International News

Fr. Javier Campos Morales, SJ, and Fr. Joaquín César Mora Salazar, SJ, were murdered in Mexico Fr. Stan Swamy, SJ

Fr. Arturo Sosa apologizes for Indigenous residential schools. Jesuits and colleagues in Darjeeling

DARJEELING JESUITS RESPOND TO A WORLD CHANGED BY COVID-19

COVID-19 has exacerbated the marginalization of the poor and vulnerable in India. When the pandemic was at its worst in the spring of 2021, the Darjeeling Jesuits responded in innovative ways to reach communities during lockdowns. They focused on relief distribution, vaccination, livelihood support, special education and skills-training programs.

Today, with support from Canadian Jesuits International, the Jesuits there continue to implement and adapt these programs to a world changed by the pandemic. For example, their Human Life Development and Research Centre established 13 study centres in remote areas for children who didn’t have access to online education during lockdowns. Today, the centres continue to tutor more than 400 students.

JESUITS COMMITTED TO SERVING REMOTE VILLAGES OF MEXICO

Two Jesuit priests were killed inside a church in a remote mountainous area of northern Mexico on June 21, 2022. Fr. Javier Campos Morales, SJ (79), and Fr. Joaquín César Mora Salazar, SJ (80), were murdered while trying to defend a man who was seeking refuge in their church and was being pursued by an armed person.

The priests had spent much of their lives serving the Rarámuri people of the region, who have suffered centuries of poverty, exclusion and exploitation.

Several months after the murders, the Jesuits have no plans to leave the area. The two Jesuits who survived the attack remain at the parish because of their love for the people, the culture, and the land and to “accompany the mourning.”

JESUIT FATHER GENERAL APOLOGIZES FOR JESUIT INVOLVEMENT IN INDIGENOUS SCHOOLS IN THE U.S.

On August 16, 2022, Fr. Arturo Sosa, SJ, Superior General of the Jesuits, visited the Lakota peoples of the Pine Ridge and Rosebud Reservations in South Dakota, where Jesuits have worked in partnership with the Lakota for 135 years.

Fr. Sosa apologized, “On behalf of the Society of Jesus, I apologize for the ways in which Saint Francis and Holy Rosary Missions and boarding schools were for decades complicit in the U.S. government’s reprehensible assimilation policies, trying to eradicate your culture. I ask for your forgiveness for that and for any other abuses that any of you or your ancestors suffered.” He also expressed the Jesuits’ support for the Truth and Healing process that is now underway.

FR. STAN SWAMY, SJ, POSTHUMOUSLY HONOURED

Fr. Stan Swamy, SJ, who passed away in 2021, was honoured with the Martin Ennals Award, given to human rights defenders, in June 2022. A priest and activist who promoted human rights in Jharkhand, India, Fr. Stan dedicated much of his work to advance the rights of Adivasi communities — Indigenous tribes of India who are known as protectors of the environment.

Fr. Stan was unjustly imprisoned for defending their rights in 2020 and was incarcerated for nine months before he died on July 5, 2021, at age 84.

Hans Thoolen, chair of the award jury, said “The jury wished to shine a light on Fr. Stan’s many contributions to human rights, which cannot be eclipsed by his unjust incarceration by Indian authorities.”