Arrupe Series | Saint Peter's Prep

Arrupe Series

Saint Peter’s Prep, the state’s only Jesuit high school, will sponsor a week-long summit exploring economic justice through the lens of Catholic Social Teaching that will feature, among others, Mr. Jim Keady of Team Sweat. The summit will take place during the last week of March.

Keady, an alumnus of Jesuit education, is the founding executive director of the Team Sweat, a collaborative effort of investors, consumers, and workers who are committed to ending injustice in Nike's sweatshops around the world. Team Sweat helps communities and campuses to organize and mobilize to bring Nike workers a living wage and safe work environments. Keady is a talented public speaker, offering presentations and holding workshops on issues of the rights of the worker, particularly as it relates to Catholic social teaching. Keady will also be the keynote speaker at this year's Ignatian Family Teach-In for Justice.

Keady will speak as part of Saint Peter’s Prep’s annual Arrupe Lecture Series, named for Pedro Arrupe, S.J., the late superior general of the Jesuits. Arrupe charged the religious order with its modern mission of forming “men and women for others.” The summit includes a community mass, Keady's keynote address, field trips and service opportunities revolving around economic justice, and curriculum.

“Our Catholic, Jesuit faith challenges us to reflect on matters of injustice in our world and the response required from us as Catholics,” said Maura Toomb, Prep’s Director of Campus Ministry. “The goal of the Arrupe Series is to bring a specific issue of injustice to the forefront and encourage our community to engage it and to act.”

Now in its 14^th year, the Pedro Arrupe Lecture Series has hosted, among others, noted peace activist Dan Berrigan, S.J.; author Bernard Lefkowitz; death penalty activist Sr. Helen Prejean, CSJ; Fr. Roy Bourgiose, founder of the School of America's Watch; Marc Morial, former mayor of New Orleans and president of the National Urban League; Greg Boyle, S.J., of the successful anti-gang initiative Homeboy Industries; and Sean Carroll, S.J. of the Kino Border Initiative.