After three years since the last JCAP Treasurers Meeting held in Taiwan, the group of Jesuit treasurers and their assistants gathered from 5 to 7 September at the East Asian Pastoral Institute (EAPI) inside the Ateneo de Manila University campus, Quezon City for a face-to-face meeting. Eighteen participants from all over the Asia Pacific region gathered in the Philippines, while four opted to join online.
It was a reunion of sorts. Most of those present have been in the ministry of financial administration for some time, so it only took a quick cozying up for people to re-connect and renew old ties. In between the years interrupted by Covid-19, the group of Treasurers did meet in September 2020 through Zoom and somehow experienced a semblance of connectedness. But the one common realisation was that there was no better substitute to a meeting of warm bodies, where productivity was not confined to the conference hall and the formal sessions and discussions taking place. Some of the more important interventions and insights sprung up in casual and more relaxed conversations at the dining table, something that cannot be replicated in virtual meetings. The presence of one animated and radiated energy in the other.
After the welcome remarks of our Conference President Fr Tony Moreno SJ and EAPI Director Fr John Che-chon Chong SJ, the morning of the first day was dedicated to a Mission Examen with the participants reflecting on the lights and shadows they experienced both personally and as an institution, the saving graces received despite the pandemic, and the leads of the Spirit in responding to the new normal.
The highlight of the JCAP Treasurers Meeting was the introduction of new reporting forms for budget preparation and financial reporting, which are in keeping with the Statutes on Poverty and the Instruction on the Administration of Goods. Fr Sebastian Jeerakassery, the Assistant Treasurer for South Asia and Asia Pacific, personally directed and supervised the workshop with remarkable patience and persistence especially for the more technologically challenged in the group. With the personalised instruction, the new forms appear to be simpler and yet comprehensive in scope and content.
The goal in simplifying the reporting forms is to respond to the question: “What does Father General need to know to have a good sense of the financial health of the entity?” Thus, the revised forms were created to enable the General Treasurer’s Office to come up with a meaningful database for the Society’s finances. The forms also hopefully provide a report form that is easier to complete on the part of the treasurers. Fr Jeera stressed that the reports are essentially canonical reports: internal communications within the Society of Jesus to give the Superior General a sense of the financial health of the entity. This was an important clarification since the institutions’ audited reports, which may exclude data important for the General Treasurer’s Office, are generally intended to comply with statutory requirements of the institution’s government.
The last day of the meeting was a sharing of work experience: best practices of treasurers, the challenges, and opportunities they encountered in the course of their ministry. From the sharing, the good working relationship between Jesuits and lay partners, and good communication with benefactors were mentioned several times. There was also mention of the role of the Development Office in raising funds for the Arca and the promotion of local philanthropy. Some challenges cited were finding possible successors in the work, dependency on foreign donors, setting up of the office’s internal control, monitoring and evaluation system.
The meeting closed with a brief business meeting to decide on the possible host and date of the next Treasurers Meeting. Australia came out as the first choice followed by Indonesia and Japan to be scheduled around the first half of September 2023.
On the whole, after a long three-year hiatus, the gathering and fellowship of like-minded men and women given the task of stewardship of the Society’s temporal goods was something to treasure.
Fr Vidal Gornez Jr SJ is the treasurer and development officer of the Jesuit Conference of Asia Pacific.