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February 08, 2006 |
The superior general of the Jesuits, Fr Peter-Hans Kolvenbach, has informed members of the Society that he intends to step down in 2008, the year he will turn 80.
In a February 2 letter addressed to all Jesuits, Fr Kolvenbach said a general congregation to elect his successor and to discuss other important matters would begin January 5, 2008, in Rome.
Each of the 91 Jesuit provinces in the world will hold a provincial congregation by March 1, 2007, to prepare for the Rome gathering.
While the Jesuit superior general is elected for life, the order's constitutions allow a superior to step down.
Fr Kolvenbach, who was elected in 1983, told the Jesuits that before making his decision he obtained "the consent of His Holiness Benedict XVI" and had listened to the opinions of his assistants at the Jesuit headquarters and of all the provincials.
Fr Frank Case SJ, Rome-based secretary of the Jesuits, said the 2008 general congregation is expected to include about 200 participants, most elected to provide a proportional representation of Jesuits in various regions and provinces.
Congregation members will determine how long their meeting will run, he said, although it is expected to last about two months. The last general congregation was held in 1995, and the one before that was the 1983 congregation that elected Fr Kolvenbach.
The Jesuits have no process of nominating candidates and there is no campaigning, Fr Case said. The first Jesuit to garner a majority of the votes is elected superior. [CNS. Do not repost electronically] [Web version has a photo of Fr Kolvenbach]
Burundian Jesuit Elie Koma, 59, was killed on February 4; he was in his car on his way home when he fell into a gunfight between militiamen and the army and was hit by several bullets and killed instantly.
Koma entered the Society of Jesus in 1967 and was ordained a priest in 1980. He was well-known as a director of Spiritual Exercises. For the past three years he was in charge of the newly-built Jesuit church in Kamenge, Bujumbura. [Source: www.jesuits-europe.info]
In January, Jesuit Refugee Service Italy opened La Casa di Marco, a family center in Rome for unaccompanied child migrants, principally asylum seekers and refugees under the age of 10.
The center will provide social and educational assistance to children and ensure that the children, often fleeing war and persecution, are in a safe multicultural environment in which they can play with other children.
Educational, psychological, and other professionals will listen to the children, ensure that their basic health, psychosocial, and educational needs are met, and help them integrate into life in Rome. [Source: JRS Dispatches]
When Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans and caused Loyola University New Orleans to close its doors last semester, the network of US Jesuit colleges and universities quickly responded by welcoming Loyola students to their campuses for the fall term. As the new year begins, and Loyola opens its doors for the spring semester, Jesuit institutions continue to show their support by assisting with the recovery of the region:
Jesuit institutions are also making donations and sponsoring fund-raisers. For instance, Xavier University is donating an estimated $50,000 to help Loyola University New Orleans. The College of the Holy Cross raised close to $20,000 for hurricane relief while the University of Scranton raised more than $7,000 to support Catholic relief efforts. [Source: AJCU]
Despite the Dominican Republic's poverty, its relative economic and political stability attracts neighboring Haitians, who slip across the border looking for work, said Jesuit Fr Regino Martinez, who has lived for 31 years along the Dominican-Haitian frontier. He directs Border Solidarity, a Jesuit-run organization in the Dominican Republic working with Haitian immigrants.
The Haitians' illegal status makes them vulnerable to abuses, including death, said Fr Martinez, who buried 24 Haitians whose bodies were found January 11 along a road on the Dominican side of the border.
Dominican police said the dead were thrown from a van after they had suffocated in it. The van was transporting the Haitians to Santo Domingo after they slipped across the frontier with the help of professional smugglers, police said.
Fr Martinez said that although accords between the neighboring countries allow Haitians to work in the Dominican Republic, many Haitians are so poor they do not have the identity papers needed to get a Haitian passport or a Dominican visa. Yet the demand for Haitian manual labor in the sugar cane and tourism industries continues to be so great that Haitians illegally move to the Dominican Republic, he said.
