To foster collaboration at various levels between the Chinese, Japanese and Korean Jesuit Provinces, the three provincials have decided to set up an annual conjoint summer Arrupe Month. The first conjoint Arrupe Month was held from July 16 to August 8, 2015 at the newly built Franciscan spirituality centre in the small and quiet historical township of Daxi in Taiwan, 30 km south of Taipei. The centre, which is surrounded by fertile paddy fields and hilly forests of green bamboos and fragrant camphor trees, provided a setting conducive to preparing the eight Jesuit scholastics for their ordination to the priesthood.
The eight scholastics comprised four from Korea, three in formation for the Chinese mission and one ethnic Chinese Australian. Accompanying them on their journey were two elders confreres, Fathers Isidore An SJ and Olivier Lardinois SJ, Assistant for Formation in the Chinese Jesuit Province. At the end of the three-week session, five participants made their annual retreat in Taiwan, while three others left to make their retreat in Korea or go to the Philippines for future studies.
The Arrupe Month began with a two-day pilgrimage into the Jesuit-run mountain pastoral district of Hsinchu, which gave the participants an opportunity to get to know each other in a relaxed way, as well as enjoy the warm hospitality of a local indigenous family from the Tayal tribe.
Fr Lardinois noted, “The daily schedule in Daxi, which prevailed over the next 20 days long, was quite well balanced with a talk on a different topic and the daily mass in the morning, time for prayer, outdoor walks and/or personal integration in the afternoon, fraternal group sharing or social hour in the evening.”
He added that altogether, seven Jesuit confreres, already ordained, came to share on topics such as Jesus the priest, the priestly character of the Society of Jesus, priesthood and affective maturity. Each of them tried, as much possible, to illustrate their topic with examples from their own experience of Jesuit priesthood.
At the end of the Arrupe Month, the formators and participants evaluated the session and agreed that such a fraternal international conjoint Arrupe Month should continue, with some improvements. “For example, we feel it would be helpful to also invite a few lay people to share about their relations and collaboration with Jesuit priests,” said Lardinois SJ. “Hopefully, such a request for improvement will be considered when the next conjoint Arrupe Month takes place, most probably in the Jesuit spirituality centre in Tokyo.
The Arrupe Month is a programme that prepares Jesuit theologians for ordination to the priesthood. A period devoted to deepening their self-knowledge and Jesuit identity, it is based on Fr Pedro Arrupe’s letter of December 27, 1979 on preparing the Jesuit scholastic for ordination.
Related story: Looking back on the Arrupe Month