Wolfington Center at Cabrini College
March 2014
Vol. No. 2, Issue No. 4 
Faith in Action
Sixteen Cabrini students visited Costa Rica over their 2014 Spring Break.  In a course led by Dr. Erin McLaughlin and Professor Vonya Womack, they studied fair trade practices in the US and abroad, then spent a week visiting fair trade plantations and farms.  In the picture at right, Cabrini students help sort coffee beans.
Upcoming Events

April 8: Stand for Freedom against Human Trafficking, with Cabrini Action & Advocacy Coalition

April 13:  Food Fast, with CRS Ambassadors

April 22: Ecological Spirituality, Daylesford Abbey, John F. Burke, Ph.D.
Recent Reflections
 Catholic Social Teaching and Animal Rights, A conversation at the Berkeley Center at Georgetown

91 Days of Catholic Social Teaching, A 91-day program of daily, emailed readings from the Catholic Conference of Illinois
 
The New CBO Report on the Minimum Wage, An editorial by Michael Sean Winters in the National Catholic Reporter 

Catholic Relief Services, a Cabrini College partner, continues to do an incredible job serving the victims of Typhoon Haiyan.  Please consider supporting their efforts.

Please note these postings are meant to be informative; they are not meant to reflect the values of Cabrini College or the Wolfington Center.

Support Our Work 

Each  year, the Wolfington Center works with students, faculty, and staff in their continuing quest to reflect upon Catholic Social Teaching and then put it into action in a dynamic, animated fashion.  Through our Community Workers program, we pay dozens of Cabrini students to work in nonprofits across the Delaware Valley.  We connect hundreds of students with volunteer service opportunities.  And through it all, we imbue the work of Cabrini with our Catholic Social Teaching mission.

 

We hope you'll consider making a gift to the Wolfington Center of Cabrini College, to support our work in the coming year.

 

Make a gift to the Wolfington Center. 

Please designate the Wolfington Center in your gift. 
Reflection from the Executive Director:
Building Bridges, Not Walls

Lent is a time for remembrance and renewal of spiritual life.  Twenty years ago, in their pastoral letter, Many Members, One Body (1994), the Bishops of Galveston-Houston stated: "Each person must come to see a positive engagement with other cultures as a means of enriching one's faith...To put the matter more strongly, we cannot be content with diverse cultures simply co-existing at a respectful distance.  The catholicity of the Church demands that these diverse cultures engage one another in conversation and extended social and liturgical interaction" (#26).  Recent events in Syria, the Central African Republic, and now Ukraine suggest how urgent is the need for constructive interrelationships between diverse cultures animated by a peace with justice.

 

During every Tuesday during Lent at 7:15pm, the Wolfington Center Lenten Lecture Series will focus upon "Building Bridges, Not Walls Between Cultural Communities." Speakers from different faith-based backgrounds - Baptist, Catholic, Evangelical, Methodist, and Moravian will address how faith-based traditions can be drawn upon to foster constructive relationships between diverse groups in religious communities, society-at-large, and nature.  Topics will range from immigration to ecology and from 18th century colonial settlement to contemporary food issues in Ghana.

 

Lent is also the time for Catholic Relief Services' Rice Bowl.  Many of you in faith-based communities are familiar with this Lenten practice of fasting and then giving the money saved from that meal to CRS for hunger relief efforts.  However, for those of you in higher education, CRS has now put together a comprehensive prayer and study package for students to pursue through small faith-sharing groups -  .  For those seeking a Lenten retreat, check out CRS's 24-hour hunger awareness retreat - Food Fast. Finally in terms of the practices of Lenten sacrifices and giving alms, consider participating in Catholics Confront Global Poverty and/or Catholic Charities USA's movement to end poverty in America.

 

John Francis Burke

Executive Director, The Wolfington Center

"Seeking Unity-In-Diversity" Lecture Series

The theme of this year's Spring Lecture Series is "Seeking Unity-In-Diversity: A Faith-Based Engagement of Building Bridges Not Walls Between Cultural Communities."  Given the ongoing discussions regarding immigration reform and the growing diversity of the United States, these spring presentations will be very timely.  

 

Details on the series can be found on the Lecture Series site -->

Cabrini Creates New Partnership with Local Catholic Schools

Cabrini has formed new partnerships with area schools Archbishop Carroll, Monsignor Bonner and Archbishop Prendergast high schools, and St. Frances Cabrini Regional School in Philadelphia, adding to long-standing partnerships with The Woodlynde School and the Academy in Manayunk.

Junior and senior students from Cabrini's partner high schools can take reduced-rate classes online, at Cabrini College, or at the high schools, earning up to 21 college credits.

 

"These partnerships give local high school students the ability to get ahead in their college careers, significantly reducing their college cost," says Bob Reese, vice president for enrollment at Cabrini College.

 

 Read on -->

Justice Matters: Immigration and the DREAM Act
Cabrini's Justice Matters curriculum gives students the opportunity to experience issues of social justice and to make real connections with our sponsoring order.  The Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (MSC) have taken a corporate stance to support the human rights and dignity of all immigrants.  "We remember our own roots as immigrants and are followers of a Savior whose family fled into exile. Our rule of life, set forth in our Constitutions states, as Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, we must be open to all people because Jesus welcomed all and gave Himself for all."

 

Learn about the MSC's stance on the Cabrini Mission Matters blog -->

Cabrini Student Helps Educate Community on Immigration Reform

Mariel Delacruz is a sophmore at Cabrini College. She works at the Wolfington Center, and is very active with advocacy programs on campus. She provided the information below.

 

Faith in Public Life (FPL) is an approach center for the faith community, promoting faith as a great force for justice, kindness and the common good. FPL   pinpoints and creates moments of opportunity, forms and supports broad partnerships in the community. It focuses on issues like health care, economy, budget and Immigration. My work with FPL has been to teach the Cabrini College community on Comprehensive Immigration Reform. FPL provides the tools and the ideas to teach our community about the current issues with immigration. We create grassroots movement to encourage Congress fixes our broken system. Our primary goal is to educate our community on basic principles of Comprehensive Immigration Reform. We support the principles of immigration reform:

  1. "Secure our Borders"-providing law enforcement with the tools necessary
  2. "Strengthen our Families & Economy"-create jobs, reduce the deficit, and allow for improvement to keep the U.S. strong
  3. "Provide a Pathway" to citizenship for undocumented immigrants formerly living in the United States who do not have legal status
  4. Create a simple and effective employment verification system.

The next important step for the Cabrini College community is to be educated on those principles and to understand that we have a once in a generation chance to pass comprehensive immigration reform.

Join us on Facebook at CAVSfortheDream.
Cabrini's Wolfington Center fosters community-based learning through Catholic Social Teaching and St. Frances Xavier Cabrini's accent on "the education of the heart."