Irish Jesuit Brian Mac Cuarta SJ and the staff of the Roman Jesuit Archives (Archivum Romanum Societatis Iesu – ARSI) are cooperating closely with the production team at Paramount Pictures to provide a key artefact for Silence, a film adaptation of Shūsaku Endō’s novel about Catholicism in 17th century Japan, directed by Martin Scorsese (pictured here). To date the nature of the artefact has not been divulged.
Two months into 2015, there are already nine new Jesuit deacons in the Jesuit Conference of Asia Pacific – two Koreans, six Vietnamese and one Singaporean.
Indonesian scholastic Anggun Sugiyono SJ left the recent Scholastics and Brothers Circle (SBC) meeting with a greater understanding of the universal mission and of himself. Now doing his Regency in Micronesia, Sch Anggun shares with us his reflection on the meeting.
Working as an Indonesian regent in Micronesia, I realize the importance of our universal mission as one Society of Jesus. This sense of universality became much clearer during the SBC meeting.
Fr Adolfo Nicolás SJ, Superior General of the Society of Jesus, spent two weeks in Asia Pacific in January, visiting the Jesuit Chinese Province from January 13 to 16, and the Jesuit Vietnamese Province from January 17 to 25.
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.
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.”
At our annual meeting with Fr General in Rome this month, the six Jesuit Conference presidents identified significant strategies that are bearing fruit for greater solidarity among Jesuits and our colleagues globally, and planned new cooperative measures. Since the primary goal of conferences concerns mission, we dealt with questions such as restructuring of governance arrangements, solidarity in sharing resources across the Society, cooperation in the formation of Jesuits and promotion of studies in Ignatian spirituality.
Pope Francis celebrated a special liturgy of thanksgiving in the Church of the Gesù in Rome on Saturday, September 27, to mark the 200th anniversary of the restoration of the Society of Jesus.
In his homily to the Jesuits, the Pope said, “Let us remember our history: the Society ‘was given the grace not only to believe in the Lord, but also to suffer for His sake’ (Philippians 1:29). We do well to remember this.
Fr John Che-chon Chong SJ assumes office as Provincial of the Korea Province of the Society of Jesus on September 1, 2014. He was appointed in May by Fr Adolfo Nicolás, the Superior General of the Society of Jesus, to succeed Fr John Won-sik Sin SJ, who has served as Korean Provincial for six years from September 2008.