Anticipation was high as the Philippines awaited Pope Francis’ visit to the country from January 15 to 19, 2015. For weeks before the Pope’s arrival, national media discussed the importance of the papal visit and a 1,000-member choir practised new hymns specially composed for the closing mass by Fr Manoling Francisco SJ.
Archbishop Giuseppe Pittau SJ, former provincial of the Jesuit Japan Province and former president of Sophia University, passed away at 21:55 on December 26, 2014 at the Loyola House community in Tokyo. He was 86 years old.
Jesuit Refugee Service Australia has opened a new drop-in centre to address a lack of asylum seeker services in Western Sydney. The project is the result of a needs assessment undertaken by JRS in 2014, which found that the region is home to New South Wales’ second-largest group of asylum seekers arriving by boat and living on bridging visas.
A global movement of Catholics working together on climate issues was launched on January 14 with a statement presented to Pope Francis during his papal visit to the Philippines.
Resistance to the construction of a naval base at Gangjeong on Jeju Island, South Korea continues although the base is already under construction. The Jeju Volcanic Island and Lava Tubes are a UNESCO World Heritage site. The most recent significant effort was the Gangjeong Peace Conference and Peace Festival organized by the Jesuit Research Centre for Advocacy and Solidarity (JAS) at the Seoguipo Catholic Parish and Gangjeong Villag
Some 40 Jesuits met with Pope Francis at the Nunciature in Manila during his Philippines visit. All were ecstatic at the invitation. I was privileged to be among them.
From the beginning, the meeting was very much that of brother Jesuits coming together. Provincial Tony Moreno SJ opened the meeting saying that Francis had been met by 40 elephants in Sri Lanka and here in Manila he was met by 40 Jesuits. To which Francis replied, “The elephants were more colourfully dressed.”
The Jesuit-run University of San Francisco has been running an alternative study abroad program based in Metro Manila, the Philippines. Casa Bayanihan is a semester-long program rooted in the Jesuit tradition, conceived initially for undergraduates in Jesuit universities in the United States.
Although Typhoon Hagupit – known as Ruby in the Philippines – is reported to have taken only a handful of lives, for thousands of people in the country, it was still a sort of repeat of Typhoon Haiyan, which had torn through the Philippines in November 2013, leaving more than 7,000 dead or missing. “It’s déjà vu, but not the same as last year with Haiyan,” a Tacloban resident Mariano Tan Jr told the BBC.
A multitude from the remotest edges of Myanmar converged on Yangon to celebrate 500 years of Christianity in the country. According to Fr Chinnappan Amalraj SJ, Delegate for the Jesuit Myanmar Mission, they occupied all the empty spaces in and around the churches, halls, even Hindu temples.
Fr Joseph Aik Maung SJ, who was ordained in May, led one group of the Kachins who came from the northernmost dioceses. Fr Aik Maung is one of only three Myanmar priests in the Society of Jesus.
The Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) has expressed “deep sadness” over the Australian government’s decision to curb the number of refugees entering the country from Indonesia. Following the decision, Australia will stop the resettlement of refugees who had registered with the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) in Indonesia on or after July 1.