MISSION AND MINISTRY | In response to developments of recent months, as well as to President Snyder’s letter “Beyond Words”, the Office of Mission and Ministry, supported by the Center for Teaching Excellence and the Office of Intercultural Affairs, announces the launch of a new Faculty and Staff Learning Community (FSLC) on the theme “Racial Justice and Catholicism.”
In this yearlong learning community, faculty and staff will explore the Catholic Church’s complicated and often contradictory engagement with race and racism in the United States, historically and in the present, amidst renewed calls for racial justice in the wake of police killings of unarmed Black people.
At LMU, an honest analysis of organizational culture demands that we engage critically with our Catholic culture, which has both contributed to systems of anti-Black and other forms of racism in the United States and promoted a vision of racial justice grounded in a belief in the inalienable dignity of all human beings understood as created in the image and likeness of God. Participants will also consider what it means to cultivate anti-racist attitudes and practices in their personal and professional lives.
Fulltime faculty and exempt staff are eligible to apply for participation. The FSLC meets every third Friday starting on Sept. 18, 2020, at 3-4:30 p.m. in Zoom. All participants will receive a $500 stipend and copies of the required books. More information and a link to the online application can be found at http://mission.lmu.edu/racialjusticeandcatholicism.
