Jesuits & Friends Summer 09

Jesuits and Friends A faith that does justice Summer Spring 2009 2009 Issue Issue 7273

Sandwiches, eggs and dignity for prisoners in Harare: St George’s College responds to the needs of starving inmates

Rebuilding the faith in Kyrgyzstan:

Following in the steps of the first Companions

PL EA gr A SE

Ignatian pilgrims visit Spain and Italy:

at ll TA ef d K ul on E ly a A re tio C n ce s OP iv Y ed

Youth camps provide inspiration for body and spirit

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You and I know that the knowledge (of Christ Jesus) of which St Paul is speaking is the knowledge of the heart … for us and especially for Religious men and women, it’s a knowledge that fills our hearts entirely, it’s a knowledge that is rooted in love and explored in love and makes us say at those key moments…‘I do it for you Lord’.

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Most Rev Vincent Nichols, to Religious men and women, on the eve of his installation as Archbishop of Westminster, 21 May 2009

Have you or someone you know considered life as a Jesuit priest or brother?

For more information, contact: BRITAIN – Fr Matthew Power SJ Loyola Hall, Warrington Road, Prescot L35 6NZ Tel: + 44 (0)151 426 4137, matthew.power@jesuits.net GUYANA – Fr Joaquim de Melo SJ Jesuit Residence, PO Box 10720, Georgetown, Guyana Tel: + 592 22 67461, joaquimjr7@yahoo.com SOUTH AFRICA – Fr Russell Pollitt SJ Holy Trinity, PO Box 31087, Johannesburg 2017, South Africa, Tel: + 27 (0)11 339 2826, rp@sj.org.za Or visit www.jesuit.org.uk/becomingajesuit

Take time away from it all for prayer and reflection Three Jesuit Spirituality Centres in Britain offer residential retreats: Loyola Hall in Rainhill, near Liverpool, St Beuno’s in North Wales and the Ignatian Spirituality Centre, Glasgow.

Both Loyola Hall and St Beuno’s offer individually guided retreats throughout the year, as well as the full 30 day Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius and various themed retreats.

The ISC offers retreats in different locations in Scotland and Spain. All three centres offer courses in Ignatian Spirituality, both residential and non-residential.

For more information: www.jesuitretreats.org.uk

Contents

Summer 2009 Issue 73 Father General is pictured here (third from right, front row) at the meeting of Major Superiors of Africa and Madagascar (JESAM) which took place in Ghana in May. Immediately behind him is Fr David Smolira, Regional Superior of South Africa; and behind him (back row, second from right) is the Provincial of Zimbabwe, Fr Stephen Buckland.

Jesuits and Friends is published three times a year by the British Province of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits), in association with JM. Tim Curtis SJ Executive Editor Ged Clapson Editor Editorial group: Denis Blackledge SJ Dushan Croos SJ

Matida James, a grade 2 pupil at St Paul's Primary School (Musami Mission), enjoys their borehole water which offers a clean and reliable water supply for over a thousand pupils.

Alan Fernandes Jane King Siobhan Totman Graphic Design:

Editorial Tim Curtis SJ Cholera and starvation continue to threaten Zimbabweans Oskar Wermter SJ

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Jesuit Schools in Malta

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4 ‘Catechism in Song’: the hymns of Father

Ian Curtis www.firstsightgraphics.com

Bits and pieces

Communities celebrate Cary-Elwes’ centenary James Quinn SJ Sarah Broscombe 6 Douglas Galbraith/Ged Clapson

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Printed by: The Magazine Company

Guyana Jesuits launch new web site

7 The Catholic Worker: Faith in the First World

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.

Peanut butter sandwiches, Vaseline and footballs bring hope to Harare prisoners Theresa Wilson

Scott Albrecht 8

Sacred Heart celebrates 150 years of service

to the people of Edinburgh Thanks be to God: Bernard Walker SJ James Fitzsimons SJ reflects on nearly 60 years as a priest 10 2009 Marathon Report

Alan Fernandes 20 Jesuit projects help Sri Lankans rebuild lives after civil war On hearing the Word of the Lord: Apostleship Dushan Croos SJ and Elil Rajan SJ 11 of Prayer for July, August and September Catholics in Kyrgyzstan – a forgotten people? Michael Beattie SJ Hania Lubienska 12

Editorial office: 11 Edge Hill London SW19 4LR Tel: 020 8946 0466 Email: director@gbjm.org

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Obituaries and our recently deceased

In the footsteps of Ignatius David Birchall SJ

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benefactors

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An Ignatian Retreat in Daily Life

15 How can I help?

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From the Editor...

In his Spiritual Exercises, St Ignatius starts the second week with a meditation on the “Incarnation”. He has the person making the retreat join God in looking down on the “surface and circuit of the globe”, seeing people engaged in all sorts of everyday activities. He asks us to imagine people of different races and with different customs of dress. However, the first activity he asks the one making the retreat to focus on is to imagine people “some at peace and some at war”.

It would seem that for St Ignatius, this would be God’s primary concern.

Over the years, through the pages of Jesuits and Friends, we have been able to focus on the lives of people from many territories in their prosperous times and in their hard times.

You have been very supportive of the people of Zimbabwe, as they have struggled through untold hardships, and, at last, we can see the glimmerings of hope for these people.

You have supported the Jesuits in Guyana as they have accompanied the Amerindian peoples for the last 100 years, tending to their spiritual needs and helping them develop their lives, but in harmony with the rainforest in which they live. You have been there for the people of South Africa in the darkest days of Apartheid and you now walk with them as they make bold strides on the way to becoming a democracy. In this issue we have a first hand perspective on the struggle of the Tamils of Sri Lanka to resist total annihilation. The pages of the magazine afford us the chance to see the world as God sees it and thus to begin to love it as God loves it.

Obviously, for St Ignatius, his immediate focusing in on peace and war stems from his own, albeit rather unsuccessful, military career. At Pamplona he was injured in the first battle he ever took part in. However, after his conversion, Ignatius sees warfare in a new light. Man’s inhumanity to man, manifest through oppression and the use of violence, becomes a metaphor for the greater battle that is being waged for peace and justice. When our heart goes out to a people who are being oppressed, and when we see the plight of these fellow human beings but through the eyes of God, we cannot fail to be but moved in the same way that the three divine Persons were moved. The second Person of the Trinity decides that he must become a human being to bring the story of salvation to all.

Sadly, our world is still full of conflict, injustice and oppression. We should derive consolation from the fact that God is still looking down on our actual world, which he wants us to see through his eyes. Even today he is still being moved to become involved in the lives of those caught up in the drama of violence that unfolds, but he needs our feet to accompany these people, our voice to speak up for them and our generosity to come to their assistance. As you read the articles in this current issue, let your heart be ready to be moved.

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CHOLERA AND STARVATION CONTINUE TO THREATEN ZIMBABWEANS

Zimbabwe may have temporarily slipped from the headlines, writes Fr Oskar Wermter SJ in Mbare, but the catastrophic political and economic plight of this country under the dictatorial rule of President Robert Mugabe has not changed.

Bishop Dieter B. Scholz SJ has lived and worked in Zimbabwe for over 40 years and since 2006 he has been bishop of the diocese of Chinhoyi in the northeast of the country. Originally from Berlin, the bishop worked for many years in Silveira House, a Jesuit formation centre founded in 1964 about 12 miles (20 km) east of the capital Harare. To this day, this pastoral and social development centre is striving to strengthen the surrounding communities, offering courses in such diverse fields as healthcare, agriculture, democracy and human rights, and also in the local cultures and languages. Its goal is to help the Zimbabwean people to help themselves. However, in the current profound crisis these courses no longer find many takers.

