Eleven Jesuits were ordained to the Order of Deacons on October 29 in the Church of the Gesu, Ateneo de Manila University in the Philippines. The new deacons are Soo Young Park, Changmo Cho, Chang-hyon Lee, Kyoung-Woong Peter Park, Anthony Ochen, Leslie Joseph Bingkasan, Stephanus Advent Novianto, Harvey Mateo, Martin Licup, Felipe Yohan Jr and Roseller Atilano Jr.
“The Society of Jesus can develop only in collaboration with others: only if it becomes the least Society that collaborates. We want to collaborate generously with others, inside and outside of the Church, in the awareness, which comes from the experience of God, of being called to the mission of Christ Jesus.”
On November 8, Fr Christopher Soh SJ officially becomes Regional Superior of the Malaysia-Singapore Jesuit Region (MAS), taking over from Fr Colin Tan SJ who has completed his six-year term.
Fr Soh was ordained on July 30, 2005 and professed his final vows on July 4, 2011. He is a popular homilist, and his blog, “Breaking The Word”, began as a response to people asking for a copy of his homilies.
Reconstruction efforts are gathering pace in Nepal more than a year after the 7.8 magnitude earthquake hit the country on April 25, 2015, causing massive destruction of infrastructure and killing more than 9,000 people. The Nepal Jesuit Social Institute (NJSI) has been actively involved in relief and rehabilitation work and is now concentrating its efforts on supporting the building and rebuilding of schools, hostels, houses and women’s shelters in different districts.
Four hundred years after Francis Xavier died on an island off the mainland, the Jesuits continue to dream of establishing good relations between the Church and China. According to Fr John Lee Hua SJ, Provincial of the Chinese Jesuit Province, it is a dream too for Francis, the first Jesuit Pope.
Jesuit Mission is working with local Catholic Church groups to provide urgent emergency response to families affected by severe floods in Central Vietnam. Over 600,000 people have been directly affected by the floods, with an estimated 100,000 houses fully submerged.
The mooncakes might have been hard and the lanterns dim but this celebration of the Mid-Autumn Festival was the most heart-warming one the migrant workers have had in a while.
The Rerum Novarum Centre in Taiwan had invited Vietnamese and Indonesian migrant workers to celebrate the last day of the Mid-Autumn Festival with Taiwanese friends at the Jesuit theologate.
It did not take the 36th General Congregation long. After celebrating Mass in the Church of the Holy Spirit early on Friday, October 14, the 212 electors were locked into the Aula to vote for the next Superior General of the Society of Jesus. Just before lunch, the first news came that the new Superior General is Fr Arturo Sosa Abascal from the Venezuela Jesuit Province.
We have already been reminded many times by the Holy Father of the needs at the frontiers, and of an education that serves the long term. As Jesuits, our spirituality prepares us for the long haul and so we face the challenge of being inserted in the world and to go heal the wounds, especially at the margins where people are so compromised, insecure, and subject to all forms of violence.
Rain poured down on the Jesuits as they walked to St Peter’s Basilica for Mass. It was early on the morning of the fifth day of General Congregation 36. Some might say it was a blessing from heaven as they headed, as many pilgrims have already done this year, to the Holy Door for the Jubilee Year of Mercy.