Jesuits and Friends A faith that does justice Summer 2008 Issue 70
Fighting the AIDS pandemic in Africa – page 7 Good news from JRS-UK – page 10 How to pray ‘without ceasing’ – page 17
Protecting the rights of the indigenous peoples of Amazonia – page 4
Visions of School Partnerships – pages 8 & 9
Jesuit Volunteer Community comes of age – page 14
Jesuits and Friends A faith that does justice
Jesuit Volunteering
JV
Love, self-awareness, ingenuity and courage
Jesuit Volunteering is a network of different agencies based in Britain that provide opportunities for adults to volunteer in a way that integrates their skills with their values. They are all supported, funded or part-funded by the Society of Jesus. All Jesuit Volunteers work with people whose lives are affected by poverty, exclusion or injustice, following the example of Jesus. They use the tools of Ignatian spirituality to reflect upon their work. To find out more, go to www.jesuitvolunteering.org.uk or write to jv@gbsj.org
Pray-as-you-go combines music, scripture and some questions for reflection in a new, ten-minute prayer session every day. Play it or download it from our site with one click, or subscribe to the free podcast. Use it at home, at work, or on the move with your MP3 player.
www . pray-as-you-go . org Produced by Jesuit Media Initiatives
THE ONLINE JOURNAL OF THE BRITISH JESUITS Comment on contemporary issues Reports from around the world Insights and inspiration on theology and scripture, faith and life Plus book and film reviews from a Jesuit perspective
Cover photo: An African Jesus holds out his hand to St Ignatius, inviting his Companions to the continent. Painted by Fr Fernando Arizti SJ. Africa is one of the Society of Jesus’ global apostolic preferences (see page 12).
Updated regularly – receive an email alert each time a new article is added to the site.
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Contents
Summer 2008 Issue 70
Jesuits and Friends is published three times a year by the British Province of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits), in association with Jesuit Missions. Tim Curtis SJ Executive Editor Ged Clapson Editor Editorial group: Denis Blackledge SJ Dushan Croos SJ Alan Fernandes Jane King
Anthony O’Mahony (right) of Heythrop College and Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor discuss the address given by Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran (centre), the President of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, at Heythrop. See page 18. Photo: Christopher Pedley SJ
Siobhan Totman
FROM THE EDITOR
Graphic Design:
IDENTIFYING WITH THE NEEDS OF THE POOR AND OPPRESSED Ricardo Jaramillo SJ writes from Brazil 4
Ian Curtis www.firstsightgraphics.com Printed by: The Magazine Company Enfield, Middlesex EN3 7NT www.magprint.co.uk To protect our environment papers used in this publication are produced by mills that promote sustainably managed forests and utilise Elementary Chlorine Free process to produce fully recyclable material in accordance with an Environmental Management System conforming with BS EN ISO 14001:2004.
Editorial office: 11 Edge Hill London SW19 4LR Tel: 020 8946 0466 Email: director@jesuitmissions.org.uk
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“LIVING AT THE HEART OF THE CHURCH, WHILST WORKING AT ITS FRONTIERS” The Decrees of General Congregation 35
HAS JVC-BRITAIN COME OF AGE? Asks Sarah Broscombe as Jesuit A CASE OF MISTAKEN IDENTITY Volunteer Community in the UK celebrates Gerry Lorriman SJ recalls the days of apartheid its 21st birthday in South Africa 6 A JESUIT WAY OF PROCEEDING Danielle Vella reviews the first report from the African Jesuit AIDS Network 7 REAL AND LASTING LINKS Ashleigh Callow and Matthew Dell on the ‘Partnership Agreement’ between a school in Tanzania and another in Surrey 8
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HELD IN TRUST Maurice Whitehead on Britain’s cultural heritage as a major exhibition opens in Liverpool 16 ASKING FOR THE IMPOSSIBLE Michael Beattie SJ on praying ‘without ceasing’ APOSTLESHIP OF PRAYER PAPAL INTENTIONS 17
BITS AND PIECES PRIDE AND RESPONSIBILITY News and pictures from around the Province Pupils from Faith Primary School and Stonyhurst College have both benefited from their link with IN SICKNESS AND IN HEALTH each other. Ged Clapson writes. 9 extracts from Our Friendship with Multiple Sclerosis by Neil Brown DIFFERENT PASTS, SHARED FUTURE JESUS – A PORTRAIT Louise Zanré reflects on the theme of Refugee by Gerald O’Collins SJ Week 2008 10 APPOINTMENTS AND ORDINATIONS LINKING FAITH AND JUSTICE IS NOTHING NEW OBITUARIES James Campbell SJ on Scotland’s Jesuit GETTING IN TOUCH AND HOW YOU CAN HELP saint and martyr 11
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From the Editor... “It is the vocation of every Jesuit to live at the heart of the Church, but to evangelise those on the margins.” Perhaps, in one sentence, this is a summary of the spiritual insight of the recently concluded 35th General Congregation. I feel that St Ignatius would recognise this call to minister where the need is greatest, where there are the fewest apostles already labouring and where the task is hardest. Of course, this is something many Jesuits have been doing instinctively already, but the General Congregation helps us to re-evaluate our current apostolates and refocus where necessary. The Pope, too, in his meeting with the members of the General Congregation, reaffirmed this as our special mission. “The Church is in urgent need of people of solid and deep faith, of a serious culture and a genuine human and social sensitivity, of religious priests who devote their lives to stand on the frontiers in order to witness and help to understand that there is in fact a profound harmony between faith and reason, between evangelical spirit, thirst for justice and action for peace. Only thus will it be possible to make the face of the Lord known for so many for whom it remains hidden or unrecognisable. This must therefore be the preferential task of the Society of Jesus.” Clearly Pope Benedict expects much of us, but already we see in the various articles of this current issue different ways in which Jesuits are making the face of Christ known in difficult and sometimes dangerous circumstances. In this issue I have included a summary of each of the Decrees of the congregation (pages 12 and 13); the full texts are now available on www.sjweb.info Finally, a million thanks to all of those who supported me for the London Marathon. Usually people ask “Oh, what was your time?” I prefer to reply: “Well, there were several thousands of people who finished after me”. The money raised will go a long way to helping us make Christ’s face known. Thank you for this vital support. On 31 July we celebrate the feast of St Ignatius. Please pray that all Jesuits and all of those who work with us will have the energy we need to be faithful to his special calling.
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Identifying with
the Poor and Earlier this year, the Jesuits of Guyana welcomed the Superior of the Amazonia Region of neighbouring Brazil to one of their regular meetings in Georgetown. Fr Ricardo Jaramillo SJ highlighted one issue of particular concern to the Jesuits of the Region: he writes here of the threat to the indigenous people of the country by wealthy and unscrupulous rice farmers. n the northern corner of this huge country, the livelihoods of 700,000 indigenous Brazilians hang in the balance. The territory of Raposo Serra del Sol lies on the border with Guyana and Venezuela and is home to 20,000 Patamonan, Wapishana, Taurapenng, Ingaricho and Macuchi Amerindians. They are being threatened by a group of rice farmers who are being backed up by the businessmen and politicians of the region. A presidential decree in 2005 declared their land a homeland; it occupies only 7.7% of the State of Roraima, which has only 390,000 inhabitants, most of whom live in Boa Vista, the State Capital. Nonetheless, they are still being menaced. Several years ago, six wealthy families – knowing that these indigenous lands were in the process of being legalised – invaded them and started cultivating rice and raising livestock on them. Their greed has grown almost as much as the land that they have occupied and destroyed. They are being prosecuted by a government agency for their impact on the environment, for their destruction of natural resources, for the contamination of the rivers and many other charges. In 2005, they were given one year to get out of the land and hand it back to the indigenous peoples; but of course, this never happened. During all of this time they have used economic and political pressure, through all the means of communication that they control, to create an atmosphere unfavourable to the indigenous peoples. The State government, the senators and federal representatives rely on these people for economic and political support. In March 2008, the Federal Police mounted an operation to get rid of those who had taken over the land by force; but of course, the powerful families did all they could to impede this operation: they blocked the roads, destroyed bridges across rivers and they were even successful in asking the Supreme Federal Tribunal to call off the Federal Police. The governor now wants to make the whole area into a single reserve, and we are awaiting a decision on this. On 5 March, mercenaries in the service of Paulo Cesar Quarteiro, the leader of the group of wealthy families, attacked a group of indigenous people who were building a village on their own land. Ten people were shot, three of them critically. The indigenous know that the only way they can defend their way of life and their culture is through the sacrifice of their own lives. Their aggressors never stop saying in the press and on the radio that they are the rightful owners of the land.
