Laudato Si' Events

Ignatian Advocacy Madness: When Justice is the Champion

March 3 – April 25, 2025
Online

Click here to learn more about Ignatian Advocacy Madness

Ignatian Advocacy Madness has begun! This isn't just a competition; it's a call to action for the Seattle University campus community. Hosted by the Ignatian Solidarity Network, it's an opportunity for everyone to learn, pray, and act for just migration and environmental policies.

If you're hosting events related to environmental justice or humane migration policy, SU wants to hear from you. Share your activities with Campus Ministry and the Center for Social Transformation and Leadership, and they’ll include them in their entries to highlight your impactful work. Email the CSTL at CSTL@seattleu.edu for submissions, more information or questions.

KXSU Earth Month E-Waste Drive

All month of April
Drop-off box in Sinegal, outside of room 230

Do you have any old headphones, chargers, cables or other sorts of electronics laying around the house that you don’t use anymore? Then stop by the KXSU studio during the month of April in honor of Earth Month for our E-Waste drive! Only 17% of e-waste is properly recycled so do your part and donate to keep electronic waste out of our landfills. Our drop-off box will be located in Sinegal, outside of room 230 through April 30^th

Threadhawk Thrift & Kids Clothing Swap

Tuesday, April 8, 2025, 11:00AM – 1:30PM
Student Center, 1^st floor

More info and Registration

Do you have professional clothing items you could donate for our students? Are you looking for gently used kids clothing or books? Join in this "all-in-one" event to support our students. This event is sponsored by Career Engagement, Wellness & Health Promotion and Parent & Family Engagement.

Questions or want to drop off items for the event? Contact Kiyana Higa (khiga@seattleu.edu), Laurie Prince (lprince@seattleu.edu) or Nodia Rogers (nrogers@seattleu.edu).

EARTH TALKS on EARTH DAY

Earth Day, April 22, 11:30AM-1:30PM:

• 11:45AM: Doors open – Light appetizers
• 12:00PM: Program starts:
  • Welcome by Dr. Laura Spitz, Vice Provost for Global Engagement
  • Five-minute “Earth Talks” by eight SU faculty and students
• 1:00PM: Q&A with presenters
• 1:20PM: Event concludes

Student Center “Le Roux Room” (STCN #160)

Join us for the 6^th edition of “Earth Talks,” Seattle University’s annual Earth Day celebration showcasing inspirational 5-min talks on “Care for our Common Home” by students, faculty, and staff from across different schools and programs at SU. Presentations will cover advocacy, artwork, research, and service projects related to environmental justice and sustainability. Join us and support fellow students and colleagues presenting! This event is a Laudato Si’ Action Platform initiative sponsored by the Center for Environmental Justice and Sustainability (CEJS), Institute for Catholic Thought and Culture (ICTC), Center for Ecumenical and Interreligious Engagement (CEIE), and the Roundglass India Center

Event program and more details

Twilight Garden Meditation Walk

Wednesday, April 23, 2025, 6:00PM
Where: The walk will start at the Campion Tea Garden

Click for more information and to register

Join CEIE and SU Gardeners for a walk through SU gardens accompanied by simple sensory meditations.
This event celebrates Earth Day and the 10th anniversary of Laudato Si with simple tools for deepening your connection with the earth.
After our walk, we'll have time to gather for food and conversation.
This event is cosponsored by CEIE, Seattle U Facilities & Grounds, SU Psychology Department.

Come, Have Breakfast
Book Discussion Group

• Wednesday, April 23, 12-1:30 pm in person, lunch provided
• Tuesday, April 29, 12:30-1:45 pm on Zoom, in discussion with Sr. Johnson

 Click here to Register

“‘Come, have breakfast’ (Jn 21:12) These three simple words followed by generous action open a portal into an ecological image of the living God who is active with cordial hospitality toward all creatures, nurturing their lives, desiring that all should be fed.”

Join ICTC for a two-session group where we will read and discuss prize-winning theologian Elizabeth Johnson’s views on planet Earth, its beauty and threatened state, through the lens of scripture. Each luminous meditation offers a snapshot of one aspect of the holy mystery who creates, indwells, redeems, vivifies, and sanctifies the whole world. Together, they offer a panoramic view of the living God who loves the earth, accompanies all its creatures in their living and their dying, and moves us to care for our uncommon common home. For the first session, participants will have read a good portion of the book and will participate in preparing questions for our second session, a Zoom discussion with Sr. Johnson.

