The Jesuit Anti-Racism Society (JARS) is launching a national program centered on Black spirituality this summer as part of its ongoing efforts to raise awareness of African American issues within the world’s largest religious order. Hold a retreat.
A privately directed “God in All of Us: Praying in Black Spirituality” retreat for Jesuits and laypeople will be held from June 24 to July 3 at Loyola University Retreat in Woodstock, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. & will be held at Ecology Campus.
“The directors of this retreat will be individuals formed in both Black and Ignatian spirituality. Our days begin and end with communal prayer, including daily Mass. ” reads the event description.
“Throughout the retreat, Black sacred songs, optional films, and other additional devotional resources that illustrate the Black experience will enrich daily grace and serve as guideposts to grace.”
The Jesuit Anti-Racism Sodality’s work dates back to the late 2010s. At the time, an interracial group of Jesuit seminarians formed a special committee, led by a young man, to petition for an order recognizing the sodality as a ministry in the Midwestern states of the United States.
Their stated goal is to “analyze where systemic racism is at work in our current practices and guide leaders on how to make systemic decisions that deepen accountability for people of color.” His mission was to “advise the people” and “to transform the Midwest Province and, by extension, the apostolate.” We will develop into a true anti-racist organization. ”
Lorenzo Herman, a scholar and former Jesuit, said the group was founded after the order received media attention to expose the infamous 1838 slave trade at Georgetown University in Washington. It is said that it was done. There, 272 men, women, and children were sold downstream to Louisiana, just the most notable of various slave-trafficking operations carried out by Jesuits in the United States over nearly two centuries. There wasn’t.
The fallout in recent years has included a variety of mandated actions to atone for slave ownership and anti-Black racism. Senior black Jesuits like Fr. Joseph Brown, Greg Chisholm, and James Pierce have long been involved in efforts to promote acceptance into the Negro Association and have helped lead the Association’s past three retreats.
“Black Jesuits have told their white Jesuit allies in groups like JARS what it means to be a black man in a religious order that cares little about humanity or ethnic origin. “It gave us an opportunity to truly understand what is going on,” Herrmann wrote. In 2022 doctoral thesis.
The eight-day retreat in Illinois will be attended by members of the sodality from across the country, as it has expanded to other Jesuit provinces since its founding. Retreat leaders are from the black community and span Catholic and Protestant backgrounds.
Registration is open until May 8, and the cost to attend is $1,100, with scholarships available.