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Oppressed in Brazil They are always saying that it is too much land for so few people, that they should be integrated into the general population, that they are manipulated by the Catholic Church, that their only interest is to serve foreign NGOs and that they are a threat to national security. The diocese of Roraima has traditionally been served by the Consolata Fathers. Now the first bishop from among the diocesan clergy has been appointed. Jesuits have been present as a travelling group offering services as teachers and in community building. Recently we have taken responsibility for a mission station in one of the reserves in the region of Raposa del Sol. This has been a martyr church which has identified itself with the needs of the poor. It is a persecuted church, a robbed church, a defamed church, an excluded church – nevertheless, home to the poor, home to the indigenous. While we hope that the Supreme Federal Tribunal will find in favour of the indigenous peoples, and against the powerful who use every recourse to further their cause, the indigenous peoples only have their bodies and their blood to offer, as was the case of those shot making no resistance. If you wish to support the indigenous people mentioned in this article, you can write to: The President of Brazil, President Lula, to the Minister of Justice, or the Supreme Federal Tribunal. The Embassy of Brazil is located at 32 Green Street, London W1K 7AT.
Photo: Jesuit Missions
Bloodied, while making no resistance: the scene on 5 March
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A Case of Mistaken Identity arlier this year, Father Gerard Lorriman SJ retired from the parish of St Mary’s Nyanga near Cape Town. A widower with two children, Gerry entered the Society of Jesus in 1970 and has worked in South Africa for the past 25 years. Here he looks back on the days of apartheid in the country. Throughout the State of Emergency in 1986, cooperation among the Churches in South Africa was excellent. We prayed together, shared our churches and pulpits, marched together, and together faced the Riot Police (or ‘Reaction Unit’, as they were officially known) and their Caspirs during mass funerals of youngsters shot by the police. Our own archbishop, Stephen Naidoo, was magnificent. A shy, intellectual Redemptorist who, before becoming a bishop, had worked with Jack Gillick SJ and Lackie Hughes in FONS VITAE, a renewal course for Religious Sisters, he must have found the situation especially painful. Nevertheless he threw himself completely behind the Struggle. When all public gatherings were banned, he authorised us, subject to very reasonable conditions, to hold services in our churches which were certainly prayerful but predominantly political. On one occasion, a service at St George’s Anglican Cathedral followed by a march on Parliament was publicised in advance. The cathedral was packed. Desmond Tutu, Steve Naidoo, a senior Methodist, Alan Boesak and other church leaders presided. The prayer/political service concluded, we were given our instructions by Sidney Luckett, a priest on the Anglican Board of Responsibility. Sidney, an extremely efficient organiser and fearless participant in the mass funerals, exuded confidence with, as Des Curran (a neighbouring parish priest) used to say, just the teeniest tendency to be dazzled by the glare of his own headlights. First, all who did not intend to march were requested
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Leading from the front: Fr Gerry Lorriman SJ
to leave. The vast majority departed, leaving perhaps 150. We were to exit in rows of five, in each row clergy on the outside and laity within. If stopped we were to sit down and await developments. Led by the archbishops we emerged, to be brought to an almost immediate halt by a phalanx of police with Caspirs. We sat down and ignored repeated orders to disperse, whereupon the police bodily lifted Desmond Tutu, Steve Naidoo and the other leaders, put them in a police van and drove them to Caledon Square police station. Sidney instructed us to get up and march down an adjoining street. Prompting the same response by police, we sat down again. After we had ignored further warnings to disperse, the police brought up a water cannon and opened fire, or rather water. We just sat. Eventually several large police vans arrived and we were ordered into them. This we did without any violence on either side and we joined Steve Naidoo et al in Caledon Square – except that they were dry. We formed an enormous circle and sang Freedom Songs. After a long interval we were ordered forward for identification. At this point Des Curran and I were
very surprised when a young Afrikaner policeman beckoned us to follow him and stand at the head of the queue immediately behind the two archbishops. So, we overheard the exchange: ‘Name?’ ‘Desmond Tutu.’ ‘Occupation?’ ‘Archbishop of Cape Town.’ Name?’ ‘Stephen Naidoo.’ ‘Occupation?’ ‘Archbishop of Cape Town’ Bewildered pause, then: ‘Which Archbishop?’ Desmond Tutu very nobly: ‘Oh, he is.’
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After another long delay, we were then lined up to hold a placard with our name for a police photograph. Again Des and I were led up front. We were finally released one at a time with the warning that in due course we would be prosecuted. In fact we were fortunate in that they used plain water. Shortly afterwards in a similar situation Sr Clare, a Dominican, was water-cannoned with purple dye. As we turned to leave, our faithful young friend said: ‘You are bishops aren’t you?’ So that was it! Des and I always wore an alb and stole, whereas almost all our separated brethren dressed in black. ‘No, I’m afraid not!’ Lower jaw sagged hardly at all. And so home to dry out, shower and change and then to Our Lady Help of Christians at Landsdowne for evening Mass during which Steve Naidoo, whose homilies were very well structured but somewhat academic, preached a fiery homily.
A Jesuit way of proceeding with HIV/AIDS T
he African Jesuit AIDS Network (AJAN) has published its first programme report about Jesuit initiatives to fight the pandemic across the continent. Spanning 2002 to 2006, the first five years of AJAN, the Report of African Jesuit AIDS ministries gives a picture of over 100 works undertaken in 23 sub-Saharan African countries. The many initiatives are placed in a wider context of how HIV and AIDS affect each country. Also explained indepth is how AJAN House, the coordinating office in Kangemi, Kenya, implements its mission of supporting the network. “This report is valuable for anyone wanting to know about how Jesuits in Africa see AIDS and what they are doing to fight the pandemic,” said AJAN Coordinator, Fr Michael Czerny SJ. The 76-page report covers the full spectrum of initiatives including pastoral ministry,
care and support for people infected by HIV and affected by AIDS, value-based education, art and communications, research and publishing. These works are undertaken by Jesuits and their co-workers in educational, parish, hospital, social and community settings. From now on there will be an annual AJAN report. The many experiences reported reveal a Jesuit way of proceeding, which is becoming ever clearer. With this report, everyone can appreciate why a growing network exists to help encourage, nourish, interconnect and express the Jesuit mission of responding to HIV and AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa. To request a copy of the Report of African Jesuit AIDS ministries, please send an e-mail with your postal address to books@jesuitaids.net If you have questions or require more information about the work of AJAN, please contact: Danielle Vella, AJAN press officer, danielle@jesuitaids.net
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Real and Lasting Links By Matthew Dell, Assistant Headteacher at St Paul’s Catholic College, Sunbury-onThames and Ashleigh Callow, Jesuit Missions Development Education Coordinator afari in Swahili means journey. A school from England and a school from Tanzania recently met to embark on a safari of a different kind. St Paul’s Catholic College in Sunbury-on-Thames, Surrey, has forged an educational (not charity based) relationship with Loyola High School in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The schools were successful in bidding for the Department for International Development (DFID) Reciprocal Visit Grant, a grant that funds teacher exchange visits. Recently the first visit took place and the Headmaster, Father Buberwa Karongo SJ, from the Tanzanian school spent a week in the UK. “The partnership is based on the principles of equality and sustainability,” said Fr Karongo. “This link is not just for a couple of years but for the long term and that is why we have a very formal ‘Partnership Agreement’.” A Mass was concelebrated and the agreement was signed by both Headteachers as well as by two key witnesses: the Chief Executive of the local Council and His Excellency the Tanzanian Deputy High Commissioner. At the Mass, Father Tim Curtis SJ preached about the intrinsic value of schools from across the world making real and lasting links. He reflected that through developing an awareness of our differences we are also led to celebrate our similarities. Simon Uttley, Headteacher of St Paul’s Catholic College, clearly articulated his support for the partnership and His Excellency, Chabaka Kilumanga also had an opportunity to congratulate the schools in developing the partnerships. “Your vision of school partnership is a step in the right direction since it seeks to promote a global dimension in the school curriculum, thus raising young people’s awareness of global issues and helping develop equity based on relationships,” he said. The two schools have developed a number of curriculum projects. The main one is called ‘CAP - Challenging Assumptions and Perceptions’ and students aged 12 -13 years old will be directly involved. It engages students with global issues through a process of critical analysis of perceptions and assumptions about what are the global issues that we face together.
