Struggling to recover from Typhoon Maysak
Weeks after Typhoon Maysak hit Micronesia at the end of March, the people are still struggling to pick up the pieces and recover from the destruction.
Jesuit schools in Micronesia damaged by Super Typhoon Maysak
With sustained winds of 160 mph, Super Typhoon Maysak struck the Pacific region just before Easter, causing severe damage throughout Micronesia. Maysak struck the island of Chuuk on March 29, bringing down communications system from the island, and hit the island of Yap on March 31. Jesuits from the USA Northeast Province, the Province of Indonesia, members of the Jesuit Volunteer Corp and residents of Micronesia staff the two schools that suffered losses.
First senior class graduation in high school in Micronesia
On May 31, 2014, the Yap Catholic High School (YCHS), located on a small Micronesian island in the Western Pacific Ocean, celebrated its first graduating class. Jesuit missionaries first established a mission in Micronesia in the late seventeenth century. At the end of the World War II, the mission was placed in the hands of American Jesuits. Now Jesuits serve in a number of ways on the islands of Pohnpei, Chuuk, Guam, Yap and Palau.
JCAP Education on the move
There was much delight at the recent JCAP Education meeting in two significant developments.
Fr Christopher Gleeson SJ, JCAP Education Secretary and meeting chairman, shared that the group learnt a good deal from inaugural Principal, Fr Plinio, about the beginning in January of the new school in Timor-Leste, Colégio de Santo Inácio de Loiola.
Fighting human trafficking
Jesuits in Southeast Asia will be taking a more active role in the fight against human trafficking, which Pope Francis recently called “a despicable activity, a disgrace for our societies, which describe themselves as civilized”.
Jesuits in Micronesia
The Jesuits of the New York Province have produced a six-part video series that recounts their history of service to the people of Micronesia and introduces some of the Jesuit works and apostolates there.
The Jesuits primarily serve in the parishes and schools in the states of Yap and Chuuk. Micronesia is part of the Jesuit Conference of Asia Pacific.
Reflections on Jesuit Identity
At the International Colloquium on Jesuit Secondary Education in Boston, Fr Danny Huang SJ, Regional Assistant for Asia Pacific, posed 10 points of reflection from the Procurates, that he said would be useful to discuss in Jesuit schools, Provinces and Regions.
1. Apostolic instruments
Do we understand ourselves and function as apostolic missions? How?
Micronesian school moves into its own campus
After a year in borrowed space at St Mary’s Parish and grammar school, Yap Catholic High School (YCHS) opened its new campus with a celebratory mass on August 19. About 300 people made their way to Lamar for the official opening celebration.
Father John Hagileiram SJ, Regional Superior of the Jesuits in Micronesia, presided at a Mass of Thanksgiving. “This is a historic day,” he reminded the congregation, “on which we should all be proud of what we have achieved together with God’s help.”
Reflecting on governance arrangements
Typhoon Vicente reached Hurricane Signal 10 overhead as the half yearly Jesuit Conference of Asia Pacific (JCAP) Major Superiors’ assembly continued calmly indoors in Macau’s Colégio Mateus Ricci in the last week of July. From the meeting room window, the bright umbrellas of some of Macau’s annual 30 million visitors could be seen at the Ruins of St Paul, a reminder of the 500-year Jesuit history integral to the identity of the former Portuguese colony that is now a Special Administrative Region of China.
Long Experiment in Micronesia
A Jesuit novice from the United States reflects on the five months he spent in full-time apostolic work in Micronesia, in the Long Experiment that is but one of a series of experiments in which Jesuits participate during their formation. Tim Casey nSJ taught at Yap Catholic High School in Micronesia.