The education secretaries within the Jesuit Conference of Asia Pacific (JCAP) are increasingly acting and growing as a network. Participation from provinces and regions with schools is strong and the meeting has shifted from mainly sharing updates to discussing areas of possible collaboration and matters of common concern.
The Jesuits in Timor-Leste have launched a new education endeavour for the children in Ulmera, a rural part of the country where the still under construction Jesuit education project is located. Through the Ulmera Project, they aim to increase the chances the children from the Ulmera community have of getting into Colégio de Santo Inácio de Loiola (CSIL), the Jesuit secondary school in Kasait, Ulmera.
Pope Francis’ encyclical on the environment has won many hearts, not least because it combines concern for the environment and for social justice. The Pope writes with authority because of his experience with the poor in large Argentinian cities. There the poor, caught in a society marked by great extremes of wealth and poverty are forced to live in polluted and unhealthy conditions. He has also visited poor villages whose people are vulnerable to the extreme weather events resulting from global warming.
For World Refugee Day this year, the Tokyo Jesuit Social Center chose to focus on raising awareness of the plight of the Rohingya in Japan. This decision stemmed from a Skype discussion the Migration Network of the Jesuit Conference of Asia Pacific had about the thousands of Rohingya from Myanmar stranded in the sea by the coasts of Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia.
On his return to Tokyo, Fr Isamu Ando SJ, who heads the centre’s migrant desk, asked himself what could possibly be done in Japan.
Can getting a higher education benefit entire communities and even countries? Jesuit Father Michael Garanzini, Secretary for higher education worldwide for the Society of Jesus, thinks so and he has the model for doing just that.
Ennio Morricone, the Italian composer who has won multiple awards for his film soundtracks, including The Mission, debuted the first mass he has written on June 10 at the Church of the Gesù, the main church of the Society in Rome.
Named “Missa Papae Francisci” in honour of the first Jesuit pope, Morricone composed it, at the request of the Jesuits, to mark the 200th anniversary (1814 to 2014) of the Restoration of the Society of Jesus. The mass was to have debuted on the actual bicentenary date but this was postponed when Morricone fell ill.
The Jesuits in the Philippines have committed to making their various houses environmentally friendly as part of reconciling with creation. They have begun by setting up waste management activities in their houses. This is a simple yet practical step that contributes to the broader initaitive of living a simple lifestyle.
The Catholic Alliance for People Seeking Asylum (CAPSA) in Australia was officially launched at the start of World Refugee Week (June 14 to 20) in the country. Backed by leading Catholic peak organisations and convened by Jesuit Social Services, CAPSA aims to change hearts and minds across Australia in support of the abolition of harsh asylum seeker policies.
The initiative wants to build on work being done in Catholic schools, parishes and organisations across Australia.
American Jesuit scholastic David Romero began his Regency in the Philippines, working with Casa Bayanihan and living in the Arrupe International Residence where the community comprises Jesuits of 15 nationalities. His year in AIR left him with a profound sense of gratitude to God for giving him and the others in the community the chance to share their lives together and for what he has learned from these relationships.
On March 19 around 100 people congregated in Wisma Hijau, Depok, Indonesia to celebrate my 50 years of service with Bina Swadaya (self-reliance development). This is a charitable organisation based in Jakarta which runs 17 companies whose profits go to various social projects. It owes its foundation to a Jesuit priest, Fr John Dijkstra.