By
Vice President for University Mission and Ministry Jack Butler, SJ, will offer a positive look at Lent, the traditional liturgical season of penance and sacrifice, at Boston College’s 61st annual Laetare Sunday celebration in Conte Forum on March 18.
The event, which marks the traditional mid-point of the Lenten season, is open to all alumni and members of the Boston College community. In addition to Fr. Butler’s presentation, Laetare Sunday will include a 9:30 a.m. Mass concelebrated by University President William P. Leahy, SJ, and priests from the Boston College Jesuit community, followed by a brunch and speaking program.
Fr. Butler, offering an advance overview of his Laetare Sunday remarks, said Catholics sometimes view Lent as “a period of dread because we feel that we need to focus in on our sinfulness.” Instead, he said, the focus should be “on God, God’s love, forgiveness and the promise that God gives us that we will not be abandoned.”
Another Laetare Sunday highlight will be the presentation of the University’s Alumni Ignatian Award to Juan A. Arteaga ’99 in recognition of his service to others through his career as an attorney. As a member of a major Boston law firm, Arteaga — who while a BC student received the prestigious Archbishop Oscar Romero Scholarship — has successfully championed the legal causes of poor and battered women, immigrants, and those wrongly accused of crimes.
Arteaga’s pro bono work as an attorney has also earned him two awards from the Legal Aid Society for his representation of immigrant clients, and the Commitment to Justice Legal Team Award from InMotion, a non-profit organization that assists low-income and abused women.
Tickets for the Laetare Sunday event are available through the Boston College Alumni Association at www.bc.edu/laetare or by calling 617-552-2950.