The end of the quarter and academic year is quickly approaching! In this newsletter you'll find recording links from our most recent events and one final invitation: In honor of the anniversary of the publication of Laudato Si' and Laudato Si' Week (May 21-28), ICTC is hosting a lunch talk titled "Ecological Spirituality from the Ancestral Testimonies of the Nahua People" with Ignacio Torres Ramírez. Ignacio, an Indigenous leader and healer, is visiting from the indigenous community of Amatlán de Quetzalcoatl in Mexico. Please see the invitation below, registration closes May 24!
May 22, 2023
Next week we continue to explore our journey towards healing and reconciliation. We learn and draw from the experiences and wisdom of many different communities and disciplines in order to access our capacity for resilience and wholeness. You are invited to join us in these robust conversations!
May 4, 2023
Easter Message from Dr. Jeanette Rodriguez, ICTC Executive Director
How does it help to maintain a state of peace when we are locked in a world of deep-seated conflict and violence that allows unnecessary, and what appears sometimes to be, un-redemptive suffering?
The eyes of faith offer us metanoia; new eyes to see creation, to participate in a new reality, and to celebrate the incarnation of Christ risen, fully human, holy God among us.
Apr 5, 2023
We continue our theme of healing and reconciliation this spring with several wonderful and diverse speakers. The events of this quarter are the culmination of our engagement with "The Journey Towards Healing and Reconciliation" explored this year, and we hope that you can join us for these final installments!
Mar 30, 2023
As winter quarter concludes next week, we are grateful for our guest speakers and all of you who attended the events in person or online. In keeping with our theme of healing and reconciliation, Fr. Bryan Massingale joined us in February for the Catholic Heritage Lecture "A Spirituality of Racial Metanoia" and Dr. Richard Atleo was the Winter Interreligious Dialogue Speaker, giving a lecture on the Nuu-Chal-Nulth perspective on healing and reconciliation; links to both event recordings are below. Also, please save the date for our spring events with Valarie Kaur, Fr. James Martin, SJ, and Dr. Oludamini Ogunnaike - dates and RSVP links below!
Mar 7, 2023
Ashes can… be a thing of wonder. This day in the Christian year, this day of ashes, tells us that ashes—dust, dirt, earth—are the stuff from which we have been made, and to which we will return. This day, and the season it heralds, seeks to ground us, to make us mindful of the humus, the humility, the earthiness of which our bones and flesh are made. This season calls us to open ourselves to the God who brings life from ashes…
Feb 21, 2023
In keeping with ICTC's theme of "A Journey Towards Healing and Reconciliation," and in connection with Black History Month, we are excited to welcome Fr. Bryan Massingale, professor at Fordham University, to Seattle for the Catholic Heritage Lecture on February 9. We appreciate your RSVP if you plan to attend!
Feb 2, 2023
New Year’s, like Lent, is an opportunity to step back and reflect on our life, our life choices, and the direction we want to move towards. While we are very hopeful and energized by possibilities of a new year, we begin this year with a heavy heart, having lost one of our most beloved colleagues.
Jan 12, 2023
New Year’s, like Lent, is an opportunity to step back and reflect on our life, our life choices, and the direction we want to move towards. While we are very hopeful and energized by possibilities of a new year, we begin this year with a heavy heart, having lost one of our most beloved colleagues.
Jan 10, 2023
Greetings of peace,
Longing, waiting, listening - these are some of the words that come to mind as we enter the beautiful season of Advent. This “waiting” is not a passive waiting, but a preparatory waiting where we center ourselves and drop to that place where we find the resilience to be the light in those corners of the world where we find darkness. I so appreciate the phrase from Valarie Kaur, who asks when we find ourselves in time of darkness, if this is a “darkness of the tomb, or the darkness of the womb?” I believe that we are continually being asked to both midwife and give birth to the goodness and gifts that we find in the world. I am challenged to see the “small” joys that also reveal a truth about the world we live in.
When Jesus speaks about the world, he is very realistic. He encounters greed, betrayal, and persecution. There is no suggestion that these signs of the world's darkness will ever be absent. And still, God's joy can be ours. It can be ours in the midst of it all, because it is the joy of belonging to the household of God, whose love is stronger than death. This doesn't mean we deny the darkness; we are not naïve or uninformed; but we need to choose not to live in the darkness. Our faith makes a claim on us that the light that shines in the darkness can be trusted more than the darkness.
- Dr. Jeanette Rodriguez, ICTC Executive Director
Dec 6, 2022
The month of November is the time of remembering, in particular, we celebrate All Saints Day and All Souls Day. My favorite ceremony during this time is Día de Los Muertos, a beloved Mexican holiday in remembrance of the loved ones who have gone before us. During this celebration of life, families traditionally set up ofrendas (altars) in their homes or they visit cemeteries and adorn them with photos, candles and food, to visit with and to celebrate both the life of the one who has gone before and the legacy that person left behind for their families and communities. In the midst of mourning and grief there is a light – a hope - that death is not enough to separate us from the people that we love.
- Dr. Jeanette Rodriguez, ICTC Executive Director
Nov 8, 2022
Monday, October 10, is Indigenous Peoples' Day. We enter this day in prayer and reflection on the history, culture, and contributions of Indigenous peoples, and how we can continue the work of justice and reconciliation.
Oct 10, 2022
At this moment in history we are mindful that our world and our communities are impacted by wars, violence, hostility, and anxiety. These community and global challenges affect us and lead us away from our call as Christians and people of goodwill to respond to violence and hatred in love as Scripture and Sacred texts teaches.
Sep 27, 2022
Greetings of peace and welcome back to another quarter at Seattle University. We at ICTC have set a wonderful calendar of programming for the coming academic year!
Sep 20, 2022
We at ICTC hope you are having a wonderful summer! The time is going by quickly and we have been busy planning for the upcoming academic year. You'll see some confirmed dates for events below. We will have a full announcement of our new theme in our September newsletter. In the meantime, save the dates for our Fall Quarter events, and please join us for the sixth annual Immigration Summit on Saturday, August 27, to be held here on campus.
Aug 11, 2022
Thank you for your engagement this past academic year! From reading groups to faculty research presentations, Zoom events to in-person gatherings, evening lectures to all-day summits, this has been a full and successful year for the ICTC and our supporters. Most of our events were recorded, and you can find the links at the top of the ICTC homepage. We are also pleased to announce the promotion of Jessica Palmer from Assistant Director to Associate Director and Jeanette Rodriguez from Director to Executive Director. We look forward to sharing next year's theme and our 2022-23 calendar of speakers in early August!
Jun 28, 2022
Our goal should be to live life in radical amazement, [to] get up in the morning and look at the world in a way that takes nothing for granted. Everything is phenomenal; everything is incredible; never treat life casually. To be spiritual is to be amazed. - Abraham Joshua Heschel