Jesuit Refugee Service Asia Pacific has published a practical guide for advocates of asylum seekers and refugees in five countries in Southeast Asia. Entitled “The Search: Protection Space in Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, The Philippines and Cambodia in Practice”, the document will help advocates in these countries to give accurate informat
The Jesuit Conference of Asia Pacific has produced a modest 16-page annual report, simply titled “Jesuits in Asia Pacific 2012”.
Sixteen Jesuits participated in the East Asian Theological Encounter Programme (EATEP) held at the Seven Fountains Spirituality Centre in Chiangmai, Thailand from April 16 to May 13, 2012. A programme of the Jesuit Conference of Asia Pacific, EATEP provides transformational opportunities for Jesuits to deepen their dialogue with people of different faiths and to enrich their perspectives on theology in Asia.
Education continues to be a priority for Jesuits in Asia Pacific, as the recent JCAP meeting of Province delegates for pre-secondary and secondary education revealed.
Several new initiatives in education are underway or proposed within the Conference.
“You are not forgotten,” said Aung San Suu Kyi. “Pass this message to those behind you and on to others.” Not permitted a microphone, the Burmese pro-democracy leader called out to the crowd of refugees and migrants at the border refugee encampment of Mae La in May on her first visit abroad in 24 years. Her clear message of hope quickly reached the hundreds of thousands of Myanmar citizens, who had waited decades in squalid jungle camps along the length of the 1,300 km Thai-Myanmar border.
The Society is now at a new stage brought about by a couple of converging factors – the demographic realities and how we can best serve the universal mission today.
Our numbers have been in decline for the last 40 years – from over 30,000 in the 1960s to fewer than 18,000 today. The steep declines in Europe and North America and consistent decline in Latin America have not been offset by the significant increase in South Asia and a small rise in Africa.
The Jesuits in Malaysia and Singapore (MAS) held the first MAGIS programme for youth in the region in December 2011. The MAGIS MAS programme draws its inspiration from the Ignatian term MAGIS which connotes striving to do more in order to render greater glory to God.
The global MAGIS initiative started in 1997 with World Youth Day in Paris. It was called MAGIS for the first time at World Youth Day 2005 in Cologne. It was celebrated in Sydney in 2008 and in Madrid in 2011.
On April 17, 2011, the Lahu community at Chaka in northern Thailand watched in horror as five of the seven houses in their village as well as the rice barns burned to the ground. It was a devastating loss for the 450 villagers, most of whom are farmers engaged in rotation farming of hill rice. Some tend to their cattle while some of the young engage in the seasonal picking of lychee and longgan in the orchards in Chiangmai.
In two separate letters, Fr General Adolfo Nicolás appointed Fr Colin Tan as the new Regional Superior of Malaysia-Singapore and Fr Joseph Pham Thanh Liem as the new Provincial Superior of Vietnam.
In an interview with UCA News at the recent Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conference symposium on Religious Life, held in Hua Hin, Thailand, Bishop Paul Tan Chee Ing S.J.