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FADICA Members and Next Generation Report Featured in Recent America Article
From the article: “We know engaging the next generation is beneficial to everybody, and it strengthens our mission,” said Dr. Maria Robinson who chairs the FADICA board. “Part of that engagement is passing on faith and values that began with the foundation and has been incorporated in everything that we do,” she said.
Thursday July 29, 2021
(Washington, DC) –
Maka Akan Najin Black Elk, a leader in Native American and Catholic education for truth, healing and reconciliation, has been unanimously selected by the FADICA Board of Directors as the recipient of the organization’s 2021 Distinguished Catholic Leadership Award. The Distinguished Catholic Leadership Award recognizes individuals who have demonstrated outstanding initiative, a spirit of service and visionary leadership in contributing to the renewal and vitality of the Catholic Church.
In selecting Maka Black Elk for this award, FADICA identified Black Elk’s courageous leadership to address historical trauma and racial justice through the significant truth and healing process at Red Cloud Indian School, a Jesuit institution on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota; his faith-filled and inclusive approach to healing and reconciliation; and his leadership in the American Indian Catholic Schools Network and the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition. With this recognition, Black Elk joins past award recipients who inspire greater leadership and service among Catholics for the Church and the common good.
New initiative aims to bring philanthropic community together to build safer cultures
(Washington, DC) – Today, Foundations and Donors Interested in Catholic Activities (FADICA) announces the formal launch of its “Commitment to Child and Vulnerable Adult Protection” initiative. This multi-year program seeks to protect vulnerable persons by building safer organizational cultures through specific steps outlined in its Funder Safeguarding Pledge. Inspired by the principles of Catholic Social Teaching, this initiative affirms the inherent dignity of the human person, as well as philanthropy’s role in promoting safeguarding best practices.
“Safeguarding is a public value and a priority for us as a Catholic philanthropic network,” said Alexia Kelley, President & CEO, FADICA. “Funders can play a critical role in making safeguarding a standard organizational best practice.”
Two of FADICA’s member-sponsored initiatives, which respond to the current pandemic, have recently been featured in the news. Sisters on the Frontlines, an innovative program that equips individual Catholic sisters with $1,000 each to assist people on the margins most affected by COVID, appeared in Catholic News Service and National Catholic Reporter. In addition, FADICA’s recently released report, “Open Wide the Doors to Christ: A Study of Catholic Social Innovation for Parish Vitality” was featured in Crux and NCR. You can find out more about Sisters on the Frontlines at Catholic Extension, which is administering the project. For more information about FADICA’s COVID-related initiatives, visit our dedicated webpage.
June 30, 2020
The killings of Breonna Taylor, George Floyd and so many people of color by law enforcement violate a most fundamental teaching of our faith: the sacredness of human life and the inviolable dignity of the human person.
Our hearts break and we lament the historic and current realities of racism in our country, which continue to threaten the lives of our brothers and sisters of color and diminish the flourishing that God intends for all his children. We pray for the repose of the soul of those lost to racism and police brutality, and for the consolation of their families and loved ones.
As Pope Francis has said, in order to defend the sacredness of human life ‘we cannot tolerate or turn a blind eye to racism and exclusion in any form.’ To act and speak strongly against exclusion, we have embarked on an intentional discernment and listening process to identify action steps that we can contribute as a community of Catholic and Catholic-inspired funders to end racism.
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