PresiDent’s MESSAGE Common Ground isiting Cleveland’s homeless on a frigid Friday night in 2006, I saw something unexpected. I was with the Labre Project, the street ministry founded on John Carroll’s campus two years earlier by three of our students. The group goes out every Friday night and distributes food and other essentials. More than anything else that night (even more than the coldness of my feet!), I was taken by the relationships I saw between the John Carroll group and the men and women on the street. At every stop, the Carroll members, mostly students, asked the homeless for updates on their families. And the homeless asked the same of the students. Meaningful discussions ensued. The students were in no hurry to climb back into the warm vans. Even though I have worked in street ministry and done many immersions of my own, I was surprised by the depth of the relationships. The Labre students live the John Carroll mission. They understand that what we all have in common is far more important than our differences. What a gift. We discover what we have in common only by getting to know those who struggle. That’s what makes immersions and ministries like the Labre Project so valuable. This issue’s cover story chronicles Bryan Mauk ’08, who helped found the Labre ministry at John Carroll and has started a new effort to aid the homeless – the Metanoia Project. I’m proud of our students’ involvement in Labre and other V projects. This past year, 14 different immersion groups went to seven states and four different countries. In the spring, I traveled to Jamaica and there witnessed a sight that moved me. A John Carroll student involved in an immersion experience, junior Alec Barker, was shaving an elderly man. Alec is a Blue Streak football player, a large young man who administers bruises on the gridiron. I’ll never forget the image of the student caring for the infirm man half his size. More than that, I’ll never forget the love he showed. We discover what we have in common only by getting to know those who struggle. W e join with others in continuing to mourn the loss this summer of Tim Russert ’72; Reverend Joe Schell, SJ; Board of Directors member Jerry Breen ’68, ’75G; faculty member Miles Coburn ’75G; student Marcel Jeffries; and many other alums, parents, and friends. Our sorrow is tempered, however, by our conviction that death constitutes a change of life, not the end of it. Jesus’ own resurrection and his promise of eternal life with God in glory enables us to continue the work of so many committed members of the John Carroll community, even after they have passed on. We are people of hope determined to mold the world ever more closely to the Gospels through leadership and service to the world. You can be proud of your involvement with John Carroll University, because you are contributing to making a difference. God bless, Reverend Robert L. Niehoff, SJ 2 John Carroll university FALL 2008 Photograph by Robert Wetzler previous page next page