Two Chaminade students included in synod discussion with Pope Francis

By Anna Weaver
Hawaii Catholic Herald

Two Chaminade University of Honolulu students were included in a video call with Pope Francis to discuss topics related to the 2023 Synod of Bishops.

Marianist Brother Edward Brink was able to get two campus ministry students, Joseph Durocher and Alycia Tausaga, included among 130 students from 58 universities in 21 countries who met in smaller online workgroups ahead of a Feb. 24 video call with the pope.

“I believe that Chaminade’s diversity and location played a role in making a convincing argument that our students would have unique perspectives to offer to their fellow participants,” wrote Brother Brink, who is Chaminade’s vice president for mission and rector, in an email.

The calls were a part of the Building Bridges Initiative sponsored by Loyola University Chicago and students hailed from South America, Central America, North America and the Caribbean.

Tausaga is from American Samoa and studying environmental science. Durocher is a senior from Kauai who is studying biochemistry. While neither Chaminade student got to speak directly to the pope during the two-hour call, 16 other students from the Americas did. Topics included migration, poverty, the environment and collaboration.

Durocher liked that the point of the calls wasn’t just to talk about issues but try to hone in on solutions.

“We already know the problems in the world, like why people migrate,” Durocher said. “But the goal of the meeting with the pope was to come up with procedures and protocols to implement that people can actually invest in and put these ideas into action instead of just talking about what’s wrong.”

One outcome was to ask Catholic institutions to do research related to their specific missions on why people are migrating due to poverty.

“You can’t tackle the issue of poverty in a general way. It has to be specific to individual communities,” Durocher said.

Catholic News Service contributed to this story.