Pastoral Formation

East Asian Pastoral Institute

 

The East Asian Pastoral Institute serves the local churches in Asia Pacific with its focus on pastoral formation in the spirit of Vatican Council II.  It had begun in 1953 as the Institute for Missionary Apologetics, opened by Austrian Jesuit missiologist Fr Joannes B Hofinger.  After providing liturgical renewal for missionaries for more than a decade, it embarked in 1966 on a new mission given by Fr Pedro Arrupe SJ, then Superior General of the Society of Jesus.  In 2016, EAPI celebrated 50 years of programmes for renewal and aggiornamento in the spirit of Vatican II. 

Located on the campus of the Ateneo de Manila University, EAPI is the hub for theological renewal, updating, experimentation, and exploration in Asia Pacific.  It envisions a new way of being Church by offering priests, religious men and women and laity a unique experience of learning and formation in community.  Its two-pronged pastoral strategy comprises (a) forming pastoral workers effective in witnessing and leadership through its Residential Programmes and, more recently, (b) strengthening local churches and religious organisations for their role in society through its Extension Programme. In 2019, EAPI launched its open-access online journal, Asia Pacific Mission Studies, to promote knowledge and research related to the mission of the Church, in a way that bridges theology and ministry in the Asia-Pacific context, and facilitates informed praxis and effective witnessing by the Church.

Most of its resources are dedicated to its residential programmes that comprise pastoral and sabbatical programmes of between four and six months. For more information on EAPI’s programmes, visit eapionline.org.

To help ensure that the Society of Jesus in Asia Pacific and EAPI can continue to provide this service to the local churches for many more years to come, an endowment fund was created.

The Adolfo Nicolás EAPI Endowment Fund

On August 4, 2018, the Adolfo Nicolás EAPI Endowment Fund was launched at a testimonial dinner to honour Fr Adolfo Nicolás, former Superior General of the Society of Jesus and EAPI director from 1978 to 1984.  Upon retiring as Superior General, Fr Nicolás asked to return to EAPI to serve as spiritual director and consultant.  He believes in pastoral institutes and in the mission of EAPI.

The fund will primarily be used to help EAPI provide scholarships for the participants of its residential programmes, many of whom are from poor countries or communities, or countries where the local churches are struggling.  The fund will also be used to upgrade the facilities in order to ensure a conducive living and learning environment especially for the residential programme participants.

Cardinal Charles Bo, Archbishop of Yangon, is the fund’s Honorary Chair.  Himself an EAPI alumnus, Cardinal Bo remembers his time there fondly.  “Coming from every nook and corner of the world, we have found EAPI a home away from home. … For many priests and church personnel who came from Myanmar, emotionally, spiritually bruised and broken, the stay in EAPI was comprehensively healing.”