FAIRFIELD—The Office of Mission Integration, Ministry and Multicultural Affairs at Sacred Heart University, in Fairfield, in conjunction with SHU’s department of Catholic studies and the Human Journey Colloquia Series, is excited to announce two upcoming lectures that will be open to the public.
Fr. Greg Boyle, founder of Homeboy Industries in Los Angeles, CA, will give a talk in the Chapel of the Holy Spirit at Sacred Heart University on Wednesday, Oct. 20 at 7 p.m. Boyle will share what he has learned during the last 30 years of working with marginalized populations at Homeboy Industries. His new book, released the day before the talk, is entitled The Whole Language: The Power of Extravagant Tenderness. In this book, he reveals what he believes to be the key to Homeboy Industries’ decades of success in gang rehabilitation—love is the answer, community is the context and tenderness is the connective tissue. He writes that tenderness reflects the foundational notion that there is no “us” and “them,” only us. Homeboy seeks to be what the world is invited to become. Kinship cannot happen without tenderness.
Boyle is also the author of the 2010 bestseller Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion.
On Nov. 10 at 2 p.m., Sacred Heart University will host its annual Kristallnacht Commemoration, remembering in a solemn service the Night of Broken Glass, when the Nazis broke the windows of Jewish businesses, schools and synagogues in 1938 Germany leading to deaths, arrests and the beginning of the Holocaust. Guest speaker Rabbi Abraham Skorka, a long-time friend and collaborator with Pope Francis, is now with the Institute for Jewish-Catholic Relations at Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia. Skorka and Pope Francis (then Archbishop of Buenos Aires Jorge Bergoglio) gave a series of inter-religious talks on a variety of topics that were later published in the book Sobre el Cielo y la Terra, which was later translated into English as On Heaven and Earth.
Skorka has spent much of his career focusing on developing and expanding programs designed to promote a deeper understanding between Catholics and Jews.
The University is excited to be able to welcome the broader public back to campus for these educational offerings. All attendees must wear a mask when inside the chapel in order to follow SHU’s COVID-19 guidelines.
