2020 has been instilled in our memory as a year of crisis, but 2021 is promising to be a year of new discoveries and recoveries. For this year’s annual report, the Jesuit Conference of Asia Pacific (JCAP) has chosen stories that celebrate resilience and hope in our work around the conference. As JCAP President Fr Tony Moreno SJ imparts in his message aptly titled “Dreaming of a New World”, there have been “heroic moments of solidarity, accompaniment of the poor, the homeless, and the hungry. There were deep expressions of faith, and unwavering hope.”
Fr Adrianus Suyadi SJ, Secretary for Social Ministries, writes about the “Challenges and Responses to a Once-in-a-Century Pandemic”, Jesuit initiatives, and the way forward. Education Secretary Fr Johnny Go SJ shares his experience with online learning and how, with proper design, virtual learning can help promote and even strengthen the defining elements of Jesuit education, particularly its emphasis on Experience, Reflection, and Action. Pursuing the theme of young people, Scholastic Septian Marhanento SJ explores the topic of digital ecosystems and how Catholic youth in Indonesia are “finding God in online things”.
The “one, holy, Catholic safeguarding mission” of the Church takes front and centre in Johanne Arceo’s article introducing readers to the Catholic Safeguarding Institute in the Philippines, while over in Singapore, Fr Colin Tan SJ writes about the 60th Jubilee of the parish of St Ignatius and the growing faith community, the fruit of the Irish Jesuits who started the mission on the island. In Cambodia, the “Bridge of Happiness” connects several villages from the provinces of Siem Reap and Banteay Meanchey, enabling people of different faiths – Buddhists and Christians – to come together and care for each other.
Finally, we have a special tribute to one of our own, Fr Adolfo Nicolás SJ, 30th Superior General of the Society of Jesus, whom we lost in 2020. The memories his friends have of him paint a picture of a humble, kind, funny, and wise Jesuit leader with great spiritual depth.
We hope you enjoy reading these stories, and find in them much reason for hope and the courage to dream a new world.
To download The Jesuits in Asia Pacific 2021, click here.