Pope Francis visited the Jesuit-run St Joseph the Worker Church in a Nairobi slum during his six-day visit to Africa. Speaking at the church on November 27, the pope condemned the “injustices” of urban poverty and substandard living conditions.
On December 8, as a concrete sign of commitment to the Jubilee Year of Mercy, the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) launched the “Mercy in Motion” advocacy and fundraising campaign to expand and strengthen their education programmes. JRS’ goal is to provide educational services to 100,000 more refugees than they currently serve by the year 2020.
Mercy in Motion reflects the words of Pope Francis: “mercy is not an abstract idea, but a concrete reality… We are called to look beyond, to focus on the heart to see how much generosity everyone is capable of.”
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.
Brussels, 19 October 2015 – Hospitality and generosity should be at the centre of our response to the increased arrivals of refugees in Europe, say a group of leading European Jesuits in a statement released today. The statement acknowledges work done over past decades with refugee and migrant communities by Jesuits and those working with them and calls for renewed energy and vision in building active solidarity and hospitality with forced migrants.
It has been a month since Nepal suffered the deadliest disaster in its history. A 7.8-magnitude earthquake hit the Himalayan country on April 25, killing thousands and demolishing more than half a million homes, most of them in rural areas. A second major quake struck on May 12, just as the people were beginning to recover from the previous quake. According to the home ministry, the death toll from the two quakes stands at more than 8,500.
A new Jesuit initiative was recently launched to foster collaboration in making the right to quality education for all a reality across the world. In our world today, 62 million children do not go to school, 250 million children finish primary school without knowing how to read or write due to the poor quality of education and 751 million of people aged 15 and above cannot read or write, and two thirds of them are women.
In response to the dramatic increase in the number of unaccompanied children arriving in the United States from Central America over the past few years, Jesuit Refugee Service is collaborating with 13 Jesuit law schools in the US to address the issues faced by these child migrants.
The Centre for Child Protection, based at the Jesuit-run Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, is at the forefront of the Catholic Church’s global response to prevent the sexual abuse of minors and vulnerable persons.
Indian Jesuit Fr Alexis Prem Kumar SJ has been released by the Taliban after eight months in captivity. Fr Prem had worked for three years as Afghanistan country director for Jesuit Refugee Service in Herat province when he was abducted by gunmen in June last year.
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.