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COMPANIONS One of the messages from the 35th General Congregation (GC35) is that “the complexity of the problems we face and the richness of the opportunities offered demand that we engage in building bridges between rich and poor” and “we need to … listen carefully to all and build bridges across communities with all persons of good will”. This process of engagement is taking place at many different levels through the Companions’ Programme. For example, boys from Donhead in Wimbledon and Hartmann House in Harare have been sharing their wishes for themselves, their country and the world as they forge a new partnership. When you are eight years old these wishes may include: no more homework, stop pollution and killing animals and peace in the whole world. Older pupils can engage at a deeper level with some of the complex global concerns that face our world today, such as the environment or AIDS. As indicated earlier, pupils at St Paul’s and Loyola High have begun the process of engagement and understanding by writing their global concerns and whether they think
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Continents united: pupils draped in the flags of England and Tanzania during the Mass at St Ignatius Church, Sunbury-on-Thames. Photo Matthew Dell.
their partner school would have similar concerns and perceptions of a particular global issue. Jacqueline Muhanika, from Loyola High School, writes “For me a global issue that I hear and see in my daily life is child labour… I think a student from St Paul’s in England would not view the problem in the same way.” GC35 also highlighted the need to establish advocacy links of mutual support between those who hold political power and those who find it difficult to voice their interests. A Year 5 pupil from Barlborough Hall tangibly demonstrated this when, unaided or directed, she created a comic strip for their school notice board, a section of which is printed below. Dave Wilson, Deputy Head of Barlborough Hall said, “If the plight of those in Zimbabwe can create such a response from a nine year old girl then it really is time that the adults sat up and took notice too.” As we allow pupils from different schools to build bridges between cultures so too are we allowing for greater understanding of the issues that confront us all.
From XVP to JMV The Xavier Volunteer Programme has become part of Jesuit Missions (JM). This has enabled the Volunteer Co-ordinator to form closer links with the Missions so that the programme can start to meet their requests. As a result of this we are developing a new programme based on the needs of the Missions for skilled mature volunteers to live in areas of the community where they will be of greatest service. However, we are still happy to accept applications from students looking for a gap-year experience before or after University. The programme is now called JMV (Jesuit Mission Volunteering) and continues to promote the values of generous service in the context of development.
Pride and Responsibility special bond has developed between the children of Faith Primary School in the Everton district of Liverpool and the young people of Stonyhurst College. Ged Clapson has been finding out how the relationship between the two schools has developed and how the pupils have benefited from it. Early in the academic year, 21 children from Years 5 and 6 of Faith came to visit Stonyhurst - the first step to building a strong relationship between the two schools, so that the pupils could learn about the lives of each other. They were accompanied by their Headmistress, Sister Moira Meeghan, her staff and a member of the Jesuit Volunteer Community in Liverpool. Twenty-five Grammar (Year 10) Stonyhurst pupils volunteered to care for the children on the day. They rose to the challenge and took their responsibility for the children very seriously. They said they were surprised at how tired they were by the end, having given their undivided attention to the children. “For the Grammarians, the relationship with Faith has provided the opportunity to develop valuable leadership and team work skills and to foster a strong sense of responsibility for others,” said Chaplain, Sarah Young. “When they are with the children of Faith, they have to put their own concerns and desires on hold and give their undivided attention to the needs of the children. The Grammarians rose to the challenge and even kept their keen competitive instincts on a short rein during the Treasure Hunt around the College, football at lunchtimes and MiniOlympics which was a particular highlight of the year.” The return visit included not only Faith School itself, but also St Francis Xavier Church and the Shewsy Youth Centre. They walked through the estate in Liverpool where many of the children live to visit the church where parish worker, Debbie Reynolds and Brother Ken Vance SJ welcomed them. After exploring the church with the help of a quiz, the Stonyhurst pupils joined the Faith school children for lunch in their dining room and played games with them in the playground. They then headed off to the Shewsy Youth Centre, attached to the Anglican Church, where many of the children go after school. "Strong bonds have been developed between the two schools,” said Sr Moira. “Our children are very proud of their school and it has given them the opportunity to share it with others; they’ve also learnt a lot from the young people at Stonyhurst. We look forward to
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Credit: Stonyhurst College
developing our links further and working alongside the staff and pupils of Stonyhurst.” This sentiment was echoed by the Stonyhurst pupils: “It’s really obvious that they are proud of their school, their teachers and their achievements”, said one afterwards. While another commented on how closeknit the community felt: “There’s a real community feel everywhere and the children are really important within it,” he remarked. Sarah Young added: “Through sport and fun activities in both the Ribble Valley and Everton they have developed good relationships with the young people of Grammar and the children of St Mary's Hall. It’s hoped that the Grammarians will be strong teenage role models with whom they can become friends. In friendship, the pupils and staff of both schools have been able to welcome the other to their home ground and explore their different environments together.”
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Different Pasts, Shared Future Refugee Week in the UK took place from 16 – 22 June, promoting hundreds of activities and events from round the country that presented positive images of refugees and asylum seekers on the theme of Different Pasts, Shared Future. Louise Zanré, Director of JRS-UK, writes.
t Jesuit Refugee Service, we believe that conditions will only really improve for the asylum seekers who come to the UK if enough minds are changed, leading to a groundswell of opinion that refugees and asylum seekers are not somehow detrimental to the social and economic health of the UK. Awareness raising events like Refugee Week provide an excellent opportunity to redress the balance from the negative reporting which is the norm. What is it like to be an asylum seeker in the UK? Hopefully this story by Marc from Cameroon will give you an idea: Imagine you are in a room with one window and one door. A fire breaks out between you and the door. So you leave by the window. Outside there are many fire fighters and nurses. You are given a blanket, a drink and a seat. Then one of the firemen asks: “How did you get away from the fire?” You reply: “I climbed through the window”. “Aah”, says the fireman. “Well, you will have to climb back in through the window and then leave by the door. We cannot help you unless you come through the door.” This sense of frustration is common among the asylum seekers and refugees we meet at JRS. Many tell us that the government is less interested in why they came to the UK or what sort of persecution they have faced than in the route they took to get to the UK. This is partly due to the negative opinions about asylum seekers prevalent in the media and in the public’s mind here. Many people believe that asylum seekers are criminals, a belief which is encouraged by some government policies such as detention in buildings very similar to prisons or requiring asylum seekers to report regularly to immigration officials. These sorts of policies exist because it is easy for a government to attract votes by being seen to be harsh on asylum and immigration. This harshness is then reflected in the unwieldy bureaucracy and lengthy times that asylum seekers have to wait to have their situation resolved one way or another – to be returned to their country of origin or to get some sort of permission to stay in the UK. Recently we have come across several asylum seekers who had final decisions denying them any status in the UK in the late 1990s. One young woman (29) has been left destitute in this way since 1998, with no permission to work nor any access to benefits. She has been reliant on charity and on prostitution since that time to survive. Different Pasts, Shared Future as a theme holds out a measure of hope: that there will be a shared future or journey together, no matter what has happened in our separate pasts. Indeed, over the last few months at JRS we have had more than our usual share of good news. The government is currently dealing
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Credit: JRS-UK
with the backlog of 450,000 asylum cases it identified in June 2006. It hopes to finally process them by summer 2011. For the first time, a conscious decision was made to actively look for reasons or changed circumstances which would give a good basis for these individuals to be allowed to remain in the UK. Many of them are families, often with young children. They have all been in the UK for many years (in some cases for over 10 years). Many of the children were born here. Some of them had been detained (sometimes for months, including some of the children). All of those we know personally were destitute (either receiving no benefits from the government with no permission to work; or only getting voucher support). All of them want to make the UK their home and to get on with their lives now that there is some certainty to their futures, despite everything they have gone through here. The sense of joy among all of the refugees when someone they know shares their good news is heartening and a delight. This is of course not to say that there is also a certain amount of wishful thinking at the same time. The good news engenders a hope in the others that their situation might be resolved soon too and might have as joyful a resolution. In the meantime JRS acts as a constant factor in their lives providing some practical support and assistance but mostly being there with the asylum seekers and refugees in good times and in the bad that they experience. For more information about JRS UK’s work or to make a donation towards that work, please contact JRS, 6 Melior Street, London SE1 3QP. Tel: 020-7357 0974 Email: uk@jrs.net
Linking Faith and Justice is Nothing New James Campbell SJ t is common these days to talk about faith and justice as if their connection was a recent development in the life of the Church, but even a cursory glance at history reveals an ancient and deep witness to them particularly in the lives of some of the Saints and no more so than in the life of St John Ogilvie SJ. John started life as the son of a Calvinist baron in Banffshire, Scotland, in the latter part of the 16th century, but he converted to Catholicism and entered the Society of Jesus when he was 20 years of age. Like many Scots, he was a man with a strong connection to Continental Europe and his early education brought him into contact with Frenchmen, Germans and Italians, eventually being instructed in the Catholic faith in the Scots College of Douai. The Black Plague covered large tracts of Europe then, so the Society of Jesus was not keen on admitting new members; however John persisted and was admitted into the novitiate in Moravia in 1599. In his priestly ministry, John became aware of the oppressive attitude of many in his native country towards Catholics and the fears they had for their families and their faith. He therefore became adept at ducking and weaving his way through the countryside when he was missioned back to Scotland in some secrecy in 1613. Indeed, the then Father General of the Society replied to a letter from him from France before he left for Scotland wishing him well for his mission. John was accompanied home by a Father Campbell (no relation to the author), as well as another Jesuit priest – also a convert from Calvinism. Sadly it was to be a journey characterised by being nasty, brutal and short: within a few months he was betrayed by someone posing as a potential convert.
