Tag: Jesuits

How the UAPs Open Conversations Across Ministry Areas

Posted on by John Byrd

For Fr. Ted Penton S.J. The Universal Apostolic Preferences (UAPs) of the Global Society of Jesus are an invitation to collaboration and shared mission. ”With the UAPs, these are the four ways that all Jesuits and all Jesuit Ministries are called to live out their mission. So to me it opens a lot of conversations across ministry areas that have historically been siloed to a significant degree,” Fr. Penton explained. Published in February of 2019, the UAPs are a set of four areas that focus the work of the Jesuits during this decade. Showing the Way to God, Walking with the Excluded, Journeying with Youth, Caring for our Common Home. These Preferences are not strategic goals or objectives but rather a horizon that shapes and guides the work of all Jesuits and lay collaborators. Penton continued “The question is how are we doing this in our high schools and in our parishes and in our social ministries. Our social ministries, for example, are walking with the excluded; they are promoting care for our common home; but they are also showing the way to God.”

This June, Fr. Penton will finish his mission as the Secretary of the Jesuit Conference Office of Justice and Ecology (OJE) and will begin his tertianship, the next phase of his formation as a Jesuit, in Lebanon. Based in Washington, DC, OJE brings the voice of U.S. Jesuit leadership to the federal government, advocating for policies that promote social and ecological justice. Fr. Penton joined OJE in the summer of 2018 and has seen the office through the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as a crucial period of internal growth. He has played an important role in the office’s response to the Universal Apostolic Preferences and has been a leading voice in the Society of Jesus’ effort to examine the history of Jesuit-led boarding schools for Native students and begin a process of healing.

Among his many responsibilities in his role as Secretary, Fr. Penton has served on the Board of Directors for many Ignatian social justice organizations including the Ignatian Solidarity Network (ISN), the Jesuit Volunteer Corps (JVC) and Magis Americas (MA). This diverse portfolio of responsibilities reflects the complex and inspiring breadth of the work being carried out by Jesuits and lay partners throughout the Conference. 

Speaking about the diversity of these organizations, Fr. Penton shared, “Each organization has its own strengths, its own areas where it can bring the most to bear, where it can have the most impact.” At the same time the impact of each organization is amplified by working in coordination with the greater Jesuit network. 

“Sharing with one another, knowing what each other are doing contributes to the overall impact of the whole network,” he explains. “We each have our own distinctive kind of strategic vision of where our particular organization is going. But for each of these organizations, an important part of that is precisely to be working in conjunction with and in partnership with the others.” 

Since their publication in early 2019, the UAPs have not only set a horizon for all Jesuits and lay collaborators to work toward. They also unite us in a common mission and give us a common language to discuss and understand our work. Fr. General Sosa, S.J. underlined this point in a letter to the global Society on the occasion of their publication. “The implementation of the Universal Apostolic Preferences,” the letter explains, “has as a condition the deepening of collaboration among Jesuits and our companions in mission and among the ministries and apostolic units.”  

Fr. Penton elaborated on this point, explaining that the Preferences provide a common language and framework to discuss our shared work, further facilitating this “deepening of collaboration” within the extended Jesuit ecosystem and when this work includes individuals who are less familiar with the Society. “Jesuit jargon can make it more difficult to collaborate with those who are less familiar with us whereas my experience with the UAPs has been that the people very quickly and immediately understand (or at least it makes much easier quicker to understand) our mission when it’s laid out in that way.” 

Working to unite diverse organizations around the Society of Jesus’s core apostolic mission, as reflected in the UAPs,  also means working across sectors, such as parishes, high schools, and ministries. During Fr. Penton’s time as secretary, he made a point of pursuing concrete actions that would foster community amongst Ignatian organizations. For example, he organized Ignatian Advocacy Leader trainings to equip people across the network to conduct meetings with their federal representatives. Fr. Penton made a point to include leaders from various backgrounds–high school principals, university campus ministers, directors of social ministries– so that these organizations could learn to advocate on important justice issues. This effort to unify people from diverse professional and personal backgrounds toward the common goal of policy change has been a central focus of Fr. Penton’s work at OJE and has been aided by the common language provided in the UAPs.

Still, moving from these common ideals to concrete actions is not always a simple task, so it is important to recognize the leadership of OJE and Fr. Penton in particular in this work. “Ted has a keen understanding of the value of relationships in the work toward justice. More than focusing on policies or political moments, he has strengthened the partnership between national level Ignatian organizations,” explained Fr. Sean Michaelson, S.J., Socius and Treasurer of JCCU. “These relationships not only make our advocacy more effective, they nourish our spirits for the long journey toward social transformation. In this way, Ted embodies the message of the Universal Apostolic Preferences, recognizing they’re not objective ideals but actions that call us into a profound relationship with God and one another.”

