Work is proceeding on the controversial Four Rivers Restoration Project despite Church and popular protest. Fr Mun-su Park SJ, Director, Jesuit Research Center for Advocacy and Solidarity presents the background of the project that is destroying the ecology integrity of the affected area and reflects on the prophetic meaning of the protest.
The new President of President of Xavier University – Ateneo de Cagayan, Fr Roberto “Bobby” Yap SJ began his term with a strong message regarding man’s need to reconcile with recreation.
In his Inaugural Address on August 15, Fr Bobby declared that “care for the environment is certainly one of the most crucial and most challenging” frontiers a university can strive to reach, and announced two environmental stewardship projects he will focus on – making the campus green and adapting to climate change.
Father General Fr Adolfo Nicolás SJ has called on all Jesuits to restore and heal humanity’s broken relationship with creation with the same urgency as we are called to serve a faith that does justice.
In a letter to the whole Society on September 16, Father General encouraged the Society to make a commitment to the sustainability of our planet and invited Jesuits to review personal, communal and institutional lifestyles and practices in accordance with this mission of reconciliation with creation.
Jesuit colleges and universities in Asia Pacific have committed to becoming green campuses.
Magis is a pastoral experience organized by the Society of Jesus and other religious organisations for the days leading up to World Youth Day (WYD) celebrations, which this year were from 16 to 21 August in Madrid, Spain.
Scholastic Jun-G Bargayo SJ reflects on his experience of the first JCAP meeting on Ecology, which was an experiential workshop at Kampong Cham, along the Mekong River.
Close to 40 Jesuits, religious and lay companions from across the Jesuit Conference of Asia Pacific gathered in Kompong Cham, Cambodia, from 11 to 15 July for the first JCAP meeting on ecology.
Reconciliation with Creation is a JCAP priority engagement and the meeting aimed to build a common understanding and shared approach to environmental issues among the Provinces.
The Jesuits in the Asia Pacific region have initiated a carbon offset scheme to reduce the impact of air travel on the environment. Flights for Forests was presented and approved at the Jesuit Conference of Asia Pacific (JCAP) assembly in Chiang Mai, northern Thailand, in July 2011.
“Air travel is a major contributor to global warming, and since our collaboration in the Jesuit mission requires many of us to fly frequently, we seek to mitigate the damage our trips cause to the environment,” said Fr Mark Raper SJ, JCAP President.
Human and environmental devastation caused by floods in Australia, the Philippines and Sri Lanka and by earthquakes and their aftershocks in New Zealand, Japan and Myanmar is massive. Although Japan has the technology and experience to cope with earthquakes, the latest tsunami defied preparation. The consequent nuclear crisis brought the worst of nightmares into reality.
The third Hulas (the Pulangiyen term for training and formation) batch graduated in Bendum on May 28.
Led by Fr Pedro Walpole SJ, the Hulas initiative reaches out to address the skills and education needs of a growing number of indigenous youth in upland communities in central Mindanao, Philippines. The youth are encouraged to bring their knowledge and learnings into their personal vision and to use these to help sustain their families as well as the broader community in Upper Pulangi.