Conditions of life for the ordinary people are pitiful, their poverty indescribable. Schools, and even hospitals, have

Bishop Dieter B. Scholz SJ

As Jesuits and Friends went to press, Bishop Scholz was recovering in hospital in Germany, following a quadruple by-pass. Please remember him in your prayers.

New York Times / Redux / eyevine

been closed. The local economy has long since collapsed and the currency has become worthless.

Everyone is desperate to get hold of hard currencies in order to survive, but few succeed. They face starvation, flee with their remaining strength to neighbouring countries, or simply die. Hunger is everywhere, this brutal plague that can seize upon entire families and wipe them out – as one observer put it, “like an endless, silent tsunami”.

Since August 2008, this grave food shortage has gone hand-in-hand with a cholera epidemic. And while the number of new cases has now fallen sharply, according to the World Health Organisation in Geneva, this dangerous disease has not been defeated and could easily break out again at any time.

According to a WHO report at the end of March, around 2,000 new cases were being registered each week, compared with 8,000 in February. The death rate among those affected has also fallen, from almost 6% in January to 2.3% by mid-March. Nevertheless, since the outbreak of the epidemic, over

91,000 people have been infected with the cholera virus, and of these some 4,000 have died so far, according to the WHO figures.

Zimbabwe was once seen as the bread basket of Africa on account of its rich harvests; now the country faces the prospect of starvation. At the beginning of 2009, Bishop Scholz visited his home country to seek help for the Zimbabwean people, insisting that he would not allow his diocesan staff to be deterred from distributing food to the starving population. His priests have repeatedly been threatened and summoned before the district authorities, something against which the bishop has protested energetically.

“The anger wells up in me when I hear that the government officials of the ruling party are still trying to intimidate our parish priests and prevent them from helping people who have been reduced to living off tree bark, grass seed and wild fruits,” he says. “But we will not let them take away our right to share our bread with the hungry. We must bring back the humanity that we have lost.”

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JM

COMMUNITIES CELEBRATE CARY-ELWES’ CENTENARY The celebrations to mark 100 years since Fr Cuthbert Cary-Elwes SJ travelled into the Interior of Guyana and established a mission station in the south of the country demonstrate that the faith in the Rupununi is flourishing. In the third of three articles in Jesuits and Friends to celebrate the centenary, Sarah Broscombe shares her impressions of three days of fellowship and festivities at Aishalton.

Our first sight of the celebration was a tractor, halfway across a creek with a large open trailer behind. It was packed with determined women and laughing children, bumping across the savannah for about eight hours to reach Aishalton. The next sight leapt out in the headlights: white paint on a black rock beside the track, proclaiming Celebrate 100 years since the Good News came to the Rupununi. We arrived, hot and tired, in Aishalton in the middle of an outdoor cinema showing. Where there had once been bare, rough ground, there now stood a beautiful wooden stage and a large coconutfrond roof bedecked with streamers, 6

balloons and bunting. It was packed with people, relaxed and laughing, greeting us in the starlight.

The following morning at 6 o’clock, Father Jim Christie SJ, visiting from Scotland, and Father Kuruvila Nalpathamkalam SJ (more familiarly known as Fr Kuru) from Lethem celebrated the opening Mass. There, representatives from 14 villages in the South Rupununi joined hands for

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the Peace. Some had cycled for 11 hours to be there - others had walked all day in equatorial sun. For three days, we attended services, performances, games and meals together, sharing the mundane and the ridiculous (Have you ever seen a laughing competition? Or a hollering contest!?) as well as the momentous. In commemorating the arrival of Father Cary-Elwes SJ 100

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owned by the local communities. This was not an imposition by the priests; community pride painted those signs, cycled out to adorn the rocks, and accommodated 200 visitors in houses, hallways and school buildings all over Aishalton.

These words are from a song written for the celebration by Camillus Cyril, a Wapishana Amerindian who worked closely with Father Britt-Compton for about 30 years:

Mass of celebration at Aishalton: (left to right) Fr Amar Bage, Fr Jim Christie, Fr Kuru, Fr Dominic Paul and Fr Peter Britt-Compton.

years ago, we were also celebrating the vitality and resourcefulness of the Church alive here, now.

Everything was hand-made. Many songs in both Wapishana and English were written specially for the occasion. The beauty of the handmade bunting, the quality of the joinery on the stage, and the small grubby fingerprints of schoolchildren on the paper chains spoke eloquently

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of the kind of preparations that cannot be bought or sub-contracted. The pragmatism of the blackboard listing contributions of food from each village, and of the whole carcasses hanging by the ‘church bell’ (an old gas cylinder) to feed the 5,000, was food for the soul as well as the body.

Perhaps the most striking thing to an outsider, arriving just in time for the celebration, was how this event was

“Father Cary-Elwes, You came with the peace of Christ; A heart filled with love for many.

You tread on a land you never knew To give us all a life of hope; Where Christ was unknown, to make him known.”

As I listened to Camillus and the children practising this song, under the thatch of the house my husband, James, and I were about to move into, I found myself hearing Gerard Manley Hopkins’ words too: ‘for Christ plays in ten thousand places,/ Lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not his/ To the Father through the features of men’s faces’.

The Jesuits in Guyana have a new website, a gateway to our mission in Guyana. It provides a comprehensive resource for anyone wanting to know more about the work of the Jesuits, as well as a selection of Ignatian resources. It is located at www.guyanajesuits.org. The Jesuits work in Georgetown and the East Coast, Berbice, the Interiors, neighbouring provinces and the Caribbean. There are photos and profiles of Jesuits working in the Region, plus information for anyone interested in joining the Society. Current news is available on the front page, partly from the Region's newsletter, Guyjest, and partly from the country's Catholic newspaper, the Catholic Standard, which is also available online.

There are also useful links and contacts. Visit us at www.guyanajesuits.org.

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Peanut butter sandwiches, Vaseline and footballs bring hope to Harare prisoners One of the inmates at Harare Central Prison Credit: www.sokwanele.com

Theresa Wilson, teacher in Religious Studies and French at St George’s College, Harare, has been visiting inmates at Harare Central Prison for the past five months. As she explains here the provisions supplied by pupils, staff and others have improved the quality of life of the prisoners and helped restore their dignity.

At the beginning of 2009, St George’s College in Harare initiated a sandwich project: each week, a different form was targeted to bring sandwiches to school on a particular day. These were taken to Mbare by Father Koni Landsberg SJ for distribution amongst the needy.

Hartmann House was invited to join in this project, which they did.

In February, Father Landsberg took some sandwiches to the hospital and sickbay section of Harare Central Prison. We went there each week, and gave food to the starving inmates.

The conditions were terrible and the prisoners looked like skeletons, with terrible skin diseases.

Their clothes were rags and we could see their bones sticking through.

They were like zombies with very little life

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in them. We regularly saw dead bodies lying in the corridor.

Prisoners with light sentences work as "staff" there and they helped carry and give out the food.

We would walk around with the prison chaplains or officers, and ensure that each and every prisoner got food.

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At the same time, the annual Lenten Appeal Campaign was taking place at the college. The students were occupied with assisting another 23 institutions connected with Service Projects, so I asked teachers to give me bread for sandwiches to continue the project. Enough food was raised to help feed the 100 or so sick prisoners.

At the beginning of the holidays, the Interact Club at St George's gave me US$150 and a few teachers also gave me money to carry on.

Then after Easter, I went to a meeting with the International Red Cross and they asked me to go every day to the prison as a stopgap while they assessed the prisons in Zimbabwe.

