University to present Pedro Arrupe, S.J., Award April 29

Apr 16, 2010

      The University of Scranton will present its annual Pedro Arrupe, S.J., Award for Distinguished Contributions to Ignatian Mission and Ministries to Rev. Dean Brackley, S.J., at a University Assembly in the DeNaples Center on April 29.

      During the past two decades, Fr. Brackley has served as a faculty member at the Universidad Centroamericana in El Salvador — where six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper and her daughter were murdered in 1989. More than 20 years later, Fr. Brackley continues to commemorate their lives, addressing the tragedy through writings and interviews.

      One of Fr. Brackley’s most notable essays is the “Higher Standards for Higher Education: The Christian University and Solidarity,” addressing the need for reflection “on what a university must be for the 21st century, especially a Christian, Catholic and Jesuit university.”

      Fr. Brackley has also authored or contributed to several books, including “Divine Revolution: Salvation and Liberation in Catholic Thought” and “The Call to Discernment in Troubled Times: New Perspectives on the Transformative Wisdom of Ignatius Loyola.”

      In addition to teaching theology and ethics courses, and serving as pastor in the university’s parish, Fr. Brackley is an influential voice on El Salvador’s current conditions, often spreading his message via Youtube.com.

      Having entered the Jesuit order in 1964, and becoming an ordained priest in 1976, Fr. Brackley received a doctorate in theological ethics at the University of Chicago in 1980. He is a native of upstate New York and has worked extensively in social ministry and popular education on Manhattan’s Lower East Side and in the South Bronx in the 1970s and 1980s. He also taught briefly at Fordham University before heading to Universidad Centroamericana.

      The Arrupe Award is named in honor of the late Very Rev. Pedro Arrupe, S.J., the superior general of the Society of Jesus from 1965 to 1983. The University of Scranton instituted the award in 1995 to further its namesake's vision by recognizing men and women for outstanding contributions in a wide variety of Ignatian-inspired ministries.

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