The .School of the Americas Watch Protest and The Ignatian Family Teach-in on Justice, November 17-19, are important opportunities to gather to remember those who were tortured and killed in Latin America by graduates of the School of the Americas and to call for the closing of the SOA. It was a time of prayer, education, partnership building and social protest. I returned to Blessed Sacrament Church filled with hope in our common bond of solidarity with the poor and in the future of our Church, especially in our young people.
Fr. Wayne Negrete, SJ
Associate Pastor
Blessed Sacrament Church, Hollywood

For me, the power of the School of the Americas witness was to see a network of 1,500 or so people from Jesuit universities, high schools, parishes and JVC concerned about the faith that does justice. It is also a time to share experiences and spirituality for the long haul in doing justice and to find ways, short of being heroic and just being little me, to do it with integrity. It was universally a good experience for our students, I think. But my one caveat was that we seem to be witnessing mainly to the converted and not to have had much outreach to ‘neutrals’ who stand on the sidelines. The final liturgy of reading the names of the people tortured and murdered in Latin America and the crowd lifting their crosses and saying “presente” was especially moving.
Fr. John Coleman, SJ
Casassa Professor of Social Values
Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles

The Ignatian Family Teach-In continues to be an awesome experience for teens, young adults and adults. This is my third year accompanying a Loyola High School student delegation and I am impressed on how much this experience connects them to the larger world and its issues in a positive and productive way. I see our guys come back to the school community more insightful and energized for action on behalf of the common good. This weekend is a religious experience for me, my colleagues and my students each time we hear the presenters, visit Ft. Benning, the Saturday night Eucharist, the many and varied conversations with new and old friends and of course the Sunday Memorial and Peace March. Loyola is already making plans to return in November 2007.
Thomas A. Zeko
Community Service Director
Loyola High School, Los Angeles

What an awesome experience!!! It is so great to hear the speakers and talk with students and adults from all over the country about the issues related to the School of the Americas and other social justice issues. I am energized by the experience and find myself being more committed to working for social justice and the common good in any context where I find myself. The high points for me this year were the opportunity to tour the WHINSEC base, the Saturday night Mass and the Sunday March. I found the weekend event music and the Sunday litany of names I heard continue haunted me all through the return flight home to Los Angeles.
Senior Class Student
Loyola High School, Los Angeles

Vivid memories of my visit to El Salvador returned as I experienced the Ignatian Family Teach-In, visited Fort Benning and listened to the Q&A of the officers and policy directors, and then participated in the march on Sunday at Fort Benning. The people of El Salvador felt so alive and present! The faces of villagers, the few survivors of El Mozote, those who have ministered for decades to the poor of El Salvador were there with me in spirit. I also loved the idealism of the students as well as the witness of the wise found in Veterans for Peace and the 1000 Grandmothers for Peace. I felt gratitude in reuniting with former high school students who are now active leaders at their Jesuit universities, still working for peace and justice. I felt the Catholic Church really being Christ Incarnate and this is not a common enough experience for me. Hence, I also sensed the cost of Christianity. My thoughts vacillated between the desire to protect and defend the innocent which I believe is the purpose of our military, and the seduction of power which comes with authority that allows well-intentioned people to become killers. I think those of us who participated in this weekend have a deep sense of desire to serve and to protect which is a similar desire of those in the military. I grew uncomfortable when discussion at Fort Benning introduced the “power of coercion” the US utilizes with weapons and arms. This was the term used by the policy director at Fort Benning. I also use the power of coercion for what I believe are good ends with regard to protecting my students or my own children from harmful outcomes. But do I use this power to dominate or achieve my own ends? Then I found myself reflecting upon Ignatius after his own dream of becoming a soldier disintegrated. What allows for the transformation of a soul? It’s easy to say prayer, but moreso I have found that it’s also necessary to go to difficult places, stick it out, wait for God’s epiphanies or at least find company with another who is “walking the path” (as Sr. Helen Prejean, CSJ, challenged). I am very conscious that Advent is way more than four weeks leading up to Christ’s birth and I’m there.
Kim Cavnar
Adult Spirituality
Loyola High School, Los Angeles

The gift I received from the SOA/IFTJ experience was an increased awareness of the solidarity among the Ignatian family and our common call to address issues of social injustice. I was inspired by the spirit of the young people present at the Protest, and I have returned to Loyola Marymount with a renewed spirit in which to do my work.
Tom King
Center for Service and Action
Loyola Marymount Univeristy, Los Angeles

This experience gave me the grace of being able to HOPE and wait patiently for a new and better tomorrow. As a victim and more importantly as a survivor, going to the SOA Protest allowed me to come back full of hope in my quest for justice. Seeing so many young people learning of the needs and sufferings of lots and lots of people around the world, reassure me that there is hope for a better, equal and more just world. Those young faces represented for me a new and more socially aware American Society.
Ana de Castro
Spanish Department
Verbum Dei High School, Los Angeles

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