News & Ideas

Through Brothers’ Keeper, which is rooted in the Ignatian tradition, Wooters invites students to share meals together without the presence of technology. This intentional gathering creates space for reflection and community-building. They discuss topics like where they’re excelling in life, what they’re struggling with, and what is taking energy from them. “Asking these questions in the safety of community,” Wooters says, has caused a “real upswing of sharing” and a closeness between men in the group.

Compared to the often surface-level conversations that men share while, for example, playing video games together, Brothers’ Keeper offers a space for the men to come together in a deeper way. “Once the guys had this experience of authenticity,” he says, “there’s this multiplier effect where they are now modeling authentic conversation in their social spheres [and] checking in with their friends who aren’t part of the group.”

Building community is a skill that Wooters nurtured in his time at the Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University (JST-SCU), when the COVID-19 pandemic struck just after his first semester and courses were moved online. Feeling the loneliness of being isolated from the vibrant community at JST-SCU, Wooters worked with Shea-Huesman Professor of Christian Social Ethics Julie Hanlon Rubio to start something they called “Park Church.”

“Matt embodies radical hospitality in the way he lives his life as a Jesuit brother,” Rubio says, reflecting on that special time they hosted liturgy outside, churchgoers sitting 12 feet apart. “He cultivates deep, spiritual friendships with laypeople, shares his joyful faith with them, and is nourished by them.”

Wooters describes loving JST-SCU’s emphasis on Pope Francis’ theology of encounter and the school’s embrace of synodal theology—a theology that puts a strong emphasis on walking and listening together as a church. “Theology of encounter is how we show up for each other. It’s sacramental: sharing food and sharing stories,” he says. “What Brothers’ Keeper and the synod invite us to is to consider what happens when we listen, and how can we be changed and challenged by our listening?”