Lilly Endowment gives $2 million to Catholic Theological Union's Peacebuilders Initiative for high school youth

Chicago (July 9, 2002) – The Rev. Donald Senior, C.P., president of Catholic Theological Union (CTU), Chicago, announced that Lilly Endowment Inc. has awarded $2 million to inaugurate the school's Peacebuilders Initiative, a year-long leadership program for Catholic high school youth in the Chicago area. Sheila McLaughlin, director of the Bernardin Center at CTU, will direct the program. The grant, the largest single grant ever awarded CTU, will sustain the Peacebuilders Initiative over the next four years.

"Coming at a time when the church is in turmoil because of the scandal of abuse and neglect of young people," said Rev. Senior, "the Peacebuilders Initiative provides an opportunity to serve young people and to show them the church at its best."

The grant was the result of an invitation by the Indianapolis-based Endowment asking seminaries and divinity schools to create new programs that engage young people in theological learning and encourage them to explore Christian ministry as their life's work. By funding these programs the Endowment wants to attract a new generation of talented people to ministry and to help build vibrant and healthy congregations throughout the country.

Although its 500 plus graduate students are well beyond the high school years, CTU accepted the Endowment's challenge to raise up a new generation of faith leaders as a natural extension of the school mission of preparing future leaders for the church.

Rev. Senior said, "When I first learned of the Lilly Endowment's invitation to take part
in this program, I thought it was a worthy project, but remote for a graduate school of theology.
But the more I thought about it and the potential of directing young men and women to a life of service, I realized that this was an opportunity we had to seize."

In 2002 the Endowment's "Theological Programs for High School Youth" grant program awarded $25.3 million to graduate schools in the U.S. and Canada. Among the schools receiving grants, CTU is the only Catholic institution.

Sheila McLaughlin, project director and director of the Bernardin Center said, "In today's world, the challenge of developing a Christian vision of reconciliation and peacemaking is both formidable and urgent. Our young people are troubled by the violence, intolerance, and social problems they experience daily. This exciting new program will encourage and mentor them to become people of peace who witness to a life of justice, tolerance, and equality. The Peacebuilders Initiative is inspired by the vision and passion of the late Cardinal Joseph Bernardin, whose ministry and leadership were marked by his unfailing commitment and many efforts for reconciliation and peace."

Inspired by the Endowment's mandate, a design team of faculty and staff at CTU, in consultation with nearly 100 high school teachers, campus ministers, and students, created Peacebuilders Initiative during a six month planning phase overseen by coordinator Angela Appleby Purcell. Purcell comments, "This was an innovative and exciting process. Theologians and practitioners, Catholic educators and youth ministers, high school administrators and religious community leaders, and most importantly, high school youth, collaborated to shape and bring to life a program rooted in the fundamental truths of peacebuilding and reconciliation envisioned by Cardinal Bernardin."

Br. Corey Brost, C.S.V., director of the Office for Catholic Identity at St. Viator High School, Chicago and project consultant said, "This award is good for our church because right now we are not using the leadership abilities of enough Catholic adolescents. When we can work with these wonderful kids, rich and poor alike, who too often do not feel respected, valued, or needed by the church, we help build the future of our church. And in combining the resources and vision of the Lilly Endowment with the excellence of Catholic Theological Union, we will take the best and brightest of our kids and refine their talents for the reign of God."

Components: The Peacebuilders Initiative
Summer Experience
Each summer 40 select high school students will spend a week on CTU's Hyde Park campus for an in-depth learning experience in peacebuilding and reconciliation. The students will study the theological and scriptural bases of reconciliation; learn and practice peacemaking skills such as conflict management; get real life experience at city-wide ministry sites; and together, engage in faith sharing and liturgy to build community. Mentors will help students integrate their experiences throughout the week.

Purcell says, "Students will be invited to put what they learn about their faith into action by ministering in Catholic, Chicago-based agencies focused on peacebuilding and reconciliation. They will experience firsthand and within the context of a supportive community how their gifts and leadership abilities can be a transformative force in both the church and society."

School Year
During the school year, the students will design a Peacebuilders Project that expresses in a concrete and practical form the essentials of peacebuilding they have learned. Biannual Peacebuilder Retreats will provide continuity and ongoing support.

Adults and Partner Institutions
At the same time, the Peacebuilders Initiative will also provide continuing education, conferences, skills development workshops, and ongoing support for the teachers, youth ministers, pastors, and interested parents who help form young people in faith.

The network of high schools and religious communities that have a high school student in the Peacebuilders Initiative will participate in the program through involvement with the teen projects and retreats, participation in continuing education, and using the project's
comprehensive and interactive website which provides an online community and educational resources for participants, educators, youth ministers, and youth from around the world.

Catholic Theological Union
The largest Catholic graduate school of theology and ministry in the United States, Catholic Theological Union (CTU) was founded in 1968 in the renewed spirit and vision of the Second Vatican Council. Through its world-renowned faculty, CTU is training over 500 women and men, ordained and lay, international and ethnically diverse, for service in the church and to the world. The school's 3,200 alumnae/i serve in schools, parishes, prisons, hospices, and social services throughout the United States and in 65 countries worldwide.

CTU is also home to the Joseph Cardinal Bernardin Center of Theology and Ministry, where the ideas and spirituality of the late Cardinal Bernardin flourish through scholarships, seminars, lectures, and a wide array of public programs. The center focuses on Cardinal Bernardin's signature issues, including reconciliation and peacemaking, interreligious dialogue, healthcare, the role of religion in society, the consistent ethic of life, and the Catholic Common Ground Initiative. The Bernardin Center is sponsor of the highly-respected Catholic-Jewish Studies Program and the Catholic-Muslim Studies Program.

Participating Catholic High Schools and Religious Orders

Chicago-Based
Brother Rice High School
Sponsor: Congregation of Christian Brothers, male

Cristo Rey Jesuit High School
Sponsor: Society of Jesus, Cristo Rey, co-ed

De La Salle Institute
Sponsor: Brothers of the Christian Schools, co-ed

Hales Franciscan High School
Independent and Archdiocese of Chicago, male

Holy Trinity High School
Sponsor: Holy Cross Congregation, co-ed

Josephinum High School
Sponsors: Sisters of Christian Charity, Religious of the Sacred Heart, Josephinum, female

Maria High School
Sponsor: Sisters of Casmir, female

Mother McAuley Liberal Arts High School
Sponsor: Sisters of Mercy, female

Notre Dame High School for Girls
Sponsor: Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, female

St. Rita of Cascia High School
Sponsor: Order of St. Augustine, male

St. Scholastica Academy
Sponsor: Sisters of St. Benedict, female

Suburban
Holy Cross High School
Sponsor: Brothers of the Holy Cross, male

St. Joseph High School
Sponsor: Brothers of the Christian Schools, male

Mother Theodore Guerin High School
Sponsor: Sisters of Providence, female

Nazareth Academy
Sponsor: Sisters of St. Joseph, co-ed

St. Viator High School
Sponsor: Clerics of St. Viator, co-ed

Religious Orders
Claretians
Divine Word Missionaries
Norbertines
Passionists
Viatorians