Faith Based
Center for Christian Spirituality
The USD Center for Christian Spirituality (CCS), the successor to the Institute for Christian Ministries , began in the Fall of 2001. While Christian spirituality is the tradition in which the Center is rooted, all people who want their lives to be consonant with their deepestvalues and meaning are welcome and respected. The diversity of our beliefs and cultures is itself a great gift. These goals are realized through academic courses, programs designed for professional constituencies including business, law, social work and spiritual direction, workshops for personal enrichment, and collaboration with groups addressing social justice concerns. The Center emphasizes dialogue as an essential way to discover and share the transcendent values of life in order that they may be placed at the service of the community.
Center for the Study of Latino/a Catholicism
The mission of the Center for the Study of Latino/a Catholicism is to research and reflect theologically on Latino/a Catholicism and its impact on the overall U.S. (western) Catholic Church, and to do so in a systematic, ecumenical, multiperspectival, interdisciplinary, intercultural and critical manner. In order to carry out its mission, the Center promotes and organizes national and international symposia and research projects, publications, public conferences, etc., which contribute to the theological study and interpretation of Latino/a Catholicism in the U.S. The Center also assists scholars with independent research and/or sabbatical projects.
Oscar Romero Center for Faith in Action
University Ministry's Oscar Romero Center for Faith in Action provides service opportunities for the university community and facilitates a variety of on-campus educational programs focused on social justice themes. All of the center's activities emerge from the university's Catholic identity and commitment to Catholic Social Teaching.
The center hosts weekly service opportunities with St. Vincent de Paul Soup Kitchen and Special Delivery of San Diego, monthly trips to Tijuana, Mexico, and a variety of week-long immersion experiences during spring break and the January intersession. Once each semester the Romero Center is responsible for staffing of the Interfaith Shelter Network, a rotational shelter program serving the homeless population of San Diego County.
The principal aim of the Values Institute is to provide a place where people can come together for the thoughtful discussion of difficult moral issues. We seek to provide such a place for members of our own immediate university community (students, faculty, administration, and alumni), for members of our own local San Diego community, and for the larger national and international communities of students and scholars. We seek to do this through courses, lectures, seminars, workshops, and conferences, both on-campus and on the World Wide Web.
