Reclaiming Social Justice

Juan Miguel Alvarez was born in Jalisco, Mexico, and raised in Colorado Springs, Colorado. He is the director of Haciendo Caminos, an initiative at the University of Notre Dame that seeks to identify and empower the next generation of Catholic Latino ecclesial leaders in the United States. He earned his B.A in theology and his M.Div. degrees from the University of Notre Dame. Juan Miguel previously ministered in the Archdiocese of Chicago for six years; his positions included director of faith formation at Immaculate Conception Catholic Church and theology teacher at St. Rita of Cascia High School and Cristo Rey Jesuit High School.

In this episode, we talk about the models of faith in his family, being the only Catholic at a protestant school, his education in theology and experience ministering in a church where everyone, regardless of their job title, was responsible for worship and justice work. He shares a powerful story of the parish’s response to gun violence and gang activity. We also get into the growth of the hispanic community in the united states and how the haciendo caminos initiative is trying to respond.

In this episode, I speak with Ana Chavarin. Ana Chavarin is a member of St. John the Evangelist Parish in Tucson, Ariz., and formerly an organizer for Pima County Interfaith. During her over 10 year tenure as an oganizer, she was awarded the 2019 Cardinal Bernardin New Leadership Award from the U.S. bishops’ Catholic Campaign for Human Development. In 2018 she won a US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) award for Hispanic Catholic Leaders and was also recognized by the Arizona Daily Star for her community achievements. Ana has helped the immigrant community address issues of community safety, drug abuse, rights of the undocumented, and how to become a citizen. Most recently she helped launch the first printing of parish identification cards in Tucson. In our conversation we talk about her religious upbringing and the influential roles her grandparents paid in her youth. Additionally, she shares the story of how she originally came to the United States. Other themes our conversation touch on includes the importance of getting involved in your community, speaking up when you see injustice, and not just that, taking concrete steps to change those conditions.

In this episode, I speak with Isaac Cuevas. Isaac is the director of the Office of Immigration Affairs for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. The Office of Immigration Affairs was created as part of Archbishop Gomez’ vision for helping parishes and people in the LA community with immigration issues. Hiis office has developed a network of community leaders that implement workshops, develop programs, and provide resources for the largest immigrant community in the country. In addition to community outreach, Mr. Cuevas works as an immigration advocate, serving as the voice for the Archdiocese among policy leaders and civil rights groups. Prior to this, he worked in the Entertainment industry making movies and television shows. In our conversation, we talked about walking away from his successful career in holywood. By listening to this episode you will hear the first person account of someone who works directly with migrant bus arrivals. We will talk about how the immigrant experience has changed over the decades and what Catholics should consider when thinking about this issue during the coming general election.

In this episode, you will meet William Becerra, the Bilingual Advisor for national Hispanic engagement with Catholic Relief Services. We talk about his upbringing in Colombia, his experience as a religious missionary, and more!

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Today’s episode features a special guest, Jack Jezreel. If you a passionate social-justice-oriented Catholic, then you have probably heard of JustFaith. JustFaith Ministries creates transformative programs that inspire action to address the root causes of injustice while serving with love. Jack is the founder of JustFaith Ministries and was the first Executive Director of the organization. Jack is a popular speaker and author of the book, A New Way to Be Church: Parish Renewal from the Outside In. His work now focuses on presentations, workshops and training to introduce JustFaith programs and local leadership & networking.

Word of the day: Love

Catholic Social Teaching Theme: Option for the poor

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Ever wonder, what, if anything, do Catholic seminarians learn about social justice? Tune in to this episode to find out. You might be surprised at the answer!

Themes from the interview that connect to the themes of Catholic Social Teaching:

Word of the day: Distributism

Source: Does the Church Teach Distributism? By Dr. Jared Staudt

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In this episode, you will meet Amanda Montez. Amanda Montez Cobian is the director of diversity, equity, and inclusion at Jesuit High School in Portland, OR. She recently finished her graduate degree at the University of San Francisco in international and multicultural education. Her research centers alumni of Nativity schools and how they transition to predominantly white high schools. As a bi-racial educator, she aims to create the classroom environment she wished she could have had as a student and works to create systems of racial equity at work, in research, and as a co-author of Jesuit West's Community Organizing for Racial Equity (CORE).

Snippet from the interview:

"When I look at the seven principles of [Catholic Social Teaching], I think being able to name all humans have inherent dignity. To me, it's like that is the black lives matter movement; when I think about like preferential option for the poor and vulnerable that is saying by BIPOC right? It's not just saying people of color right. It's centering black and Indigenous and then people of color. I think that there's a lot of overlap actually."

Themes from the interview that connect to the themes of Catholic Social Teaching:

Resource mentioned in the interview

⁠Are Critical Race Theory and Catholicism compatible? | Think Like a Jesuit, Episode 3⁠

Word of the day: Encounter conversations/One-on-one relational meetings

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In this episode, I speak with Melissa Lowery. Melissa was the first Black woman to work as the Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at Jesuit High School, and is currently the Director of Equity and Community Engagement at Central Catholic High School in Portland. Her career in DEI at Catholic institutions was sparked by the creation of a documentary about her life growing up as Black girl in West Linn, Oregon. Listen to this episode to hear what inspired her to create this documentary about her life and how that led to the social justice work she now does with students.

Snippet from the interview

"So what if his skin turned the same color as yours? What's the big deal?"

Learn more and watch Melissa's documentary

Word of the day: Advocacy

Catholic Social Teaching Themes:

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In this episode, I speak with Annie Fox, the daughter of a Baptist mother and a Jewish father who has dedicated her life to interfaith relationship building and justice work.  She currently works as the Provincial Assistant for Social Ministry Organizing for Jesuits West. Fox has run grassroots campaigns focused on housing, homelessness, education, immigration, and mass incarceration. Here's our conversation at a glance:

Snippet from the interview

"I remember my mother saying to me, “Annie I don’t know who I am if I don’t have a suit to put on in the morning.” […] I did not want my life or my mother’s life to be defined by whether or not we got to put a suit on in the morning. […]Any version of my life where my dignity is defined by whether or not I get to put on a suit in the morning is a fake dignity. My dignity comes from because I am a child of God.”

Word of the day: Activism

Catholic Social Teaching Themes:

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Ana Ruiz is a young immigrant from Mexico who has spent most of her life directly or indirectly serving in ministry. Her earliest memory is at a retreat center where her parents served as marriage encounter leaders. Fast forward to today, she has recently graduated from Georgetown University where she majored in culture and politics and minored in theology and german and was the vice president of Catholic Women at Georgetown, a campus court of the Catholic Daughters of the Americas. She has interned at multiple well-known Catholic organizations such as the Catholic Labor Network and the USCCB, has helped organize the annual catholic social ministry gathering, and participated in a virtual synodal session with Pope Francis last February 2022.

In our discussion, we talked about all these personal and professional experiences, but we also talk about why she stays Catholic and works for justice despite coming into adulthood during one of the most difficult periods of history for everyone, but in particular Catholics, She has a very powerful, yet simple answer: It’s all about Jesus.

Excerpt: 

"Jesus' mission was not only to transform our hearts and minds but transform the world and transform those who are kind of stuck under these structures of sin that we are all responsible for. [...] It’s something Jesus did. The call to our faith is to model Jesus and so we have to model him in that way."

Word of the day: two feet of love in action

Related Episode:

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