Elizabeth A. Johnson, a member of the Sisters of St. Joseph, is Distinguished Professor of Theology Emerita, Fordham University, NYC. A former president of the Catholic Theological Society of America and also of the American Theological Society, an ecumenical association, she is winner of the John Courtney Murray Award for distinguished achievement in theology, and numerous other awards. Her book She Who Is received the Grawemeyer Award in Religion. Following her retirement, she was inducted into Fordham University’s Hall of Honor. Among her many books are Friends of God and Prophets: A Feminist Theological Reading of the Communion of Saints; Quest for the Living God: Mapping Frontiers in the Theology of God; Truly Our Sister: A Theology of Mary in the Communion of Saints; and Ask the Beasts: Darwin and the God of Love. Her previous Orbis books include Creation and the Cross and Abounding in Kindness: Writings for the People of God. 

Quest for Environmental Justice: The Challenge and Promise
Dr. Robert D. Bullard, “Father of Environmental Justice”

Saturday, April 26, 2025, 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM
Pigott Auditorium

Click here for more information and to RSVP

Join Dr. Robert Bullard, the father of environmental justice, for a transformative lecture titled Quest for Environmental Justice: The Challenge and Promise. With decades of pioneering work as a sociologist and author, Dr. Bullard will explore the roots of the environmental justice movement, its connection to faith, civil rights, and the policies that have shaped systemic inequities. As we mark the 10th anniversary of Laudato Si, Pope Francis’ call to care for our common home, this conversation takes on even greater urgency—challenging us to recognize environmental justice as a moral obligation and an act of solidarity with the most vulnerable.

Dr. Bullard's message goes beyond identifying barriers—it is one of resilience, action, and hope. He will inspire attendees to see how marrying research, data, and science with faith and community-driven action can create lasting change. In alignment with Seattle University’s deep commitment to sustainability and justice, this event offers a powerful opportunity to reflect on our collective responsibility and take meaningful steps to build a more just and equitable future.

Who Should Attend:

This lecture is ideal for anyone committed to justice, equity, and sustainability. It’s designed for community leaders, educators, students, faith-based organizations, activists, policymakers, and individuals passionate about creating a healthier, fairer world through collective action.

This is more than a lecture—it’s a call to action and a vision for change.

About Dr. Bullard

Robert D. Bullard is often described as the father of environmental justice. He is the former Dean of the Barbara Jordan-Mickey Leland School of Public Affairs at Texas Southern University 2011-2016. Professor Bullard currently is Distinguished Professor of Urban Planning and Environmental Policy and Director of the Bullard Center for Environmental and Climate Justice. Prior to coming to TSU he was founding Director of the Environmental Justice Resource Center at Clark Atlanta University. He received his Ph.D. degree from Iowa State University. He is an award-winning author of eighteen books that address sustainable development, environmental racism, urban land use, industrial facility siting, community reinvestment, housing, transportation, climate justice, disasters, emergency response, and community resilience, smart growth, and regional equity. He is co-founder of the HBCU Climate Change Consortium. Dr. Bullard is a proud U.S. Marine Corps veteran.

Planetary Health: Solutions for Health Care
The Drs. Luth M. and Narciso P. Tenorio Endowed Scholar and Lectureship

Wednesday, April 30, 2025, 4:00PM – 6:00PM

• 4:00PM: Registration and Poster Presentation with Light Refreshments

Prior to the event program, enjoy a poster presentation featuring scholarly work by SU nursing faculty and students

• 5:00PM: Event Program

Pigott Auditorium

Click Here for More Info and Registration

Seattle University College of Nursing and the Center for Environmental Justice and Sustainability welcome Elizabeth Schenk, PhD, RN, FAAN, Chief Environmental Stewardship Officer at Providence for a discussion on the environmental challenges health care professionals and organizations face using a planetary health lens, sharing effective solutions tested in one of the nation’s largest health systems. Health care has a long history of creative solutions, innovation, and commitment. Using these skills, health care has opportunities to be less polluting, less wasteful, and less consumptive while building resilience, committed to its principles of justice and service.