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TORTURE We hear these days of the techniques used by security agencies, such as waterboarding, to secure information from terrorist suspects, so it is all the more shocking to read today of the awful tortures inflicted on John Ogilvie simply because he was a Catholic, a priest and a Jesuit. The Reformation in Scotland had a particular
feel to it and involved elements which caricatured the Catholic Church, as well as resorting to the persecution and torture of priests (whose crimes were to say Mass, administer the Sacraments and visit those in need), individual Catholics and their families, regardless of the suffering caused. Much of the justification for this was the perceived need to purify a corrupt Church using the latest theology but, of course, the real reasons lay in the usual suspects of acquiring power, especially political power, and money in the form of seized property. It is a tragic irony of history – albeit quite unpredictable – that those who complained about corruption in the Church became themselves corrupted.
INJUSTICES John was caught in the middle of these forces but was determined to maintain his Catholic faith, his courage and his dignity. That the forces of law and order were deliberately turned on their head and dealt out injustice against him for his faith is universally agreed by historians of all persuasions. He died a cruel death in Glasgow having upheld the spiritual authority of the Holy Father over Catholics to the end and so he died for his religion alone. There has never been any doubt of the importance of the link between faith and justice in the Catholic Church since its inception and in St John Ogilvie, as with many others before and after him, standing up for the Catholic faith often meant being treated unjustly and immorally, and this under the guise of state legal processes. Catholics today the world over still have to battle with injustice in all its forms so that the mission of the Church, the dignity of human beings and the exceptional gifts which God has bestowed on our species be upheld. This was John Ogilvie’s quest and it is surely now a mission for us all, for the Greater Glory of God. The National Shrine to St John Ogilvie SJ in the Jesuit Church of St Aloysius, Glasgow, commemorates this Scottish Jesuit Saint for his loyalty to the Catholic faith. On 10 March 2008, St John Ogilvie’s feast day, a new plaque commemorating his martyrdom was unveiled and blessed by the Chancellor of the Archdiocese of Glasgow, Mgr Peter Smith, in a moving and solemn ceremony which attracted a large congregation.
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The Decrees of General Congregation 35 “Living at the heart of the Church, whilst working at its frontiers” DECREE 1: ‘With renewed vigour and zeal’ The General Congregation responds to the invitation of the Holy Father
our apostolic response to new challenges. It also confirmed the Society’s global apostolic preferences: Africa, China, the intellectual apostolate, inter-provincial institutions in Rome, and migrants and refugees.
The first Decree of the General Congregation is a response to what the Holy Father is asking of the Society. The phrase that sums this up most concisely is that each Jesuit, and the Society as a whole, lives at the heart of the Church while working at the frontiers. The Pope acknowledged the great work of pioneering missionaries of the past and urges us to go to “those difficult spiritual and physical places that others can not reach or have difficulty in reaching”. One cannot help but be struck by the extraordinary confidence the Holy Father has placed in the Society. In response, Decree 1 responds with “warmth and affection” for the Pope and affirms the Jesuits’ specific availability to the ‘Vicar of Christ on earth’.
DECREE 4: Obedience in the life of the Society of Jesus
DECREE 2: ‘A fire that kindles other fires’ Rediscovering our Charism The title of this decree on Jesuit Identity is a quote from St Alberto Hurtado SJ and refers to the fact that the Jesuit Vocation must have a multiplier effect. This inspirational document is provided by the congregation as a focus for meditation. It draws us into the experience of the first companions of St Ignatius, and impells us to work with others in our globalised yet fragmented world and changing Church. It is through being fraternal and joyful, and by expressing our passion for Christ, that we can be creative in our apostolates, leading all creation back to the Father.
DECREE 3: Challenges to our Mission Today Sent to the frontiers This decree on “mission” is closely linked to the decree on “identity”. Our world is hurt, wounded and suffering. Our mission is our participation in Christ’s work of reconciliation: with God, with each other and with creation. Our mission is not limited to what we do, but is reflected in how we live, respectful of each other and of the gifts of creation. The decree contains several key themes: reaffirmation of the Jesuits’ mission and its new context; an emphasis upon right relationships and reconciliation; and
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The Society has not reviewed its understanding of obedience since the 31st General Congregation (1965/66). Inspired by Ignatius and the first companions who deliberated long and hard before they decided to bind themselves together in this way, the Society in this decree reviews what it means for a Jesuit to keep this vow. The decree reaffirms that the account of conscience is essential to the living of this vow. For a Jesuit, Mary is the model of our obedience as, at La Storta, Ignatius prayed fervently that through her intercession he would be placed with her Son.
DECREE 5: Governance at the Service of Universal Mission In this decree the General Congregation takes the opportunity of reviewing the structures of governance of the Society from the formulae of General Congregations down to how individual local superiors govern their communities and relate to directors of works. In our complex world, conferences of provincials are better placed to respond to global needs, so their position is reviewed. This decree is about providing the Society with a form of governance that enables it to respond to its mission more effectively.
DECREE 6: Collaboration at the Heart of Mission Jesuits today draw much of their energy from working with lay people, other religious and the diocesan clergy, as well as men and women of other faiths. This decree answers three important questions: What is it that makes a work “Jesuit” – especially when the director of the work may not be a Jesuit? What kind of formation do our collaborators need to maintain and develop our Jesuit identity? What links can we forge with others who share our Ignatian charism to make our work more fruitful? We remember that we have a joint responsibility for our mission in Christ.
“Your Congregation takes place in a period of great social, economic and political changes, sharp ethical, cultural and environmental problems, conflicts of all kinds, but also of a more intense communication among peoples, of new possibilities of acquaintance and dialogue, of a deep longing for peace. All these are situations that challenge the Catholic Church and its ability to announce to our contemporaries the Word of hope and salvation. I very much hope, therefore, that the entire Society of Jesus, thanks to the results of your Congregation, will be able to live with a renewed drive and fervour the mission for which the Spirit brought it about and has kept it for more than four centuries and a half with an extraordinary abundance of apostolic fruit. Today I should like to encourage you and your confreres to go on in the fulfilment of your mission, in full fidelity to your original charism, in the ecclesial and social context that characterizes this beginning of the millennium. As my predecessors have often told you, the Church needs you, counts on you, and continues to turn to you with confidence, particularly to reach the geographical and spiritual places where others do not reach or find it difficult to reach. Those words of Paul VI have remained engraved in your hearts: ‘Wherever in the Church, even in the most difficult and exposed fields, in the crossroads of ideologies, in the social trenches, there has been or is confrontation between the burning exigencies of humanity and the perennial message of the Gospel, there have been and are the Jesuits’ (3 December 1974, to the 32nd General Congregation). Pope Benedict XVI to the delegates of GC35, 21 February 2008
Fact File The General Congregation was the 35th in the history of the Society of Jesus. The congregation began on 7 January 2008 and finished on 6 March 2008. There were 217 electors. The congregation elected Fr Adolfo Nicolás as the 30th General of the Society of Jesus. The congregation met with the Pope on 21 February.
