MISSION AND MINISTRY | LMU faculty and staff joined their colleagues from Jesuit colleges around the country at Seattle University this past summer for a conference on the “Commitment to Justice in Jesuit Higher Education.”
Matthew Bazar, director of project management for Information Technology Services, was part of the LMU delegation that attended the conference. The experience left a deep impression on Matt:
“The AJCU Justice Conference challenged me to think about what the LMU mission means to me as a staff member who works ‘behind the scenes’ and not directly with students. I was inspired by the various mission-related programming that other institutions provide for staff, faculty and students and look forward to continuing the conversation on how to bring similar opportunities to LMU. Two of the keynote speakers, Bryan Massingale and Sister Simone Campbell, delivered riveting presentations on racial justice and poverty, and issued a call to action for all of us to become educated about these issues and to get involved.”
Highlights of the conference included four keynote addresses from: Eboo Patel, founder and president of Interfaith Youth Care and a nationally renowned advocate on behalf of interfaith cooperation; Rev. Bryan Massingale, a theologian and ethicist from Fordham University and author of “Racial Justice and the Catholic Church”; Simone Campbell, S.S.S., the executive director of NETWORK, which promotes social justice in public policy and who became famous in 2012 for leading the “Nuns on the Bus” who traveled the country to draw attention to the ravages of poverty; and Michael Garanzini, S.J., secretary of higher education for the Society of Jesus.
All four addresses can be found at https://www.seattleu.edu/jesuit-education/justice-conference-2017/ and have already found their way onto LMU syllabi this semester.
