At the head of the events in Arrupe House Jesuit community during the month of July is Fr Pham Minh-Uoc’s (ASL) departure for the EAO Major Superior’s Meeting in Macau. After which, he proceeds to Hiroshima, Japan for the second part of his Tertianship. Fr Minh-Uoc will be away from July 10 to September 25, 2006. In his absence, Fr Peter Momose Fumiaki (JPN) acts as the acting Vice-Superior for the Faber House community.
On July 15, at 3:00 in the afternoon, Fr Martin Suhartono (IDO), Rector of AIR, attended the blessing and inauguration of the Ateneo de Manila University (ADMU) College swimming pool in front of Arrupe House. In his address, Fr Ben Nebres (PHI), President of the ADMU, thanked “all the brothers of Arrupe House for their patience during the construction of the swimming pool.”
In addition, the P.E. Department Head, Mr. Alex Torres, gave the Arrupe House community permission to use the said pool during weekdays from 6:00-8:00 AM, since at these hours the pool is free. Otherwise, the pool would be utilized by the Ateneo swimming team for their practice and by the P.E. Department for the swimming classes. Mr. Torres himself joined Fr. Martin and some Arrupe scholastics for their first morning swim on Friday, July 21.
In lieu of the usual community meeting, and because of the busy schedule of the house during the month of July, Fr. Martin decided to meet the Arrupe scholastics in small groups. That is, according to the following sub-groups: Theologians, Juniors, and Philosophers (which was further divided into the Chinese Province, Myanmar Mission, East Timor Mission, and the combined group of Philippine—Malaysia-Singapore—Thailand Scholastics).
With much gratitude, we would like to thank the Jesuit scholastics, both from Arrupe House and Loyola House of Studies, who were behind the successful Scholastics and Brothers-in-Formation (SBC) Sports Fest held last July 31. In the heart of the marvelous effort of generosity and cooperation is the SBC core group of this year’s SBC Sports fest headed by the chairperson Sch Alvin Ng (MAS), Sch Dionisio Sarmento (ETR), logistics; Sch Yoht Manasan Wongvarn (TAI), finance; Sch Nono Alfonso (PHI), secretary / correspondence; and Sch Jason Dy (PHI), publicity and design. These five Jesuit scholastics spearheaded the successful SBC Sports fest held amidst heavy rains.
All of the more than one hundred sixty sports fest participants were divided into three groups named after our First Companion Jubilarians, namely, St. Ignatius of Loyola, St. Francis Xavier, and Blessed Peter Faber. At the end of the half-day sports fest, Faber group won the overall team standing with 14 points, Ignatius with 12 points, and Xavier with 10 points.
On the other hand, spearheading the August events, Sch James Boey Tian Lieung (MAS) left for Singapore on the early morning of August 02. Sch James is going to stay in Singapore while his passage for Taiwan is being arranged for the continuity of his theological studies there.
The following day, August 03, at around 5:00 PM, Sch Andrew Li (CHN) suffered a minor concussion at the back of his head while playing basketball with other Jesuit scholastics and seminarians from San Jose Seminary at the Arrupe-Loyola House basketball covered court. Sch Andrew was immediately brought to Medical City Hospital for treatment accompanied by some Arrupe scholastics and a nurse from the Lucas Infirmary of Loyola House of Studies. He was released from the hospital at around 10:00 in the evening, the same day, after test results proved negative of major injuries, with a neck brace, which he wore for a few days.
Sch Shin-Jae Youh (KOR) left for Korea on the evening of August 14. Fr Matthias Chae Joon-ho (KOR), the Provincial Superior of Korea, had decided to call Sch Shin-Jae back to Korea due to health problems.