Loras College to Host Peace and Justice Week September 20-26

DUBUQUE, Iowa – Loras College will host a full slate of events as part of its annual recognition of Peace and Justice Week from September 20-26. This is the 15th year of events that highlight the importance of dialogue and learning to establish greater compassion and understanding.

Peace activist Kathy Kelly will be the first featured speaker as she presents Hope from the Ashes: 75 Years After Hiroshima and Nagasaki as a virtual event on Monday, September 21. The event, hosted through dbqdayofpeace.org, looks back at the devastation caused by the nuclear bombings of the two Japanese cities at the end of World War II and the need to create the public will to address nuclear weapon proliferation, unsafe nuclear waste storage, and related problems.

On September 24, Loras will host a virtual event celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) from 3–4 pm Senator Tom Harkin, the sponsor of the ADA legislation in 1990, will be the featured speaker.

Another featured event will be September 23 when the Peace and Justice House hosts the film, Revolution of the Heart: the Dorothy Day Story at 7:30 pm on the Miller Academic Resource Center (MARC) lawn. The documentary traces Dorothy Day’s journey from a young communist journalist, to a Catholic convert, to the co-founder of The Catholic Worker newspaper and the first “houses of hospitality,” which sheltered New York City’s homeless during the Great Depression.

Other events scheduled for the week are:
September 20 – Campus Clean-Up with Loras Sustainability, 4–5 pm on the MARC Lawn
September 22 – John Noltner’s 38th and Chicago George Floyd Series, 11 am – 1 pm in the Alumni Campus Center (ACC) Concourse.
September 24 – Spanish Mass, 5:15 pm at Christ the King Chapel; Black Lives Matter Candlelight Vigil, 7:30 on the MARC lawn
September 25 – Interfaith Prayer for Peace, 11:30–11:45 am at the peace pole by Christ the King Chapel
September 26 – March for Refugee Rights, 12:00 pm (off campus, across the street from Christ the King Chapel)