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John Baumann, S.J.
ROBERT M. HOLSTEIN FAITH DOING JUSTICE AWARD
Rev. John Baumann, S.J., is the founder of PICO (Pacific Institute for Community Organization), now known as Faith in Action, and current director of special projects. PICO/Faith in Action serves a national network of 55 congregation, faith-based community organizations in over 250 cities in twenty two states, and is developing organizations in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Rwanda, and Haiti. Faith in Action’s mission is to assist in the building of community organizations with the power to improve the quality of life of families and neighborhoods. During his tenure as executive director from 1972-2009, Faith in Action’s National Network of Community Organizations achieved significant successes in such areas as crime and safety, housing rehabilitation, educational innovation and reform, health insurance for the working poor, employment, and public improvements. The work of more than 1,000 local congregation-based organizations in cities across the country has improved the quality of life of over one million families. Fr. Baumann was born and raised in San Jose, California, and attended Bellarmine College Prep. Upon graduating he joined the Jesuits. He was ordained in 1969 and holds degrees from Gonzaga University and Santa Clara University and honorary degrees from Loyola Marymount University, the University of San Francisco, and Santa Clara University.
About the Robert M. Holstein Faith Doing Justice Award
The Holstein Award is given by the Ignatian Solidarity Network (ISN) each year to individuals who have demonstrated a significant commitment to leadership for social justice grounded in the spirituality of St. Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits).
About Robert M. Holstein
The late Robert (Bob) M. Holstein, a former Jesuit of the California province, a labor lawyer, and a fierce advocate for social justice, was one of the founders of the Ignatian Family Teach-In for Justice (IFTJ). From the late 1990s through 2009, the IFTJ was held in conjunction with the annual gathering in Columbus, Georgia, to protest the former U.S. Army School of the Americas (now known as the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation-WHINSEC) at Ft. Benning. Nineteen of the twenty-six Salvadoran soldiers who committed the murders of the Jesuit martyrs of El Salvador and their companions received training at the former School of the Americas during the 1980s. The Ignatian Family Teach-In and protest/vigil in Georgia began to remember the Jesuit martyrs and call for the close of the school/institute. In organizing the Teach-in, Holstein laid the foundation for what would become the Ignatian Solidarity Network, which began in 2004.
On January 5, 2003, Holstein passed away. In a homily remembering Bob at his funeral mass Rev. John Baumann, S.J., described Holstein as a man who “was passionate about justice and fairness for all peoples, particularly the poor and disenfranchised.” The Robert M. Holstein Faith Doing Justice Award honors this commitment to justice by recognizing individuals each year who are connected with the Ignatian Family and have demonstrated a significant commitment to leadership for social justice.
Previous Recipients
Simone Campbell, S.S.S.
ROBERT M. HOLSTEIN FAITH DOING JUSTICE AWARD
Sister Simone Campbell is the Executive Director of NETWORK Lobby for Catholic Social Justice – a federal advocacy organization founded by Catholic Sisters to lobby in Washington, D.C. for policies that mend the gaps in income and wealth in the United States. She has led six cross-country “Nuns on the Bus” trips focused on tax justice, healthcare, economic justice, comprehensive immigration reform, voter turnout, bridging divides in politics and society, and mending the gaps. Sister Simone Campbell wrote the famous “Nuns’ Letter,” considered by many as critically important in convincing Congress to support the Affordable Care Act in 2010, and is the author of “A Nun on the Bus: How All of Us Can Create Hope, Change, and Community,” published by HarperCollins. She has received numerous awards, spoke at the 2012 Democratic National Convention, and has appeared on 60 Minutes, The Colbert Report, and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. She is a religious leader, attorney, and poet with extensive experience in public policy and advocacy for systemic change.
About the Robert M. Holstein Faith Doing Justice Award
The Holstein Award is given by the Ignatian Solidarity Network (ISN) each year to individuals who have demonstrated a significant commitment to leadership for social justice grounded in the spirituality of St. Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits).
About Robert M. Holstein
The late Robert (Bob) M. Holstein, a former Jesuit of the California province, a labor lawyer, and a fierce advocate for social justice, was one of the founders of the Ignatian Family Teach-In for Justice (IFTJ). From the late 1990s through 2009, the IFTJ was held in conjunction with the annual gathering in Columbus, Georgia, to protest the former U.S. Army School of the Americas (now known as the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation-WHINSEC) at Ft. Benning. Nineteen of the twenty-six Salvadoran soldiers who committed the murders of the Jesuit martyrs of El Salvador and their companions received training at the former School of the Americas during the 1980s. The Ignatian Family Teach-In and protest/vigil in Georgia began to remember the Jesuit martyrs and call for the close of the school/institute. In organizing the Teach-in, Holstein laid the foundation for what would become the Ignatian Solidarity Network, which began in 2004.
On January 5, 2003, Holstein passed away. In a homily remembering Bob at his funeral mass Rev. John Baumann, S.J., described Holstein as a man who “was passionate about justice and fairness for all peoples, particularly the poor and disenfranchised.” The Robert M. Holstein Faith Doing Justice Award honors this commitment to justice by recognizing individuals each year who are connected with the Ignatian Family and have demonstrated a significant commitment to leadership for social justice.
Previous Recipients
PICO California
LEGACY OF THE MARTYRS AWARD
PICO California supports grassroots organizing which enables people of faith to build power to reshape their lives and their communities. The network of organizations trains leaders and equips them with tools to fight racism and build a more equitable and just society.
