Dear Fellow Alumni,

Welcome to our shared space dedicated to understanding how to best build fraternal connections! The Alumni Council operating assumption is that we are close to retirement or settled into this phase of our lives. That there is great diversity in our lives lived and in how we figure to flourish during the coming years. It is also understood that, while we had a shared religiosity during our Claretian days, today we are diverse. All this is simply the product of our world. Another reality is that we live in a world where true friendship is harder to find. The following is from the U.S. Catholic magazine website.

“For Aristotle, true friendship is a relationship of honesty, acceptance, and mutuality. In a relationship among equals, true friends love and accept one another for their own sake. It is not about competition or networking but rooted in virtue wherein we will the good for the other person, regardless of any benefit to us. Distinct from “imperfect friendships of pleasure or utility,” Aristotle believed true friendship was special and rare. Still, I imagine Aristotle’s shock at how rare friendship seems to have become. American society, notes Brookings Institution’s Richard Reeves, seems to be in a “friendship recession.” In 2021, the American Perspectives Survey found that 12 percent of Americans reported having no close friends, which is an exponential increase from only 3 percent in 1990.” Megan Clark, U.S. Catholic website, July 20,2023. Please visit https://uscatholic.org/ to see the entire article and more by Megan Clark.
Claretian Alumni, please see the page on this website to apply for a free digital subscription to U.S. Catholic Magazine.

This presents a need that we can address. Let us can build a fraternal network that revolves around the ideals listed above. Simply accepting who we are individually and connecting through shared conversation about yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

The question is how to do this? No one knows better than those who are interested in joining in. This page is our first step in asking you how you would like to connect. Just keep in mind that this is a volunteer effort. Practical and pragmatic are key criteria.

Concepts currently being floated are: a Facebook page; an app that connects members allowing uploads/downloads of articles, pictures, etc; zoom meeting on a regular basis focused on connection without agenda or topics. Some SJS alumni have been doing this very successfully.

Please apply you comments and suggestions below: