Winter 2021

We wish everyone a Happy St. Patrick's Day, an upcoming warm and light-filled first day of spring (hopefully!) and for those directly connected with SU, a restful spring break.

The ICTC has a full spring schedule of programs we are looking forward to, from the final lecture in our Nonviolent Shift series with Dr. Erica Chenoweth from Harvard University on April 21 (details below); to several ICTC Research Fellowship presentations, the Theology and Religious Studies Ann O'Hara Graff Lecture (which ICTC is co-sponsoring this year) with Dr. M. Shawn Copland on May 13 and our concluding Interreligious Dialogue Initiative discussion with Lummi Elder Darrell Hillaire on May 19. More information will be available for all of these events early spring quarter!

We are two weeks into the Lenten season - a time of intentional prayer, re-examination and a journey towards transformation. As Pope Francis has written:

"A journey always involves a transformation, a change. After a journey, we are no longer the same. There is always something new about those who have made a journey: they have learned new things, encountered new people and situations, and found inner strength amid the hardships and risks they met along the way. No one worships the Lord without first experiencing the interior growth that comes from embarking on a journey."

May this Lenten season be the catalyst for the healing and transformation of ourselves, our communities, our nation, the world, and creation.

During the month of February we celebrate Black History Month, a time to especially recognize and uplift the voices and experiences of our Black sisters and brothers. In 1965 African American theologian Howard Thurman wrote "In all this nightmare of violence and rampage there is the basis for real hope...Things that have been smoldering are now moving into the open and are thereby becoming available to be dealt with, shared and treated...A common agenda becomes available now for the first time." A statement that feels just as relevant today, as we pursue "the agenda" of creating a society of peace and justice.

It is our hope that the incoming U.S. Administration provides us with an opportunity to address both the systemic roots of racism and racial inequality in our country, as well as the global pandemic and the urgent needs of our people for economic security.

Soon we will commemorate the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Let us join the call to rededicate ourselves to his vision and legacy of Gospel nonviolence and take to heart his call to stand up for justice, stand up for peace, and join hands in a common struggle to abolish the systemic racism, poverty, and violence that threatens to tear our nation apart.

Divisive politics, racial injustice, destructive weather, a global pandemic, an economic crisis, and now the recent attack on the democracy of our country: our world is shaken. Yet as we know from history and our Catholic tradition, the fractures caused by these challenges also open space for compassion, justice and transformative change. We discover what’s meaningful in our lives during these times of tribulation, where suffering calls for the response of love and compassion. We are presented with opportunities to reassess and modify how we respond to the daily occurrence of injustice so that we might move nonviolently towards peace. All of this is cause for hope!