Australian Provincial Fr Brian McCoy SJ has committed the Australian Jesuits to divesting from fossil fuels.
“In the light of our commitment to reconciliation with creation, we believe that divestment is an ethical, impactful and valuable opportunity to consider not only for the Australian Province but for all Australian companies,” said Fr McCoy in a statement released for World Environment Day on June 5.
In recent months, Indigenous Peoples in Cabanglasan, Bukidnon in Mindanao have had the opportunity to voice their concerns regarding their rights in a series of gatherings organised by the Philippine Province Jesuit Indigenous Peoples (IP) Ministry, the local government of Cabanglasan, the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) and other civil society organisations.
Life in rural Cambodia is hard, especially for small farmers. Each year, they struggle to get a decent yield to provide for their families. This is why the Centre for Research on Optimal Agricultural Practices (CROAP), a demonstration farm located a few kilometres from Pursat City, is introducing to farmers in the village of Keov Mony in Pursat a promising new method of rice farming.
Jesuit Refugee Service Australia has teamed up with Refugee Council of Australia to create a programme that gives young people the chance to meet a refugee and hear first hand the reasons why people are forced to flee their homes.
“We’re seeing the biggest migration crisis since WWII, and yet, it’s not the voices of those being forced to flee their homes we hear, but the voices of the powerful. At JRS we believe this needs to change,” said JRS Australia in its website.
Joy. That is what 25-year old Crisanto Lacaba feels as he looks forward to the completion of San Ignacio Culion Ecoville at the end of this year. Finally, he and a hundred others living on Culion island in Palawan, all survivors of Super Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda in the Philippines) in 2013, will be able to move into new homes built inland.
“My family can feel secure even when the typhoons come,” he said, remembering his family’s experience when Haiyan destroyed their home situated along the coast of Barangay Osmeña, along with almost 5,000 other homes.
Across the world from Rome, a mini-forest is growing to help offset the carbon footprint of the 36th General Congregation (GC 36). As the 215 delegates from 62 countries met in the aula of GC 36 last October, members of Jesuit Service Cambodia and Banteay Prieb, a Jesuit vocational school for persons with disabilities, planted 400 seedlings of native hardwood trees, including several locally endangered species, on one-hectare of land owned by the Jesuits near the school.
The word “discernment” has become all the rage within Jesuit circles following the 36th General Congregation. Fr General Arturo Sosa has even appointed a special counsellor to oversee the process of discernment and apostolic planning in the Society. So it was fitting that the Jesuit Conference of Asia Pacific’s (JCAP) migration network examined the journey so far and charted a new course at its fourth annual meeting held in Tokyo from March 23 to 26. A new plan for the future was called for.
International Jesuit leader Fr Arturo Sosa has expressed his support for a new Jesuit Social Services programme aimed at tackling violence and helping men and boys build better relationships with those around them.
Jesuit Social Services CEO Julie Edwards announced the new programme, The Men’s Project, at the organisation’s annual dinner on March 25, which also celebrated the organisation’s 40th anniversary.
The Men’s Project aims to help boys and men live responsible, accountable and healthy lives, and build loving relationships with those around them.
Environmental research and ecological action across the Jesuit Conference of Asia Pacific (JCAP) takes many forms, as Jesuit works are only beginning to engage these concerns and still have much to learn. Jesuits and their collaborators are moving towards greater environmental awareness and have recognised the urgent need to communicate and work with others strategically and more broadly for the sake of greater ecological accountability and sustainability.
Rebuilding lives and rekindling hope. This is the motto of the Philippine Jesuit Prison Service Foundation Inc (PJPS) based in the New Bilibid Prisons Reservation, the national penitentiary. Like other Philippine prisons, the inmates are crammed in hot, dark and poorly ventilated cells.
The prison compound has a capacity of about 10,000 inmates, but it is housing more than 24,000. The overcrowding means the inmates have to sleep in shifts.