith and organizing is often overlooked.

Empowering communities

Growing up the youngest of eight children on his parent’s dairy farm in San Jose, California, Fr. Baumann learned the value of community at a young age. As a family of 10, they worked together, relying on each other to keep the farm afloat. Faith was lived in community, whether at the family dinner table or at the local Jesuit church, which Fr. Baumann’s parents and grandparents had helped build. A great source of pride for the Baumanns, their church was a tangible symbol of what could be accomplished when a community comes together.

This early connection to faith and the Jesuits paved the way for Fr. Baumann to enter the Society in 1956.  As a Jesuit, he expected to become a high school teacher, but while he was studying for his master’s in theology, the first documents from the Vatican II Council were released. The ideas he read in them would change the course of his life.

He was enthralled by the way Vatican II conceived of a humanistic church, a church that not only celebrated sacraments and weekly Mass but lived and responded to the challenges facing its parishioners. More than charity, Vatican II called on the church to work for justice, striving to change systems that created poverty and violence. Though the tenets of Catholic social teaching predate Vatican II, the council brought the notion of a faith that does justice to the forefront.

Inspired by these ideas, Fr. Baumann and a fellow Jesuit theology student Fr. Jerry Helfrich attended a clergy organizing seminar at the , where organizing pioneer Saul Alinsky frequently gave workshops.

“I was fascinated with Alinksy’s message about the importance of empowering people to have a voice in the community,” Fr. Baumann says.

That summer at an organizing placement on the West Side of Chicago, he worked for what felt like 24 hours a day nonstop. Observing the poor housing conditions in this Black neighborhood, Fr. Baumann convened a group of 30 community members to discuss how to address the widespread dilapidation. The attendees questioned Fr. Baumann’s authority, arguing he had no right to dictate what they needed.

“I learned quickly a basic principle in organizing: Take people where they are, not from where you want them to be,” he says. “I needed to set aside my personal ideology to really listen.”

It was a powerful lesson in subsidiarity — the Catholic social principle which argues that those closest to injustice should have a leading role in addressing it. Ultimately, community leaders decided to focus their campaign on a local apartment building riddled with code violations. By the end of the summer, they had pushed the absentee landlord to bring the building up to code.

“Chicago was really changing my whole view on what I wanted to do as a Jesuit, and I saw community organizing could be a ministry,” says Fr. Baumann. “Suddenly, theology became alive.”

Fr. Baumann began the summer with questions: How can the church respond to injustice? What am I being called to do? By the end of the summer, he had his answer: organizing.

Congregations come alive

In 1972, after several years of training in Chicago, Fr. Baumann and Fr. Helfrich returned to Oakland, California, to spearhead a local organizing movement, which they initially called the Pacific Institute for Community Organizing (PICO). Working out of a Franciscan church, the pair canvassed Oakland, going door-to-door to interview people about the issues in their community. They organized the neighborhood around everything from infrastructure concerns to abandoned houses and community safety. Most importantly, they trained community leaders to bring these issues before the Oakland city council and demand action. As the model grew more successful — amassing local participants and Jesuit volunteers — PICO began to expand across California.

At first, PICO focused on neighborhood-based organizing, but as it grew, the staff realized that community leaders in this model were prone to burn out. They pushed from campaign to campaign without building relationships that could nurture their work during challenging campaigns.

The staff at PICO began to wonder: What if we organized through congregations?

“I thought, I can help implement Vatican II and what my Jesuit spirituality was all about — how God’s present in the community, and how I can respond to what God would like to see happen in the community,” Fr. Baumann explains.

PICO began developing a faith-based model, working first with pastors, priests, rabbis and imams, who could bring together core groups of congregants to work on community issues. PICO developed trainings for these leaders to conduct one-to-ones in the community — not just with other congregants but with neighbors, too. One of PICO’s first faith-based campaigns included an action and a town hall meeting with the Oakland chief of police to discuss community violence. One thousand people attended.

After the actions, PICO and the community would gather for reflections. “Congregations came alive,” says Fr. Baumann, “People were saying, ‘Yeah, this is what church is all about.’”

