Scholarship, Spirituality and Religiosity, and Service

The Billiart Center for Social Justice was established with the leadership of Sr. Mary Johnson, SND and Sr. Camilla Burns, SND at Trinity in September 2013.  The Center continues the mission and influence of the Sisters of Notre Dame at Trinity through lectures, discussions and opportunities to put the idea of social justice into action.   Named for St. Julie Billiart, founder of the Congregation of the Sisters of Notre Dame, the Billiart Center rests on four pillars: scholarship, spirituality and religiosity, and service – pillars on which the identity of Trinity rests as well. The Center will explore contemporary local, national and international social and economic issues which affect the lives of women, particularly in the religious and political spheres. The programs offered by the Billiart Center will build on the many ways in which these themes already are explored in Trinity’s curricula and extracurricular activities. This Center is a central place that gathers and encourages what is already being done and offers assistance in developing more programs and ideas.

The devotion of Trinity faculty to teaching and scholarship is evident everyday on this campus. The religious and spiritual sensibilities of the majority of Trinity students is also abundantly clear. The commitment of the entire university community to service in a multitude of forms is so apparent. Programming for the new Billiart Center will build upon these strengths of the Trinity community. Lectures, films, discussion and reflection will revolve around the four pillars undergirding the Center. Faculty and student input for future programming will be solicited so that the co-curricular work of the Center will enhance what already exists at Trinity.

Inauguration of the Billiart Center for Social Justice

Cap and Gown Convocation, September 28, 2013

Sr. Camilla Burns, SND, ’60

Distinguished Professor of Religious Studies

The Sisters of Notre Dame were founded in 1804 by the French woman Julie Billiart. Julie had two innate convictions that seem to have been with her from her earliest life and continued to be the beacons that guided her and motivated her through the vicissitudes of life.

The first was her unshakeable conviction that God was good. Her writings are filled with the phrase “How Good is the Good God!”, “Ah! Qu’il est bon le bon Dieu.”  It was a mantra for her. That saying is inscribed on the cross the Sisters of Notre Dame wear.

From the conviction of the Goodness of God came the deep desire to communicate that realization to others. She lived in a time of religious and social upheaval and concluded that the most effective way to transform society and communicate the goodness of God was through education. She was a natural at teaching, starting at an early age by going to the wheat fields at noon and instructing the agricultural workers.

She gave us this grand legacy and encouraged us to continue the work throughout the world with “deep union with God, liberty of spirit, and courage.” We are now in five continents and 20 countries.

Sister Julia McGroarty was a Sister of Notre Dame who was inspired by this legacy and exhibited great courage and liberty of spirit in founding Trinity College in 1897.

Our responsibility in 2013 is to interpret our inheritance for the present moment. In our Constitutions we commit ourselves to continue to search for appropriate expressions of our legacy in each time and place. Julia McGroarty exhibited this translation of our bequest to the present moment when she said “We are following our old tradition, enlarging our lives to suit the times.”

At this moment in the history of Trinity, we are inaugurating the founding of the Billiart Center for Social Justice. The Center will explore contemporary local, national and international social and economic issues which affect the lives of women, particularly in the religious and political spheres. We are under no illusion that this is a new experience for Trinity. We see multiple examples already existing in the curricula of many programs and we know that it takes place in numerous ways in various classrooms and extracurricular activities. This Center is a central place that gathers and encourages what is already being done and offers assistance in developing more programs and ideas. Sr. Mary Johnson will now present some of the ways we have begun to concretize the Billiart Center for Social Justice.

Sr. Mary Johnson, SND

Distinguished Professor of Religious Studies and Sociology

The Julie Billiart Center for Social Justice rests on four pillars: scholarship, spirituality and religiosity, and service – pillars on which the identity of Trinity rests as well.

The devotion of Trinity faculty to teaching and scholarship is evident everyday on this campus. The religious and spiritual sensibilities of the majority of Trinity students is also abundantly clear. (Evidence of that was presented a few minutes ago in the wonderful remarks of Shenaye Holmes, senior class president.) The commitment of the entire university community to service in a multitude of forms is so apparent.

Programming for the new center will build upon these strengths of the Trinity community. Lectures, films, discussion and reflection will revolve around the four pillars undergirding the Center. Faculty and student input for future programming will be solicited so that the co-curricular work of the Center will enhance what already exists.

Today, as you leave this building, you will each receive a flyer which lists programs for this fall semester. All events are open. You will be receiving an email asking you to rsvp to those events which are of interest to you.

Details of dates and times for the fall events are available on the flyer, but let me give you a taste of what Sr. Camilla and I, in consultation this semester with two faculty members, Prof. James Stocker and Prof. Shelly Tomkin, and Sr. Mary Ellen Dow from campus ministry, have planned for the inaugural semester of the Billiart Center for Social Justice.

First, Sr. Marge Clark of NETWORK, the national Catholic social justice lobby, will speak on poverty in the US. NETWORK has sponsored the Nuns on the Bus campaign which has received much media attention. It has developed a curriculum on poverty which is available through its website. As many of you know, the idea of NETWORK was conceptualized here at Trinity over 40 years ago and Sr. Mary Hayes was one of NETWORK’s founding mothers.

Sr. Jean Stoner, SND, serves at the SND NGO at the United Nations. She will meet with students, faculty and the Model UN. The Sisters of Notre Dame have held NGO status for several years. A discussion of UN resources available to the Trinity community will also be part of Sr. Jean’s presentations.