JM On our next visit, we were informed that the entire prison had not had mealie-meal, their staple food, for three days. I approached Father Clem Freyer SJ at St George's College for assistance, and he committed himself to sourcing the funds to pay for nine days’ worth of food for Harare Central.

It was now the April holidays, and the College kitchen staff had some spare time on their hands. So every day, with the consent of the Headmaster, they made 2,500 peanut butter sandwiches and boiled 40 trays of eggs. We sometimes alternated with taking oranges, and were able to feed around 1,200 prisoners daily. I would go to the prison accompanied by either Fr Landsberg or Fr Freyer, and we would oversee the distribution personally: it could take up to three hours. The only place we had no access to was Death Row, where there are about 48 inmates.

At first the prisoners just took the food and moved on, chivvied to their cells or back into the courtyard.

They are firmly disciplined. However, after a while, they would interact with us a bit and thank us for what was being done. They had not seen bread or fruit or eggs for years, they told us.

They also showed appreciation in other ways: as I walked through the big courtyard to the hospital section, they would clap and cheer or whistle and wave at me. I was their "Sister". It took time to establish this relationship, but it was worth it.

On the last two days of the school break, we prepared peanut butter sandwiches in the pavilion of the College using 600 loaves of bread. We were assisted by resident teaching staff at St George's and Hartmann House, and some of St George's pupils, since the kitchen staff were on leave. Fr Freyer and I also took Vaseline to the prison, donated from a parent at the school, to help the sick ease their skin conditions.

At the beginning of term, the

International Red Cross stepped in and started providing food for the prisoners. However, the Chaplains at Harare Central asked us if we could carry on assisting them in any way, in particular, the sick.

I appealed to the St George's students at an assembly early in the second term and so far US$1,000 has been raised for this ongoing project. I have visited Harare Central Prison three times, alone, and I do not have the same fear that I had before. With other funds donated from a few generous teachers so far, I have bought bananas, apples and oranges and continued with the sandwiches. On my last visit, I took three footballs, also bought from funds donated to me by teachers at the college.

The prisoners are now looking much healthier and respond well to

a bit of humanity. It is easy to interact with them – as much as one is allowed to anyway. They show appreciation in simple ways, such as washing my car. On my last three visits I saw no dead bodies and the prison is cleaner now that the International Red Cross has been visiting.

This project, thanks to St George's students, was allowed to be born and will carry on throughout the term as long as funds allow. Books from St George's Library will be going to the prison for their library.

It has been good for the students to learn about the prison and to help a very sidelined and despised section of society. It is also helping them to realise that these are still people, human beings, not just to be thought of in association with their crimes.

This is how the news broke in March 2009 – from the blog This is Zimbabwe (www.sokwanele.com) We were advised at the beginning of this week that two prisons in Harare had cut rations to a quarter of what prisoners were meant to receive; two days later, we were told that food had completely run out.

There are between 1,300 and 1,500 inmates in Harare Central Prison and without outside help and donations, they may starve. Many in Zimbabwe’s prisons are already dying like flies as a result of food shortages and disease.

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THANKS BE TO GOD Fr James Fitzsimons SJ (known familiarly as ‘Fitz’) has worked in Southern Africa for the past 55 years. Now 90, this September he will celebrate 58 years as a priest. To mark the Year of Priest, we asked him to look back on his rich and varied ministry, and some of the challenges with which it has presented him.

The Vatican II document on the Life and Ministry of Priests insists that, ‘It is the first task of priests as coworkers of the bishops to preach the Gospel of God to all people’, and the special mark of sons of Ignatius should be availability for whatever the Lord asks of them. I can only offer thanks for the enormous gift of experiencing such a life’s work here in Southern Africa and for the joy and the friends that have lightened my toils everywhere.

The wonder of it is the way a long succession of postings, often seemingly made out of sheer convenience but seen now as providential, came together to let me encounter and enjoy a whole spectrum of apostolic challenges.

My responding, however inadequately, to these thrusts of the Holy Spirit has certainly kept me growing and has, I hope, enriched some other lives as well as my own. I have come to the conclusion that the Society of Jesus has a charism of knowing what the Spirit can do with someone however unlikely. I suppose the Spiritual Exercises, both the making and the directing, have a lot to do with that.

I managed to weather being sent as a scholastic, with lots of Latin but practically no Greek, from bombed

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nights at Sunderland to reading Mods and Greats at Campion Hall. My weekend supplying at Bicester after Ordination, while completing my Theology, was no great challenge either; and nor, for that matter, was the transition to what was then, in 1954, still Rhodesia. I suppose the first challenge came immediately after two terms of teaching at St George’s College (then Salisbury, now Harare) when I was flown in a light plane through a thunder storm to give my maiden eight-day retreat for nuns, and had to prepare my four talks a day as the retreat went along. After that, retreats given during vacations were more or less the normal thing, and the round of jobs involved in boarding school life were much the same as they had been in my year at Beaumont, plus mosquito nets and compulsory hat-wearing when umpiring cricket under a fierce sun.

Promotion in 1962 to teaching black Africans at St Ignatius, Chishawasha, in its early years meant, of course, less physical comfort but more satisfaction in coming to grips with the ‘real’ Africa. The challenge lay really in my taking the original class of students year by year as far as Alevels, not only for Latin and Religion but also for English where, literaturewise, I could barely keep ahead of them. But they got a good grounding in Gaudium et Spes, The Church in the Modern World.

The next big challenge came while I was directing my first of many 30-day Exercises. I was asked to join Jack Gillick in giving the six-week courses of Fons Vitae to nuns and priests by delivering a daily session on the Theology of the Religious Life. I based my construction on the foundation of Perfectae Caritatis of Vatican II and, helped by a lot of other reading, I did my little bit, I hope, towards aggiornamento. Moreover, during these courses, we made the bold switch from ‘preached’ retreats to ‘directed’ which have proved more effective. All this stood me in good

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stead when I went on to organize, and take part in, four-week ‘Faith and Life’ courses, mainly for priests, and found myself, among other surprising moments, lecturing to the Apostolic Delegate, Archbishop (now Cardinal) Cassidy, and others, on the topic of Authority under the New Covenant.

This time of travelling here and there was followed by six years at Holy Trinity Parish, Braamfontein, during which I directed the diocesan theology course for future deacons and others.

Then came my 18 years as chaplain for Polish Sisters, Carmelite Nuns and lastly Dominican Sisters, with half of that time spent as Episcopal Vicar for Religious with diocesan responsibilities (including two parish Confirmations!). I’ve done a variety of odd jobs for our Regional Superior, have undertaken some serious writing, verse as well as prose, and for three years I produced a South African Messenger of the Sacred Heart. So, as I start my 91st year back in community at Murray House, after all the variety that the good Lord has provided, I hope that I can compensate for my relative immobility not only with my prayer but also with occasional calls on my experiences such as these.

Fr James Fitzsimons SJ

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Jesuit projects help Sri Lankans rebuild lives after civil war

Fr Dushan Croos SJ is a British Jesuit from a Sri Lankan family; Elil Rajan SJ is a Sri Lankan Jesuit studying in London.

Here they consider the priorities for the Jesuits working in Sri Lanka, as its people struggle to recover from a quarter of a century of conflict.

18 May 2009 was the day the war between the Sri Lankan army and the Tamil Tigers ended, with the army taking complete control of the coastal strip of the Nanthi Kadal lagoon. It was also on that day, just as the last refugees were leaving the war zone, that 41-year-old Father Mariampillai T. Sarathjeevan died of a heart attack.

