This October marks the twenty fifth anniversary of the Ignatian Family Teach-In for Justice, the annual Catholic conference attended by droves of Jesuit highschool and college students from across the country. The weekend-long assembly—a full of life (and infrequently crowded) affair distinguished by keynote lectures, exuberant prayer services, political lobbying and panel discussions examining a litany of pressing social topics—gathers a sizeable coalition of faith-based advocacy groups and honors the memory of six Jesuits and two women killed by the Salvadoran military in 1989.
On Oct. 22, America sat down with Teach-In organizer Christopher G. Kerr, the 11-year executive director of the Ignatian Solidarity Network, to debate the evolution of the conference from a tent outside Fort Benning in Columbus, Ga., to large-scale gatherings in Washington. Mr. Kerr, an Ohio native, taught elementary school within the Diocese of Cleveland before directing social justice programs on the Jesuit-run John Carroll University, his alma mater, in University Heights, Ohio.
The next transcript of our interview has been edited for style, length and clarity.
What are the origins of the Teach-In and the way is the conference connected to the Jesuit murders in El Salvador?
The murders on the U.C.A. [Central American University run by the Jesuits] were really jarring because each members of Congress and the typical citizen in the US thought we had rectified our poor behavior through the Salvadoran civil war. During that point, the US was providing, on average, $1 million a day of military funding to the Salvadoran government. As well as, the U.S. was providing training to Salvadoran soldiers at what was then called the School of the Americas, now referred to as the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation.
The Teach-In offers a option to engage your faith and examine the truth of the world around us. I believe we should be a church that’s of the world, not a church attempting to separate ourselves off from the world.
When the Jesuits were killed, the president of Georgetown University asked Charlie Currie, S.J., who was then a Georgetown faculty member, to serve because the liaison for the Jesuits to the congressional investigation. And Father Currie connected with Jim McGovern, who was then a staffer for Representative Joe Moakley, from Boston. At the identical time, a gentleman named Bob Holstein, a former California Province Jesuit who left the Society, had change into a really outstanding labor lawyer in Los Angeles. Just naturally, the California Province had connections to the Central American Province, so he knew these guys who were killed.
Bob heard that there was going to be a vigil on the gates of Fort Benning a yr after the murders to call attention to what happened. And so he went to the vigil. In 1995, Bob participated in a civil disobedience motion on the gates of Fort Benning. He was arrested, prosecuted and spent three months in federal prison. He was frustrated after he got out of prison because he felt like there was an irony to the incontrovertible fact that the federal government had been funding the Salvadoran Civil War, and so he reached out to Charlie Currie and said, “I would like to have a Teach-In.” In 1997, Bob said, “I’m going to rent a tent and I’m going to pay for this.” And that’s how the Teach-In began—in a tent on the sting of the Chattahoochee River. I used to be at the primary Teach-In as an undergraduate at John Carroll University.
So that you’re attending the University when the Teach-In begins?
Yeah, exactly. And that yr was beautiful. There have been years where it was 40 degrees and raining, nevertheless it kept growing. And the School of the Americas was also doing their very own work to attempt to put a greater image on what was happening, when it comes to training. But the truth was that there was some really nasty stuff that was being taught in those schools. After all, every part was happening within the midst of the Cold War. There was numerous tension.
How did the Teach-In grow from a gathering in a tent into this very wide collection of many alternative faith-based groups and publications?
In 2003, about six years after the Teach-In began, there was an interest in the thought of making some entity to sustain this energy, this connectivity, year-round. The Jesuit Conference here in D.C. sponsored a feasibility study, they usually interviewed upwards of 100 people from all around the country: laypeople, Jesuits, people in social ministry and better education. There was numerous energy for the thought, but they realized it wasn’t something that the Jesuits had the capability to staff.
