As the destruction caused by explosive remnants of war continues, so too does the Cambodia Campaign to Ban Landmines – but with the compassion that these merciless objects lack. On March 14, that compassion was acknowledged when the Campaign was awarded the 15th Tji Haksoon Justice and Peace Award 2012 for its dedication to the welfare and rights of landmine victims. Cambodia is the fourth most mine-affected country in the world.
The 10 tertians in the Asia Pacific Tertianship completed their six-month tertianship in early March. One of them, Fr John Sullivan SJ, contributed this reflection on the experience.
How do we promote reconciliation with creation to our fellow Jesuits in Asia Pacific? With imaginative and powerful images as the members of the Scholastics and Brothers Circle showed in the innovative campaign materials they developed during a workshop on Effective Communications held from December 19 to 30, 2011.
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.
When Fr In-young Albert Cho SJ came up with the idea of taking retreats to the people, he chose to use Twitter, which make sense in Korea with its high use of the Internet and mobile phone.
Now his Street Retreat is expanding into print.From September, the Catholic Times in Koreawill bepublishing the weekly tweets of the Street Retreat in its print edition. The tweets will be printed along one of the edges of the newspaper so that readers can tear them off to carry them around with them.
Fr In-young is very pleased with this development.
An annual sports festival for the Thai and Filipino communities in Gimpo began on June 5 with the opening festival day at Gimpo YIUTSARI. YIUTSARI, which translates to “living with the neighbours”, is the Jesuit Centre for Migrant Workers.
The two communities have enjoyed the Gimpo Migrant Workers’ Sports Festival every year since the first event in 2006. This year, after the opening festival day, the Thai community will play soccer for eight weeks while the Filipinos will play basketball for 12 weeks.
It’s not easy for people today to take time out of their busy lives for a spiritual retreat.
So Fr Albert Cho In-young (KOR) has decided to take retreats to the people – with the help of Twitter.
“For Catholics, going on retreat usually means coming away to a remote place to meet God,” said Father Cho, who studies spirituality and theology in Ireland.
“But if we spare a little of our time, we can also meet God in the midst of our busy everyday life, even while walking on the street,” he added.
A new experiment on vocation promotion came into play in Korea. From August 6 – 8, the Office of Vocation Promotion of the Korea Province, under the directorship of Fr. Song-yong Joseph Choe (KOR) ran the Jesuit school of religious life as an educational and experimental venue for high school students who consider religious life as their calling.
Five Korean Jesuits were ordained as priests at Myung-dong Cathedral of Seoul Archdiocese on June 30. Frs Shin-jae Youh, Jin-hyon Lee and Jin-hyuk Park studied theology at Jesuit Theology Center (JTC) in Melbourne, Australia.
A more substantial and organised quest for ways to spread joy by sharing blessings with the world in need, particularly with the poor countries in Asia Pacific, began to bear fruit in Korea. On March 2 , Joy of Sharing Foundation became a registered NGO with the approval of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Republic of Korea.