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FaithActs

FaithActs Summer Youth Theology Institute at Loyola University New Orleans

FaithActs was a program inspiring rising high school juniors and seniors to engage with the relevant sciences and explore Christianity's rich biblical and theological traditions about the goodness of creation. Students stayed on Loyola's beautiful uptown campus as they explored how to become leaders in support of creation and environmental justice. Participants gathered together for presentations, large-group activities, and small-group and individual projects. Students practiced theological reflection through conversation circles and developed faith through prayer, worship, and individual reflection. Through this vigorous program, students were able to earn earn 3 college credits and contribute 20 service hours.

During FaithActs, participants

  • explored faith's implications for creation

  • practiced social analysis and theological reflection

  • collaborated with other high school students

  • learned to think theologically and to discern how God is calling them to act for environmental justice

  • considered questions such as:

    • What does faith require of me and others with regard to creation and environmental justice?

    • What is God's will with and for me?

    • What am I called to create?

Program Goals

Interacting in person with fellow participants, Loyola mentors, staff, faculty, and the local Louisiana environment, students worked to achieve the following goals

  • engage the Christian biblical and theological tradition as a resource that is compelling personally and communally, with an emphasis on Pope Francis and his Laudato Si: On Care for Our Common Home.

  • discern ways to live out that faith in an increasingly complex, globalized, and polluted world.

  • see their baptism as a call to ministry and religious leadership, whether in the Church or in the world.

  • develop their own faith-based project for environmental sustainability that can be implemented in their local high school or church parish.

  • gain a greater appreciation for God’s creatures in support of solidarity.

  • embody the mission of Loyola University New Orleans, especially as it aims at a more just world and places an emphasis on students being men and women with and for others.

Questions?