Alpha Sigma Nu THE HONOR SOCIETY OF JESUIT COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES MEMBER OF THE ASSOCIATION OF COLLEGE HONOR SOCIETIES
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LIVING IN A WORLD OF INDIFFERENCE AND SUPERFICIALITY A∑N member perspectives
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SUMMER 2016
LIVING THE IDEALS: Challenges & Calling Like many of you, I have always considered being well versed on current affairs a virtue, a citizen’s responsibility, and a measure of my self-worth. Growing up, we kept up with news of the world through radio, television, and the daily newspaper. Today, online newspapers, email alerts and social media bring non-stop, up-to-the-minute news to my computer, tablet, and phone. I am informed, yes, but how am I internalizing and responding to news of today’s pressing events?
diminish our humanity by short-circuiting our capacities for seeing, judging, and acting in solidarity with neighbors.” How can we, as individuals and as the Jesuit Honor Society, respond to this phenomenon?
Kerry Dziubek (Marquette '90)
ASN Board President For me, the first step is silence… making time to consider how I personally have become indifferent and superficial. Ms. Hinze recommends a scrutiny, “I suggest that we especially commit ourselves to a rigorous and persistent examination of how well our personal and institutional efforts cultivate robust habits of solidarity with suffering people in other areas of the world.”
Pope Francis and Father General Adolfo Nicolás (Marquette ’15) have been tugging at my sense of complacency. In describing the globalization of indifference, Pope Francis states, “Sadly, today’s information explosion does not of itself lead to an increased concern for other people’s problems… Indeed, the information glut can numb people’s sensibilities and to some degree downplay the As Father Nicolás states, “The gravity of the problems.” globalization of superficiality The Father General challenges Jesuit higher similarly laments, “We education to promote in have more information creative new ways the depth of than ever, but less ability thought and imagination that to think, to reflect, to – Pope Francis digest that information. – Pope Francis are distinguishing marks of the Ignatian tradition.” So there is a globalization of superficiality.” Perhaps we, as members of Alpha Sigma Nu, It is easy to point to young people, earphones in and heads down, looking at their phones, as the targets of these cautionary comments; however, we all must consider how superficiality and the globalization of indifference impact us. Christine Firer Hinze (Marquette ’95), Director of Fordham University’s Curran Center for American Catholic Studies, cautions, “Superficiality (a vice of the mind) and indifference (a vice of the affect) will
can experience this scrutiny and discernment together. Let us together seek the depth of thought, imagination, and faith to which Father Nicolás calls us. Through silent personal reflection and in dialogue with one another, fellow stewards of the Ignatian tradition, perhaps we can imagine ways to connect with those around us and to collaborate on action. For in solidarity, we affirm our humanity.