The full text of the Decrees is available at www.sjweb.info
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Jesuit Volunteer Community was established in Britain in 1987, and since then has deeply influenced hundreds of volunteers from the UK and overseas. As JVC turns 21, Sarah Broscombe of Jesuit Volunteering asks:
Has JVC-Britain come of age? aturity is an elusive quality. It tends to be unostentatious. It is valued by those who already have it, and often not a major aspiration for those who don’t. An organisation’s maturity tends to manifest itself in critical reflexiveness, which celebrates successes but does not measure everything by them. Jesuit Volunteer Community (JVC) in Britain has just completed its 21st year, a milestone that was celebrated at St Francis Xavier’s Church in Liverpool. But what were we celebrating? I believe there is one unequivocal answer: individuals. To plagiarise an old adage, “JVC doesn’t change people: people change people”. JVC is nothing without the people who bring it alive - refugees, homeless people, volunteers, community partners, Jesuits, placement supervisors, office staff, next door neighbours, - unexpected people sometimes. The most appropriate way to quantify some of the impacts of Jesuit Volunteering seemed to be to talk to a specific group of former volunteers and see what common themes emerge from their reflection. Since education is so dear to the Jesuits, I spent some time with six former JVC volunteers who had all gone on to further study. I was struck by the humility of the people I was talking to. These are remarkable people - agents of change in all sorts of ways. I am under no illusions that JVC made these people so. The extraordinary gift that God gives us at Jesuit Volunteering is the
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quality of the people who come to us, before we have even started on any sort of journey together. As Frank Turner SJ remarked, “It draws remarkable people, and it makes them even more remarkable”. According to these six people, the benefits have been reciprocal: one former volunteer described JVC as “a profound part of my journey - a journey very much focussed on love”.
FURTHER STUDY All six people expressed a sense that volunteering had not pushed them in a particular direction. Rather, it had freed them to follow their own passion: in Peter’s words, “JVC found me the area of study and work that I feel drawn to, that energises me. It oriented me.” He says he was motivated to go onto further study by a thoughtful presentation by Michael Bingham SJ on justice and conflict resolution at a JVC retreat. Martin, likewise, might never have considered Development Studies if he had not spent the year at JVC - for him it has been a turning point in his career choice. Lorna felt that “after JVC, simply returning to my previous professional life would not give me the space to process or reflect on the experience.” Further study was the natural choice. Each person spoke with clarity and passion about their values: how the four values of JVC (Community, Spirituality, Simple Lifestyle and Social Justice) had helped to clarify their own vision. For Steve, who met his wife
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Paola: integrating reflection and action
Jude at a joint JVC European volunteer meeting, the four values have formed a foundation for their marriage. For Paola, the link is less explicit, but just as important: “It had a big impact on my faith. I am more intentional about my values, and more conscious about my mission and vocation. I am more confident in myself, and about my relationships, and about what my deepest desires are.” And this is true for Patrick too: “It has brought me closer to God. This is especially true in integrating my faith with the other values I live by. It has given me confidence that they can and do fit together.” Lorna speaks of the increased confidence to take her personal values into the workplace: “the process of discernment, my way of making choices, has changed. Therefore I’m more confident about bringing my values into my work. I bring my integrity into the workplace.” REFLECTION AND ACTION All the volunteers seem to have gained a great deal of self-knowledge during JVC: for Peter this was particularly noticeable in career terms.
“I am not a front-line activist: I do not feel drawn to crisis management or firefighting styles of work. Using the Conflict Resolution paradigm, I am not drawn to working against direct violence, but working against structural violence.” In contrast, for Martin, “probably the biggest influence is in the way I relate to people acceptance and compromise. I am more attentive to other people’s needs.” For Steve, JVC helped him to be realistic rather than idealistic about his sense of direction: “JVC gave me a sense of what I am good at: although I like working with people, I am good at procedural and strategic work. It was a stretching and opening-up experience.” Perhaps the most striking synchronicity was on the integration between reflection and action. Paola’s study-life balance is different now - much more personcentred. She points out that service and study benefit from reciprocity: “Service is really important, but the better you understand, the more effectively you can act.” Patrick strongly confirmed this: “Since JVC, I have more first-hand experience of poverty and social exclusion. Not only do I have a greater understanding, but I also don’t aspire to be academically objective about these issues. Academia is just one way to relate to people’s lives - it cannot be a panacea, or a magic bullet with the answer to society’s problems. Volunteering at the Booth Centre gave me a different way of relating to people’s lives from the theoretical I had encountered.” I claimed above that these former volunteers are agents of change. What kind of change? Lorna explained that “working with refugees brought me close to current human experiences, not least how our own state colludes in the
perpetuation of human suffering. This caused me to think deeply about how change can be brought about, and what kind of change I want to be part of.” Peter described his sense of agency like this: “JVC and the MA I’m doing are both transformational, just as God is transformational. Where JVC showed me which direction to take, and transformed me, the course is showing me much more about being an agent of transformation for others.” So, thanks to these remarkable people, JVC has indeed come of age. With Fr Pedro Arrupe SJ (Superior General 1965-83), we believe that God is truly aligned with the powerless, the oppressed and the weak. So thank you to all the Jesuit Volunteers who have been so open to God and the poor; to all Jesuits, community partners, spiritual guides and staff who have accompanied volunteers on unpredictable journeys; to those who have generously shared their experiences of exclusion and deprivation with volunteers - the people we speak of as “poor” whom volunteers work alongside. And perhaps most of all, thank you to those who pray for Jesuit Volunteering. If volunteering gives us the opportunity to adopt this vision, to share in this allegiance, what can we do but be thankful?
• Steve – British - volunteered in Manchester, 2001-2; now finishing a Masters in Planning in Manchester. • Paola - from Mexico - JVC in Birmingham, 2004-5; now doing an MSc in Immunology and Immunogenetics in Manchester. • Lorna – British - a volunteer in Glasgow 2003-4; went on to do an MA in Conflict Resolution at Bradford’s Peace Studies department. • Martin - from Slovakia - JVC in Manchester, 2005-6 and now at Leeds doing an MA in The European Union and Development Studies. • Patrick - did the JVC Summer Programme when he left school; joined JVC in Manchester, 2007-8, following this with an MSc in Housing and Regeneration at LSE. • Peter - British, volunteered in Glasgow, 2004-5, and is finishing his MA in Conflict Resolution at Bradford.
Peter: “JVC Glasgow was a really excellent experience that took me out of my comfort zone but didn’t leave me feeling out of place.”
Steve and Jude: “We decided that the four values would be a keystone of our relationship, and we built our marriage ceremony around them.”
Lorna in Palestine: “I aspire to live, work, pray and play in my local community.”
Martin working one-to-one with John at the Booth Centre: “JVC helped me to understand people who approach things in a different way from me.”
Patrick: “The biggest impact was how I live and what I consume.”