A major problem caused by the Haitian influx is that the Dominican Republic is also a poor country and "it is hard for it to take care of all these people," the priest said.
Fr Martinez was forced to bury the Haitians in a mass grave after protests on the Haitian side of the border became riots, preventing him and several other Jesuits from returning the bodies to Haiti.
Fr Martinez estimated that there are several hundred thousand Haitians in the Dominican Republic illegally; he said one of Border Solidarity's main activities is to try to legalize the status of Haitians born in the Dominican Republic. [Source: CNS. Do not repost electronically]
College and high school students attending a morning Mass on January 23 prior to the annual March for Life in Washington were urged by Fr Steve Spahn SJ to "shepherd a new generation."
"God is calling you to heal divisions," said Fr Spahn, associate pastor of Holy Trinity Parish in Washington, to a few hundred students from Jesuit high schools and colleges across the country.
In his homily, Fr Spahn spoke to the congregation about inconsistencies in today's modern world, where a death-row inmate can be given special care moments before receiving a fatal injection or when doctors who take oaths to do no harm perform abortions or promote euthanasia.
"What gives me hope is you," he told the students, telling them that they have the "feeling for life" even if they might not always be able to articulate it.
The same message was reiterated in comments by Fr Bradley Schaeffer SJ, president of the Jesuit Conference, who told the march participants that they have a vision "grounded in the tradition of the Church to choose life."
Jena Hollinshead, a freshman at Saint Louis University, who came to the march with a busload of 55 students, did not seem daunted by the challenge for young people to be more involved in the pro-life movement.
"It's our job to do that," she said.
Hollinshead, a member of SLU Students for Life, said the group is currently working to get a pregnancy resource center on campus to help women in crisis pregnancies. The group is pro-life on many issues, not just abortion, she added. [Source: CNS. Do not repost electronically]
The Jesuit Secretariat for Education has prepared the following statistics:
The St Louis Jesuits, liturgical music icons from the 1970s, are back together and have released their first album in more than 20 years.
Morning Light is the seventh recording for the St Louis Jesuits-Dan Schutte and Jesuit Frs Bob Dufford, John Foley, and Roc O'Connor-who were known for such songs as "Blest Be the Lord," "Lift Up Your Hearts," and "Sing a New Song."
In the mid 1980s, various assignments moved the men to different parts of the country, and Schutte left the Society of Jesus. These changes made it difficult to record music together, said Fr O'Connor, a theology professor at Creighton University.
"It just seemed like it was a time for each of us to try something on our own," he said. Since that time, all four have released solo CDs.
Fans of the St Louis Jesuits' music will find comfort in the songs on Morning Light as its sound is much the same as their earlier sound. But there are some surprising pieces as well, arising "from life experience and the ups and downs that we've all faced," Fr O'Connor said.
In a recent online poll sponsored by the National Association of Pastoral Musicians in which respondents could vote for only one liturgical song that most fostered and nourished the respondent's life, songs by the St Louis Jesuits-"Here I Am, Lord" and "Be Not Afraid"-came in second and third ("On Eagle's Wings" by Michael Joncas was first).
In the spring, the group will do live performances in Washington, St Louis, Chicago, and Anaheim, Calif.
The Morning Light CD is $15.95 and is available online at www.ocp.org or by e-mail to Fr O'Connor at: rocsj@creighton.edu [Sources: Catholic Resources, CNS. Do not repost electronically]
Company magazine's article on the reunion of the St Louis Jesuits is at: http://www.companymagazine.org/v223/familyalbum.htm
Recent Appointments
Pope Benedict XVI has recently made the following appointments:
New Province Established
On December 22, 2005, Father General Peter-Hans Kolvenbach signed the decree that established the Region of Delhi as a full-fledged province. Fr John M Ariapilly SJ has been appointed the first provincial. Before becoming a province, the Delhi Region belonged to the Patna Province. In 2005 there were 48 priests, 51 scholastics, and 4 brothers. [Source: SJ Electronic Information Service]
Boston College High Announces Addition of 7th and 8th Grades
Boston College High School will add a seventh and eighth grade to its high school program beginning in September 2007, with about 100 students each in the new grades.