The Jesuits and the many organizations that support their broad justice initiatives, including JVC, ISN, Magis Americas, and so many more, will continue to be guided and shaped by the UAPs over the next six years or so. We are, in some ways, just beginning to understand how these Preferences are calling us to refocus, re-evaluate or collaborate more effectively and efficiently. However, in the context of OJE, under the guidance of Fr. Penton, the common language provided in these Preferences has already contributed to a clearer understanding and expression of our shared mission.

Fr. Ted Penton’s five years of service to Magis Americas

Posted on by John Byrd

Ecclesiastes reminds us that “for everything there is a season” and in the Society of Jesus in Canada and the United States, the spring weather also brings us the season of new missions for many Jesuits. This year, the season has come Fr. Ted Penton, S.J. to finish his time with the Jesuit Conference Office of Justice and Ecology (OJE) and, also, leave his position as Chairperson of the Board of Directors of Magis Americas. 

Ted first joined our Board of Directors in the fall of 2018, shortly after he took on his role as Secretary of OJE. His arrival aligned with the important first steps of Magis Americas and he has closely accompanied and supported the growth of our organization over the last five years. 

In a recent interview, Ted remembered that, “I had no idea until I arrived here that Magis [Americas] existed. [Executive Director] Nate [Radomski] had just been hired as the first staff member of Magis Americas in many years just before I arrived, with the mandate of determining the feasibility of [this project] developing into a larger institution and to determine what are the ways that it could contribute to the mission of the Society of Jesus.” Since that time, our organization has grown substantially and has greatly benefited from the support of Ted and the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States. 

In January of 2021, Ted accepted this expanded role and took on the responsibilities of Chairperson. Over the past two and a half years, his guidance has continued to contribute to our growth. “I am really grateful to Ted for his exceptional leadership and consistent support during his tenure on our board,” Executive Director Nate Radomski shared. “His vision and understanding of the importance of our mission and our work have continued to push us forward as a team. His previous experience with other Jesuit NGO’s made him a great asset for our Board, but it was his commitment to helping us grow that made him such a good choice for the position as chairperson.”

During this time, perhaps one of our most important milestones was the acceptance of Magis Americas as the 14th member of the Xavier Network in January of 2022. Ted saw this as an important step for our organization since he first arrived. He explained, “Before coming to the US on this Mission, I was in Toronto serving on the board of the Canadian Jesuits International … a member of the Xavier Network and I was very aware that the U.S. [Jesuits] did not have a member [organization] of that network. The US Jesuits have always been in solidarity and worked with Jesuits throughout the world in a number of very important ways, but in this particular area there was essentially a vacuum in the United States and also tremendous potential.” Whether it is learning from the best practices of the other members of the Xavier Network or participating in trainings offered through the same, our staff continues to benefit from the opportunity to be part of this fantastic network.

Of course, the support and guidance that Ted has offered us over these past five years is representative of so many other Jesuits and lay people who serve on our Board of Directors and support our work in so many ways. Ted made it a point to thank the support that he had received from Fr. Brian Paulson, S.J., President of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States (JCCU), Fr. Timothy P. Kesicki, S.J., who preceded him in that role, and Fr. Sean Michaelson, S.J., JCCU Treasurer and Socius. Together, these four Jesuits are examples of the continued support that we receive from the JCCU that makes our work possible. 

At Magis Americas, we want to extend a heartfelt thank you to Fr. Ted Penton, S.J. for his service to and support of Magis Americas over the past five years. We recognize the many hours he has dedicated to our organization, and we are grateful for the sincere and inspiring vision he has shared about the future of Jesuit development initiatives around the globe.  

 

Magis Americas joins the Xavier Network

Posted on by Nate Radomski

Magis Americas has been accepted as the 14th member of the Xavier Network, an international network of Jesuit mission offices and non-governmental development organizations from Europe, Canada, Australia, and, now, the United States. Through this development, Magis Americas will contribute to the global mission of the Society of Jesus in partnership and coordination with other Jesuit works around the world.

“We are grateful for this opportunity to heed Father Sosa’s call to collaborate across borders,” said Fr. Brian Paulson, S.J., President of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States (JCCU). “Together with Canadian Jesuits International, Magis Americas looks forward to working within the Xavier Network to strengthen our Conference’s contributions to the Society’s global mission of reconciliation.”

The Xavier Network, which takes its name and inspiration from St. Francis Xavier, was founded in 2004 under the simple principle “that by joining together we can achieve more”. Member organizations collaborate in four areas: response to humanitarian emergencies, advocacy, development projects, and overseas volunteer programs.

“We are thrilled to be joining the Xavier Network. This is not only an opportunity to collaborate with other Jesuit organizations, but to also learn from their wealth of experience and knowledge,” said Nate Radomski, executive director of Magis Americas. “We have been working toward this moment for a number of years and I am grateful to the JCCU and the Xavier Network for their support and commitment to seeing this goal become a reality.”

Within the JCCU, Magis Americas will coordinate with Canadian Jesuits International on joint initiatives, including fundraising appeals for humanitarian emergencies, as was previously done for the earthquake in Haiti and response to the second wave of COVID-19 in India.