Cheverus Stories

Dear Cheverus Community,

We write to you with an important message about our school, our culture and our community. It has been quite a year here on Ocean Avenue with wonderful spirit, exciting new initiatives and faces, and preparations for our 100th Anniversary year in 2017-2018. It has also been a year clouded with the tensions of a contentious national election and an anxious political climate. As a Jesuit, Catholic school, not only are we not immune to these forces, we are called by our Church and our Jesuit leaders to have a voice and follow the tenets that Jesus preached in the Beatitudes.

Whereas other schools and school systems may strive to remain neutral, as a work of the Catholic Church and an apostolate of the Society of Jesus we respectfully and confidently bring our Judeo-Christian values to the public square. We are called to pray and advocate for the protection and uplifting of all human life, which includes welcoming, sheltering, and protecting refugees. As leaders of this Jesuit Catholic Mission called Cheverus, we must speak out against any executive orders suspending or banning refugees into our country. We do so in solidarity with Bishop Deeley and the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States, and most especially with our brothers and sisters who are in need.  

Finally, we write with an awareness of the complexity of these issues and the challenges they pose to us as individuals. The world we are educating our students to enter and lead is not black and white, and so we hope to help them understand these complexities and model how to have peaceful and respectful conversations about challenging issues. We know that you share our goal of forming young women and men of conscience and compassion, and we welcome you in this partnership to share your thoughts and ideas with us.

God Bless,

Fr. George Collins, S.J.
President 

Dr. John Moran,
Principal

Download a PDF of this letter here.