"There is a growing demand for a seventh and eighth grade educational experience that reflects the academically rigorous curriculum and challenging athletic and co-curricular activities available to students at BC High and characteristic of Jesuit education," said BC High President William Kemeza. "Changing social norms call for an earlier focus on character formation, and we believe that BC High's 143-year model of education for leadership and service is well-suited to respond to these needs."
Campus Kitchen at Gonzaga University to Start Culinary Job Training Program
At the Campus Kitchen at Gonzaga University (CKGU), Gonzaga students use unserved food from Sodexho Dining Services to prepare and deliver meals to low-income families. CKGU will add to its community outreach with the addition of a Culinary Job Training program, which will provide food service and life-skills training for underemployed men and women in the Spokane area.
During the eight-week course, chefs will teach participants basic food handling and preparation skills. Trainees further develop skills by preparing and delivering meals for individuals and social service agencies. Life-skills training is facilitated by Campus Kitchen's staff, volunteers, and guest speakers. The training culminates in a food-handling exam and graduation ceremony. With the help of the Campus Kitchen, graduates then enter the work force.
Campus Kitchen Comes to Gonzaga College High
Gonzaga College High School in Washington DC recently became the first high school in the nation to join the previously university-based Campus Kitchen network, which recycles unused cafeteria food for local distribution. Campus Kitchen began several years ago at Saint Louis University and spread to several other Jesuit campuses.
A kick-off in Gonzaga's cafeteria to celebrate the new partnership featured an appearance by Rep Jim Moran (D-VA)--a Holy Cross graduate--and students prepared 150 meals to be delivered to families and elderly in the neighborhood.
The program was recently featured on NPR at http://www.wamu.org/programs/mc/06/01/20.php For more information about the program, please visit http://campuskitchens.org
Boston College Welcomes New Statue of Ignatius
A sculptor's rendition of St Ignatius has been installed on the Boston College main campus, offering the BC community another visual testament to the university's Jesuit and Catholic character as well as a tribute to the 2006 Jesuit Jubilee year. With muscular hands and wearing a wind-swept cape, the figure of Ignatius is represented in a meditative, thoughtful pose.
Wheeling Jesuit University Official to Advise Governor in Mine Tragedy Probe
J Davitt McAteer, vice president for sponsored programs at Wheeling Jesuit University and former assistant secretary for the US Department of Labor's Mine Safety and Health Administration, will be a special adviser to Gov Joe Manchin of West Virginia on the state and federal investigations of the Sago Coal Mine tragedy.
McAteer will work with state and federal agencies as they conduct their investigation of the causes of the accident and the rescue and recovery operations at the coal mine. He will also provide recommendations for the improvement of mine safety and communications in West Virginia.
[Sources: Boston College High, Gonzaga University, Boston College, Gonzaga College High, CNS. Do not repost electronically]
Chicago Province's Video Gallery: http://www.jesuits-chi.org/about/video_gallery.htm
Fr Jim Collins SJ was recently featured in a program called "The Vow of Poverty" on Chicago Public Television. The program explored the vow of poverty through Fr Collins's ministry at St Procopius Church in Chicago. The province's video gallery also features the segment on Cristo Rey Jesuit High School that aired on 60 Minutes in 2004 and several other videos as well.
A Jesuit's Daily Reflections: http://www.earthhealing.info/
Fr Al Fritsch's site offers daily reflections that cover a variety of simple-living subjects; the weekends include homilies and other sacred subjects.
The BC: http://www.bc.edu/clubs/thebc/default.html
Boston College's The BC is a parody of the popular Fox television drama The OC. Airing on the campus cable TV network, The BC features Fr Donald MacMillan SJ, a BC campus minister, as one of the stars of the show.
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