The first Magis event for the Jesuit Conference of Asia Pacific begins in a month. On Boxing Day, youth from seven provinces and regions in the Conference will converge in Yogyakarta for the nine-day workshop. Organised by the newly formed JCAP Youth Ministry team, Magis JCAP will help encourage Ignatian Magis formation in Asia Pacific. It is patterned on the Magis formation programme that the Jesuits in Indonesia have been running for youth since 2008.
A new life. That is how Lilia Advincula of Barangay Calvary Hill in Tacloban City described her community’s situation as they commemorated the second anniversary of Typhoon Yolanda (internationally known as Haiyan) on November 8. She remembers that even before Haiyan, many residents had been jobless with a stagnant quality of living. The coming of one of the strongest typhoons in recent memory made life even harder, but the surge of support that came after enabled them to rise.
Fr Benny Juliawan SJ, Social Apostolate Coordinator of the Jesuit Conference of Asia Pacific, shares a reflection on the recent Networking for Justice meeting in Loyola, Spain.
Philippine Jesuit Provincial Fr Antonio Moreno SJ was a member of the first Arrupe International Residence community. As AIR celebrates its 25th anniversary, he shares some of graces and challenges of living in the multicultural Jesuit house of formation that AIR was established to be.
Fr Ignatius Tambudzai SJ of the Zimbabwe-Mozambique Jesuit Province is one of the newest members of the community in Arrupe International Residence in the Philippines. He shares this reflection on his first months living with Jesuits from different parts of the world in this international house of formation as it celebrates its 25th year.
In a private audience with 15 refugees and friends and staff of Jesuit Refugee Service to commemorate the 35th anniversary of JRS on November 14, Pope Francis emphasised the importance of education for refugee children and youth as a means to build peace and foster the development of more resilient and cohesive societies.
Jesuit Refugee Service /USA will commemorate 35 years of working alongside refugees and the displaced on December 1, and present Sr Denise Coghlan RSM with the JRS Accompany Award. Fr Pedro Arrupe SJ founded JRS in November 1980, in response to the exodus of refugees from Vietnam and Cambodia.
The National Palace Museum in Taiwan has opened a major exhibition to celebrate its 90th anniversary and the extraordinary work of a Jesuit in China. The exhibition, which opened on October 6 and will last until January next year, is dedicated to Giuseppe Castiglione (郎世寧), a Jesuit brother from Milan who lived for 51 years in the Forbidden City after his arrival in China 300 years ago.
The scorching sun may deter some people from venturing out of their homes, but not the hundreds of children hoping to get a place in Colégio de Santo Inácio de Loiola (CSIL). They braved the heat, some travelling for an hour, to go to Kasait for the entrance exam.
In total, 278 candidates for Year 7 and 145 for Year 10 showed up, excited and anxious. They knew that it was going to be tough getting into the school, not just because of the exam but also because there were many more applicants than available places.
This year marks the 25th year of the establishment of Arrupe International Residence (AIR) as a formation house in Manila for Jesuit scholastics across Asia Pacific. The house was built in 1990 when Fr Daven Day SJ was President of what was then the Jesuit Conference of East Asia and Oceania. It grew from a felt need for a common Juniorate in this part of Asia and began as a house for philosophers, theologians and a couple of juniors.