Prep concluded this year’s Arrupe Week programming on April 30 with an assembly in the gymnasium featuring a keynote from Dr. Art Pressley, Associate Professor of Psychology and Religion at Drew University, and a student-led panel featuring members of our own community who have immigrated to the United States.
This year’s topic was “Belonging in Every Place: Pilgrimaging with persons and communities who have been displaced from their homes.” For more than 20 years, Arrupe Week, named for Pedro Arrupe, S.J., the late superior general of the Jesuits, who charged the religious order with its modern mission of forming “men and women for and with others,” explores a different topic related to social justice through a Jesuit lens.
This year’s assembly began with an introduction from Director of Campus Ministry Dr. Susan Woolever and a prayer from Matthew Sapp, ’26. Dr. Pressley then took the stage to share reflections on the life of Fr. Arrupe, on the spiritual and psychological impacts of displacement, and on resilience and courage
We thank our student panelists (Mayuel Catelin, ’26, Garreth Core, ’26, JP Lombera, ’26, Dmytrii Frenkel, ’26, Nestor Perez, ’27, and Ruoyu Li, ’27), who gathered next for a question and answer session sharing their own experiences of immigrating to the United States.
Seamus Brown, ’26 and Evan Donath, ’26 then led us in prayer through song.
“The assembly ended with a song I learned from students at Xavier High School, Chuuk, Micronesia a couple of summers ago,” Dr. Woolever shared in a recent letter. “The prayerful song invites us to pray for peace, love, and hope in our neighborhoods. I challenge us to stretch our notion of neighbor to include peoples and communities beyond our streets, outside of our zip codes, and across borders.”
In addition to service opportunities all year long, this week’s Arrupe initiatives included examens, prayers, and information sharing during the school day. Our lobby also featured a gallery display by iconographist Kelly Latimore, featuring artwork of Jesus and the Holy Family among refugees and people who have been displaced from their homes.
Throughout its long history, the Pedro Arrupe, S.J., Lecture Series has hosted, among others, noted peace activist Dan Berrigan, S.J.; death penalty activist Sr. Helen Prejean, CSJ; Greg Boyle, S.J., of the successful anti-gang initiative Homeboy Industries; Sean Carroll, S.J. of the Kino Border Initiative; Mr. Jim Keady of Team Sweat; Dr. Michael Kimmel, sociologist and author of Guyland; Sr. Peggy O’Neill, S.C., director of Centro Arte para La Paz in El Salvador; Dr. Khalil Gibran Muhammad, of the Harvard Kennedy School; and Fr. Daniel Corrou, S.J. who worked with Jesuit Refugee Services in the Middle East.
