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Presenting Our

2009 Social Justice Lenten Retreat

With Joshua Casteel

Saturday, April 4, 2009
8:30am-3:30pm

•   •   •

O'Hagan Hall (church basement)
Sacred Heart Parish
627 East Fourth Street  •  Waterloo, Iowa

$25.00 for adults / $15.00 for students
(includes light lunch)

Sponsored by
Cedar Valley Catholic Social Justice Network
Cedar Falls Mennonite Church/Cedar Valley Center for Peace & Justice
Cedar Valley PaxChristi
Waterloo Catholic Worker

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About the Retreat

We live in a world divided by religion, by race, by markets, by nation-states, by ideologies, by borders and walls of all types. All these “identities” vie for our attention and loyalty.  Too often they divide us and distract us from our mission as disciples of Jesus Christ. 

This retreat invites us to reflect on our Lenten journey toward Easter, resurrection, and finally, the City of God -- not a city of our own construction, the product of earthly leaders, one depending upon the idols of our world or even our spiritual traditions, but a yet-to-come and simultaneously now-present divine world.

Over and over, God calls us to this community and asks us to reject both the human will to power and all divisions among people. Only through building God's City can we reach true freedom: a freedom to reconcile, a freedom to love, a freedom of truth, a freedom granted through self-giving, risk, and intimacy with God.

“What does it mean then to have a political identity in this turbulent time of change and violence? . . . Is a time of opportunity approaching when borderless followers of a crucified peasant might re-imagine a City of God? Not the geographical cities of powers and dominions, but yet a City—tangible and manifest to the world—a witness to that freedom which can be neither won nor taken by force.”
--Joshua Casteel

About the Presenter

Joshua Casteel grew up in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, the grandson of a WWII veteran and the son of a U.S. Army Captain.  He enlisted in the U.S. Army Reserves at the age of 17 and received an appointment to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point at 18. During his time in the service, he studied Philosophy and Literature at the University of Iowa and Keble College, Oxford. Less than 30 days after receiving his B.A., he was called up from the Reserves to full Active Duty in the U.S. Army. 

Casteel trained first as an interrogator at Fort Huachuca, Arizona and then spent eighteen months studying Arabic at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California. From June 2004 to January 2005, he served at the Joint Interrogation and Debriefing Center at Abu Ghraib, Iraq, as a member of the interrogation units sent to overhaul the prison after a highly publicized prisoner abuse scandal. He was discharged from Active Duty as a conscientious objector in 2005 and shortly after began writing and speaking widely in the United States and Europe about his wartime experiences and his decision to become a conscientious objector.  In March, 2007 he traveled to Rome for an audience with Pope Benedict XVI.   

Casteel wrote a series of 2009 Lenten reflections for PaxChristiUSA, The City of God.  His first book, Letters From Abu Ghraib (Essay Press), was released in July, 2008.  He serves on the board of directors of Iraq Veterans Against the War and currently lives in Iowa City where he is working on a memoir.

Read more about Joshua Casteel:
http://ncronline3.org/drupal/?q=node/2964
http://iowaindependent.com/tag/joshua-casteel
http://www.catholicpeacefellowship.org/nextpage.asp?m=2341
http://www.catholicpeacefellowship.org/nextpage.asp?m=2460
Listen to Joshua Casteel:
http://www.warcomeshome.org/joshua_casteel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fM8jjqxtSpY
http://iraqforsale.org/casteel.php
http://www.catholicpeacefellowship.org/podcast/Site/Podcast/8A366293-5FBE-463D-9BF8-0D19F935BBB1.html

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Registration

by phone: 319-234-9912
by email: <dbq208s3@arch.pvt.k12.ia.us>
online:
www.waterloocatholics.org/registration.htm

•   •   •

For more information contact:
Director of Adult Faith Formation
320 Mulberry Street, Waterloo IA 50703
Phone: 319-234-9912
Email: <
DBQ208s3@arch.pvt.k12.ia.us>

Posted: 02.19.09   Last Update: 02.28.09

ADULT FORMATION PRINCIPLES
The Catholic parishes in Waterloo are committed to providing life-long faith formation and spiritual growth for adults of all ages. We value individual life experience, respect the diversity of personal convictions, and welcome the wisdom of every participant. We encourage conversation and dialogue. We will never intentionally embarrass or offend participants.

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