The Wolfington Center
Promoting a More Just and Compassionate Society
September 2014
Vol. No. 3, Issue No. 1 
Faith in Action
Cabrini College students recently joined students from across the country as they advocated for economic justice in Washington, DC.  At the end of the program, Sister Simone Campbell joined them for an Oscar-style selfie.
Recent Reflections

Project CST, an educational program of the Archdiocese of Chicago

 
Examination of Conscience, a reflection on penance in the context of CST

Immigration: A Principled Catholic Approach Avoids Emotionalism, commentary by Samuel Gregg of the Acton Institute

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:

Labor Day - The Beginning of the New Year

Although January 1 is the beginning of the calendar year, for many people, and especially those who have family members in school, the year they organize their lives by is the academic year from late August into early June. For many families, when one of their members starts a new school, be it grade school, high school, and especially college, they have made a major transition point. For instance, at the recent new student orientation day, one could feel how anxious parents were, especially if they were dropping off their first student to attend college away from home. But for all of us, with this "new year," comes with a freshness and anticipation of ensuing programs, initiatives, and events.


This reality is certainly the case at the Wolfington Center. During the coming academic year, we will be coordinating or being extensively involved with forums dealing with nonprofit institutions (October), homelessness (November), hunger (February), and ecology (both in February and April). In addition, next spring we will be commemorating the 50th anniversary of the key Vatican II document, Gaudium et Spes, the Pastoral Constitution of the Church in the Modern World. Finally, in addition to some of the student initiatives highlighted in this issue, we will have students participating in conferences regarding the President's Interfaith Initiative in Washington, D.C. in September and the Catholic Social Ministry Gathering in February, D.C. Activities and gatherings involving our CRS Ambassadors will also make it a very full year.


I would be remiss if I didn't address briefly Labor Day. The rights of workers is an integral part of Catholic social teaching, especially stressed in Rerum Novarum (1891) and Laborem Excercens (1981)and although the Catholic Church celebrates the feast of St. Joseph the Worker on May 1st, in reality the U.S. Labor Day is the first Monday of September. And all too often, in our haste to make the best of this last full weekend of the summer vacation season, we often lose sight of the reason for this holiday. So please be sure to read the Labor Day Statement by Archbishop Thomas G. Wenski of Miami on behalf of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops  As Matt Cato of the Office of Justice, Life, and Peace of the Diocese of Portland points out, Archbishop Wenski draws particular attention to the heavy impact of unemployment on young adults - a matter which should be of urgent concern to any institution of higher learning. Both as we celebrate Labor Day and engage with fervor our fall activities, less us remember and advocate that the capacity for meaningful work is integral to full development of both human beings and communities.
 

John Francis Burke

Executive Director 

The Wolfington Center

Moving Kids from Homelessness to Hope

Each year, Cabrini College choses a book of fiction or non-fiction with a social justice theme for its Summer Reading, which is required reading for incoming, first-year students who also prepare essays about the book. 

2014's Summer Reading is "Almost Home: Helping Kids Move from Homelessness to Hope" by Kevin Ryan, President of Covenant House, and Tina Kelley a journalist withThe New York Times.  "Almost Home" tells the remarkable stories of six young people as they struggle to find home, stopping along the way at Covenant House, the largest charity serving homeless, trafficked, and runaway youth in the Americas


 
On October 21st, Cabrini will host Kevin Ryan and Tina Kelley for the Executive-in-Residence for Leadership program.  Over the day, the authors will discuss their style of leadership as it relates to their work and personal life.


On November 11th, we'll continue the conversation as we discuss homelessness on Cabrini Dayhonoring the College's namesake, Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini.

A Study on Collaborative Courses

A paper authored by Cabrini College faculty, staff, and alumni, along with several education and community partners, was featured on the cover of the Spring 2014 Journal of Community Scholarship and Engagement, released by the University of Alabama in May 2014.   The paper presented a case study on two community-based research (CBR) courses-Watershed Citizenship and Watershed Ecology.  These courses were piloted at Cabrini College and combined biology, psychology, education, and social justice, in collaboration with community partners.


The study showed that students gained a better understanding of how different disciplines can collaborate to address a problem in an integrative manner, and that students value an interdisciplinary teaching approach.

The study concluded by offering a model for designing and conducting an interdisciplinary team-taught CBR course employing instructors with different disciplinary backgrounds and areas of expertise.

 

To read more or to download the paper, visit the press release -->

Transformative Dialogue and Social Justice

Jeff Gingerich is the Provost of Cabrini College.

 

Since my arrival at Cabrini College, I have experienced transformative dialogue about the meaning and value of "social justice" in higher education.  This conversation has taken place with students, faculty, staff and community partners.  Cabrini has given me the opportunity to talk about peace, justice, and solidarity with people in Mexico, New Orleans, and New York City through faculty study immersion trips.   

 

To read the rest of his blog post, please visit the Mission Matters blog --> 

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."