Jesuit Mission is working with local Catholic Church groups to provide urgent emergency response to families affected by severe floods in Central Vietnam. Over 600,000 people have been directly affected by the floods, with an estimated 100,000 houses fully submerged.
The Vietnam Jesuit Province has eight new Vietnamese priests. The new Jesuit priests, who were ordained on August 25 at the Saint Joseph Jesuit Scholasticate in Thu Duc, Ho Chi Minh City, are Fr Anthony Pham Ba Hoc, Fr Dominic Nguyen Quoc Kinh, Fr Joseph Nguyen Tuan Phuc, Fr Thaddeus Nguyen Van Yen, Fr Francis Xavier Nguyen Thanh Vu, Fr Anthony Tran Thanh Tan, Fr Vincent Nguyen Minh Phuc and Fr Peter Nguyen Van Tang.
Tokyo is gearing up for the 2020 Olympics. While athletes are training hard, the Japanese government is working equally hard to get the facilities ready in time. To do so, it has recently relaxed immigration procedures to allow more foreign workers to work on the construction of new olympic venues. It has also introduced new regulations for foreign domestic helpers from the Philippines and Vietnam, easing the situation in the previously restricted sector. With this, sources say that this service industry will be worth 600 billion yen (US$5.45 billion) in the near future.
Although the Jesuits do not have any parishes, schools or universities in Vietnam, they have found a way to reach out to young Catholic students. In what they call their “pastoral ministry of/for students”, they provide, in church-based settings, classes on catechism, Ignatian spirituality, and leadership to help Vietnamese Catholic students become rooted in and widely apply Ignatian spirituality in their lives, and live a life of faith.
Seven Jesuits were ordained to the priesthood in Thu Duc, Hồ Chí Minh City on Saturday, August 20, 2015.
Peter Nguyễn Xuân Anh SJ, Joseph Phạm Đình Cư SJ, Anthony Nguyễn Hoàng Dũng SJ, Matthias Nguyễn Kim Đoàn SJ, Francis Javier Nguyễn Thanh Hùng SJ, Peter Đào Kim Sơn SJ, and Paul Nguyễn Thái Sơn SJ received the sacrament of Holy Orders from Bishop Stephen Tri Bửu Thiên of the Cần Thơ Diocese in a ceremony concelebrated by Vietnamese Jesuit Provincial Fr Joseph Phạm Thanh Liêm SJ and more than 120 local and visiting priests, including other Jesuits.
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.
Two months into 2015, there are already nine new Jesuit deacons in the Jesuit Conference of Asia Pacific – two Koreans, six Vietnamese and one Singaporean.
More than 3,000 people joined the Jesuits in Vietnam for the close of a yearlong celebration of the arrival of the first Jesuits in the country 400 years ago. The mass was held at the main Jesuit compound in Thu Duc, a suburb of Ho Chi Minh City.
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.