Though not a Jesuit himself, he was coordinator of the Jesuit Rehabilitation Service for the Diocese of Jaffna, and, along with six other priests, had not left the side of those prevented from leaving the coastal area since the beginning of military operations in Vanni. Having stayed with them throughout the bombardment, Fr Sarathjeevan collapsed and died on the side of the road, exhausted by months of hardship and deprivation under constant shelling.

The Jesuits first went to Sri Lanka shortly after St Francis Xavier’s missionary expeditions in the 16th Century. Many Sri Lankans became Catholics, and the Jesuits opened parishes, schools and colleges, especially for Tamil migrants from India, who worked as labourers in the tea and coffee plantations. After

independence, the previous relationship between the two ethnicities of Sri Lanka, Tamils (of Sri Lankan origin) and Sinhalese, became more and more divided. This led to the formation of the Tamil Tigers (LTTE) and in the 1980’s the escalation to a civil war between the Sri Lankan Government and the Tamil Tigers.

Since the end of fighting in Sri Lanka, more than 260,000 displaced persons remain in camps in the northern part of this island country.

Tens of thousands are in need of medical attention, due to the effects of starvation, exposure, illness and injury sustained during the fighting.

Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) in Sri Lanka reports an urgent need for temporary shelter, food, clean water and basic medical supplies in Vavuniya, Mannar, Jaffna and other locations. Since January 2009, JRS has been providing and distributing cooked food, dry rations, and nonfood items including clothing; and attending to the sick, pregnant women and new mothers, and the elderly. JRS is also assisting with education and school supplies.

But JRS is not only working to meet the immediate needs of the displaced

population; it is also committed to assisting them in the longer term.

There are roughly 100 Jesuits in Sri Lanka (both Tamil and Sinhalese), giving the exercises, working in parishes, providing adult education in villages or engaging in studies themselves. They are also helping the displaced communities return to their villages. As in many conflicts, children suffer even more than adults, so in the eastern coastal town of Batticaloa, three Jesuit projects focus on rebuilding their lives. At the Shante Bhavan orphanage, some 300 children orphaned by the war, many of whom saw the violent death of their parents, are being cared for.

They are from all the ethnic and religious groups in Sri Lanka. Then there is the Butterfly Peace Garden, which provides psychological support to children traumatized by war. Many children from the Tamil community were forcibly recruited as child soldiers by the LTTE, even in the later stages of the war. These children now receive psychological counselling from the Lilies of the Field Programme. And a fourth programme provides counselling and vocational training to women widowed by the war.

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Catholics in Kyrgyzstan – a forgotten people?

JM’s Hania Lubienska recently visited Kyrgyzstan where she met up with British volunteer, Martin McKinney, and some of the Jesuits of the country.

The people of Kyrgyzstan have tremendous challenges; but they are being helped to rediscover their faith and deal with their many social problems.

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Bordering China, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan has the breathtakingly beautiful Tien Shan mountain range running across the country. A predominantly Muslim nation it contains many ethnic groups including Kyrgyzs, Uzbeks, Russians, Uyghurs, and Eastern Europeans. Although mostly peaceful, tensions do break out between the ethnic groups. Religious laws are also getting stricter, making life difficult for the Catholic priests. Most of them are only granted visas for three months, and some of them are currently living precariously without visas.

I arrived in the early hours of the morning at Bishkek airport, where I was greeted with broad smiles by Martin, our JM volunteer, and Brother Damian, and driven to the Jesuit residence, situated in a communist-style drab residential block of flats.

A short time later, we drove to the Catholic “Cathedral” situated in some back streets in the suburbs of Bishkek.

Actually, it is just a small chapel. The Church in Kyrgyzstan has suffered from serious underfunding, so consequently does not have a visible presence in the country. Apart from a couple of chapels, most Catholics have to meet in each other’s small homes for Mass.

Consequently the majority of the Kyrgyz population view the Catholic church as a sect, or have never heard of it.

The identity and faith of Catholics have been seriously attacked over the last 60 years during the Communist rule. The

Catholic population mainly consists of ancestors of people who were forcibly exiled there by Stalin. They were not allowed to practise their faith openly, so Catholicism was forced underground, without the support of priests. Many of them are keen to resurrect their faith, but actually have little understanding of it and need to be catechised.

Although there were some existing Catholic churches in Kyrgyzstan, they were all abandoned. Whilst in Dzalalabad, I came across a ruined Catholic church which is now, sadly, a kick-boxing stadium.

The priests are seriously overworked, trying to meet all of the needs of the people and establishing a clear Catholic presence. A parish managed by one priest consists of around 30 outlying villages to which he has to minister: he has about 300 parishioners. Although there is one small chapel with room for 30 parishioners inside plus 15 people in the hallway, all of the other Masses take place in private houses. Because the parish is so disparate and has no central chapel for congregating, the priest has to drive 50,000 km each year, down potholed roads, to fulfil his duties as parish priest. Because of the logistics of running this parish, he has to spread out the Sunday Mass over several days.

There are many social problems experienced by the parishioners, and life is very hard for them. Single parent families, alcoholism, traumatised ex-soldiers who fought in Afghanistan are but some of the problems a priest has to deal with.

But there is also a sign of great hope.

Summer camps run by the Jesuits for Catholic young people and interfaith camps for Muslims are inspiring a thirst for faith in the youth. Outreach work in prisons, work in orphanages and homes for people with disabilities are witnessing to Catholic social justice.

The outreach work, however, is difficult because conditions are extremely basic. Most places do not have WC’s or washrooms. The

homes for people with disabilities do not have sufficient resources and frequently only one wheelchair is available, meaning that patients have to drag their bodies along the floor to get around.

Plans are afoot to build a Spirituality Centre for retreats and outreach work, as well as a couple of new chapels, provided sufficient funds are raised. The Spirituality Centre will provide a much-needed base for the Youth Summer Camps, as well as holidays for the disabled and a place for retreats and for the Catholic Community to gather. The Youth Camps provide a wonderful combination of spiritual and outdoor

activities, an experience that will influence them for the rest of their lives.

During my visit I met people from a number of different cultures.

I experienced exceptional hospitality and witnessed some tremendous works being done by the Jesuits.

One of the parishes in particular asked for your support in prayer.

Please pray for the priests, brothers and Catholics in Kyrgyzstan.

If you would like to find out more about Catholics in Kyrgyzstan, please visit the website www.catholic-kyrgyzstan.org

Photos: Hania Lubienska

Blog....Blog...Blog It is tragic and never a pleasure to watch alcoholics fall off the wagon, nor is it edifying to witness church goers arguing as to who should or should not be allowed to attend mass. It is also tragic when an otherwise normal child is institutionalized alongside the severely mentally and physically disabled for the sole reason of bed-wetting. One is left feeling chastised when one’s work is met with the remark “What, you don’t have poor and disabled in your own country?” Having long since given up the pretence of serving social justice, one is left with a recourse only to prayer. ‘Pray constantly’, exhorted St Paul.

The real tragedy here is that we need to be reminded. A slap in the face can work wonders.

From the blog of Martin McKinney, JM volunteer in Dzalalabad Parish of Blessed Mother Teresa from Calcutta, teacher of English language.

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In the Footsteps of

Ignatius St Beuno's Spirituality Centre in North Wales holds a one-month course in Ignatian Spirituality at the end of the year, and the full Spiritual Exercises retreat of 30 days in October. In the three weeks between the two, the centre’s Director, Fr David Birchall SJ, led 20 pilgrims through some of the places associated with the life of St Ignatius in Spain and Italy.

November in Spain and Italy doesn't guarantee hot summer sunshine. Our first day in Ignatius' Basque country proved this only too well. We decided to walk the mile or so into the little town of Azpeitia to see the church where Ignatius was baptised and the hospital where he worked after his conversion.

