Irish Jesuit Fr Ashley Evans served as Director of Xavier Jesuit School in Cambodia from 2013 to 2017. Now on sabbatical in Ireland, he looks back on the graces he received over the last four years. The sounds indicate change. … Continued
Jesuits from different parts of the world gathered in Cambodia recently to dialogue with Buddhist monks, engaging them on three levels – academic, spiritual and practical. This holistic approach to inter-religious dialogue is one that has prevailed in the regular Christian-Buddhist Workshop of the Jesuit Conference of Asia Pacific for many years.
The Jesuits have begun working on the cause for the beatification of a Filipino Jesuit Scholastic, Richard “Richie” Fernando SJ, who died saving several people from a grenade blast in Cambodia in 1996.
In a letter to the Province on July 31, the Feast of St Ignatius of Loyola, Philippine Provincial Fr Antonio Moreno SJ announced that Fr Arturo Sosa SJ, Superior General of the Society of Jesus, had endorsed his proposal to formally initiate the cause of Richie Fernando.
In 2014, the major superiors of the Jesuit Conference of Asia Pacific decided that the youth had to be a priority for the Jesuit Conference. They saw a clear need to accompany young people in the way of St Ignatius, which is marked by cura personalis (personal care), discernment and magis (more).
On November 1, 2016, Kang Han began her secondary education in Xavier Jesuit School in Cambodia. The 12-year-old girl is a scholarship student and one of the 34 students in the new school’s first Grade 7 class.
Fr Arturo Sosa SJ has sparked renewed vigour in the Jesuits and their collaborators in Asia Pacific with his first visit as Superior General to Indonesia, Cambodia and Singapore. In each country, he met with Jesuits and collaborators, learning from them about their context and giving them much food for thought with his reflections on the world today and the response of the Society of Jesus from the 36th General Congregation. In Singapore, he also joined the Major Superiors of the Jesuit Conference of Asia Pacific in their bi-annual assembly from July 18 to 21.
Landing in Siem Seap on the second leg of his first trip to Asia Pacific, Fr General Arturo Sosa quickly found himself in completely different setting. From Indonesia, a predominantly Muslim country with about 350 Jesuits and many institutions and collaborators, he was now in a largely Buddhist country, with a small cohort of 26 Jesuits working with a modest number of collaborators.
The Jesuit mission in Cambodia has designed a new mass stole to mark the second anniversary of the proclamation of Pope Francis’ encyclical, Laudato si’ on June 18. Intended for use by priests during Ordinary Time, the green stole is meant to integrate the spirit and teachings of Laudato si’ into the celebration of the sacraments, especially the Eucharist.
Are leaders born or made? This question has long been debated by experts around the world. Some claim that some people are natural leaders while others insist that becoming a leader is a process. Whichever the case, it cannot be denied that there are no perfect leaders and that, whether you are a born leader or had to learn how to lead, there is always room to become better at leading. This is the premise that grounds the Jesuit Conference of Asia Pacific’s Leadership Development Programme (LDP) launched in December 2015.
