Diversity & Belonging

At CSTM, a rich variety of voices converge to form one dynamic community grounded in the Jesuit, Catholic values of intensive intellectual dialogue and reverence for all backgrounds and viewpoints. We constantly work to ensure we reflect the rapidly changing demographics of the Catholic Church and provide resources to meet the needs of every student.

Our Community

63%

of students are lay students

49%

of lay students are female

28%

of students are international

21–81

age range of 2022 incoming class

Student Engagement

These are just some of the ways that CSTM students engage in issues relating to diversity and inclusion at Boston College and throughout the greater Boston area.

Corazón Latinx

ÌýCorazón Latinx fosters a sense of comunidad among students who areÌý preparing or are interested in working with Latina/o communities. TheÌý committee works to promote awareness and celebrates the Latina/oÌý religious culture in three distinct areas: building community, liturgy, and spirituality.Ìý

Gaudete

Gaudete—an extension of the greater LGBTQ and ally resources at BC—is a welcoming and affirming community of students that recognizes the dignity of each person and seeks to enrich CSTM with openness and acceptance. We celebrate inclusivity through fellowship, discussion, workshops, and event sponsorship.

Interreligious Engagement

Interreligious Engagement aims to facilitate conversations on college campuses around Boston in the hopes of raising awareness of the diversity of faiths. We hope to collectively move beyond those elements that separate us to work together toward common goals as we respect the uniqueness of each person’s faith.


CSTM Women's Group

The CSTM Women's Group seeks to support all members of the CSTM community who identify as female.Ìý We strive to promote greater inclusivity by uplifting, empowering, and celebrating the voices of women andÌýother globally marginalized persons. We strive to promote full participation of women in the Catholic Church.


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Simboli Hall spire

A Shared, Single Mission

All of us share a single mission:Ìýto develop our academic and ministerial gifts in service to the Church and the world. And we value each student equitably—no matter their race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, immigration status, socioeconomic status, religion, ability, or age.

Christian Rodriguez

Alumni Spotlight

As an openly gay and openly Catholic Latino studying at the CSTM and working in Campus Ministry, dialogue has been at the heart of my BC experience. The friendships I have formed at the CSTM have been sources of support and challenge as I figure out my place as a minister in the Church.
Christian Rodriguez, M.Div. Alumnus

Live with Radical Hope

The Clough School of Theology and Ministry prepares pastoral leaders and theological scholars to inspire others to imagine possibility and live with radical hope. We do this through a curriculum that honors a diversity of perspectives about what it means to be in relationship with God, others, and the world. We model it through pedagogical commitments that foster serious inquiry and life-giving empowerment. We bring it to life through our research and service.
Hosffman Ospino, Associate Professor of Hispanic Ministry and Religious Education

Diversity and Justice in CSTM's Curriculum

These are just some of the courses offered at CSTM that address themes of diversity, inclusion, and social justice.

BC Resources

Accessibility Resources

Boston College strives to ensure individuals with disabilities feel welcomed, have the support they need, and have equal access to all resources.

Courageous Conversations

Courageous Conversations Towards Racial Justice is a dialogue-centered initiative on racism and privilege designed to address racial healing, equity, and justice.

LGBTQ Resources

Boston College is dedicated to fostering a welcoming, safe, and inclusive environment for all students and to positively impact and improve the LGBTQ+ student experience.

Office for Institutional Diversity

Dedicated to advancing a Boston College culture and climate that is welcoming to all—through leadership, support, education, compliance, and policy.

Thea Bowman AHANA and Intercultural Center

This center supports and empowers undergraduate students, with a particular focus on AHANA, multicultural, and multiethnic issues.

Women's Center

The Women’s Center was founded in 1973 to support, educate, and empower Boston College students of all genders in an inclusive and welcoming space.

CSTM Resources

Social Justice Posts from Encounter Blog

Ignatian Approach to Anti-Racism

Two CSTM students created an approach to anti-racism workÌýthat draws on significant themes in the Ignatian tradition. This document is guided by the reality that our formation must recognize the current ministerial contexts in which we serve, seeking to integrate our academic study with the personal, pastoral, and spiritual dimensions of formation. How might our discernment of God’s call for racial justice challenge the way we minister and work right now? How might it call us to bring this challenge and discernment to our communities?

The Spirituals: An African American Music Idiom and Its Relevance to Our Lives Today

Meyer Chambers, campus minister for liturgical arts, Boston College, and Rev. Oscar Pratt, pastor, St. Katharine Drexel Parish, Dorchester, Mass.

Whether sung liturgically, privately, or performed in concert, the Spirituals are a truly unique American music genre, steeped and founded in the Black Church experience with longevity and relevance for our lives today.

The Fiercy Urgency of Now

M. Shawn Copeland, professor emerita, Boston College Theology Department

Over the 13 years of his public social ministry,Ìýthe Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., called our nation to self-reflection and action with regard to three urgent problems—racism, poverty, and war, which remain as urgent today as they did 50 years ago.Ìý This address explores King’s exercise of the prophetic and those problems from the vantage of political theology.

Do Black Lives Matter to God?

Amey Victoria Adkins-Jones,Ìýassistant professor of theology and African Diaspora studies, Boston College Theology Department

Responses to Covid-19 have only highlighted and exacerbated the racial and socioeconomic divides in this country, and as the contemporary civil rights movement pushes for reform and abolition, declaring yet again that Black lives matter -- where is God? Where is the (c)hurch? Together we reflect on both the questions and theological resources for pursuing community and racial justice.

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