BUFFALO, NY – Twenty Canisius University delegates joined over 1,300 social justice advocates affiliated with Jesuit universities, high schools, parishes, and the larger Catholic Church at the Ignatian Family Teach-In for Justice (IFTJ), from November 15-17 in Washington, D.C. The 17th annual Teach-In coincided with the 25th anniversary of the murders of six Jesuit priests and two laywomen, killed in El Salvador on November 16, 1989, by Salvadoran military for their defense of the economically poor.
The IFTJ is a nationwide social justice conference sponsored by the Ignatian Solidarity Network, a national lay-led, faith-based, social justice organization that works to mobilize Jesuit universities, high schools, parishes, and ministries and the larger church throughout the United States in order to effect positive social change on critical issues facing the world. Teach-In attendees represent over eighty Catholic institutions in twenty-five states, Canada, and Mexico.
Earlier this month, Canisius held a Remembrance Mass for the Jesuit Martyrs in Christ the King Chapel. Students and staff who will participate in the Ignatian Family Teach-in and others, took part in a remembrance procession during the evening liturgy.
Maura Toomb, campus minister from St. Peter’s Prep, gave a talk entitled “God is Real in El Salvador: A Reflection on the Ignatian Soldarity Network’s Delegation to El Salvador, the Lives of the Jesuit Martyrs of the UCA, and What We Can do Here at Home to Continue Their Legacy.” Toomb was a member of the of Ignatian Solidarity Network’s delegation to El Salvador in summer 2014.
Later this month, Canisius President John J. Hurley will travel to El Salvador with a delegation of Canisius staff, alumni and friends to commemorate the martyrs and to recall their courage, conviction and their willingness to say “yes” in the face of violent oppression. Click here to read President Hurley’s reflections from his 2011 trip to El Salvador, published in the November issue of AJCU Connections.
Canisius is one of 28 Jesuit universities in the nation, and the premier private university in Western New York.
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