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A JEWEL OF AN EXHIBITION AN EXCITING JESUIT VENTURE TO MARK LIVERPOOL’S STATUS AS EUROPEAN CAPITAL OF CULTURE, 2008 BY MAURICE WHITEHEAD hat do a precious 12th-century provide an introductory background to illuminated book of homilies, St Thomas each section, and every exhibit has its More’s hat, and a set of exquisite 19thown illustration and detailed notes. Of century Hindu tablets depicting the incarnations particular interest, among many of Vishnu have in common? Answer: all three fascinating objects, are Elizabeth form part of the extensive collections held in Plantagenet’s Book of Hours, Katherine 2008 YEARS OF SACRED CULTURE trust at Stonyhurst College. They also feature of Aragon’s chasuble, Cardinal Wolsey’s among a range of 70 stunning treasures selected Book of Hours, a relic of the Holy Thorn from the Stonyhurst Collections for an exhibition for which Sainte Chapelle in Paris was entitled Held in Trust: 2008 Years of Sacred built, and a group of magnificent Culture, to be held in the magnificent setting of vestments from the 17th and 18th St Francis Xavier’s (SFX) Church, centuries. Precious artefacts from Edited by Maurice Whitehead Liverpool, from 30 July until 25 Africa, India, the Far East and September 2008, as a North and South America complement contribution to Liverpool’s these treasures. status as European Capital of Many of the exhibits will be on view for the first time, and, Culture, 2008. appropriately, a concert to open the exhibition on the For the past three years a evening of Wednesday, 30 July, arranged jointly with the committee of ten lay men and Catholic Record Society (CRS) during its 51st Annual women from a wide variety of Conference in Liverpool, will feature a range of 17th backgrounds, including century music, much of it unheard in over 300 museums, libraries, publishing years. Entitled Glories and Majesty Revealed, and academia, chaired by Brother Ken the concert will be performed by Cappella Fede, Vance SJ, parish administrator at SFX, has been meeting a newly formed group of professional musicians regularly in Liverpool to plan this major event which is being under the baton of Peter Leech, conductor of the co-ordinated by Janet Graffius, curator of the Stonyhurst Bristol Bach Choir. The programme includes Collections. music from the Catholic Chapels Royal of Since 1540, Jesuits across the world have collected Catherine of Bragança and James II and superb artefacts both sacred and secular, to support their keyboard works by the English Jesuit, Fr Antoine missionary, educational and cultural work. During penal Selosse (1621-1687), professor of music at St times, from the reign of Elizabeth I onwards, the English and Omers College from 1659 until his death – all Welsh Jesuits became custodians of certain precious objects, rediscovered and transcribed from manuscript such as illuminated manuscripts, books of hours and sources in the past few years by Peter Leech. vestments, which had necessarily gone ‘underground’ at the Taken together, the conference, two concerts time of the Reformation. Some of these objects were (see below) – and this jewel of an exhibition – are entrusted to them during the two centuries during which they a unique contribution to Liverpool’s European conducted their educational work in exile at St Omers, Capital of Culture celebrations and are not Bruges and Liège, before migrating to Stonyhurst in 1794. to be missed! Former students from these schools, and Jesuit missionaries who travelled to all parts of the world, ‘finding God in all The Apostolic Nuncio to Great Britain will open the things’ in the Jesuit tradition, brought back with them a wide exhibition on 30 July, in the presence of Father Provincial range of remarkable and precious objects which they and the Archbishop of Liverpool. Details about concert presented to the Society to be ‘held in trust’ for posterity. tickets, the exhibition itself and the catalogue, Held in The Liverpool exhibition is arranged in six sections entitled Trust: 2008 Years of Sacred Culture can be found at: The Medieval Period, The Reformation Period, The Recusant Period, The Jacobite Period, The Nineteenth-Century Gothic www.sfxchurchliverpool.com or directly from SFX Church Revival and Jesuits and the Wider World. Entrance will be on +44 (0)151 298 1911; and CRS conference details free, but, to appreciate the display to the full, visitors will be are available at: www.catholic-history.org.uk/crs/. The able to purchase – for just £6.95 – a lavishly illustrated 208exhibition will close on 25 September after a concert in page catalogue in full colour, published by the St Omers SFX Church given by the Stonyhurst Schola Cantorum. Press. In this, a group of historians, both Jesuit and lay,
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ASKING FOR THE IMPOSSIBLE s Saint Paul asking for the impossible when he tells us to pray continually or pray without ceasing? (1 Thess 5.18). How on earth can we pray continually when we have to live in today’s world of business, commerce and technology that demands our attention virtually every minute with its complexity, its bureaucracy and more and more highly developed means of instant communication? The nature of the lives of so many of us is such that there is heavy demand on our powers of concentration whether we are driving the car to work, sitting in front of a spread-sheet on our computer screens or controlling dangerous or delicate mechanical gear on the factory floor or in the laboratory or simply caring for the children and getting them ready for school. How can Saint Paul ask for continual prayer? Is he asking for the impossible? The answer is to be found in the basic thrust of our Apostleship of Prayer. In a few words and in our hearts at the beginning of the day we give the day to the Lord and then, without more ado, get on with all that the day brings. We unite our offering with the great sacrifice of Jesus wondrously re-presented every time Mass is celebrated. To the extent that we offer our day for the Holy Father’s monthly intention, our prayer, which in reality consists of the nuts and bolts of daily living, becomes apostolic. Our day, even without thinking about it, is transformed into continual prayer for the good of others. It helps to build the kingdom of God here on this earth and hereafter in heaven. So, “Jesus I offer my day to you” is our way of being obedient to the teaching of Saint Paul and so long as we do not consciously and deliberately offend God or our neighbour, even living in our frenetically busy world, we pray without ceasing and give honour and glory to Almighty God. We achieve the impossible!
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St Paul writing his epistles by either Valentin de Boulogne or Nicolas Tournier
Apostleship of Prayer Papal Intentions August That the whole of humanity may respect God’s creation. That more and more people will come to know and love Almighty God.
September For refugees, that all Christians will give them succour and help. For married couples, that they live by the gospel precepts and thus be examples of the love, care and concern of Christ for all.
October For a blessing on the deliberations of the Synod of Bishops. For all missionary work in the Church.
November That we remember that we have the prayers of the Saints and Blessed as we strive to love God and our neighbour. For all Christian communities in Asia.
December That life may be valued in a world that sees so much violence. May the birthday of Jesus help all Christians to bring peace and hope to all and especially to those in missionary territories.
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Bits ‘n’
Pieces
RISK OR OPPORTUNITY? ASKS CARDINAL eythrop College in London played host to the President of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, Cardinal JeanLouis Tauran, in May. He delivered a talk entitled: ‘Interreligious dialogue – a risk or an opportunity?’ and urged people of faith to look for areas of belief, doctrine or practical action that they have in common and to discuss, explore and try to understand those areas in which various faiths differ. “In interreligious dialogue it is a question of taking a risk, not of accepting to give up my own convictions but of letting myself be called into question by the convictions of another, accepting to take into consideration arguments different to my own or those of my community,” Cardinal Tauran (above) told the packed room. “All religions, each one in its own way, strive to respond to the enigmas of the human condition. Each religion has its own identity but this identity enables me to take the religion of the other into consideration. It is from this that dialogue is born. Identity, otherness and dialogue go together.”
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PILGRIMS MEET GENERAL IN ROME group of pilgrims from the Christian Life Community in Britain have met the new General of the Society of Jesus. They are pictured here with Fr Adolfo Nicolás SJ (third from left), who is flanked by Fr David Stewart SJ (Young Adult Ministries) – right – and Br Alan Harrison SJ (CLC Ecclesiastical Assistant). See page 20 for more about Alan’s appointment.
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OSTERLEY STUDENTS REUNITED ore than 60 priests - all former students of Campion House, Osterley - concelebrated Mass at Sacred Heart Church, Wimbledon, in April, and recalled their days at the College for Late Vocations. They were joined by many others who had studied at Osterley and who remain active in the Church as lay people. The Principal Concelebrant was Father Paul J. Smith of the Portsmouth Diocese, the most recent Osterley student to have been ordained to the priesthood, and the homily was delivered by former Rector, Fr Chris Dyckhoff SJ. At the end of the Mass, the concelebrants and congregation processed to one of the chapels where the brass plaques containing the names of priests who had studied at Osterley are now sited. A further 19 names of priests had been added since the plaques were removed from Osterley, plus four students who had been ordained Permanent Deacons.
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OLYMPIC TRAINING VENUES wo British Jesuit schools have been selected as potential training facilities for the 2012 London Olympics. Stonyhurst College has been chosen as one of only three North West venues where hockey teams from across the world can have prematch practise. While Mount St Mary’s College in Spinkhill will feature in the official London 2012 pre-GamesTraining Camp Guide as a potential venue for athletics and archery
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The multi-purpose outdoor sports facility at Mount St Mary’s College which was opened last year
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THEOLOGIAN APPOINTED TO WASHINGTON DC rofessor Jack Mahoney SJ has been appointed Distinguished Professor in the Department of Theology at Georgetown University, Washington, DC, for an initial period of two years to take effect from this summer. Lanarkshire-born Prof Mahoney (pictured) spent part of his Jesuit formation in America in 1963-4, when he ministered as resident hospital chaplain in the Georgetown University Medical School. Since then he has been invited over to Georgetown on several occasions to deliver special lectures on moral theology, at the last of which, a few years ago, he was presented with the President’s Medal for his services. His recent book, The Challenge of Human Rights, is selling well in both its hardcover and paperback Blackwell editions, and is proving a popular text book on the subject.
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THE EYE OF THE NEEDLE enowned Jesuit theologian, Fr Jon Sobrino SJ, launched his latest book, The Eye of the Needle, in Edinburgh and London in June. He gave a talk entitled Signs of Hope for the 21st Century - Live simply, the poor and Archbishop Romero, on June 18 at the Lauriston Jesuit Centre (Sacred Heart Church), Edinburgh. He was then a special guest at Heythrop College in London. His book is sub-titled ‘No Salvation Outside the Poor: A Utopian-Prophetic Essay’. The Latin American liberation theologian, who narrowly escaped death when six of his fellow Jesuits were murdered in El Salvador in 1989, explains in his book how global capitalism is driven by a cruel dynamic of oppression and greed, which inevitably dehumanises people, destroys the human family, and threatens the earth. Yet, he argues, it is the poor themselves, who, paradoxically, offer the only way to salvation for the world. The Eye of the Needle is published by Darton Longman and Todd at £9.95.