I will offer a lecture on the sociology of the papacy in light of Pope Francis’ unique role on the international stage. The film “I AM” will be presented as part of a lunchtime brown bag, and Soup with the Sisters which provides opportunities for spiritual input and reflection will continue to be offered. Issues of peacemaking and environmental justice will constitute part of the offerings for second semester.

We look forward to hearing your ideas and working with you to make this Center a vibrant part of the life of Trinity, and a support for all of the work for social justice that takes place here every day. Thank you.

President Patricia McGuire ’74

Billiart Center Inauguration at Cap and Gown Convocation, September 28, 2013

Before Julie Billiart was a saint, she was a troublemaker. She believed that the power of education could not only change lives on this earth, but that in fact, education brought students closer to salvation. She braved everything from the torches of French revolutionaries to the ire of her bishop in pursuit of her calling to instigate a historical dynamic that is still changing lives todays, including yours, including mine. She did not let paralysis, threats or petty sniping stop the process she set in motion with her co-conspirator Francoise Blin de Bourdon to establish schools for poor girls orphaned by the French Revolution. Her heirs among the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, Sisters Julia McGroarty and Mary Euphrasia Taylor, did not let a lack of money or opposition to the idea of women’s education stop them in their determination to create Trinity College. Their heirs among the SNDs who led and enriched the lives of thousands of Trinity alumnae and alumni for the last 100 years could not be stopped by the long years of obscurity, poverty and obstacles placed along the pathways of each historic moment for Trinity.

We are now the heirs of these courageous, radical, visionary women, women who are exemplars of the meaning of Pope Francis’s meditation on the difference between occupying space where others wield power versus initiating historic change processes.

Tonight we announced the creation of a center in her name, the Billiart Center for Social Justice, which has incitement as its real purpose:  to incite you, our current and future generations of Trinity students, alumnae and alumni, families and friends, to action for social justice, to be leaders for justice and peace in your families and schools, workplaces and communities, nation and world.

Trinity today advances the legacy of Julie and the Sisters of Notre Dame across three centuries, and our stewardship of this legacy demands that we take every action necessary to be sure that Trinity does more than merely occupy space in the marketplace of higher education; we must be the disruption, the force for change, the initiators of the historic processes that will improve the human condition generations hence.

Since launch, events have included:

“Catholic Charities helps more than 120,000 people in the Washington-metropolitan region each year”

The Billiart Center at Trinity welcomed Monsignor John Enzler to campus on October 9, 2018, for a talk on the mission of Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Washington and the organization’s commitment to economic and social justice. He talked about the tenets of Catholic social teaching and the many ways that Catholic Charities serves thousands of people each year with health care, shelter and much more.

• Learn more about Catholic Charities: View Msgr. Enzler’s PowerPoint presentation. 

Monsignor John Enzler, affectionately known as Father John, is the president and CEO of Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Washington, an agency which annually helps more than 120,000 people in the Washington-metropolitan region. A native Washingtonian, Father John has more than 40 years of experience as a priest, leader and advocate serving the needs of the most vulnerable in our community. His commitment to the poor and underserved extends beyond his work for Catholic Charities to include service on the boards of many national and local organizations such as Providence Hospital, Order of Malta, Christ Child Society and Mount St. Mary’s University among many others. He has been active among several local interfaith networks and is a recognized and respected figure in the metropolitan area community.

He was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Washington in 1973 and was named Monsignor by Pope John Paul II in 1985. Prior to being appointed to lead Catholic Charities by Cardinal Donald Wuerl in July 2011, he served as pastor at three parishes, most recently at the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament in Washington, DC. In 2012, Washingtonian Magazine named him a “Washingtonian of the Year.” On September 24, 2015, Father John welcomed Pope Francis to meet with and be among more than 500 people who were being helped by Catholic Charities, an iconic moment in the agency’s history.

“Reading scripture is not neutral. Reading anything is not neutral!”

Sr. Helen Prejean, international anti-Death Penalty activist, gave a rousing talk to Trinity on Feb 28, charging our community to go forth and fight the myriad of social and political injustices we see around us, especially those in our criminal justice system.

She was smart, funny, spiritual and challenged all of us to think! Above all, she talked about a very important issue: the death penalty, her national and international work to fight against the death penalty, and her compassion and emotional journey as she supported so many on death row, their families, and the families of the victims of death row inmates.

Rep. Jim McGovern On “Hunger in the U.S.”: “Solvable if We Have the Political Will to Do It”

“Close to 50 million of our fellow citizens are hungry. Almost 17 million of them are children,” Congressman Jim McGovern (D-MA) told a standing room only audience. He came to Trinity’s campus on September 29 to address “Hunger in the U.S.” and he discussed solutions to hunger and poverty. His talk was sponsored by the Billiart Center for Social Justice at Trinity and students, faculty, staff and SNDs in the Trinity community gathered to hear the Congressman’s powerful remarks. “Hunger is relatively solvable,” he said, “if we had the political will to do it. …Trillions of dollars are spent on wars, but ‘we’re broke’ is the response on relief of hunger.” Watch his full remarks here. Read more about Congressman McGovern.

October 31, 2024
Presentation on South Sudan by Sr. Mumbi Kigutha

October 7, 2021
Online dialogue on Pope Francis, young people, and “Who Is My Neighbor? Washington, Haiti, Afghanistan”