To foster collaboration at various levels between the Chinese, Japanese and Korean Jesuit Provinces, the three provincials have decided to set up an annual conjoint summer Arrupe Month. The first conjoint Arrupe Month was held from July 16 to August 8, 2015 at the newly built Franciscan spirituality centre in the small and quiet historical township of Daxi in Taiwan, 30 km south of Taipei.
From May to August, the Chinese Jesuit Province saw four Jesuits from three countries ordained to the priesthood in ceremonies held in its four territories. A Jesuit from Burundi was also ordained to the diaconate during this period.
John Joseph Zhang SJ was ordained priest in northern China during the Easter Season. He has been assigned to Casa Ricci Social Services in Macau.
We, the major superiors of the Jesuit Conference Asia Pacific, sincerely and enthusiastically welcome Pope Francis’ new encyclical Laudato si’ (On the Care of Our Common Home). He draws attention to the urgent need for reconciliation with creation, already one of our apostolic priorities in Asia Pacific. We urge all the members of our Conference, our colleagues, and all those we seek to serve to make a thoughtful and generous response to the Holy Father’s plea.
Visitors to Taiwan are greeted at the Taipei airport by signs welcoming migrant workers to the island country. The authorities provide a lot of information to migrant workers, on their rights as well as precaution measures in place, upon their arrival to the country, even before they meet their agencies or employers. In a country with 23 million people, the presence of more than half a million migrant workers is no small figure.
It was in this setting and context that this year’s Jesuit Conference of Asia Pacific Migration Network meeting was held from April 21 to 23.
The China study abroad program offered by The Beijing Center (TBC) was recently ranked among the top five exchange programs for university students in the United States.
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.
The decision some years ago within the Chinese Province to set up a youth ministry in Taiwan is bearing fruit. What began with a monthly youth mass at the Magis Youth Centre in Taipei has grown into a full-blown program with workshops in Ignatian spirituality, counselling, recollections and retreats, movie nights, and exposure trips.
Fr Fernando Mateos SJ, the 94-year-old historian of the Jesuit Chinese Province, provided an original voice at the recent international symposium on the Suppression and Restoration of the Society of Jesus. His complete and in-depth account of the suppression and restoration of the Society in China, together with details of Jesuits, their places of work and ecclesial and diplomatic endeavours to resurrect the mission, provided participants with vivid and authentic stories of their struggles and sacrifice for the new Society. He left the audience with little doubt of the mark thes
An Association of Friends of Teilhard in China is in the process of being formed by a group of Chinese people. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin SJ was born in 1881 and became famous as a philosopher, palaeontologist and geologist. He worked extensively in Africa and Asia, and was part of the scientific investigation that discovered “Peking Man” in China. He lived in China for 23 years (1923-1946), although he also travelled abroad extensively during this time.
What is the role of Jesuit universities in social justice? This was a question that participants at the recent meeting of the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities in Asia Pacific (AJCU-AP) were asked to consider.