JESUIT MISSIONS
A NEW BRAND
for new horizons Schoolgirls in Zimbabwe
Jesuit Missions has a new look! Director Paul Chitnis brings us along on the evolutionary journey of their work.
F
or over sixty years, Jesuit Missions has been supporting Jesuits serving communities overseas. As Fr Peter Gallagher SJ, the provincial, said at the launch of our new brand, Jesuit Missions is at the heart of the British Province. Being a ‘missionary’ is not something unique to Jesuits or priests. Pope Francis reminds us that we are all ‘asked to obey [the Lord’s] call to go forth from our own comfort zone in order to reach all the “peripheries” in need of the light of the Gospel.’ Indeed, every Mass ends with a co-mission: to ‘go and announce the gospel of the Lord’. Announcing the Kingdom of God has been a life’s work for countless British Jesuits ‘on the missions’. In 1966, there were over 200 working in countries
10
Jesuits & Friends Winter 2023
including Guyana, Zimbabwe and South Africa. Today, that number is in single figures. This partly reflects the huge changes in these countries. Colonial ties have been shed, often at great cost, creating different relationships with former colonial powers. The Church and the Society of Jesus have also changed. For example, the Southern African province is now comprised of nearly 90% local Jesuits. These demographic, cultural and ecclesial changes inevitably affect the work of Jesuit Missions. Our traditional role in supporting missionaries by procuring missals, spare parts for jeeps and football strips has ended.
Today we encourage and promote the local communities largely in low-income countries. Above all, we seek to amplify their voices in our advocacy work. The horizons of our work have changed from supporting British Jesuits on the missions to supporting the universal mission of the Jesuits globally. Perhaps not everywhere, in practice, but certainly in over twenty countries, Jesuit Missions is accompanying a wide range of partners implementing a diverse array of projects. At its heart, our mission remains unchanged: ‘the service of faith of which the promotion of justice is an absolute requirement.’ (General Congregation 32, 1974) Less prosaically, we share the mission of Jesus: ‘to bring the good news to the poor, proclaim liberty to captives,