The feasibility study proved that this concept would work. So the Ignatian Solidarity Network was founded as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, independent of the Society of Jesus, in 2004, and it took on management of the Teach-In—still in Georgia—that yr. The Teach-In moved out of the tent and into the Greater Columbus Convention Center since it just couldn’t get a tent large enough at that time. There have been literally upwards of 4,000 people coming to Mass on the Saturday evening before the Sunday vigil on the [Fort Benning] gates.
The truth is that there are students who haven’t any historical context for the events of 1989, so we’ve really needed to take into consideration how we help younger folks understand the legacy of the martyrs.
In 2010, it moved to Washington, D.C., to have the option to have interaction a broader range of issues and to also use a distinct technique to elicit change, moving from direct public motion to legislative advocacy on Capitol Hill. It was hard to make that transition to D.C. because numerous folks felt like we were stepping away from a deep commitment to the [Jesuit] martyrs. But I actually think what we’ve done is create a broader vision of the martyrs’ legacy that is in a position to have interaction people in a variety of issues.
Today, how does the Teach-In make relevant the history of the 1989 murders to young Jesuit students, especially highschool students?
The truth is that not only are there students who haven’t any historical context for the events of 1989, but lots of their young teachers and young Jesuits weren’t even around then. So we’ve really needed to take into consideration how we help younger folks understand the legacy of the martyrs. I believe sometimes once we hear in regards to the martyrs we predict in regards to the day they were killed. We concentrate on that event. But now we have to take a look at their work.
The Jesuits who arrived in Central America within the late Nineteen Sixties were charged with developing a network of universities: one in Nicaragua, one in Guatemala and one in El Salvador. And that may create space for people to investigate the truth of their country. The Jesuits used their academic disciplines as sociologists, psychologists, theologians and philosophers to assist the Salvadoran people deeply reflect on what flourishing most fully would seem like. The Teach-In also provides an area to start a deep dive into the complexity of issues.
Last week, I visited El Salvador. We had been working with a bunch of artisans who’re a part of a cooperative in El Salvador to construct handmade, hand-painted crosses that represent the stories of the martyrs. We’ll have everyone [at the conference] make a white picket cross with the name of somebody who has been marginalized ultimately. This was a convention in Fort Benning. People would participate in a mock funeral procession with a cross bearing someone’s name, someone like Sister Dorothy Kazel or a two-year-old Salvadoran child who was killed.
We also do a really intensive orientation for brand new attendees to assist them understand the martyrs’ story. We’ve invited a partner from Christians for Peace in El Salvador to return speak in regards to the life and legacy of the martyrs. I believe there’s a lot that we are able to still learn from the martyrs today and apply to today’s society. And I believe a very powerful piece is that now we have consistently talked in regards to the importance of reflecting on reality. In a way, it’s countercultural to reflect on reality because numerous our society wants us to live with tunnel vision, to be consumers, to not be too concerned with what’s happening around us. I believe the story of the martyrs invites us to challenge that as people of religion.
How is the Teach-In preparing to answer the following 25 years? Looking ahead, how is the conference hoping to maintain the story of the martyrs alive?
It’s a frightening task. Considered one of the realities that I believe we are able to acknowledge is that our church is changing and what it means to be Catholic is changing. Now we have to take this into consideration. Over 40 percent of the 1,800 people at this yr’s Teach-In are college undergraduates. The Teach-In offers a option to engage your faith and examine the truth of the world around us. I believe we should be a church that’s of the world, not a church attempting to separate ourselves off from the world.
What I really like in regards to the Teach-In is that folks bring what are their very own passions, relevant to their very own lives and regions. I hope folks leave the Teach-In invited to motion. After social evaluation, reflection and prayer, we get to motion, and it needs to be just as much internal as external. If we imagine that our country needs to be more welcoming and humane towards individuals who migrate here, now we have to be sure our own communities are welcoming. If people imagine we aren’t acting on climate change or constructing a sustainable society, now we have to be sure our own communities are environmentally sustainable.
I believe that the Teach-In will all the time must evolve. It should reply to the signs of the times. What we’re talking about today isn’t what we’ll be talking about in 10 years. We could be talking about a few of those things, but in other ways.