We strolled along a lovely footpath, or it would have been lovely had it not been lashing it with rain, and the footpath, unlike its British counterpart, had nowhere for the water to go. So we sploshed along through two inches of water. Still, we told ourselves, after all

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the hardship Ignatius suffered when he was a pilgrim, what were a few damp feet?

We celebrated Mass in the chapel of the Conversion. This is the room where Ignatius recovered after having his leg broken at Pamplona and where he decided to devote his life to Christ.

Celebrating Mass in this room, in the Cave at Manresa where Ignatius began working on the Spiritual Exercises, and in his rooms in Rome were all moving experiences for our little band of pilgrims.

Our tour around the 'Holy House' of Loyola, the Moorish style brick manor house build on the foundation of an old castle, brought home much of the influences on the young Ignatius. There were model ships of his period and drawings on the wall which could have been done by Ignatius or one of his brothers. In fact one of his brothers went with Christopher Columbus on one of his later voyages. Ignatius, or Iñigo as he was known as a boy, was born in 1491, the year before the 'New World' was discovered, the same year when the notorious Spaniard, Rodrigo Borgia came to power as Pope Alexander VI; and also the year the

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Catholic monarchs finally conquered Granada, the last stronghold of the Moors in the south of Spain. The beautiful painting of the Annunciation to the Virgin which was given to Magdalena, wife of Iñigo's brother, Martin, by Queen Isabella, still adorns the Chapel in the Manor house when Iñigo must have frequently prayed.

It is no surprise therefore, that Ignatius' Spiritual Exercises contain imagery of noble kings and faithful subjects living the ideals of chivalry.

The young Iñigo must have been surrounded by the excitement of a flourishing Catholic Spain, tinged with the excesses that wealth and empire can bring.

A day trip to the almost fairy-tale castle of Javier, birthplace of St Francis of Xavier, reminded us of the companions that Iñigo got together in Paris to unite with him in taking Christ's message to the world.

I remember as a Jesuit novice on a walking pilgrimage, it took nearly three weeks to get from Pamplona to Manresa; I don’t know how long it took Ignatius to do the trip on a donkey, but in luxury coach it takes six hours.

Manresa itself grew as a small

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industrial town in the 19th and 20th centuries, but it still has something of the backwoods charm Ignatius might have known. In the distance the jagged mountains of Montserrat look for all the world like the cartoon hills of a Hollywood movie. The Cardoner River, by which Ignatius sat and prayed, still runs by noisily. High on the river bank is the main church of the town, the Seo, cathedral-like in size.

On our second day in Manresa we took the pilgrims on the train up to the Abbey at Montserrat. The rack and pinion mountain railway that we used is a far superior way of climbing up to the Abbey than the winding mountain road.

Montserrat was a peaceful interlude.

We had time to visit the Black Madonna, high up in the Abbey Church; we attended the Benedictine monks' conventual Mass, followed by a coffee in the piazza; and then back to the basilica for the famous boys’ choir singing their Salve and Virolai. A free afternoon gave space for some of the group to go in the cable-car to the top of the mountains whilst others just took in the mountain air and strolled around the gardens.

Sadly, the chapel where Ignatius made his all-night vigil was demolished a few years after his death to make way for a new and bigger church. We found out that Ignatius probably got his idea for 'spiritual exercises' from the monks of Montserrat. An abbot had written a

set of spiritual exercises not too long before Ignatius visited the abbey, and he may well have managed to get hold of a copy.

In Rome, we heard from Fr Tom McCoog SJ, the archivist of the British Province who lives part of the year in the Eternal City. He told us about Ignatius, the first General of the Society of Jesus and the growth of the Jesuits.

We all sat spellbound for these two talks which were laced with equal parts of erudition and humour.

Our Welsh flag with its red dragon, being vigorously waved on the front row of the Wednesday papal audience, brought many questions from other pilgrims, some of whom we suspect imagined the Holy Father's audience had been infiltrated by devil worshippers. The atmosphere of the audience on a bright but cool November morning filled both our Catholic and Anglican pilgrims with excitement and enthusiasm.

Our happy band of pilgrims visited the Vatican Museum and the excavations to St Peter’s tomb under St Peter’s Basilica, and were met by the current Jesuit General on the roof of the Jesuit Curia for a photo and a few kind words.

All in all, a very interesting trip was had by all. At the end of it, we all had a little more knowledge of Ignatius and the influences on his spirituality, as well as having a very enjoyable time in some beautiful and interesting places.

An Ignatian Retreat in Daily Life David Townsend SJ reviews a new accompaniment to a 30-day retreat by former British Provincial, Michael Campbell-Johnston SJ, which is available from JM at £5 per copy Michael penned this 30-day retreat in daily life from the parish of St Francis of Assisi on Barbados, where he is pastor. A member of the British Jesuit Province, Michael has spent a great deal of his life in Central and South America, particularly Guyana and El Salvador.

He originally composed this book for MP3 recording and use on portable media players.

Indeed the book is also available on-line at www.spirexnet.co.uk.

Not a book to be casually read, but a set of exercises to be made, pondered, meditated upon, and contemplated, there are three pages or less devoted to each of the 30 days.

As you would expect from Michael (and his mentor, St Ignatius Loyola), this retreat aims to lead a person to a deeper discovery of the Divine Presence and Action in the nitty-gritty of ordinary daily life, and to hearing the personal

Divine Call to the one making the retreat. This is a call to constant conversion: a turning away from a self-centred life to a life of commitment to Our Lord Jesus Christ.

A commitment both to his way (his values, attitudes and relationships), and more importantly to a loving commitment to his person.

Besides being framed by the principal exercises of the St Ignatius’ classic, Michael manages to pack into small compass a surprising array of contemporary authors and relevant scripture quotations: Popes Paul VI, John-Paul II, Benedict XVI; the Roman Missal; the Catechism of the Catholic Church; the

Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church; the Stern Report on Climate Change; the UN Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change; Archbishop Romero; Mahatma Ghandi; Pedro Arrupe; Bernard Lonergan; Michael Ivens; amongst others.

In recommending this Ignatian Retreat to readers of Jesuits and Friends let me end with Michael’s words from Day 29: ‘We began this retreat by considering that we were created by love in order to love, that our fundamental purpose or aim in life is to move from the selfish love with which we are born to a totally unselfish love that is our only way of sharing in the existence of God who is love.’

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Bits ‘n’

Pieces

Five deacons ordained at Farm Street

Five Jesuits were ordained to the diaconate in London on 2 May. They came from Malta and Hungary, the United States of America, Guyana and India. The presiding bishop was Westminster Auxiliary Bishop George Stack.

The Provincials from Hungary and Malta and the Formation Director from New England Province concelebrated at the Mass at Farm Street Church, alongside the British Provincial, Fr Michael Holman SJ, and the Regional Superior of Guyana, Fr Dermot Preston SJ. The five new deacons are all currently studying for their Bachelor of Divinity at Heythrop College in London. Marlon Innis comes from Guyana where his grandmother served as a Parish Lay Assistant in the village of Hosororo and is well known to many Jesuits. Ronald Fernandes, from Karnataka Province (India) served his Regency in Guyana, working principally at the Human Development Centre in Berbice.

Josef Briffa from Malta will continue his studies at the Pontificio Istituto Biblico in Rome this autumn.

Also ordained was Attila András from the Hungarian Province who spent two years in Taiwan where he says he discovered ‘the Chinese face of God’. And finally, Charles Gallagher (New England) who will move to Geneva in the autumn to continue his research in diplomatic history.

