The Jesuit Conference Asia Pacific (JCAP) continues to seek venues to strengthen reflection, and network through participation in formation programmes, and institutional and province reviews. In Asia Pacific, there are continuous challenges of social and environmental injustice, limited basic education for the poor, and the needed revision of values in a culture of consumerism.
The Jesuits and partners in Cambodia continue to discern the way forward in education. In October, four educators from the various parts of the Jesuit Conference of Asia Pacific visited Cambodia as part of the Cambodian Mission’s Preparatory Planning Mission (PPM) team. The local members of the PPM included three Jesuits, Frs OH Indon and Gabby Lamug-Nanawa and Br Ham Toeun, and two partners, Sr Ljudmila Anzic (Salesians) and Br Terry Heinrich (Marists).
The Jesuits of the New York Province have produced a six-part video series that recounts their history of service to the people of Micronesia and introduces some of the Jesuit works and apostolates there.
The Jesuits primarily serve in the parishes and schools in the states of Yap and Chuuk. Micronesia is part of the Jesuit Conference of Asia Pacific.
Just weeks short of his 100th birthday, Fr Geoffrey Schneider SJ was declared the world’s oldest teacher by Guinness World Records.
Fr Schneider, who was born on December 23, 1912, is the first Jesuit in the Australian Province’s 164-year history to reach the age of 100. He has taught in schools in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth, and has spent the last 47 years at St Aloysius College in Sydney.
Colégio de Santo Inácio de Loiolá, the new Jesuit secondary school in Timor Leste, is on track to open as scheduled on January 15, with its first batch of students in Year 7.
On December 15, 79 boys and girls were informed they were successful in their application to the school. They had undergone a three-stage selection process that began in August.
The Conference team is expanding and strengthening. Consultations between the President and Provincials over several months have resulted in the missioning of Jesuits from various Provinces to core positions in the Conference. This generosity of spirit will greatly help the Conference to keep the Society in Asia Pacific oriented towards the service of faith and the promotion of justice.
The appointments announced by Conference President Fr Mark Raper SJ in December are:
From September 23 to 25, 2012, 340 delegates from 10 Jesuit schools converged in Zamboanga City to participate in the 2nd Jesuit Basic Education Congress and join Ateneo de Zamboanga University in celebrating its centennial year.
A funding pitfall in education for the Burmese refugees along the Thai border may negatively affect their preparedness to go home.
The focus of the international donor community is shifting from the camps towards Burma, and a lack of sufficient resources has forced many organisations working in the camps, such as Jesuit Refugee Service, to make cutbacks to critical programmes like schooling.
At the International Colloquium on Jesuit Secondary Education in Boston, Fr Danny Huang SJ, Regional Assistant for Asia Pacific, posed 10 points of reflection from the Procurates, that he said would be useful to discuss in Jesuit schools, Provinces and Regions.
1. Apostolic instruments
Do we understand ourselves and function as apostolic missions? How?
Students from five countries in Asia Pacific gathered in the Philippines in July for a reflective and experiential forum designed to give them an understanding of what it means to be Ignatian leaders.