April 15, 2010. On the recommendation of the Board of Trustees of EAPI, the Jesuit Conference of Asia Pacific appoints Fr Arthur Leger SJ as the next director of the East Asian Pastoral Institute (EAPI), commencing June 01,  2010. Fr Leger succeeds Fr Jeyaraj Rasiah SJ, who leaves Manila on May 19 and will assume his new role Provincial of Sri Lanka on May 24.

The EAPI is a cooperative project of the Jesuit Conference of Asia Pacific. EAPI promotes the pastoral service of the Church throughout this region and beyond. Each year several hundred priests, religious and lay persons from across Asia and from other parts of the world attend EAPI’s courses for updating in pastoral theology and practice.

Fr Arthur Leger, born in 1955, is from the Pacific Islands, a citizen of Fiji, and joined the Jesuits in Micronesia in 1994. He has a long career as an educator, both before joining the Society and afterwards. He has completed Master’s degrees in Educational Administration, Christianity and Culture, and in Divinity. At Gonzaga University, Spokane, he completed a doctorate in Leadership Studies, with his thesis on the pastoral approach of Church leaders in the Pacific. Fr Leger is especially alert to questions of culture, cultural differences, and the way these realities affect spirituality and religious practices. He has interest in pastoral adaptation and renewal, questions central to the programs of the EAPI.

The Jesuit Conference is grateful to Fr Leger and also the Micronesian Jesuit Region for making him available for this new assignment. We also acknowledge an enormous debt to Fr Jeyaraj, and to the Sri Lanka Jesuit Province to which he belongs, for the way in which he has devoted his total energy to the task of leading EAPI over the past five years. Fr General Nicolás, who was himself once director of EAPI, has expressed his personal thanks to Fr Jeyaraj for his generous service over the years.