Deacons Marlon Innis, Attila András, Charles Gallagher, Josef Briffa and Ronald Fernandes pose with Bishop Stack after their ordinations at Farm Street Church.

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The Witness and the Joys of Community Life The British Jesuits held their biennial Province Meeting in April. Over 130 delegates - Jesuits and Lay Associates – considered the theme The Apostolic Witness of Community at the Hayes Conference Centre, Swanwick. The meeting included a briefing from JM Director, Fr Tim Curtis SJ, and updates on the South Africa and Guyana Regions, as well as news from Zimbabwe.

On the second day of the meeting, the Fr Nick King SJ addresses Rt Rev Peter Selby, retired Anglican the Province Meeting Bishop of Worcester, spoke on the history of the current economic crisis and some faith perspectives on it.

And Fr Nick King looked at the New Testament understanding of the term koinonia, usually translated as ‘fellowship’ or ‘communion’, particularly in descriptions of the Apostolic Church community. The final day tackled the issue of Community and Reconciliation.

“The province meeting was a wonderful opportunity for me as a novice to meet and interact with the Jesuits in the province – many familiar, but some for the first time,” says Kensy Joseph, who is based at the novitiate in Birmingham. “We shared many honest, open and heartfelt discussions on community, allowing me a glimpse into the joys and challenges of apostolic life in common. The renewal of vows by the body of the Society present was the most moving experience of the meeting for me and my conovices as I am sure it was for many veteran Jesuits.”

Father Lombardi on the challenges of the new media Father Federico Lombardi SJ - the Director of Vatican Radio, the Vatican Press Office and the Vatican Television Centre - delivered the 2009 World Communications Day lecture in London in May. Speaking at Allen Hall Seminary in Chelsea, Fr Lombardi spoke of the challenges and opportunities that the new media landscape presents the Church with especially the Vatican.

Fr Lombardi traced the development of the Vatican's various media resources and reflected on the new era of instant Father Lombardi delivers the communication and inter-active media. He World Communications Day lecture also analysed the way the media had covered controversies like the Pope's Regensburg lecture and the Bishop Williamson and the Holocaust debate. And he considered something positive had emerged from the widespread reporting of what the Pope said about the use of condoms to stem the spread of HIV/Aids in Africa.

'Once the first wave of criticism had passed ... people were able to do some real hard thinking - and they did. The subsequent reflections were serious, penetrating and well-argued,' he said. 'It took a while for word of them to make its way through the communications channels and reach the public, but eventually the public did hear about and really benefit from these contributions to the discussion.'

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Archbishop Returns to Chishawasha The remains of a Jesuit archbishop, who died in Rome during the Second Vatican Council, have been re-interred in Zimbabwe. In October 1962, Archbishop Aston Chichester collapsed on the steps of St Peter’s Basilica. He was buried in the Society of Jesus’ vault at Rome’s main cemetery, the Campo Verana.

Aston Chichester was born in 1879 and was educated by the Jesuits at Mount St Mary’s College near Sheffield. He entered the Society of Jesus in 1897, and taught at Wimbledon and Beaumont Colleges. In 1929, he was appointed Prefect Apostolic (and later, Bishop) of Salisbury (now Harare). ‘Chick’ founded the seminary at Chishawasha, and was responsible for setting up the first indigenous women’s congregation in Zimbabwe, the Little Children of Our Blessed Lady, as well as for encouraging numerous missions,

schools and hospitals in the country.

Shortly before his retirement in 1956, he was made the first Archbishop of Salisbury.

In March of this year, Archbishop Chichester’s remains were returned to Chishawasha, where the Provincials of Zimbabwe, Germany and Britain concelebrated Mass with the Archbishop of Harare, the Most Reverend Robert Ndlovu.

One of the Zimbabwean Jesuits present was Fr David Harold-Barry SJ, the Director of Silveira House, who said afterwards: “I was touched and moved by the actual arrival of the coffin at Chichester Convent in Chishawasha. Some of the old sisters who knew Chichester and who revered him as the founder of their congregation or religious family, spoke in deeply affectionate terms directly to him as the coffin lay in their small chapel.”

Jesuit Schools in Malta Josef Mario Briffa reviews a new series of books by Anton Azzopardi SJ The Jesuits have been influential in the religious, social and educational fields in Malta since the foundation of the Collegium Melitense, the precursor of today’s University of Malta, in 1592. In the four volumes of Jesuit Schools in Malta, Fr Anton Azzopardi SJ traces their influence from the late 16th century to the present day. The first volume (1592-1907) traces the history of the Collegium up to the explusion of the Jesuits from Malta in 1768. It then goes on to narrate how various Colleges were set up, with varying degrees of success, following the Restoration: the Gozo Seminary, founded by the Sicilian Province, and St Paul’s College (1845-1858), and St Ignatius College (1877-1907), works of the then English Province.

Vols. II-IV provide a detailed chronicle of the history of St Aloysius’ College, which started as a boarding school for boys in 1907, following the closure of St Ignatius’ College, as the English Jesuits shifted their resources to open the college in Leeds. Vol. II (1907-1934) describes the Jesuit method of education, including sports, theatre, and the first beginning of the Scout Group in 1916; while Vol. III (1934-1965) includes the struggle with the British Government to keep the College, as Lord Strickland – leader of the Constitutional Party in Malta – schemed to take over the College, as Italy declared war in 1940. The final volume, which covers the period 1965 to 2007, reflects on major events the College had to go through, including a detailed account of the incidents in the 1980s as the Socialist Government in Malta tried, unsuccessfully, to suffocate Catholic Private Schools.

Fr Azzopardi, who was a teacher and prefect, and Rector at St Aloysius’ (1961-5, 1978-1985), gives a pleasant reading account of events, against the social and political background of the country. The books – suitably illustrated, and with comprehensive indices – should be of interest both to former pupils of our Colleges, and to those interested in the history of education.

Anton Azzopardi SJ, Jesuit Schools in Malta, Vol I-IV are available at £38 (incl p and p) from George Manara, 280 Walpole Road, London SW20 8RG Tel: 020 8946 6097 email: georgemanara@hotmail.com

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Father Quinn and the ‘Catechism in Song’ Jesuit hymn-writer, Fr James Quinn, is a native of Glasgow and alumnus of St Aloysius’ College.

Earlier this year, he celebrated his 90th birthday and ‘Different Voices’, the quarterly magazine about music and worship in the Scottish Churches, published a feature on him. The following is adapted from his interview with the editor of ‘Different Voices’, Douglas Galbraith, and is republished with his permission.

The fact that there are eight examples of works by Fr James Quinn SJ in the Scottish hymn collection Church Hymnary: Fourth Edition is testimony to the fact that his hymns sit as easily in the Protestant as in the Roman Catholic tradition and are valued by both. He has written over 300 hymns, published originally in New Hymns for All Seasons (1969) and Praise for all Seasons (1994), both published

by Geoffrey Chapman. They are doctrinal, scriptural, eucharistic and draw on ancient texts as well as the writings of the saints.

Fr Quinn’s first hymns were written as a challenge, he says. “I was helping in an Edinburgh parish at the time of the Second Vatican Council, when it was made possible for the Mass to be said in English. I said to

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the parish priest that we ought to look into having hymns also in the vernacular. He threw the challenge back to me and said, ‘You do it!’ I had no idea what to do but a headmaster we knew, Dr Victor Gaffney, a musician, showed me a book of tunes and made some suggestions. I didn’t think I could do it.”

For Fr Quinn, hymns are more than simply a combination of words and music; “They form a catechism in song”, he says. “They are our source book for teaching and for sermons.