Power is the product of relationship

Energized by this faith-based model, PICO quickly grew into a national organization, eventually renamed Faith in Action. It now works with over 3,000 congregations across 34 denominations, and since 2006, FIA has expanded internationally. In the U.S., FIA groups helped pass the Affordable Care Act in 2010, which expanded Medicaid access in 34 states and currently provides health insurance to 40 million Americans. FIA is also a close collaborator of U.S. Bishops and the Catholic Campaign for Human Development, which strives to break cycles of poverty through advocacy and nonprofit grantmaking.

While each FIA federation focuses on different issues according to local needs, broadly put, FIA organizing works to dismantle systemic racism and socioeconomic exclusion. By uniting faith voices on issues such as health care, immigration, education and property foreclosure, FIA harnesses the power of interfaith collaboration to achieve change.

“It is very powerful when you have people across races, across religious faiths coming together,” says Fr. Baumann. Where some might see doctrinal differences as a source of irreconcilable division, Fr. Baumann sees the shared experience of religion as an opportunity for transformative encounter.

At the center of FIA’s interfaith collaboration is Fr. Baumann’s credo: “Power is the product of relationship.” Faith provides a common language of values that unifies disparate congregations. Shared concepts of human dignity, the common good and love of neighbor are the cornerstones from which communities can build relationships and justice. What’s more, Fr. Baumann argues, is faith congregations share a radical belief in transformation — that change is not only achievable but also sacred.

“Working in a faith context brings a capacity for perseverance and hope, and a protection from cynicism and despair,” he says.

More than policy change

Situated in the Boyle Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles, Dolores Mission parish is a prime example of how organizing can strengthen a faith community. Since the Jesuits arrived in the 1980s, Dolores Mission has fostered a spirit of activism in parishioners, frequently partnering with the local FIA federation, LA Voice. While pastor at Dolores Mission, Fr. Scott Santarosa, SJ, remembers attending one event where migrants and clergy members affiliated with LA Voice stood on the steps of city hall and called on elected officials to protect migrant families from deportation.

After the protest finished, Fr. Santarosa clambered onto the bus with other parishioners. One undocumented man turned to him and said, “This was a special day. I feel like I already have my documents.”

For Fr. Santarosa, this was a poignant reminder that organizing is not just planning actions or achieving policy changes. It can also return dignity to those who have been robbed of it by unjust structures. “Even though we didn’t really move any issues that day, the process itself can bring people dignity,” he says. “It can remind people they’re worthy.”

Theology in the real world

For Fr. Baumann, organizing is the lens that clarifies the Jesuit dictum to find God in all things. “Theology is about the real world — it interacts with people,” he says. “If we believe that God is among us, how can we allow divisions based on ethnicity, religion or background to create animosity, injustice and violence?”

Annie Fox considers herself a “disciple” of Fr. Baumann. She was an organizer for Faith in Action in California before being hired as the Jesuits West Assistant for Justice, Ecology and Organizing.

“I believe in a God that calls on us to encounter each other, that changes our assumptions, that leads us to prophetic imagination,” she explains. “There’s nothing that I believe more deeply than that God envisions a kingdom that is better than what we have, and that we do have the power to achieve it if we’re willing to have faith in each other.

“That,” she adds, “is all John Baumann.”

Fr. Baumann’s quiet ethic has shaped what it means to live Ignatian spirituality in the U.S. With the growth of FIA, Fr. Baumann became a key advisor for leaders of the Jesuits West Province, strengthening the Jesuit commitment to social justice work in every sector. He helped hire Fox, tasking her with growing the province’s organizing efforts, such as the Jesuits West Collaborative Organizing for Racial Equity.

“Now, the whole notion of social justice is much more integrated into the life of the province,” says Fr. Fambrini. “John was an absolute model of this.”

As a leader focused on the walk rather than the talk, Fr. Baumann’s career and vocation offer a concrete model for putting contemplation into action. That style of leadership is a delicate balancing act, according to Fox. She admits that a lot of organizers, including herself, like to think of themselves as charismatic. They enjoy the limelight.

“If we’re honest, we fight for space at the front of the room,” Fox says. “John Baumann is the greatest example of servant leadership. What he really cares about is the leadership of others. He sees every individual as a potential leader and as someone who is going to be part of achieving God’s kingdom on earth.”

MegAnne Liebsch is the communications manager for the Office of Justice and Ecology at the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States. She holds a master’s in media and international conflict from University College Dublin and is an alumna of La Salle University. She lives in Washington, DC.

The post Faith in Action Founder John Baumann brings theology to life for thousands of Catholics appeared first on Jesuits.org.