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MARATHONS IN LONDON AND EDINBURGH ome 21 runners took part in the 2008 Flora London Marathon on behalf of Jesuit Missions and other Jesuit charities. Five of them managed to complete the gruelling 26.2 mile course in under four hours, with the fastest time being recorded by Stuart Mills who was running his first Marathon for Jesuit Missions since 2000. Meanwhile, three teams representing Jesuit Missions completed the challenge of the ‘Hairy Haggis’ relay in Edinburgh in May and in the process, highlighted the crisis facing the people of Zimbabwe. Their t-shirts were emblazoned with slogans such as “Silence Kills” and “Justice for Zimbabwe”, reminding spectators that Zimbabweans are facing extreme hardships, torture and death following the elections of 29 March. The fastest Jesuit Missions team completed the course in 3 hours and 49 minutes. The other two teams ran from St Ignatius’ College in Middlesex to support their school’s link with St Ignatius School in Dodoma, Tanzania. They both completed the course in just over five hours, which was quite an achievement since the boys were running in a cumbersome Womble costume, which they exchanged with each other around the course instead of a baton!
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St Ignatius College student, Frank Antwi, dressed in the Orinoco costume, on the ‘Hairy Haggis’ route in Edinburgh. www.jesuitsandfriends.org.uk Summer 2008 Jesuits & Friends
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BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS
IN SICKNESS AND IN HEALTH eil Brown was a pupil at St Aloysius’ College in Glasgow when he was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis in 1987. As the years went on, he kept in touch with his former Latin teacher, Fr Nicholas King SJ, who suggested that he might find it helpful to commit his experiences with MS to paper. Neil’s story – Our Friendship with Multiple Sclerosis – has just been published. Some extracts from the book are printed below with the permission of the publisher. The journey with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) began in March 1985, when I was 16 – although I wouldn’t know it was MS until it was diagnosed in 1987. The first signs of it were on the rugby field at school. We had to play rugby once a week – that involved the practising of moves and often going for a run if the conditions meant we couldn’t play rugby. What I noticed was as I was walking back to the changing rooms I felt as if my right leg was limping … When I got back to the changing rooms and sat down, even before I went for a shower, it went away. Things returned to normal and I never gave it another thought. [These symptoms persisted and got worse over the next few months until …] By July the limp became more permanent and I also found around this time that my right arm had become heavier … On 31 July, I arrived at the Southern General Hospital to see the consultant neurologist who examined me thoroughly and in his report at that consultation, which I wouldn’t see until 20 years later, he thought that my symptoms were probably due to a ‘space occupying lesion’ or in plain English a brain tumour … I obviously didn’t know in March 1985 that I was going to become disabled, I thought it was merely an injury I had sustained in rugby … If I had known then how my life would transpire I would have been very afraid and would have thought, what is the point of going on. In actual fact this was my first reaction on being told by the doctor that it was Multiple Sclerosis I had. I just felt like lying down and dying. As time has gone on I have needed more and more help to carry out the daily tasks of living. Johanna (whom Neil married in 1999) is now my main carer … When I ask her about all the work she does for me, (she) says that when we got married in her vows she said she would be with me in sickness and in health, for better for worse, till death us do part and I firmly believe that she has every intention of sticking to these vows …
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… There are some readings from the Bible which have had a profound effect on my life and I still remember where I was when I first heard these readings. My experience of religion continues to support me through this journey and hopefully it will continue to support me through the rest of my life … I have certainly found my religion to be a great help throughout my life – I have continually focussed on areas and people throughout the world who make my position with Multiple Sclerosis and all that entails pale into insignificance…
Our Friendship with Multiple Sclerosis Neil Brown, Author House UK Ltd, Milton Keynes 2008 ISBN 978-1-4343-5299-6
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A tiny book that, like its author, punches well above its weight. Neil is entirely frank about the frustrations and difficulties, but it is also a song of the triumph of the human spirit over those difficulties, guided in Neil’s case by an unquenchable faith in God. Nicholas King SJ
JESUS - A PORTRAIT n Jesus - a Portrait, Fr Gerald O'Collins SJ draws on the best biblical research available and a lifetime of reflection and teaching to provide a very readable reply to the vital question: What was and is Jesus actually like? He highlights such new themes as the beauty of Jesus and the way that the Gospel writers aim at helping readers to experience the Lord. Fr O’Collins is a member of the Jesuit Community in Wimbledon. Originally from Australia, he is now a research professor in theology at St Mary's University College, Twickenham, after 33 years of teaching at the Gregorian University in Rome. “Much of what one sees or reads about Jesus is deliberately sensationalist or evasive,” he says. “Producers
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and writers raise issues of merely historical interest, highlight trivial matters, or allege that ‘cover-ups’ have hidden the ‘real truth’ for many centuries. They will do anything but face the challenge in the ultimate religious drama created by the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth.” The former Master General of the Dominicans, Fr Timothy Radcliffe OP, said that “Jesus – a Portrait is both accessible and the fruit of profound scholarship. O'Collins’ touch is sure. The book is a delight to read.” Dr Tina Beattie – lecturer and researcher at Roehampton University – described the book as “a unique personal encounter [with Jesus], based on a lifetime’s investigation.” Jesus - a Portrait by Gerald O'Collins SJ is published by Darton Longman and Todd at £10.95 ISBN: 52728 8.
APPOINTMENTS AND ORDINATIONS
Appoi n tments F
ormer British Provincial, Father David Smolira SJ, has taken over as Regional Superior for South Africa. Born in 1955, Father Smolira (pictured here with Fr General) was educated at Wimbledon College and entered the Society of Jesus in 1978, after gaining a BSC in Zoology at Manchester and a Certificate in Education from Nottingham University. He has worked with young people, in social work and as the Assistant Director of Marriage Care. He was Provincial from 1999 to 2005, after which he moved to South Africa and set up the Jesuit Institute, based in Braamfontein, Johannesburg. He succeeds Fr Michael Lewis SJ who had, according to the Provincial, Fr Michael Holman SJ, fulfilled his responsibilities over 16 years in all, “with great generosity and with a concern for his men, informed by a love for Jesuit life and a commitment to our apostolate”. Fr Lewis is currently taking a sabbatical. ather Stephen Buckland SJ has been appointed Provincial of the Zimbabwe Province, succeeding Fr Fidelis Mukonori SJ this summer. Fr Buckland (right) was born in Zimbabwe in 1952 and educated at St George’s College. He entered the Society of Jesus in 1976 and was ordained to the priesthood by Archbishop Patrick F. Chakaipa in 1986. He obtained a doctorate in philosophy at Cambridge University and has been teaching philosophy at the Regional Seminary, Chishawasha, and at Arrupe College. His most recent position has been Dean of the Faculty of Philosophy and Humanities (Arrupe College). He has also been doing part-time pastoral work in different parishes.
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rother Alan Harrison SJ is to take over later this year from Fr Tony Nye SJ as the Ecclesiastical Assistant to Christian Life Community in Britain. Alan, a native of South Staffordshire, joined the Jesuits as a Brother direct from school over 40 years ago. Much of his ministry has been in education and he has held various key school posts of a pastoral and administrative nature. He has worked for the past 12 years as the full time Education Assistant to the Jesuit Provincial, responsible amongst other things for staff formation in Ignatian ethos. He also has over 30 years’ experience of the Exercises and spiritual direction ministry.
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olombian, John Jairo Montoya SJ, has been ordained to the priesthood by Bishop Patrick Lynch, Auxiliary Bishop of Southwark at St Ignatius Church, Stamford Hill in North London. Mass was celebrated in both Spanish and English, with music provided by the parish’s Latin American singers as well as the St Ignatius Parish Choir. John Jairo studied law and worked for a time as a judge in Colombia before joining the Jesuits in 1996. He is currently studying Pastoral Theology at Heythrop College in London. He will continue to live in the Stamford Hill Jesuit Community until September when he will return to Colombia to join in the apostolic work of the Jesuits there.
