What is JUSTICE all about?
Strongly rooted in Ignatian spirituality and compassion for the disenfranchised, J.U.S.T.I.C.E. (Jesuit University Students Together in Concerned Empowerment), is a student organization concerned with promoting social justice and the ideals of St. Ignatius on campus and throughout the world. Following the Ignatian values of Magis and Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam, JUSTICE strives to achieve sustaining social change through its experiences with and for others. In his groundbreaking address "The Service of Faith and the Promotion of Justice in American Jesuit Higher Education," superior general Peter-Hans Kolvenbach, S.J. eloquently affirmed this challenge to Jesuit university students: "Action on behalf of justice and participation in the transformation of the world fully appear to us as a constitutive dimension of the preaching of the gospel, or, in other words, of the church's mission of the redemption of the human race and its liberation from every oppressive situation." The JUSTICE group, through education and direct action, strives to answer Kolvenbach's challenge.
JUSTICE members have the opportunity to travel around the country to cities such as Washington, DC; Boston, MA; and Los Angeles, CA to attend seminars and advocate for Fair Trade, Human Rights, and other social-justice related topics.
The JUSTICE group hopes to arrive at the goals of service, greater awareness, and advocacy by sponsoring and coordinating various activities and group projects:
Education
As members of a global community, it is important to be cognizant of contemporary international and domestic social issues. By being informed citizens of the world, JUSTICE group members promote educated awareness of many pressing social issues. Through its subscription to America magazine, a national Catholic weekly magazine supported by the Jesuits, JUSTICE members are kept abreast of, and engage in, intelligent group dialogue concerning many important contemporary issues, including the war in Iraq, AIDS in Africa, homelessness in America, and issues of the third world. In some cases, educational topics are selected for formal discussion in the JCU community. Student editorials, display boards in the atrium, and activities like the campus-wide Iraq debate represent only a few examples of community awareness programs.
Catholic Worker Service Project
A significant component of being “Women and Men for Others” means serving, learning from, and being with the poor of society. The JUSTICE group hopes to foster this mentality with a weekly service project to the Catholic Worker homeless shelter in downtown Cleveland. JUSTICE group members meet at the pool desk each Wednesday at 6:15 PM to bring food down to the shelter, serve the meal and clean up afterward. Often, members sacrifice their Wednesday night meal in an act of solidarity with the poor. In addition to education, awareness, and prayer, JUSTICE group members, through their direct action, live out their spiritual life and social concern in tangible activities.
Hunger Week
Hunger Week is a time for awareness, education and reflection. Events included in this week include a 30 hour fast, a t-shirt day, volunteering at a local soup kitchen, helping out with Harvest for Hunger, the Heifer Project (a collection to benefit farmers in East Asia), educational displays around campus, a prayer service and film series. As Americans we live in a country of plenty, but hunger week allows students to recognize that millions of people go to sleep each night starving. Students are actively engaged in role playing exercises. In the hunger banquet, students are selectively chosen as rich, middle class or poor, and then given their respectable amount of food. Through their active participation, Hunger Week hopes to instill a greater concern for the plight of the poor within students.
Labre Project
The Labre Project, named after St. Benedict Joseph Labre, who lived his life in the streets is an opportunity for participants to really engage in direct service with others. Participants will gather on Friday nights at 5:00 PM to prepare food that they bring downtown to give to the homeless. Participants are encouraged to leave all of their stereotypes of the homeless behind as they meet people, see where they live and approach them with friendship and care. This is open to all. All those interested can sign up on Chris Kerr's office door. But hurry! The spots fill up quickly.
School of Americas Protest
Every year in November, JUSTICE students have the opportunity to travel to Fort Benning, Georgia to advocate for the closing of the SOA/WHINSEC. Members engage in a peaceful protest and vigil and also attend an Ignatian Family Teach-In. For more information, see our Activism page.
Fair Trade
JUSTICE works to educate others on the value of Fair Trade. Members advocate for Fair Trade coffee and other products in JCU Dining venues as well as host a Fair Trade Christmas sale and sponsor visits to Revive, a Fair Trade boutique located on Lee Road.