It’s got to be inspiring, partly from the words, partly from the tune.

Writing hymns is part of my vocation as a preacher. Hymns fundamentally declare the Christian faith.”

Fr Quinn has always been interested in words and in poetry, and claims he was especially influenced by an 18th century devotional writer from Waterford, the place the devotion of the Sacred Heart first came to Ireland. “My own ancestry can be traced back to the 17th century in Northern Ireland,” he says. “That is really where I spiritually belong. It comes out in ‘Christ be beside me’, my version of St Patrick’s Breastplate.”

In writing hymns, Fr Quinn says his primary aim is liturgical, for different points in the Eucharist. And their style and accessibility are also important. “The language must be clear, but not banal, and above all simple. I do not write ‘modern’

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hymns in the sense that they can only use a vocabulary that is current.

If people don’t understand, they have to find out, learn what the terms mean. Hymns form a rich Scriptural quarry. They are to convey the words of Christ memorably.”

The words in many of Fr Quinn’s hymns do not rhyme, but he believes that can be an advantage. “The absence of rhyme, when you are setting out to capture words of Scripture, makes for greater fidelity to the text – provided that there are compensating cadences.”

With some 300 hymns by Father James Quinn published, it is likely that all of us, at one time or another, will have sung one or two!

The Catholic Worker: Faith in the First World

The Catholic Worker Farm is supported by the Jesuit Fund for Social Justice and others who feel that their work and lifestyle make a difference to the lives of the poor. Its Director, Scott Albrecht looks at the origins of this initiative and why it is so important still, after 76 years.

The Catholic Worker began because of the pressing social needs of the day: it was May Day 1933, during the American Great Depression, when Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin decided to explode the “dynamite” of Catholic Social Teaching.

They published a newspaper and started Houses of Hospitality for the destitute. The praxis was and still is: to live in solidarity with the poor, to ask why the poor are poor and to act on their behalf.

The foundation of the Catholic Worker is prayer; as Dorothy once said: “If people who come miss that, they will miss the whole point”.

From this we do what is called “love in action”. We feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked and shelter the homeless. (Matt. 25) We see these not as counsels, but rather precepts, for we are to “do unto others as we would have them do unto us”.

Here at the Catholic Worker Farm, 17 miles outside London, we live in voluntary poverty with seven

Georgine, one of the Catholic Worker Farm residents

destitute women. Most are asylum seekers; some have been bonded or trafficked; all have been homeless on the streets, with no entitlement to work or benefits. There are an estimated 287,500 such people in the UK and only a handful of beds.

Women often come here having lived through unimaginable horror. We provide free accommodation, accompaniment and advocacy. We facilitate English lessons, GPs, counselling and dental work. Most of all we do our best to love them.

In the last two years we have had 35 women live with us.

I well remember one who had been captured by a group of young men while working at a kiosk in South Africa. Zoe (not her real name) was forced to be tattooed, have her teeth removed for oral sex and was trafficked for two years. She was told that if she left, her parents would be killed. It broke our hearts to hear her story, but we knew the Gospel taught

us that salvation is for the whole person, not only spiritual or partial.

We scoured the internet, spending weeks trying to find someone who could offer free permanent dental implants. The cost was £11,000, but we found a dentist from the hit TV series Extreme Makeover who did it for cost. When Zoe had finished her sixth treatment, she could look at herself in the mirror and smile. She was beautiful.

If you would like to support the work of the Catholic Worker Farm, contact Scott Albrecht on 07983 477819 or visit www.thecatholicworkerfarm.org

For more information about the Jesuit Fund for Social Justice visit www.jesuitfsj.org

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SACRED HEART CELEBRATES 150 YEARS OF SERVICE TO THE PEOPLE OF EDINBURGH FR BERNARD WALKER SJ t was in 1859 that Bishop James Gillis invited the Jesuits to come to the Diocese of Edinburgh to serve the large number of Irish and Italian immigrants who had come to the area around the Grassmarket in the Old Town, in the looming shadow of the castle. They celebrated the first Mass in the parish on the Feast of St Ignatius in that year, in a temporary chapel overlooking the graveyard of Greyfriars Kirk, scene of the wellknown story of Greyfriars Bobby, the wee dog who refused to abandon his master’s grave. At the same time the foundation stone of the present church in Lauriston Street was laid, and in less than a year it had been built according to the design of Father Richard Vaughan SJ. It was in fact designed with a view to possible conversion as a hall, but that idea was abandoned, and very soon the addition of the huge and striking Stations of the Cross began its development into the fine interior we see today.

Many well-known Jesuits have served here over the 150 years of the

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life of the parish, and the church still provides a much appreciated service to the people of the city and indeed of the wider area. At a time of declining numbers of clergy we still provide three Masses every day of the week, and our regular confession times, too, are much valued. The church is open every weekday from early in the morning until late in the evening.

The Jesuit work in the city has been greatly enhanced by the recent development of the Lauriston Jesuit Centre, based in the Parish Hall which is undergoing a major refurbishment.

The Centre provides series of talks, lectures and discussions on theological and spiritual topics, with a special emphasis on the themes of justice and peace.

Many internationally well known names have attracted large audiences from all over central Scotland, among them Senator Douglas Roche on nuclear weapons; Fr Jim Keenan SJ on HIV/Aids; Mary Colwell on ecology; Monsignor Ricardo Urioste on Archbishop Romero; Fr John Pawlikoski OSM on the Holocaust and

Fr Gerry Hughes SJ on spirituality Sacred Heart parish and the Lauriston Centre look forward with confidence to many more years of work in this great city.

More information on the parish can be found on www.rc.net/standed/sacredheart For more on the Lauriston Centre, including highlights of past events, see www.lauriston.org.uk

2009 MARATHON REPORT The weather in London turned out to be fine on the day of the 2009 Flora London Marathon, although there may have been a little too much sun for some of the runners (and spectators).

Overall all the runners in the JM Team who started the race enjoyed taking part and completed it in varying times. Although some of the times were exceptionally fast, the team was taking part with the focus on raising ÂŁ60,000 for JM and Jesuit Refugee Service projects. That target has already been broken, and we will have a complete breakdown of how the funds have been used in the Christmas issue.

Congratulations to all the runners who took part for JM, JRS and other Jesuit charities.

And, thanks to the great publicity work of the teams over the years, almost all the places for 2010 have already been taken up, so if you would like a place on the JM team, be quick and contact us.

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Members of the JM team at Maize Hill

On hearing the Word of the Lord Apostleship of Prayer for July, August and September Michael Beattie SJ An extremely important ingredient in our Sunday worship when we assist at Mass is to hear the words of the Lord. The three crosses we make on our foreheads, our lips and our hearts at the start of the Gospel reading are outward signs of our inner conviction that we “believe” the words of the Lord, that we try to “speak” gracious words of the Lord and that we “love” the message that the Lord is communicating to us.

Pope Benedict’s prayer intention for September is precisely along these lines: “that people may really hear the Word of God and take it to heart”.

God speaking to us in the Sacred Scriptures illuminates the papal intention for August. “The tragic plight of refugees and how to help them” would be a prayer close to the hearts of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph. You have only to open your Bible at the beginning of the Gospels of St Luke and St

Matthew to see Mary and Joseph struggling, away from home, en route to unfriendly Bethlehem where there was “no room for them at the inn”.

The birth of Jesus, as a result, took place in the poorest of circumstances. They were, in every sense of the term, “refugees” as they fled to Egypt to escape the clutches of a wicked King Herod.

Again, if we read and listen carefully to the fourth chapter of the Gospel according to St John we find Jesus breaking down barriers in what would have been regarded as an insoluble problem at that time.

