In recognition of the challenges and issues brought about by increased globalisation, the provinces of Japan and Korea have agreed to a greater degree of exchange and cooperation to serve the Society’s mission.
In an agreement dated March 1, the two provincials Fr Sin Won-sik SJ of Korea and Fr Kajiyama Yoshio SJ of Japan said “to elicit a correct response to these issues the Society of Jesus, reading the signs of the times, should learn how to make its structures of governance more flexible. We are invited to live a new and deeper dimension of the universality lived by Ignatius and the first companions of the Society.”
As Fr Kajiyama said in a letter to his province, ““our mission transcends province boundaries”.
The goal of the new agreement is to deepen understanding and action in the social apostolate through exchange and cooperation, as well as identify opportunities for more multi-faceted cooperation. Two centres the Jesuits operate will facilitate this – the Research Center for Advocacy and Solidarity in Seoul and the Shimonoseki Labour Education Centre in Japan.
Joint research will be conducted and specific actions linked in areas such as research and publication on the Korean, Japanese and East Asian history, especially recent history; and research and solidarity in action for peace and demilitarisation in East Asia, for the human rights of international migrants, against nuclear weapons and nuclear power plants, and on problems related to the destruction of ecosystems and the environment.
Fr Mark Raper SJ, President of the Jesuit Conference of Asia Pacific, welcomed the move.
“The cooperation expressed in this agreement between Jesuits working in Japan and Korea is deeply Ignatian. For St Ignatius, the Society’s mission is universal and, as a consequence, he expected Jesuits to be scattered in diverse countries and cultures in service of that mission.
“In virtue of our common urgent mission, and the Ignatian imperative constantly to seek means for unity, initiatives like this are the way forward for our Conference and for the Society.”
Fr Denis Kim SJ, JCAP Social Apostolate Coordinator, said, “The agreement will not only enhance the current cooperation between both countries, but will also provoke apostolic imagination beyond national boundaries, such as collaboration in the Jesuit migration centres in Gimpo and Tokyo, the role of the Shimonoseki centre for reconciliation of history and peace movement, and collaboration in the theology and formation programmes in both countries.”
Fr Ando Isamu SJ of the Jesuit Social Center in Tokyo called the agreement “a very good step forward” although he expressed some reservations about implementation and how well the provinces with their very different composition in terms of age, outlook and apostolates could achieve the goals. He sees this agreement as “a new challenge for change” for both provinces.
For more information on the Research Center for Advocacy and Solidarity, visit http://advocacy.jesuits.kr
