Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice

Latest News & Updates
Prison Violence Highlights the Need to Address Overcrowding in Prisons Interview with Brian Lennon SJ Myths about Forgiving Add to Suffering of Victims Jesuit Centre Expresses Dismay at the Resignation of Equality Chief Doubling of Prison Places for Women not Supported by Statistics

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Working Notes: Jul 2008
Editorial Women in Prison: The Corston Report What Does God Think of Irish Prisons? Crime and Punishment: A Christian Perspective Building Sustainable Communities – The Role of Housing Policy

Working Notes: Apr 2008
Editorial Hospital or Prison? What Future for the Central Mental Hospital? Is there a Need for the Women's Prison to Move from Mountjoy to Thornton Hall? Ireland's Women's Prisons The Ripple Effects of Imprisonment on Prisoner's Families Gardai and the Committee for the Prevention of Torture Reports

Working Notes: Nov 2007
Pedro Arrupe: Inspirational Jesuit Leader Lessons for Ireland from Michael Moore’s film SICKO What is Development? Promoting the Good of Every Person Homes not Hostels: Rethinking Homeless Policy How Much Equality is Needed for Justice? Thornton Hall Prison: Solution or Problem?

WELCOME

The Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice is an agency of the Irish Jesuit Province. The Centre undertakes social analysis, theological reflection and action in relation to issues of social justice, including housing and homelessness, penal policy, asylum and migration, and international development. Welcome to our website where you will find details of some of our publications and projects including full access to our journal Working Notes, which contains analysis and comment on current social issues.

Forthcoming Publication: The Recession and God, Reading the Signs of the Times

This is a different account of the current recession in Ireland and world-wide. Gerry O'Hanlon SJ draws on the rich resources of the Christian tradition to argue for the need for a new, more socially responsible, economic paradigm. He proposes a vision of the common good, inspired by the values of justice and solidarity, which rules out any simple return to 'business as usual'. Instead he urges that we use this time of crisis as an opportunity to pool our resources (both secular and religious) in committing ourselves to the search for a more sustainable future. This extended essay shows the relevance of theological thought for practical living, of Christianity for the public square.

So You Can't Forgive? Moving Towards Freedom

So you can't Forgive? Moving Towards Freedom What happens when you cannot forgive - indeed, when you feel that to do so would serve to minimise, excuse or even justify the wrong that has been done?

In So You Can't Forgive...? Brian Lennon SJ asks what real forgiving is. He tries to be both compassionate and challenging in looking at ways in which people can move towards freedom. He discusses the danger that the reaction to suffering may foster a sense of 'victimhood' rather than enable people to become survivors. And he asks: how can we respond to the challenges of the Scriptures in a way that is a help and not a burden?

Brian Lennon is a Jesuit priest who has worked for many years with people affected by conflict in Northern Ireland and elsewhere.

Irish Prison Chaplains: Annual Report 2007-2008

pdf Irish Prison Chaplains: Annual Report 2007-2008

Prison Cell

Working Notes: In Recession who will be left Stranded?

‘The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there’, L.P. Hartley famously wrote. Right now in Ireland, however, it is the present that feels like a foreign country. This is a place where we must adjust our assumptions and expectations and learn, or relearn, the skills to enable us deal with an economic situation that is the reverse of the favourable one to which we had become so acclimatised.

The need to think seriously about the values that will guide us through these difficult times was the core theme of a Statement, ‘Justice in Recession?’, which was issued by the Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice on 12 October 2008, and is reproduced as the opening article in this issue of Working Notes .

Funding Cutbacks to Frontline Services

Frontline services are being targeted prior to the announcement of Budget 2009, a number of projects working with the most vulnerable in Irish society have had their funding cut and been forced to close down. Other projects and services have had their funding severely CutBack.

Budget 2009 has the potential to have severe retrograde effects on frontline social projects both within civil society and statutory organisations.

www.jcfj.ie/cutbacks

Justice in Recession? Statement on the Current Economic Situation

Click here to read Justice in Recession? Statement on the Current Economic Situation

Peter McVerry's Reflections

Peter McVerry SJ has written many articles over the course of his life, and here we have collected over 80 that he has written in the past seven years. They were originally published in the journal Reality.

Each month we will pick an article out of this extensive archive for you to read and reflect on, click here to view this month's article. You can also look through the entire collection by clicking here .

Ceann Comhairle Launches OIREACHTAS WATCH

- A new initiative of JCFJ 9 July 2008 In its work in relation to prisons, policing, youth justice, and asylum and immigration issues, the Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice has found the replies to Parliamentary Questions put to the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform to be a valuable source of information on policy development and service delivery.
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