Jesuit Volunteer Corps marks 50th anniversary

Published: 2006-07-27

PORTLAND, Ore. (CNS) -- The Jesuit Volunteer Corps, one of the Catholic Church's most significant lay movements, got its start in the cold clime of Alaska with a handful of volunteers who were persuaded to go north to help build a school and teach the villagers' children. Today, 50 years later, the corps has almost 400 volunteers serving around the world each year. More than 200 other programs have been modeled on it. One of the Jesuits who helped found the program, Father Jack Morris, said its members challenge "our staid, vapid, jelly-bean culture." At a jubilee celebration in Portland June 24, he urged volunteers, current and former, to keep up the good work. The corps traces its origins to 1956, when Alaska was still a vast U.S. territory. The Jesuits had served the Alaska missions since 1886. Most outlying villages had no high school, so native children were sent to board in Bureau of Indian Affairs institutions all over the country. Copper Valley School, the boarding school founded 170 miles east of Anchorage, was built and staffed by volunteers who became the seed of the volunteer corps.

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