Laudato Si’ Reading Group
for faculty and staff in celebration of the Laudato Si’ 10^th anniversary

May 7 and May 28, at 12:00 p.m.-1:30 p.m. Lunch included

Click Here to Register

This May marks the 10th anniversary of the publication of Pope Francis’ powerful and prophetic encyclical letter Laudato si’: On Care for Our Common Home, and as part of our celebration the Center for Jesuit Education invites you to a faculty and staff reading group. The group will meet twice and discuss roughly half of the text at each gathering.

From Laudato Si': 

Our insistence that each human being is an image of God should not make us overlook the fact that each creature has its own purpose. None is superfluous. The entire material universe speaks of God’s love, his boundless affection for us. Soil, water, mountains: everything is, as it were, a caress of God. The history of our friendship with God is always linked to particular places which take on an intensely personal meaning; we all remember places, and revisiting those memories does us much good. Anyone who has grown up in the hills or used to sit by the spring to drink, or played outdoors in the neighborhood square; going back to these places is a chance to recover something of their true selves. (§84)

Please join as we reflect on our beautiful and fragile home and on Pope Francis’ call to do more to care for both the earth and our fellow human beings!

If you have any questions, please email Yancy Dominick at dominick@seattleu.edu.

Laudato Si' Celebration with Keynote Dr. Nancy Tuchman

Tuesday, May 20, 3:00 - 5:00 pm 
STCN 160 Le Roux Room

More information coming soon

Past Events

Northwest Jesuit Advocacy Summit

Click for more information

The Northwest Jesuit Advocacy Summit brings together Jesuit students, volunteers, parishioners, faculty, priests and other leaders to use the power of our collective voices to put our faith into action. 

Held from February 27, 28, and March 1, 2025, in Seattle and Tacoma, the event takes high-school students through a 3-day experience of Ignatian reflection towards prophetic action, with university students, Jesuit volunteers, parishioners, faculty and other adult allies joining for evening programming and a direct-action town-hall on Saturday morning

In the spirit of the Jesuit Apostolic Preference to “walk with youth toward a hope-filled future” parishioners, priests, teachers and community members are encouraged to join the summit to network with other Ignatian justice leaders, join in meaningful spiritual conversation with Jesuit students leading the next generation of justice work, and -most importantly- stand with these young leaders and Native-led activist groups as we engage in faithful collective action in solidarity with the Se Si Le and the Sacred Salmon Campaign.

Adults are invited to attend any of the below programs. You do not need to attend every event. The Saturday morning student-led town hall with elected officials is particularly important moment to stand with students as they take action, so if you can only attend one event, we encourage you to be there!

• Thursday February 27th at Bellarmine High Tacoma
  5:15 pm: “Already Ignited” Adult Justice Leader Dinner
  6:00 pm: Story Slam on Indigenous Climate Solidarity
• Friday February 28th at Seattle University
  6:30 pm: Intergenerational Conversation on Creation, Justice and Spirituality with Jesuit students and Jesuit Volunteers
• Saturday, March 1st at Seattle University
  10:00 am: Sacred Salmon Town Hall: Public Witness in Solidarity with Native Peoples on Salmon Watershed Protection

Faculty Research Presentation: Shared Concerns, Competing Perspectives

Dr. Stacey Jones and Dr. Dean Peterson, Albers School of Business & Economics

Wednesday, March 12, 2025
12:00pm to 1:30pm (lunch provided)
Pigott 107, Seattle University

The project makes a case for the inclusion of Catholic Social Thought (CST) in the introductory economics course. We argue that the contrast between the perspectives of CST and economics, especially with regard to the environment, can deepen students’ understanding of the underlying assumptions of economics and enable students to see the role that economics should play in an interdisciplinary effort to address climate change. The paper provides practical guidance to economics faculty who wish to bring the urgent call of Laudato Si' and Laudate Deum into their classrooms effectively.

Conversations with Governor Bob Ferguson 
Rise of the Governors: Navigating contrasts, chaos, and the Constitution

Thursday, April 3rd at 1:30 pm 
Pigott Auditorium

Free and open to the public! Click here to RSVP

Please join the Department of Public Affairs and Nonprofit Leadership for their quarterly Conversations event. On Thursday, April 3, they will be hosting the newly-elected Washington state governor, Bob Ferguson, in conversation about pressing issues facing the state and the nation. The conversation will focus on how governors are managing the change in the relationship with federal government and the budget cuts that states are experiencing to a variety of programs: for veterans, people living in poverty, health care, medical research, climate, forest and energy management, and more.