PICO California is the largest multi-racial faith-based community-organizing network in the state connecting and leveraging the power of the people to impact broad systemic change. Motivated by various prophetic traditions, PICO grounds their civic action and demands for change in moral and ethical principles. PICO uses a relationship-based organizing model to develop leadership and build capacity for civic engagement in communities throughout California.
Established in 1994, PICO California organizes in 73 cities, 35 school districts, and in more than seventy-five percent of the state’s Senate and Assembly districts. PICO is deeply connected with communities through congregations and religions institutions and works in coalition across racial, economic, ethnic, and religious lines. PICO is comprised of 19 non-profit organizations made up of 480 interfaith congregations, schools, and neighborhood institutions representing 450,000 families. PICO brings local federations together throughout California to affect meaningful budget and policy change at the state level.
About the Legacy of the Martyrs Award
November 16, 2019, marks thirty years since Ignacio Ellacuría, S.J., Ignacio Martín-Baró, S.J., Segundo Montes, S.J., Juan Ramón Moreno, S.J., Joaquín López y López, S.J., Amando López, S.J., and their housekeeper Elba Ramos and her 15-year-old daughter Celina Ramos were murdered at the University of Central America in San Salvador, El Salvador.
The legacy of the Jesuit martyrs significantly influenced the Church and the Jesuit community around the world. Across the Ignatian network of Jesuits and lay collaborators, new ways of working for justice, grounded in Christian faith, have developed over the course of these thirty years.
The Ignatian Solidarity Network is a direct product of the martyrs’ legacy. The deaths of 70,000 innocent individuals over the course of El Salvador’s 12-year civil war, many killed by Salvadoran soldiers who received U.S. military training at the former U.S. Army School of the Americas, gave ISN founders like Robert Holstein and Fr. Charlie Currie, S.J., the impetus to invite the Jesuit network to be part of working to bring attention to U.S. involvement in Central America. From 1996 to 2009, the Ignatian Family Teach-In for Justice took place in conjunction with SOAWatch’s vigil at the gates of Ft. Benning, the location of the former School of the Americas before it was renamed in 2001. While the Teach-In moved to Washington, D.C., in 2010, the legacy of the martyrs remains at the core of ISN’s social justice education and advocacy efforts.
The Legacy of the Martyrs award is bestowed on individuals and organizations who have made significant contributions to sustaining the witness and legacy of the Jesuit martyrs and their companions.
Previous Award Recipients
Elena Habersky and William Rutt
MOIRA O’DONNELL EMERGING LEADERS AWARD
Elena Habersky is a 2013 graduate of the University of Scranton, and earned her master’s degree in migration and refugee studies at the American University in Cairo (AUC). She currently holds the position of project manager for the Refugee Entitlements in Egypt Project at the Center for Migration and Refugee Studies at AUC. Elena previously worked with urban refugee communities in Amman, Jordan on a Fulbright ETA Fellowship at the Jesuit Refugee Services and Collateral Repair Project. She has also worked at IOM Egypt. Her photographic and written work from ethnographic work conducted in Amman, Cairo, and Kampala has been published by the Oxford Monitor of Forced Migration, Muftah Magazine, America Magazine, and The Forward.
Will Rutt is a 2012 graduate of Creighton University. He currently serves as the director of Ignatian service and advocacy at Brophy College Preparatory in Phoenix, Arizona. He is a graduate of Brophy and additionally holds a master’s degree in educational leadership from the University of San Francisco. During his time at Creighton, Will worked in the Father Schlegel Center for Service and Justice, as a student staff member, where he first cultivated his love for advocacy and interest in migrant justice. During his tenure at Brophy, he co-founded a student group called the Brophy Culture Project, which provides a platform for student narratives that disrupt the many times singular narrative that permeates many of the Jesuit prep schools. For the past three years, Will has helped oversee the DreamOn campaign, which empowers students to leverage their Catholic identity and utilize the power of narrative while seeking justice for those who are undocumented in the United States. Over the last year, Will has assisted in the development and capacity building for community organizing across the Jesuits West province.
About the Moira O’Donnell Emerging Leaders Award
The O’Donnell Award, given yearly, will honor one to three individuals ages 23-33 who have 1) received an undergraduate degree from a U.S. Jesuit university, and 2) demonstrated significant social justice leadership in their communities.
About Moira O’Donnell
Moira Erin O’Donnell, the late daughter of Bob and Jackie O’Donnell, and sister of Aimee and Matt, passed away suddenly and unexpectedly on October 9, 2005. Moira was truly a loving and gifted young woman who lived her life with brilliance, generosity, compassion, and a commitment to social justice.
She graduated magna cum laude from Santa Clara University in 1994 with a B.A. in English and was a member of the Phi Beta Kappa and Alpha Sigma Nu societies. While at Santa Clara she earned a full scholarship to study at Oxford University for a year. Following Oxford she continued her studies at Boston College (M.A., English, 1996), and the University of London (M.A., Intellectual and Cultural History, 2002).
Moira spent a year following her college graduation as a member of the Vincentian Service Corps working as a teacher at St. Aloysius School in New York City. She then went to work for Catholic Charities of San Francisco at St. Joseph’s Village, a shelter for homeless families. From 1998 to 2004, Moira worked for Hamilton Family Center, another family shelter in San Francisco. In 2005, Moira accepted an offer to become the executive director of the Ignatian Solidarity Network and quickly began establishing ISN’s roots as a national social justice network inspired by the spirituality of St. Ignatius of Loyola.
Previous Recipients
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