From October 19-26, the Ignatian Solidarity Network hosted the first virtual Ignatian Family Teach-In for Justice (IFTJ). The IFTJ, the largest annual Catholic social justice gathering in the U.S., aims to connect the Catholic faith with actionable justice. This year, the IFTJ was held virtually with participants attending keynote speaking engagements, roundtable sessions, and different networking opportunities over Zoom and livestreams.
The concept of IFTJ began in the late 1980s when Robert Holstein, a former California Province Jesuit, began conversations with Fr. Charlie Currie, S.J., then-president of the ACLU. The momentum for the event truly sparked, however, in 1989. In that year in El Salvador, a bloody civil war was tearing through the country; six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper, and her teenage daughter were murdered for speaking out against the war. Fr. Ignacio Ellacuria, S.J., Fr. Segundo Montes, S.J., Fr. Ignacio Martin-Baro, S.J., Fr. Juan Ramon Moreno, S.J., Fr. Armando Lopez, S.J., Fr. Joaquin Lopez y Lopez, S.J., Julia Elba Ramos, and Celina Ramos were all killed at the University of Central America. Of the Salvadoran soldiers responsible for the murders, 19 out of the 26 received training at the U.S. Army School of the Americas (SOA).
There was an immediate outcry in the United States, especially in Catholic communities. Annual vigils were organized at the gates of Fort Benning and SOA. This was not SOA’s first controversy. Since the early 1980s, critics had accused SOA of teaching repression techniques and torture, though SOA has denied those allegations. These vigils eventually spurred into the first Ignatian family gathering, which took place at a hotel in Columbus, Georgia in 1996. In 1997, the IFTJ took up its home in “The Tent,” a large outdoor tent sitting on the edge of the Chattahoochee River in downtown Columbus. The tent has since become the symbol of the Ignatian Solidarity Network, an important part of the Jesuit institutions’ time in Georgia to protest SOA. Further, it symbolizes the “home” to all who strive to continue advocacy and dialogue in the Catholic faith.
In 2010, the Teach-In moved from Georgia to Washington, D.C. in order to advocate more directly with representatives on Capitol Hill. Due to COVID-19 precautions, the Teach-In was held virtually this year; this allowed its normally weekend-long event to be expanded into a full week of programming. October 19-23 featured professional development tracks and content geared towards high school classrooms. October 24-26 had a more traditional IFTJ format, with over 40 speakers, different breakout rooms, prayer, and liturgy.
This year, the theme of the Teach-In was “Prophetic Resilience: Breaking Down and Building Up,” which asked attendees to “break down all that separates us from the love of God, from each other, and from flourishing.” Mainstage keynote speakers included Olga Segura, author on race and culture; Fr. Bryan Massingale, professor at Fordham University; Mauricio López, executive secretary of Red Eclesial PanAmazonica (REPAM); and Bishop Mark Seitz, Bishop of the Diocese of El Paso.
The Teach-In featured a number of different breakout rooms, encompassing many of the topics young Catholics would find most prescient, including climate change, coronavirus, racial divides in the United States, and gender-based violence. Roundtable discussions included environmental education opportunities for students: “Discerning Fossil Fuels in Catholic Institution Endowments” or “Connecting Climate to Overlapping Crises: High School Students.” Some of the breakout rooms focused on racial injustice included “Looking Inward Before Speaking Out: Taize and Black Lives Matter;” “The Future of Policing;” and “Black Lives Matter and the Catholic Church.” There was also a focus on how coronavirus’ impact, with sessions such as “COVID-19 Took Over My Small Business” and “Just Zooming? Building Up Best Practices for Pandemic Immersion Experiences.”
Christopher Kerr, executive director of the Ignatian Solidarity Network, expressed a hope that the Teach-In, though virtual, could still continue its monumental work.
“In this unprecedented year, in which our world has drastically changed due to a global pandemic along with the many other ways our country is grappling with injustice,” he commented. “We remain committed to forming advocates for a world that better upholds the dignity of all people.”
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