Two to Receive Ignatian Awards from the University of Scranton

The University of Scranton will present its annual Pedro Arrupe, S.J., Award for Distinguished Contributions to Ignatian Mission and Ministries at a University Assembly on Mar. 24, at 11:30 a.m. in the DeNaples Center Ballroom.

Arrupe Awards will be presented to Rev. John P. Foley, S.J., executive chairman of the Cristo Rey Network and Mary Baudouin, assistant for social ministries for the Jesuits of the New Orleans Province.

After serving the Jesuit missions in Peru for 34 years, Fr. Foley returned to his native Chicago to lead a team of people who established what is today the Cristo Rey Network, schools that provide a college prep education to economically challenged young people in urban communities. Currently, there are 22 schools in the Cristo Rey Network serving more than 5,000 students nationwide. Fr. Foley served as principal of the first Cristo Rey Jesuit High School when it opened in 1996, serving Mexican immigrant children on Chicago's south side. He went on to become a champion for the development of similar schools and in 2005, was named president of the Cristo Rey Network.

Fr. Foley's work has been recognized through honorary degrees from Georgetown, Fordham and Marquette universities. In 2007, the National Catholic Educational Association awarded Fr. Foley the Seton Award. Newsweek named him among "Who's Next" for 2007. In 2008, President George W. Bush presented him with the Presidential Citizens Medal, the second-highest civilian honor in the United States.

Over the last 30 years, Mary Baudouin has worked tirelessly in a variety of social and lay ministries and charities from Washington, D.C., to flood-stricken New Orleans, where she been a leader recovery efforts following Hurricane Katrina. As assistant for social ministries for the Jesuits of the New Orleans Province, she coordinates social ministry and social justice activities for Jesuit priests, lay colleagues and institutions in a ten-state area. Through her service on the Jesuit Social Research Institute at Loyola University, she works to promote research, social analysis, theological reflection, and strategies for improving the social and economic conditions in the southern United States, and in parts of the Caribbean and Latin America.

Prior to joining the New Orleans Province staff in 2003, Baudouin worked for 14 years in social justice ministry with Catholic Charities and the Office of the Social Apostolate of the Archdiocese of New Orleans. In 1987, when the U.S. bishops wrote their pastoral letter on the U.S. economy, Baudouin coordinated the Office of Implementation for the United States Catholic Conference Office of Social Development and World Peace.

The Arrupe Award is named in honor of the late Very Rev. Pedro Arrupe, S.J., the superior general of the Society of Jesus from 1965 to 1983. The University of Scranton instituted the award in 1995 to further its namesake's vision by recognizing men and women for outstanding contributions in a wide variety of Ignatian-inspired ministries.