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ishop Alan Hopes, Auxiliary in the Westminster Archdiocese, ordained Sumeth Perera and Dominic Tomuseni to the diaconate on 5 April at Farm Street Church in London. 34-year-old Sumeth comes from Sri Lanka; he entered the Society of Jesus in 1993. Dominic (36) is a member of the Zimbabwe Province, having entered the Society in 1997. He worked in vocations promotion and youth work in Guyana, and also as a teacher at the Marian Academy in the capital, Georgetown, before starting his studies in London in 2005. He is due to be ordained priest in Harare on 26 July 2008.
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tephen Patterson entered the Society of Jesus in 1997 at the age of 31. Originally from Oldham in Lancashire, he trained as an electrician before taking up studies at Campion House, Osterley. He was ordained deacon on 15 March at St Francis Xavier’s Church at the Centro de Foramacion Padre Piquer run by the Jesuits in Madrid, and is due to be ordained to the priesthood in St Francis Xavier Church, Liverpool, on 1 November 2008.
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www.jesuitsandfriends.org.uk Summer 2008 Jesuits & Friends
21
DEATHS & OBITUARIES
Fr Ralph Eastwell SJ
Fr Vincent Sermin SJ Albert Vincent Sermin – known as Vincent – was born on 26 July 1914 in Sheffield and went to school at nearby Mount St Mary’s College. He was particularly strong in science at school, and went on – after entering the Society of Jesus – to achieve a 2nd Class Honours Degree in Physics. He was admitted into the Society of Jesus in 1932, studied philosophy and theology at Heythrop College, which at that time was in Oxfordshire, and was ordained to the priesthood in September 1946. For 30 years from 1939, he was engaged in teaching, first at Mount St Mary’s College, then Beaumont in Berkshire, followed by Stonyhurst College, St Francis Xavier College in Liverpool, and finally at Leeds College. His principal subjects were physics and mathematics. After teaching, Fr Sermin worked for a time for the Diocese of Nottingham, before being transferred to Sacred Heart Parish in Wimbledon, south west London. He served as parish priest there in the mid1970s, and then spent two years at Corpus Christi Church in Boscombe, Dorset. His latter years were spent as parish priest at St Michael’s Church in Hythe, Southampton, after which he retired to Worthing in West Sussex. Fr Vincent Sermin died on 16 March 2008. May he rest in peace.
Ralph Henry Eastwell was born in Calcutta, India on 22 April 1916. He studied at the Jesuit colleges of St Joseph’s in Darjeeling and St Vincent’s in Poona, before moving to the UK in 1931. After three years with the Benedictines at Ealing Priory, Ralph worked in advertising production, then served in the Infantry in Britain, India and Burma during the Second World War. Ralph entered the Society of Jesus in September 1948 and was ordained priest eight years later. Between 1950 and 1957, he studied Philosophy and Theology at Heythrop College, Oxon. After working for a time at Sacred Heart parish in Wimbledon, he began working in a ministry to which he was to devote much of the next 17 years: the Christian Life Movement and Sodalities. During the 1960s, he was National Director of both movements, and also gave the Spiritual Exercises while at Southwell House in Hampstead. After stepping down as CLM Director in 1978, Ralph continued giving the Spiritual Exercises at St Ignatius parish in north London, where he worked and was based until 1991, including a four-year period as Rector. Ralph’s last assignments were to Our Lady and St George, Enfield, and Hengrave Hall in Suffolk, where he was Chaplain from 1991 to 1997. For the past 10 years, Fr Eastwell has suffered ill health. He died at Farm Lane Care Home on 10 May 2008, and his funeral took place at Farm Street Church in London on 16 May. May he rest in peace.
Please pray for those who have died recently - May they rest in peace. Mrs C Irving
Mr G Brittain
Fr Michael Groarke
Mrs M D Hoole
Mr John Baines
Mrs A O’Connor
Sr Carmelita Gouveia
Mrs Mary Grzedzicki
Mrs Miranda Bardelli
Mrs C Dullea
Mr William Lingard
Sr Rocha Mushonga LCBL
Dr H T Foot
Mrs Monica Marumbeyi
Mr N H Ford
Mrs Elizabeth Bull
Mr Terence Haworth
Mrs Elizabeth Anne Stevenson
Mr D Mather
Mrs Ann Carter
Miss K A McCabe
Mrs Lydia Enslin –
Mr and Mrs E Snape
Mother of Fr John Enslin SJ
Mrs C Rossi Mrs H Bailey Mrs Theresa Dennis Mrs R Mason Mrs U Stables Mrs Martha Anniston Prof K McCarthy 22
Mrs Anne Slavin –
Sister of Fr McQuade Mr Denis P. Haines –
Cousin of Fr George Croft SJ Mrs Doreen Howell Mother of Fr Adrian Howell SJ Mr Lajos Andras –
Jesuits & Friends Summer 2008 www.jesuitsandfriends.org.uk
Father of Attila Andras SJ Mr Eric Curtis – Uncle of Fr Tim Curtis SJ Mr Stephen Mutimutema – Father of Clemence Mutimutema SJ Mr Jerome Emilian Kanaakulya – Father of Fr Kizito Kiyimba SJ Mrs Margaret Wheeler – Sister of Fr Charles Praeger SJ Mr John Spence – Brother of Br James Spence SJ Fr Michael Rose Canon Kevin McHugh Fr Liam Greene SJ Fr Vincent Sermin SJ Fr Vincent McAtamney SJ Fr Ralph Eastwell SJ Brother Francis Fitzsimmons SJ [full obituary in the next edition of Jesuits and Friends]
Canon Kevin McHugh Kevin Peter McHugh was born on 25 October 1927 and was educated at St Ignatius College in Stamford Hill and Finchley Grammar School. He served his National Service in the Royal Air Force before studying at Campion House, Osterley. After entering the Society of Jesus in 1952, Kevin studied at Heythrop College and served his novitiate at Manresa, Roehampton. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1962, after which he was appointed Superior and Headmaster at St John’s Beaumont. In 1971, he decided to leave the Society and applied to the Diocese of Arundel and Brighton. The following year, he joined the Columban Fathers’ Special Educational Needs Centre in Lima, Peru. On his return to the diocese in 1986, Kevin served in a number of parishes, and spent three years as Director of the Renew Process – an initiative involved faithsharing in small groups. He was created an Honorary Canon by Bishop (later Cardinal) Murphy-O’Connor in 1989, and from 1997 till his retirement in 2002, was Chaplain at Gatwick Airport. Canon Kevin McHugh died on 17 April 2008, and among those who celebrated at his Funeral Mass were the Cardinal and Bishop Kieran Conry of Arundel and Brighton. Fr Kevin Donovan SJ represented the British Province of the Society of Jesus and paid tribute to Canon McHugh at the end of the Mass. May he rest in peace.
Fr Vincent McAtamney SJ Hugh Vincent McAtamney was born in Glasgow in 1915 and was educated at St Aloysius’ College in the city. On leaving school in 1932, he joined the Society of Jesus, studying philosophy and theology at Heythrop College as well as undertaking a period of teaching at the Jesuit school in Sunderland. After ordination in 1947 and his final year of formation, (Tertianship), he taught mathematics for five years at Preston Catholic College. In 1956 he was appointed Superior to the Jesuit retreat house, Corby Hall, in Sunderland where he was involved in organising retreats and giving the Spiritual Exercises. In 1961 Fr McAtamney was sent to Leeds University as Chaplain, and then to Scotland where he cared for the spiritual needs of the Catholic students of Aberdeen University, opening a new chaplaincy building, Elphinstone House, in the process. After ten years as chaplain in Aberdeen, he was appointed parish priest of St Mary’s Stonehaven in 1977 and remained there for the next 20 years, during which the parish grew in numbers as the oil industry and its ancillaries expanded. Fr McAtamney retired to Glasgow in 1998 where he continued to work in St Aloysius’ parish, until moving to Nazareth House in 2004. He died at Southern General Hospital, Glasgow, on 29 March 2008. May he rest in peace.
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The logic of the Christian experience is very clear. God is love, and so we too love. God is mercy, and so we too show mercy. God is good, and so we too desire to be good. If we do not love, we really do not have anything to say. Here we discover, I think, the root and source of our identity and our mission. Here is our raison d’être. Why do we want to love the poor, to help the lonely, to console the sad, to heal the sick and to bring freedom to the oppressed? Simply because this is what God does. Nothing else. Father Adolfo Nicolás SJ
Photo: Break Time at Makumbi Mission, Zimbabwe Credit: Ashleigh Callow