Jesus, a Jew, was engaged in conversation with a Samaritan woman. Jews and Samaritans hated each other and there was no communication. The papal intention for July is for the current situation in the Middle East and the role of Christians who live there. The Holy Father asks us, with all Christian

people in the Middle East and indeed with all men and women of goodwill to pray that the key will be found to unlock the Israeli-Palestinian problem and that these people may be able to live side by side in peace and harmony.

Do we really hear the word of God or does it, so often, go in one ear and out through the other? Often, anxiously, we talk to Almighty God about our problems and fears, our desires and our difficulties. Just stop for a moment! Could we not try to listen, for a change, to what God may be saying to us? Our Apostolate of Prayer for the months of July, August and September will be pleasing to the Lord if we try, first of all, to listen. We must make every effort to believe, to speak and to love the word of God. Remember how Jesus described his Blessed Mother: “Happy are those who hear the word of God and keep it!”

The Pope’s prayer intentions JULY For Christians who live in the Middle East.

That Christian Witness may build a wor ld of harmony and love.

AUGUST peace in the Praying in Bethlehem for harmony and r intention Praye of ip tlesh Apos s July’ – East le Midd

That people may understand the tragic plight of refugees and work to solve their problems.

For Christians who suffer persecution and discrimination.

SEPTEMBER That all may hear the word of God and take it to heart.

For Christians in Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar.

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DEATHS & OBITUARIES

Fr William Crooks SJ

Fr Gerald McCabe SJ

William (Bill) Crooks first considered the religious life in 1944, at the age of 15, when a pupil at St Francis Xavier’s College in his home city of Liverpool.

By 16, he had decided he wished to be a Jesuit. And at the age of 19, in September 1948, he was accepted into the Society of Jesus at Roehampton.

His studies in the 1950s included Classics at Campion Hall, Oxford, as well as his Teaching Certificate at Roehampton – in addition to his degrees in philosophy and theology from Heythrop College in Oxfordshire and Milltown Park in Dublin. As a scholastic, he taught at Wimbledon College, St Francis Xavier’s College and, for six years from 1965, at St Ignatius’ College – both in Stamford Hill and after its relocation to Enfield.

Bill moved from teaching to parish work in 1971, first at St Mary on the Quay in Bristol, and then at St Ignatius Church, Stamford Hill, where he was parish priest and Superior in the mid-1970s.

In 1977, he was assigned to the Craighead Retreat House in Blantyre, Scotland, where – with the exception of a brief period in Birmingham as Assistant to the Novice Master – he guided people in the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius Loyola until 1991.

He continued in this work when he was Superior at Sacred Heart Church in Blackpool (1991 – 93) and at Loyola Hall on Mersyside.

The latter 90s were also spent in Blackpool, as well as convalescence in Preston and Lytham St Anne’s after heart surgery. On moving to Sacred Heart Church in Edinburgh in 2004, Bill continued to direct the Spiritual Exercises and serve as Spiritual Director. He was one of the first members of the new Corpus Christi Jesuit Community at Boscombe in Dorset when it was set up in 2007. He died at the Royal Bournemouth Hospital on 10 March 2009.

Father Gerald McCabe, ‘Gerry’ to his friends, was born in Leith, Scotland, on 26 November 1932 and joined the Society on 7 September 1949. He was ordained at Heythrop, Oxfordshire, on 31 July 1962.

Gerry went to what was then Rhodesia as a scholastic in 1956, and returned there after his ordination. He worked in Musami between 1964 and 1973, part of the time as Superior, before going to Makumbi (1974-9). He was Superior in Rhodesville from 1979-80, then Musami, and finally at St Albert’s (1981-82) before being appointed Socius to the Provincial from 1983 to1988.

After six years in this post, Gerry became Administrator of the cathedral, where he stayed until 1996. This was followed by two years at Braeside. But when his health started causing problems, he moved to Richartz House to help with administration; he also assisted the Socius in Garnet House. He was made Superior at Canisius House, before being reappointed Socius in 2004.

There he remained until 2008 when he handed over the baton of Socius to Fr Joe Arimoso and came to retire to Richartz once more.

Fr Gerry McCabe died unexpectedly but peacefully on 29 May 2009 at the Socius office when he had worked for so many years.

Please pray for those who have died recently.

May they rest in peace.

Sr Phyllis Corrigan

Miss Kathleen Lally

Mrs Bernadette Robinson

Sr Elizabeth Ann Pink OSU

Dr Oonagh Keefe

– mother of Fr Dominic Robinson SJ

Sr Joan Lockwood

Mrs Georgina Cheeks

Mrs Mary C Quill

Sr Eileen Bray

Mr Thomas Green

Sr Angela Denore

– sister of the late Fr William Slattery SJ

Fr Michael Davenport

Sr Helen Tendai Maminimini Mrs M Brown Miss Margaret Kelly Mrs Grace Carey

Mrs Lily Elizabeth Johnston Mrs Sue Broscombe

Mrs Chiwoniso Agnes Banda

– grandmother of Gilbert Banda SJ Mr Nelson Tirkey

– mother-in-law of Sarah Broscombe

- brother of Fr Anil Tirkey SJ

Mr Wayne Rogan

Fr William Crooks SJ

Miss S M Phillips

– brother-in-law of Fr James Henderson SJ

Fr Jack Donovan SJ

Sister Yvonne Desrousseaux FCJ

Mr Stephan Rogers

Fr Michael Davenport SJ

Mrs W Winders

– brother of Fr Ted Rogers SJ

Fr Gerald McCabe SJ

Mr A E Deus Mr John Walker

22

Dr Hugh Taggart

Jesuits & Friends Summer 2009 www.jesuitsandfriends.org.uk

Why not send a donation to support us?

How Can I The JESUIT DEVELOPMENT FUND helps to establish and maintain churches, schools, retreat centres and apostolic works of all kinds at home and overseas.

At present the trustees are assisting the development of our work in South Africa, and providing nursing care and attention for the elderly Jesuits of the Province.

Help?

The JESUIT SEMINARY ASSOCIATION helps to defray the expensive cost of training Jesuit priests and brothers.

A BEQUEST We would be delighted if you remember JM or the appeals mentioned here in your Will.

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All Benefactors are remembered in the Masses and prayers of every Jesuit in our Province.

Thank you for your generosity

The people of the Guyanese Interior are grateful both for the Jesuit presence there over the past 100 years and for the generosity of their supporters.

The fighting may be over in Sri Lanka but the suffering goes on.

Your generosity will help communities to recover and rebuild.

Despite some signs of improvement, the risk of infections, malnutrition and death still remain in Zimbabwe.

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You can send your donations to the address below, or log on to our website where you can increase your donation by 28% through the Just Giving scheme. Thank you!

JM · 11 Edge Hill · London · SW19 4LR T: + 44 (0) 20 8946 0466 F: + 44 (0) 20 8946 2292 E: director@gbjm.org

www.gbjm.org

ASK Ask the loveliness of the earth, Ask the loveliness of the sea, Ask the loveliness of the wide airy spaces, Ask the loveliness of the sky, Ask the order of the stars, ask the sun, making daylight with its beams, Ask the moon tempering the darkness of the night that follows, Ask the living things which move in the waters, which tarry on the land, which fly in the air; Ask the souls that are hidden, the bodies that are perceptive; the visible things which must be governed, the invisible things that govern Ask these things, and they will all answer you.

Yes, see we are lovely.

Their loveliness is their confession.

And all these lovely but mutable things, who has made them, but Beauty immutable?

Saint Augustine (Sermons 214.2)

Photo: Hania Lubienska