Child Soldiers a Jesuit Refugee Service Concern

The Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) report, "Understanding the Phenomenon of Child Soldiers," came out on February 12, Red Hand Day, a day meant to raise worldwide awareness for the plight of children forced into armed service.

The study was based on interviews with over 120 former child soldiers living in a JRS reception center in the Democratic Republic of Congo. They were twelve years old on average when recruited. Over 60 percent became soldiers; others were couriers or cooks.

Though many children said that they had enrolled voluntarily in militias, issues of poverty, joblessness, lack of schools, and appalling family circumstances were often underlying motivators.

The JRS center assists them in reintegrating into civilian life, helping them return to school or get vocational training. For more information go to www.jrs.net/reports.

Le Moyne President Heads to Africa

Fr. Charles Beirne, SJ, president of Le Moyne College in Syracuse, stepped down from his position in May after Jesuit superior general Peter-Hans Kolvenbach called upon him to help establish the first Jesuit university in Africa.

"I'll be helping them with conceptualizing. What kind of university will they want? Do they want to have it in one place or in several different places? What's the relationship from one country to another?" says Beirne, who has served in administration at Jesuit colleges in Guatemala and El Salvador as well as at Georgetown and Santa Clara universities.

Jesuit Bishops

Bishop George Murry, SJ, a 58-year-old native of Camden, New Jersey, was installed as the bishop of the Diocese of Youngstown in Ohio. Murry taught history at Georgetown University, was president of Archbishop Carroll High School in Washington, D.C., and associate vice president for academic affairs at the University of Detroit.

The Youngstown diocese, which comprises about 215,000 Catholics, was without a bishop for two years. Murry, most recently the bishop of St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands, will spend his first year in Youngstown visiting the parishes, schools, and hospitals in the diocese. -CNS

On May 5, Anthony Francis Sharma, SJ, was consecrated as the country's first Catholic bishop in Assumption Church in Kathmandu, Nepal.

Sharma, born in 1937 in Kathmandu to a Hindu family, converted to Christianity and joined the Society of Jesus in 1956. He was ordained the first Nepalese Jesuit priest in 1968.

Catholicism first came to Nepal in 1951, when the king invited priests to establish schools. Of the country's 23 million people, about 1 million are Christians and, of that number, 7,000 are Catholics.

March Madness Georgetown's Jonathan Wallace was among the Hoyas who led their school to victory over North Carolina, 96-84, during the "Sweet Sixteen" games of this year's NCAA tournament. Georgetown's subsequent loss to Ohio State ended a seven-game winning streak, but it was nonetheless a dream season for the team; its 30-7 record was the fourth 30-win season in program history. Georgetown had beaten Boston College in the second round to advance to the Final Four. Other Jesuit schools involved in this year's March Madness were Marquette, Creighton, Holy Cross, Gonzaga, and Xavier, all in the first round, Xavier making it to the second.

Jesuit High Hosts Special Olympics About 300 Beaverton, Oregon, public school special education athletes trained for most of this school year to participate in the 6th Annual Special Olympics Track Meet, held this April at Jesuit High School in Portland. More than 70 Jesuit High students worked at this event as part of a service learning project. "This is a one-day freshmen service experience that is positive for everybody involved," said Scott Powers, Christian Service Director at the school. Jesuit High partnered with Special Olympics Oregon, Beaverton Public Schools Special Education, and Tualatin Hills Park and Recreation to put on the event.

Summit on Human Dignity

This dramatic sculpture and wall, made from scrap plywood, lumber, and sheet metal, purposefully interrupted student traffic patterns at Brophy College Prep in Phoenix during the last school year. The construction was part of a program, Summit on Human Dignity, that focused on the human face of immigration; the point was to remind students of the plight of Mexican migrants.

Guest speakers and classes were part of the program; students also traveled to Nogales, Mexico, to speak with youth at a repatriation center.

"Actually hearing from a migrant is a totally different experience than hearing about him," writes Bob Ryan, the program's creator and Brophy's principal. His goal for these summits is to "take a current issue from popular discourse, strip away the politics and economics, and examine the issue from the perspective of human dignity."

The first Summit dealt with capital punishment. The Summit topic for the 2007-2008 school year will be war, particularly the war in Iraq. Ryan is mindful that students soon "will be eligible to both vote and serve in the military." He hopes to "provide for them a framework within which they can engage these questions from a perspective of faith."

Jesuit Victims of the Nazis Remembered

Rockhurst University in Kansas City dedicated a plaque this April that commemorates the Jesuit victims of the Nazi regime, including Rupert Mayer and Alfred Delp. As part of the university's commemoration of Yom Hashoah-Holocaust Remembrance Day-students, faculty, and members of the Kansas City community read the names of Holocaust victims and attended a prayer service and a blessing of the plaque.

The 55- by 28-inch bronze plaque is a gift from Rockhurst regent Eliot Berkley and his wife, Marcia. (Berkley, below left, is speaking with Rabbi Jacques Cukierkorn and Rockhurst president Fr. Thomas Curran, OSFS.)

The plaque bears the names of the 152 Jesuits, including Belgians, Germans, French, and Poles, who were killed by Nazis, died in concentration camps, or died in captivity or from its results. The lists were compiled by Vincent Lapomarda, SJ, author of The Jesuits and the Third Reich.

Pride and Joy Gospel Choir

When Ella Fitzgerald said "The only thing better than singing is more singing," she must have been imagining these girls. They are the Bowman Pride and Joy Gospel Choir from the Sister Thea Bowman Middle School for Girls, part of the Jesuits' St. Aloysius School in Manhattan.

A minimum of 30 girls participate in the choir through audition, based on interest and commitment rather than musical or singing skills. The choir, whose repertoire ranges from "Amazing Grace" to "Dona Nobis Pacem," tours frequently, most recently at Boston College (above) and at Harvard.

"Directing the Thea Bowman Gospel choir is the best part of my day," says Kirstin Anderson. "It doesn't matter how stressful classes have been or how tired I am at 5:00. As soon as we start warming up and working on a new piece of music I get excited because of how committed the girls are to singing and learning new music." -Elizabeth Howard

Students' Social Concerns in New Orleans

Poverty and racism, not fun in the sun, were on the spring break agenda this year for more than 500 students from Jesuit high schools, colleges, and universities. The weekend of March 9, Jesuit High School and Loyola University New Orleans hosted "Rebuilding Our Communities: Facing Racism and Poverty," a teach-in that covered topics including institutional and environmental racism, fair housing, economic development, poverty, and employment.

Before and after the teach-in, the students took advantage of ample opportunities for service work in some still-devastated areas of New Orleans. All told, more than 2,000 Jesuit-affiliated volunteers made their presence felt.

The Ignatian Solidarity Network, based in San Francisco, and the Jesuits' New Orleans Province sponsored the events. -Julie Bourbon